Suzette85

Here are a few other options your kids may like -

Sony has a free hands on technology museum. You need a reservation. If you go to the website it will explain:
http://wondertechlab.sony.com/

Nintendo has a cool store where you can play the games - it is in Rockefeller Center right next to where the Today show broadcasts (Today is a morning news/information/entertainment show).

In Times Square there is the ESPN Zone which is part bar, part pub style restaurant and part video game haven for the kids. You can catch just about any (American) sporting event there.

There is Chelsea Piers which is a sports and entertainment complex http://www.chelseapiers.com/

With regard to the Statue of Liberty - you can take a boat to Liberty Island and walk around - it is pretty cool. A cheap alternative is to take the Staten Island Ferry to and from SI. It goes right past the SofL. I think it is free (or darn cheap).

When you are downtown there is a 9/11 museum. It is close to Wall Street. I found that even my kids (ages 7 & 10) understood the importance of that place.

There are many cool walking tours you can find online.

Good Luck!

missypie

Forgive me if I missed it, but is your daughter the 12 year old or the 10 year old? If she can fit into small adult sizes, I can recommend some fun places to shop for clothes, but if she's in smaller sizes you might want to start a separate thread asking for recommendations.

The Disney store on 5th avenue (near Rock. Plaza) is fun; it's also near the American Girl dolls store, which is girl nirvania even if you aren't into the dolls.

BigRuss

Adu, I'll put my baseball knowledge up against yours any day. That won't even be a close loss, you'll get treated like Johan Santana did at the Stadium.

I liked Billy Elliot when we saw it in London -- the kids were great, there was a lot of funny lines, the showstopper songs are performed well, etc., and NY likes it too, based upon its enormous wins at the Tony Awards. Considering you're from a country with a socialist government, Ixos, maybe you'll like the play's risible political polemics too.

3Zero

I would second the Central Park Zoo as well as MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). Years ago, I got up to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building. I think I was just below the (spiked) antenna tower! Seems rather expensive these days but might be worth it as it is such an icon. My kids, a bit younger, enjoyed one of the many playgrounds along Central Park (I am thinking W 69th street - but there are several). They are a fine place for a little 'downtime'.

gillybrit

missypie - I have a 15 year old daughter who will p;an to do some clothes shopping in NYC next wednesday. I'd love to hear your recommendations.
Mets/ Yankees fans - everybody in America knows you hate each other. Does our friend from Spain really need to be exposed to Mets/ Yankee bashing when she probably has no clue what you are talking about?!
My kids are 10 and 15 and still love to just hang out in Central Park when we go in to NYC. I'm not so sure the kids would enjoy MOMA - I've been there and my kids would not enjoy it. MET has a much better variety so easier to find something appealing to them.

Aduchamp1

Adu, I'll put my baseball knowledge up against yours any day. That won't even be a close loss, you'll get treated like Johan Santana did at the Stadium.


I would but I don't have to sit at the kids table any more.

debsnj

Gillybrit, whenever I bring up the fact that many kids, especially teenagers, don't enjoy musuems I seem to get bashed. My teen loves NYC and detests musuems. She enjoys Greenwich Village and the NYU (New York University)scene.

jroth

Big Russ - and Adu - it is not exactly fair to compare the Met and the Prado. Each is a great museum in its own right. but they do different things. The Met is an encyclopedic museum - the permanent collectin spans over 5,000 years - from ancient Egypt right up to contemporary work. Every nation or culture that has produced some sort of significant art during this period is represented = e.g. Asia, Pacific (Oceania), Africa, Ancient Near East, all European schools, America - including paintings, decorative arts, tapestries, textiles, porcelains, furniture, sculpture, and on and on.
The Prado has some magnificent world treasures and masterpieces - Velazquez, et al = but it is not the Met - nor is the Met the Prado.
Anyway - a Yankee fan? That's like rooting for J.P. Morgan Chase.

sf7307

I agree with everything debsnj said, with one exception - the view of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry is okay, but it's a distant view, not up-close at all.

In general, whatever musicals you decide on, it's always a good idea to listen to the music and read the words before you see the show. The music may be great, but it's hard to make out the words, and therefore the story, when the whole cast is singing together.

I second the "walk walk walk" recommendations - Central Park, 5th Avenue, Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, Hell's Kitchen, Soho, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Times Square, New York University (which is IN Greenwich Village), Columbia University., maybe a Circle Line boat tour (which goes around the island of Manhattan). The Met has something for everybody, but look online and plan in advance -- you can only see a few collections in any one visit. Same goes for the Museum of Natural History. I'd recommend eating at a "typical" New York Deli - Katz', 2nd Avenue Deli and others are often recommended.