ilovetotravel29

Ok, so I am getting my NYC list together---taking notes from my fellow fodorites suggestions, and creating a great big ole list....

Your suggestions are very welcome! I will be there five full days in early december and hope to get everything accomplished on my list, and still have time to stop and smell the roses, as they say.

Here goes:

1. WTC Memorial
2. Empire State Building
3. Walk the brooklyn bridge
4. Walk in and around some of Central Park
5. Eat a slice of pizza
6. Have a bagel
7. Visit the Musuem of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the NY Public Library, Wall Street.
8. Have a decent steak dinner
9. Get a nice cupcake
10. Rice to Riches, I Love Peanut Butter & Co.
11. Maybe see a broadway show (if I can get cheap tickets---any online ticket vendors you recommend?)
12. Visit Brooklyn, go to Bronx Zoo, Visit Harlem, Queens
13. Go to Kate's Papers (famous paper/stationary shop)
14. Maybe go to a Good Morning America taping or try and get on camera on my bday...but I am kind of short and don't want to really have to leap up and down to be seen..
15. Visit the suggestions listed by Emd regarding Japan.
16. Eat at Sylvia's
17. Go to this spice shop I read about

Ok....what did I leave out? What would you recommend?

maryanntex

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is really interesting. Everyone who I've receommended it to likes it. You should get reservations, or you might have to wait(you have to go on a guided tour). www.tenement.org

Cilla_Tey

I caught two jazz performances when I was there at the Village Vanguard and Birdland. Also had a memorable lunch at Tavern on the Green. Tiffany's was closed when I was there.

Shadow

I LOVE your list!! I am leaving 2 weeks from today for NYC for the first time and I want to do many of those things too....unfortunately, I won't have time for everything...but I hope to see: WTC Memorial, ESB, Central Park, Met Museum, have tickets for a play, a tour of Brooklyn from my cousin who grew up there.

What I hope to see and do that is not on your list are: Top of the Rock (Top of Rockefeller Plaza), dinner and walking around Greenwich Village, pastrami sandwhich at Katz Deli and the Staten Island Ferry.

I hope to get a cupcake too!! Love cupcakes!!

You may not get to do all those things on your list....you may be like me and plan on going back!!
I will do a trip report when I get back....you must do one when you get back and let us know all the things you did get to do!!
I am so excited about my first NYC trip!

Shadow

Monadnock

Zabar's!

john127

Nice list. I would just skip Good Morning America. You have to get up very early and kill a whole morning to just stand there in the cold. With only 5 days in NYC it seems like a waste of time.

Oh, and Sylvia's is fine, however I always recommend Amy Ruth's (on 116th street) to people who want the authentic Harlem soul food experience. The food's better and it is a little less touristy, but just as crowded so try a weeknight.

Have a great trip!

John

JJBhoy

I would add Ellis Island to your list - here's a link to my trip report with some more details;

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34778469

Jim

mclaurie

For discount theater tickets you can buy in advance online or by phone, go to broadwaybox.com and see what's available. Playbill.com and theatermania.com also have discounts but require you register for free. Discounts are usually only good for about a 3 month period. Most of the "hot" shows are not available on discount, but some like "Drowsy Chaperone" have been.

The shows available at the TKTS booths are usually the same (ie. you're not likely to get discounts at the booths for a "hot" show. TKTS booths require cash or travelers checks. There's a TKTS booth across from the South STreet Seaport that's always less crowded than the one in Times Square. To see what's been available at the booths recently, look at tdf.org/tkts

Some shows have same day lotteries for $25 tickets. Info here
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/boards/

emd

You have a pretty pakced list for 5 days already. Instead of adding any more now, I would plot out the things already on the list as to how much you can do each day (and still have time to stop and smel the roses) and most importantly, the order to do them in. Then see how much time you have left before you add anything else to the list...

nytraveler

The items in your list will take about a month to cover.

A few thoughts;

For show tickets go to Broadwaybox.com NOW, get the discount code and then go to the website of the show - will save time standing on line at the TKTS booth

Get a map and have a look at the city. Manhattan (where most of the things you want to see are located) is quite small comapred to the outer borougs - which are primarily resdiential. Do not bother with Brooklyn or Queens unless you have specific things to do/see there - since each will take days - and are almost all working/middle class residential areas.

Do Top of the Rock vs the ESB - IMHO beter views - including OF the ESB - and much shorter lines

Go to the web sits of things you want to see to narrow down your choices. Either the Bronx zoo or the Met will take a full day at a minimum - use the web sites to pick out a few areas to see at each to keep the visit to 3 hours or so. (Or - see the smaller zoo in Central Park vs the one in the Bronx - unless you are a real zoophile.)

