First vacation in NYC
 

Hubs and I will be in NYC for a week starting Sept. 26. I have been to NYC before, but only for quick business trips. I've never done any of the "touristy" stuff. We've booked our plane tickets and a cute studio apartment not too far from Times Square.

It'll just be the two of us (first post-baby solo vacation!), and, as I plan my itinerary, I'd love to hear everyone's top five NYC experiences.

Care to share?

You didn't mention how you got your accomodations, so I would just add a bit of a caution, make sure you are getting what you expect. There are tourist scams in the city and I would hate to see that happen on your lovely vacation.

That said, you are planning a trip at what is the best time of year to be here. The temps should be very comfortable and alot of the tourists have gone home.

I'd suggest getting a book on the city so you can map out what you want to see and the best way of getting there.

I'd put the MET at the top of your list. IT's easy to spend the entire day there so you might go to the website and check special exhibits you want to see. Another idea would be the Cloisters, which is part of the Met and is a "castle" in the Highbridge area of Manhattan, easily accessible on the subway (A train). Get off at 191st St and walk up through Ft. Tryon Park, and you will feel a world away. Some of the priceless treasures of the Met's collection of the 1500's are there, like the Unicorn Tapestry and a whole room called "The Treasury"

If you like great Indian food, walk back down Ft. Washington to 187th St to Kismat, best Indian in the city.

Have a great time while you are here.

Agree with travelbuff.

Would also recommend a walk through Central Park. Get a map and circle the parts that you want to see. The Central Park Zoo is a quick stop but is worthwhile for the polar bears. Could also go to the Bronx Zoo but that takes more time. Get timed tickets to Top of the Rock. This gets you a great viewpoint of the city and great photos of the Empire State Building. I also really enjoyed the Naturl History Museum.

If baseball fans, go to either a Mets or Yankees game. Both have new stadiums.

As for TOP 5 - you can start by reading many NYC trip reports here:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...tripreport.cfm

Can't make top5 for NYC - top 25 is hard enough.

But - if I were forced to do 5:

The Met
Central Park
Top of the Rock
Broadway show
Ellis Island Immigration Museum (brilliant)

For all of these go to websites in advance to pick out waht you want to do /see and get opening days and hours.

For the evening get out of Times Square - it;s extremely unpleasant and visit some of the residential areas where you can much better restaurant choices in all price ranges - and many of them with outdoor seating so you can people watch as well as have dinner - and get a feel for what NYC is really like (NOT Times Square). Check out the upper west side, the Village, East Village, Chelsea etc for much better experiences. (ALso in some of these areas selected shops are open late - sometimes until midnight so you can window - ore really - shop.

NYTraveler said it best -- would have trouble picking 25, let alone five. BUT, since that's the request, I'll say:

Ground Zero
Staten Island Ferry (as the boat travels past the Statue of Liberty, imagine yourself an immigrant seeing this as you come into New York Harbor)
Times Square (HORRIBLY touristy -- but that's the point!)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Natural History

These are great suggestions, and most of them are going on my must list! I have a couple of guidebooks, and we are really looking forward to enjoying the city!

The apartment - we booked via homeaway.com. I've booked through them a few times before and have been really pleased with the results. I really like that they offer some insurance against a property not being available, not being as it was listed, etc. I expect that our apartment will be noisy (But who am I kidding? Hubs snores like a freight train, and I've worn earplugs to bed since we married.), and I know it will be in a touristy area, but I couldn't beat the price and central location.

Just a word about Times Square. I agree that it is utterly touristic and that block on 42 St. between 7th Ave. and 8th Ave. is about as sleezy as it can get - although this is the cleaned up version from what existed before it was "gentrified". BUT: the Times Square area at night is still a unique experience - an art form unto itself. The light displays are to be seen nowhere else in the world. Worth just a walk through.

If you are truly a "Bradshaw girl" consider the Sex and the City tour. Lots of fun - and you don't have to wait in line for cupcakes :-) Your hubby will probably want to opt out though.

Just returned from NYC for the first time myself...and I loved it!!! We stayed in a little condo near 52nd & 10th at the northern boundary of the old "Hell's Kitchen" area and found it very convenient to just about everything midtown by foot.

1) Visit Times Square at night. Sure it's touristy, but it's also a kind of sensory overload that awes you. And it's something you won't find anywhere else. Even the police station is in neon.

2) I'd suggest taking a free guided tour of part(s) of Central Park with the volunteers of the Central Park Conservancy. These people live & breathe Central Park and love to point out it's hidden gems and idiosyncrasies. And it's FREE. Check out their website for the dates & times the various tours are being offered (http://www.centralparknyc.org/site/P...s_walkingtours). No reservations are needed. Just show up at the designated place & time.

