First Time Visit Itinerary Help
 

My sister and I are taking my 2 boys (11 and 8) to NYC for 4 days at the end of April. I have not been there since I was a child myself and am looking for a little help in planning our trip. I have mixed feelings about visiting the Statue of Liberty. Most of what I've read seems to indicate that it is a waste of time to actually get the tour of the statue itself since the observatory can no longer be accessed. Any ideas on that? We had also planned to visit Ellis Island. Since we only have 3 full days I know these 2 tours would eat up a lot of time, but they seem so vital to a first time visit to NYC.

Also, what about the Circle Line cruise? (The 2 hour tour.) Any suggestions on whether that would be worth the time spent would be appreciated. We are considering the night cruise and are also wondering if that is better or worse than the daytime cruise.

And finally...I keep reading that walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is a must-do. We hadn't worked time for that into our itinerary--should we?

We also plan to visit the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, check out the Egyptian exhibit at the Met, visit Central Park and see the Empire State Building and Ground Zero.

I can plan a Disney World trip with ease but am a little confused on this one :). Thanks in advance for the help!

Some people think visiting the Statue now is not as dramatic. Perhaps it's true if you don't get tix to go inside. But inside, even though you can't go up very high, there is a museum with some very interesting stuff and you really get the scale of the statue that you don't understand just from viewing it from a distance. In fact many people who only see the statue from a boat remark that it's smaller than they thought it would be. That's b/c they're not up close. So if you get off the ferry (or in fact go), get reserved tix to go inside online. They have a limited # of those tix available each day, but you're not guaranteed of getting them. Here's more info with links to reserving tix.
http://gonyc.about.com/cs/attraction...eofliberty.htm

You can also just go to Ellis Island and not go to the SOL. The way most do that is just stay on the boat when it gets to Liberty Island and continue on to Ellis. But there's also a way to go by train from Manhattan to New Jersey and go to Ellis Island from there. It may be a bit faster. Another option for just visiting Ellis Island is to go on the tour by former ranger Tom Bernardin which people say is excellent. He takes you via NJ but stops at some of the lower Manhattan places of interest on the way. http://www.ellisislandtours.com/

If you want to just see the Statue from the water and don't want to deal with the security and time needed for it, the free Staten Island ferry is one option many people chose. I think kids your age would be bored by a 2 hr. boat ride. I suppose if they've had an active day, the night tour is better. By the time you arrive, the NY Water Taxi may be running and they have a hop on/off option that might be fun. nywatertaxi.com

Nothing is "must do" to everyone. Many people enjoy the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge though. Grimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory are nearby. Many people take the subway or a taxi or the nywatertaxi.com (from South Street Seaport) over to Brooklyn, have some pizza and ice cream and walk back to Manhattan.

The best way to plan your trip is get a map, plot the things you want to see/do on it and try to group things together by location. Plan on one major thing in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Maybe an overview tour would be a good idea the first day so you'd feel like you saw everything. Kingofnyc.com is very popular as is nypartyshuttle.com

I think the Ellis Island Immigration Museum is brilliant - and a must. You can easiy get close-up views of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry (which stops at both islands - just don't get off at Liberty) . That will give you a good persepctive on the Statue and save you several hours. And remember that you can rent bikes for Central Park is your want (to cover more territory in less time).

The walk back from Brooklyn over the bridge is intersting - but not a must do IMHO. I think the Museums, Central Park and Rock Center/Top of the Rock are much better - since your time is limited.

You don;t say what the boys main interests are - but if you don;t want to do a show what about some sort of sporting event in the evening - baseball, basketball and hockey are all on.

Mclaurie, if we did the Ellis Island tour w/ Tom Bernardin, how would you recommend fitting in the Statue of Liberty? Don't you have to have assigned times to visit? When should we schedule? We are coming the first week of July so I know it will be crowded. You recommendation of this tour has me intrigued.

We took our 7yo and 11yo kids to NYC last Spring. The 11yo had visited previously, with his grandparents, so there were things that he didn't want to do because he'd done it with them.

We only had 2 1/2 days there.

After looking at the information and time we had available, we passed up visiting Ellis Island (11yo had gone, and said it was boring; it's part of our national history, but one side of our family arrived in the U.S. before the Ellis Island period, and the other side, much, much after) and the Statue of Liberty. The boat rides didn't appeal to them either. What we did do, and I admit I enjoyed it too, was to ride "The Beast." It's a speedboat tour that passes by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

They both really enjoyed visiting the Intrepid; we spent most of the morning there. The Beast leaves (as do the other boats) from near there, so it's a good combination.

We visited the Met (short visit), the Museum of Natural History (even more interesting given the recent Ben Stiller movie), Times Square in the evening, Toys R Us to ride the indoor ferris wheel, The United Nations, several playgrounds in beautiful Central Park. One thing my 7yo really enjoyed was riding the subway. In fact, one evening we rode it back and forth just because she wanted to!

Elaine, on the tour description page on Mr. Bernardin's tour, it says:

"Once at Ellis, Tom presents his tour and afterwards you are free to visit the 32 galleries of exhibits, do genealogical research, view an award winning documentary or visit the Wall of Honor. After your visit, you board a ferry which takes you directly back to Manhattan or board a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. "

Here's the contact info on the websit to ask about getting passes to go inside the Statue.

"You are most welcome to call me directly at 212-229-0202 (NYC business hours only, please.) or email me at [email protected] .

Tom Bernardin
Post Office Box 1267
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113

Note there are 2 different tours, one that's 2 hrs. that's just on Ellis Island and another that's 3 hrs. and includes parts of downtown Manhattan. It was actually a description of the longer tour done by someone who posted here that got me interested.

I would agree with Lexma90 that Ellis Island and the SOL may not be as exciting to a kid as a ride on the Beast. ;)

Thanks McLaurie for pointing out the fine print! I think I'll email Mr. Bernardin for mor info about the Statue. I'm glad you pointed out this tour.