Also, slow down a little and take the time to enjoy NYC - nstead of rushing from one site to another and missing the essence. Walk as much as possible. And spend at least one evening in a residential area (upper west side, lower east side, or Village) and have a nice dinner, window (or real shop - many stores are open til midnight) and go to one or 2 cafes for a drink. (If you catch some good weather you might still get a couple outdoor cafes.)

amaclise

If you can't make it to the museums on your list (or even if you can) the Frick museum on 5th Avenue is a small gem with a lot to offer. It is in a classic old 5th Avenue mansion and the collection is world class. It is very peaceful and the work is displayed beautifully. Check it out on line and see if it looks appealing enough to add to your list!

Also the new MOMA is open and is a must see even if Mod Art is not your thing.

ilovetotravel29

OK, well for my bday I was going to go to the Museum of Natural History for about 5 or 6 hours (I made it through the louvre in like....4 hours...I think I saw just about everything, if only in a passing glance) and then get a cup cake, a nice cheap steak dinner (I may bring a nice dress up outfit) or a nice japanese dinner or maybe even an evening show.

Then the next day I do another museum and the NYC public library, and various other things on my list. I think I could do two or 3 things a day, at least. I do need to get a map and start grouping things in order of how close they are to each other.

emd

re the map, this one is tops in my book 9after several others over the years). Large easy to read print on streets, laminated and folds up to letter size for your purse, w/subway map too. Really excellent.

vandam.com
the streetsmart map of NYC

http://tinyurl.com/sxv6u

emd

You probably already know this, but when you take a stab at grouping the things together by day and location, post back here and you will get great feedback on whether you've grouped them most efficiently, whether each day is feasible, if you can add some more on to a day or not, etc...

marginal_margiela

Sylvia's? Why?

The Bronx Zoo? Why?

Brooklyn? Queens? Why?

(I lived in Manhattan for almost 4 years and never traveled to Queens and I survived.)

You only have 5 days. Spend it in Manhattan.

Why do you have to have a cupcake? That just seems odd to me. Is NYC know for its cupcakes? News to me.

You need to go to a top dance club. When I lived in NYC, the top clubs were Mother, Jackie 60, Coney Island High. (Suzanne Bartsch poking me with her riding crop to see if I was alive after finding me passed out in the toilet.)

Does anyone remember Cave Canem? Then it became Lucky Chang's? Those were the days when you pushed the drag queen waitresses into the coy pond in the basement.

Maybe Gekko can help you. I am too old now.

tuscanlifeedit

M_M

It seems you missed the cupcake craze. I myself think it is ridiculous, because a good cupcake is still only a cupcake, but NYC has now become a cupcake destination.

I can think of a lot of things I like to eat when in NYC, but a cupcake is hardly on my list.

Now a donut from the Donut Factory...well, that is a different story.

And semolina bread with fennel and golden raisins at Dean and Deluca... worth a trip.

ilovetotravel29

Ok, as for cupcakes, I just really like them...and I saw a report on tv that showed a place that made the most exquisitely designed cupcakes and donuts with flower petals! So I was hooked

As for dance clubs, I am not much of a club goer, and when I do go, I like to be with friends....since I will be going solo, I think I will settle for a nice little hotel lounge or neighborhood bar...

I want to visit queens (if only for a couple of hours) and other areas because I would like to see if I could live there (my dream has always been to relocate to NYC maybe within 5 years).

Shadow

OK, I never, ever get upset on these threads (well, once on the European board...) but if a poster wants a cupcake, likes cupcakes and has heard there is a good cupcake place...let it be! geesh.....just because you don't like them does not mean it won't be a fun thing for someone else to do....and, for some of us we've heard of Queens our whole lives and Brooklyn, and lots of places associated with NYC....so, help them get there...don't make them feel bad because they want to go there.
Sorry...so unlike me, but it hit a nerve....yeah, I'm hoping for a cupcake and will be going to Queens and Brooklyn.
I feel better now....
Shadow

Noa26

eat hot bagel from street vender.
read a book in central park.
look up in any newspaper what is the new york city event of the day, and go there.
about NYC you can find more ideas of what is going on this month at http://www.tripcart.com/usa-regions/...fo-Events.html

offlady

Ice skating in Rockefeller Center--maybe watch the lighting of the Christmas tree ceremonies, usually the first weekend in December.

Check out the Christmas decorations along 5th AVenue & Macys.

Cruise down Canal Street (Chinatown), eat in Little Italy.

Heavens, eat a cheesecake!