3) Determine your walking limit. We found Manhattan easy to navigate on foot and never felt unsafe anywhere we went. We did have a limit though. If something was over a mile & a half away we took a cab or the subway. Unless you plan on walking and taking taxis everywhere you go, get familiar with the subway system before you go. And don't be afraid to use the subway...in the areas we traveled (Upper East & West Sides all the way down to Battery Park at the tip of the island we found it safe and as clean as anything you could expect for public transportation in a city that size.

4) Do go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art....but go with an idea of 2 or 3 areas that you want to see, and don't expect to see it all. It's HUGE!! Of the 2 places that we almost got lost in New York.... inside the Met was one of them.

5) I found the Statue of Liberty awesome, and Ellis Island humbling. Get tickets online before you go and get them early enough so that you can get the "Monument Pass" attached to your ticket. Monument Passes are free additions to your ticket given out on a limited basis that allow you inside the pedestal of the statue where the statue's "museum" is, and where there is an elevator you can take to the observation deck around the top of the pedestal. Without a monument pass all you'll be able to do on Liberty Island is walk around the outside grounds. Starting this July 4th, the park service is once again going to open up the spiral staircase inside the statue and allow people to climb up to the crown. I don't know how they're going to handle the logistical details, but I imagine that would be an experience. Try to get tickets for early in the day, as crowds tend to grow latter in the day. That being said, we had timed tickets for 1 p.m. and arrived at Battery Park about 11:15; found no lines what-so-ever; asked if we could get on the ferry that was docked there at the time; they said "Sure"....and let us on early. On Ellis Island be sure to check out the exhibits on the upper levels, for some kind of idea of what it must have been like for the masses of people that passed through here.

My top five would be:

1. The Staten Island Ferry at dusk.

Awesome views of the Statue of Liberty lit up as well as the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan/Financial District lighting up at night. Really a stunning view.

2. Metropolitian Museum of Art.

This museum is encyclopedic in that is spans over 5000 years and every continent. Take a tour for an overview and pick a couple of areas.

3. Walk.

Just start walking. If you are in good shape start at Central Park and walk as far south as you can. Stop at an outside restaurant and have lunch. Continue walking.

4. Central Park

This park is so huge and so diverse every time you turn a corner it is different. Take in Strawberry Fields. Take a tour. When you are finished, go to the rooftop terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, have a glass of wine, and take in the view.

5. Get high.

See the city from way up high. Go to the top of the Empire State Building. It is an amazing art deco building. Personally to me the building itself is as cool as the view. Go to Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. From Top of the Rock you get ass kicking view of the Empire State Building. Want a cocktain? Go to the Rainbow Grille at Rock Center and have a glass of wine and check out the view. Want to see the park? Go to the lobby bar at the Mandarin Oriental (35th Floor) and gawk over the view of Central Park.

I'm not a Times Square or Broadway person but think everyone should see at least one Broadway play in their lifetime. Times Square is beautiful at night.

You should drop by Times Square just so you'll know what the board posters and native Nw Yorkers are so disdainful about. After dark for the full impact; even the Red Lobster restaurant is animated, with a rotating neon lobster.

These are great ideas! Furledleader - yes, I heard that the crown was re-opening. (In fact, that was one of the reasons we decided to go ahead and do NYC now. I hated the thought of going there and not being able to go up inside the statue.)

Thanks so much for your posts, guys!

I'm sure you'll enjoy 300 stairs with no visibility before getting to top of SOL - that is if you win the climb lottery - Top of the Rock is much easier and has better views.

For the life of me I can't figure out what the attraction is to climb the Statue of Liberty. The artist who created this work had no intention that visitors would be climbing up the interior - that is not what this symbol of America is all about. It is intended as a welcome to newly arriving visitors and immigrants to these shores. As such it is an inspiring sight when viewed from shipboard. You get a great view from the ferry to Ellis Island - or the Staten Island Ferry.

Definitely go to Top of the Rock at dusk. It's beautiful to see the city light up. Google for discount coupons.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of those who think walking up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty is the greatest waste of time and effort you could devise. You'll spend over an hour looking at a certain part of the anatomy of the person in front of you, then spend less than a minute in a crowded area looking at a very limited view of the harbor. TOTALLY not worth it.

Really? DON'T go up to the crown? Yeesh. I was really looking forward to it . . . Guess I'll have to re-think it.

Re: The Met and Central Park - with big attractions like this, I usually try to get some sort of map/guide ahead of time and plan what I'll tackle. I'm no fan of trying to cover everything at a huge attraction like that. Are such borchures/guides available in advance, for free? If so, where can I get them? If not, I'm happy buying a small guide online.

Their websites are a good place to start. Lots of information here, and it's free.

www.metmuseum.org

www.centralparknyc.org

Sara Cedar-Miller's new guide to Central Park is beautiful but start with the website - Buy the guide at the Dairy - the visitor's center in the Park

Here's what it's like inside the crown/head of the statue.

