glumbug

Hello,

My friend will be travelling to NYC for New Year and spending 9 days in total in the city, I was hoping there may be some suggestions on where to eat/entertain/visit while there when travelling with a 20 year old. I should mention my friend has been plenty of times before. Any advice on where to bring in the New Year?

Any advice welcome, thanks

nytraveler

Am I correct - that you're asking about a 20 year old? Or a 2 year old?

If the former I would think they could figure out what they want to do for themselves (checking the student Let's Go guide and student web sites). And a lot probably wouldn;t be with a parent. If you mean a 2 year old - please confirm.

mclaurie

Child friendly? A 20 yr old? If it's a 2 yr old, the kid should be in bed. If it's a 20 yr old, that ain't no child.

glumbug

sorry I am an idiot, I did mean 20 month old! So a child, I know they will be in bed in the nite, its more abut what other things to do and see......

nytraveler

Museum of Natural History
Central Park (if you get a warm day) - nd it has a small zoo
Some sort of boat ride (again if you get a nice day - even if only the free Staten Island ferry)
Consider walking Fifth Ave to see the window displays (but you'll hjave to hold the child up - on your shoulders? - to see anything

And with a child in a stroller you need to:

keep away from the busiest ares (like Times Square) or you will have people tripping over it. Much better to focus on family friednly reas - liek upper west side, village etc0 where you can take little ones into restaurants (and there are a bunch of inexpensive/moderate places that will serve you early)

Also realize that stroller has to fold to take oto the bus or into a cab - and the subways have steps that you have to carry child and stroller down.

MFNYC

Children's Museum of Manhattan (upper west side)
CHildren's Museum of the Arts (Soho) - I used to bring my kids here all the time.
Forbes Gallery (Greenwich Village) - free, and my son's childhood favorite.
Children's section of any public library.

Google events for children in NYC. There are probably some puppet shows and other toddler friendly things going on around town at that time.

Museum of Natural History can get very crowded, and the dinosaurs may be scary to a 20 month old.

MFNYC

1 more museum, Transit Museum in Brooklyn.

MFNYC

ALso, playgrounds in most parks around town (Central, Washington Square, Madison Square Green, Hudson River-lower Manhattan, etc)

nytraveler

The shape of your trip will depend very much on the weather. If you get decent weather you can do a lot outdoors - as long as you're all properly dressed. It it's cold or snowy you need to be prepared with a lot more indoors options. (We usually don't get much snow before the holidays, but about 5 years ago got 12" on Christmas Eve/day.)

The playgrounds are great if you get very warm weather - if it's 30's and windy or sleeting - well they're not going to be a big hit.

MFNYC

Actually there's nothing like a playground after a fresh snow. We'd go to WAshington Square park during snow storms and slide down the slide landing in a heap of new snow. My kids loved it. Granted they were dressed in waterproof ski gear. Also sledding in Central Park is another joy of snow in NYC. If you don't have a sled, a big piece of cardboard will do. One time we used a folded up old shower curtain, and people actually offered to let us use their 'real' sleds if they could take the shower curtain for a spin. Only in NY!

glumbug

Hey, thanks for all those suggestions, certainly food for thought! I'm sure I've got plenty of options to get started on making plans now so thanks again!