My boyfriend and I are travelling to New York for the first time this month for 4 days and are looking for some good tips. We are students, and are therefore on a pretty tight budget, but are willing to spend money on things that will make our trip memorable. (We're open to any and all suggestions!) Some questions:

1. Things we want to do: Empire State Building, Shakespeare in the Park, CBGBs, Greenwich and East Village.
(Any opinions, or things we absolutely shouldn't miss?)

2. Food - we love Szechuan, Ukrainian, Thai and pizza! Places we shouldn't miss? Or places that won't break the bank and are great for lunch/breakfast/late night snack? We love to eat and are willing to try anything.

3. What is a great blues club to try? (low cover preferable)

4. Transportation - we're planning on doing a lot of walking, but is this feasible? Or should we spring for a funpass each day?

Thanks so much for any help!

In my experience going to the observatory at the Empire State Building, it's really nice at night. Try to go on a weeknight when the lines aren't so long. Also, it seems to be less crowded between 10 and 11 p.m. The cost is $10 per person, but worth the view on a clear night.

Be sure to spend a day strolling around Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. You can also get some great, affordable lunches in both Little Italy and Chinatown.

A show you would probably enjoy is "Rent," although I'm sure that a lot of people can give you other options, as well. I'm just thinking age factor.

Walking in Manhattan is definitely feasible and the best route to go...it's the way you see the most in the city. You can also use the subways and take a taxi when necessary, but walking is the prefered method of getting place to place. Just be sure to bring good shoes.

Another fun thing to do is walk over the Brooklyn Bridge close to dusk and enjoy ice cream on the Brooklyn promenade under the bridge, while overlooking lower Manhattan and it's beautiful skyline.

Hope this helps. You will no doubt get lots of great tips from many New Yorkers and visitors on this board. NYC is a fabulous place with great people....you'll enjoy it.

Have fun!

Oh, and don't forget an evening around the Times Square area.

NY isn't that big in the blues department, but it is big on jazz. I've mentioned the Knitting Factory (at Church and Leonard in Tribeca) above. It's a younger crowd, the setting is pretty intimate, and it isn't that expensive. You can have a look knittingfactory.com on the web.

I have also heard that with a student ID, you can get broadway tickets at the TKTS booth on the day of the show for $20 each. You get what has not been sold for that day, but you may get lucky.

Andie-- Some reasonably priced, interesting restaurants you might wish to try:

Island Spice: 402 West 44th st, between 9th & 10th. Small, with fun Carribean food & drinks. Uncle Nick's: 747 9th Ave, near West 50th St (or so). Greek-- terrific grilled fish, salads, rice pudding. Hallo Berlin-- 402 W. 51st (between 9th & 10th Aves). German-style beer & food. These places are a pleasant stroll west from the Broadway theatre district, and are all colorful examples of NY's diverse, reasonably priced ethnic food. When downtown, perhaps try Lombardi's Pizza (32 Spring St, between Mott & Mulberry). NY is indeed great for walking, and a Funpass will serve you well for longer hauls (Village to Times Square, etc). Also downtown, perhaps try the English fish & chips shops A Salt & Battery (112 Greenwich Avenue, near St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, or 80 2nd Avenue in the East Village. The advice you have gotten for the Empire State at night and the Brooklyn Bridge are dead-on-- classic NY experiences. Shakespeare in the Park is also wonderful: check out the Public Theater website (publictheater.org) on how to pick up your free tickets for "Twelfth Night." Enjoy some of Central Park, if you are going to be there (lots of rollerblading, running, even rent a rowboat), or perhaps even visit the Metropolitan Museum, on the east side of the Park at 80th Street or so-- admission is a suggested $10, but as students you can suitably pay less. There is a fine new Gauguin exhibit-- no extra charge. If you're ambitious, head out of Central Park after the play heading east, stroll up 5th Avenue (past the Museum) to 86th, turn right on 86th down to 3rd Avenue, and get a evening snack at Papaya King (hot dogs and fruit drinks). Then turn around on 86th, go one block back to Lexington, where you can grab the subway downtown (and eventually wind up at CBGB's-- you'll want to check your directions, but the 6 to Astor Place, perhaps, gets you within a decent walking distance. Have fun -- Lou

You'll have a grea time and your flexibility in dining options leaves you much to choose from. the key to having fun on a budget in NYC is to avoid buying meals, drinks, snacks etc. in the major tourist spots (e.g. Times Square, Bleecker Street etc.). I assume you'll have a daypack or somethign to carry stuff in. Look for a chain grocery such as Food Emporium and you can stock up on the bottled water or other food items that store and travel easily. NYC has excellent public drinking water and I often just carry one or two bottles and refill them from a drinking fountain when I find one.

Pizza is a hotly debated topic but the names that come up consistently as being among the best are Grimaldi's in Brooklyn (just past and under the bridge), Arturo's on Houston Street, Lombardi's (not sure where this one is), John's on Bleecker in the west Village and Totonno's (in Brrokly but they have a place in the 80's on 2nd or 3rd that is my favorite in NYC). 9th Ave in the 40's through the 50's has a huge selection of moderately priced ethinc dining and there are good choices in the east Village/LES. Lots of cheap and tasty Polish food at diners in LES and there used to be a restaurant in the basement of the Ukranian National Home that was quite good (not sure where this is or if it's still there). The Village Voice (print or online) will have listings for cheap and free stuff as will Citysearch. Metropolitan Museum of Art has a suggested donation per person but you can pay less if it's all you can afford. There's a pier on the Hudson side below Chelsea where they have free dance lessons and music one night per week during the summer - a variety of genres is being offered - changes every week. They are also showing some good classic movies there for free every week outdoors.

NYC has few real blues clubs. BB King Club is really plush and nice wiht great sound and good line of sight but only occasionally has real blues artists. If they have someone you want to see, just pay for standing at the bar - it's cheaper than sitign at a table and you don't have to make the $10 per set food/drink mminimum. Chicago BLUES has closed, much to my chagrin. There are still good local, regional and national acts at Tribeca Blues on Bleecker and it's moderately priced. There are also cheap rush tix available for certain Broadway shows - I saw Top Dog, Under Dog recently with Mos Def. Excellent and powerful show. They offer $20 same day rush tix for folks who are at the box office window when they open in the AM (I was told that the tix last about 20 minutes). Rent does a ticket lottery and sells the first two rows to the winners at $20 per seat. Some people don't wait there to see if they got chosen and you can often get the $20 tix on the standby line - worth trying for as this really is a good show. Oh... by the way... the food forums I frequent are suggesting Pam real Thai as one of the best in the city and it's cheap. It's on 49th just west of 9th Ave. Have fun and try some new foods. 9th Ave has an indonesian place that's terrfic and very interesting and there are now several Himalayan/Tibetan places that are good. You'll also find a few hole-in-the-wall mexican places that are authentic and very good on 38th, 39th or 40th just west of 8th Ave. They have opened to serve the large numbers of Mexican immigrants working in the Garment District and food is usually good and also cheap.

Splurge for a Broadway show, something like Contact or Rent or Aida, or many others. Enjoy.

$20 tickets cannot be purchased at the TKTS booth. $20 tickets are available for some shows. To get a $20 ticket requires you be at the theater box office when it opens. Some shows sell these tickets on a "first come, first serrved" basis. Some like Rent do it by lottery. Some shows selling $20 Rush Tickets are: Oklahoma, Rent,Full Monty ($29), Topdog/Underdog ($15)