Hello all – I have one, maybe two free weekday afternoons in Manhattan in the second week of January, and might be by myself. I will be there at a business meeting, staying at the Westin Essex House on Central Park South.

I have been to NYC before, have done some touristy things here and there. Things I’ve already done – museums (you name it…), Rockefeller center, St. Patrick’s cathedral, site of Seinfeld rest, Columbia University, Queens (used to have friends who lived there), WTC (pre 9.11), Trump Tower, FAO, a bit of Central Park.

I would like to walk around Greenwich Village, SoHo, or East Village (I realize I can only do one!). I love to eat, snack as I go, visit unique shops, bookstores, food stores, buy one of a kind things, and people watch. And, I love great cup of coffee or chai latte.

Can anyone describe the big differences between the 3 areas above? I read the Fodor’s guide, but it doesn’t give me too good of an idea. I don’t mind if I’m in crowds (I would actually prefer it).

Since I will only have 2-5 hours to explore, I don’t want to be on a schedule, or have tickets to anything. Anyone have other good ideas for me? Thanks, SenecaGirl

Greenwich village is by far the most pleasant of the walks. It is charming and also has all of your requisites: eat, snack as I go, visit unique shops, bookstores, food stores, buy one of a kind things, and people watch.

The only reason I visit the East Villge is to visit a particular restaurant or music club. It's an interesting area (certainly for people watching although there's not nearly as much sidewalk seating options as in Greenwich Village or Soho). By no means is it the nicest area of the three.

Soho in the last ten years has become more to do with shopping, IMHO. There are still of lot of art galleries in the area even if the artists have been priced out of living there. The restaurants in the neighborhood have gotten quite expensive as well. I would add at least of piece of it to your afternoon - seeing both Spring St. and Broome St. between 6th Avenue and Broadway will only take about 20-30 minutes.

Hi senecagirl,

I agree with Bardo.

If you have two afternoons I'd start at Chelsea Market (then optional Meat Packing district), West Village (Greenwich) promenade (Tea and Sympathy for tea), Washington Square and NYU to St. Marks Place which is a little edgier.

I'd save Soho and the East Village for another day.

I haven't seen a walking tour per se that shows all of this but maybe someone else knows of one.

kakalena

I agree with Bardo's neighborhood generalities and kakalena's itin. I think if I were in your place though, I'd start with specific places I wanted to visit and then figure a walking itinerary based on that. Also, day of the week may affect some of this. For example, the Union Square food market is only open m,w,fri, sat.

Just remember one area leads into another, so while you can't do all of the village, you could do some and then into Nolita (north of little italy) and into Soho.

For bookstores, here's a list (not sure how recent) of "downtown" book stores. You might see which if any appeal to you. The Strand on Broadway & 12 st is HUGE and has most everything. That would be a good jumping off place to explore the village and/or the Union Square area which is just above that.

http://www.ny.com/shopping/bookstores/downtown.html

There are also some fun smaller bookstores but those tend to be in the east village I think.

For food stores downtown, in addition to the Chelsea market (indoors) and Union Square outdoors, there's Dean & DeLuca in Soho (the original, not the sandwich shops dotted around), Murray's Cheese shop in the village not to mention all the bakeries.

There are some great small museums downtown you may not know. The Forbes gallery on lower Fifth Ave. (not far from the Strand) is terrific, free and not time consuming. The Tenement Museum on the lower east side is very popular (book ahead, it's small). The Rubin Museum in Chelsea is supposed to be terrific (Tibetan art)

http://www.rmanyc.org/

Now that I've thoroughly confused you, here's a link to some shopping maps from NY Magazine that might help

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/shopping...ghborhoods.htm

I assume you also know there are walking food tours you can take of the village and chelsea/village. I understand they're very good and worth the money as you get to taste a lot that you might not be able to do on your own. Foodsofny.com is one co. Bigonion.com is another.

Whatever you do, go to Bleecker ST. in the village. Good food and shops.

Maybe consider doing downtown west one day and downtown east the other.

There's a Whole Foods market inside the Time Warner building right near your hotel. If you can, go to the lobby lounge of the Mandarin Oriental (35 floor of the Time Warner building) for a drink.

Thanks so much for your responses! I completely forgot about the nymetro site, I actually had that saved on my favorites! I would love to go on a food tour, however my meeting schedule is too unpredictable to do that.

I will concentrate on Greenwich and see if I can hop into another area if I end up having more time. Thanks for you help! Anyone else have ideas? SG

if you like bookstores, you MUST visit the Strand. It's huge. Just be warned you could spend a very long time here...

"if you like bookstores, you MUST visit the Strand. It's huge. Just be warned you could spend a very long time here..."

AND, a lot of money

topping for myself