2 day trip to New York with kids
 

Hello, I am planning a weekend trip to New York with my three children ages 10, 8 ,3 and my nephew 13. I need help as I am not very familiar with all the New York locations as to which attraction I can group together on the same day. I just don’t want to plan it thinking I know what I’m doing, and having us going from one part of New York clear across the other part. We would like to see the Statue of Liberty, we have 3pm tickets to go to 9/11 museum, we would to also go to the Empire state building, central park, FAO, Brooklyn Bridge and anything else anyone may recommend.
Please help. We will be arriving in New York by car hopefully around 1pm on Friday so anything we can knock off the list that day would be great and we also have all day Saturday and Sunday.

Where are you staying?

In Brooklyn

Arriving by car -- so where are you coming FROM, where are you staying and where are you parking the car?

coming from Boston, staying at Box House Hotel in Brooklyn and parking there

First, the Statue of Liberty is currently closed until late fall. While the Ellis Island immigration museum is great, I"m not convinced it's the best choice for you with 4 kids, especially when most are 10 and under. Take the Staten Island Ferry for free and see the statue from a distance and call it a day. Otherwise, plan on a minimum 6-hour excursion (and you really need reserved, timed tickets for weekends or plan on spending at least 2 hours in line).

The 9/11 Memorial (there is currently no museum ... so if you think there is, you may be disappointed) is downtown, as is the Brooklyn Bridge. They can be done together on a morning. It doesn't matter which one, but go when it's still relatively cool. Go halfway out across the bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge subway station and then walk back, have lunch downtown and then go to the 9/11 Memorial. If you do the Staten Island Ferry, you can do that between the Brooklyn Bridge and the 9/11 Memorial on the same day. Otherwise, you can only do the Statue of Liberty, arriving no later than 8am, and you may make it back in time for the 9/11 Memorial.

Empire State Building is crowded and has particularly long lines. I'd recommend the Top of the Rock over that, which will not require so much time in line. If you're set on the ESB, then buy timed tickets online. The ESB is on 34th/5th Ave, while Top of the Rock is at 6th Avenue/48th Street.

FAO Schwarz is near Central Park (the southeastern corner, near 58th/5th Avenue). There's also a big Apple store there.

My recommendation would be to do 1) Top of the Rock, then 2) FAO Shwarz, then 3) a short hop into Central Park on Friday unless you want to go to the zoo, in which case Central Park is a separate trip.

Thank you so much for the info and tips

If we wanted to add time square would that be close to central park

The south end of Central Park is at 59th Street (which is where FAO Schwarz and the Apple Store are located, too - 5th and 59th). You can walk down Avenue of the Americas (which is 6th Avenue) or 7th Avenue to 42nd Street -- Times Square -- a little less than a mile.

Times Square is really Broadway from 42nd to 49th Streets. Central Park starts at 59th Street. I can do this walk in about 15 to 20 minutes if it's not too crowded, but it might be a lot for kids. Or not depending on their stamina. It's particularly crowded, though.

Oh my word you guys are AWESOME thank you so much, you have been very helpful. I have been so stressed out about it all but now I feel A LOT better!

Strongly suggest you get a god street map and put large X's on the spots you want to see - it will help make everythng clear. As long as you are at the south end of Central Park I would visit the zoo (this is a small zoo - not the one that takes all day - that's in the Bronx).

Also, get a good subway map - since all that walking will start to be a lot of kids - eso in warm weather.

Agree to do Staten Island ferry vs that to Ellis Island (the museum is brilliant but may not interest the 2 younger kids) and Top of the Rock versus ESB - to avoid lines that can be hours long.

Not aware of the hotel you are staying at - but I don't see anything about parking - and it looks like the rooms hold 4 people - not 5 or 6 as you have.

Most hotel rooms that have 2 doubles can accommodate five people with one in a rollaway, but there are a lot of hotels in NYC that don't have 2 beds and can't accommodate more than 3 people. I'm sure you've already verified that or you wouldn't have made the reservation, but if not, you could be turned away on check-in.