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/4441434.php

The photographer has managed to get as far away from the person looking out the windows as is possible within the small volume of the statue's head. Plus, there is a spiral staircase at each end of the small viewing area, so there's little room to walk or linger. Click on the photo marked "The Press" to see what I mean. The viewer is getting a nice look at Staten Island since the Statue faces away from Manhattan.

Re - the Met - yes it is huge and it is a good idea to plan what you'd like to see there. At the front info desk you will find staff very helpful in planning what to see. Note - there are special exhibitins and the Permanent Collection. The Egyptian Collection is considered to be the most comprehensive cllection of its kind - outside of Cairo. From the Temple of Dendur you can access the just re-opened Americn Wing - see the Engelhard Court - now one of the most beautiful spaces in the museum including superb Tiffany windows.

I would be the 1st normally to go up a viewpoint like the Top of the Rock, etc but there is no way that I am dealing with the spiral staircases and enclosed area of the crown. It would probably induce claustrophobia on anybody. Save the time and enjoy Manhattan

Central Park Web site is amazing and very helpful. (And the tours sounds like FUN! May do that.) As for the Met, I think I might buy a guide! It just looks huge, even online, and the collections database is overwhelming.

Sounds like most are recommending Empire State Building AND Top of the Rock. Was thinking I'd do either/or, probably Empire State Building. Thoughts?

Starrs - you are not he first to suggest the Sex and the City tour! I've heard that it really does let you see alot of NYC, and the cupcakes live up to expectation!

So far, here's my list:
American Museum of Natural History - Will spend some time here. Hoping to even see the show at the Rose Center. Heard it's awesome.

Times Square - This one should be easy; it's close to where we're staying.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Museum

Central Park - Maybe a short walking tour, or a picnic lunch here one day. Sounds like LOTS of neat nooks and crannies that we'd love. I'm a statue kind of gal. I love photographing them.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Another one that will suck up some time, but I don't care! It looks FABULOUS! May end up in their rooftop bar by the end of the day. Sounds lovely.

Ground Zero - Must go pay respects.

Rockefeller Center - May or may not go to Top of the Rock. Thinking we may do the 1-hour Stage Door Tour at Radio City Music Hall. Thoughts?

Grand Central Terminal - Want to see the architecture; may eat at the oyster place or the steak place here.

Chrysler Building - just see it from the street

NY Public Library - Have to go in, see the reading room, etc. Love books; would feel like a traitor if I didn't poke around a bit in here.

Brooklyn Bridge - would love to take transit out to Brooklyn, eat at Grimaldi's with some friends that live there (they may try to talk me into going someplace else; guess I'm flexible), maybe stop by the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, then walk back over the bridge.

Chinatown - Maybe a walking tour; DEFINITELY want to eat here; haven't had a dim sum fix since Portland.

Throw in a couple of shows, and that's my plan. I've got a week (Saturday to Saturday). Can I cover it?

I don't see anybody recommending ESB over top of the Rock. Definitely do Top of the Rock instead of the ESB. You can get timed tickets so you avoid most lines. As an added bonus, you get a great view of the ESB.

Bradshawgirl: You need not buy a guide for the Met - unless you plan to go back there numerous times. I would suggest a few highlights: In the Egyptian Wing - models of Meketre and Temple of Dendur and access the American Wing at the back of Dendur - see the new Engelhard Court, Tiffany windows, Tiffany Loggia, note the facade (Bank of the United States from Wall Street), Frank Lloyd Wright Room. Head south in the museum across the Petrie Court ( Rodin's burghers and Ugolino) and see the new Greek and Roman Gallery featuring Hellenistic and Roman art (note two versions of Hercules opposite each other - one a young H. andthe other an aged H. - that's a Hellenistic innovation - realistic and showing age). See the cubiculum (bedroom) from Boscoreale - a world treasure since it is an entire frescoed room in the original condition of over 2000 years ago. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor and see the Impressionists and then - if you still have the strength -- walk the corridor to the old master European guys - Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velazquez, et al. Get a map at the front info desk to guide you.

some great tips here - love to hear the comments as we are in NY during Sept too....
is the weather cool then or still summery? we arrive mid sept and leave on the 25th....i guess the nights will be coolish right?

The Temple of Dendur is amazing and JRoth's directions are perfect. Follow them to a T.

I would pick Top of the Rock instead of Empire State Building.

Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, World Trade Center (just a heads up, you can start paying your respects by not calling it GZ), and Chinatown in the same day.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island will take the better part of a day. The Brooklyn Bridge is a must.

furledleader
You mentioned to get tickets online for the Statue of Liberty with the "monument pass", do you have a link for this?

Sept in NYC is still usually summer. You can easily get temps in the high 80's, although it may - or may not - cool down at night. (The city absorbs massive amounts of heat during the day due to all the buildings/pavements and then releases it at night - which means it's generally about 10 degrees warmer at night than the suburbs - where lawns/trees don;t absorb daily heat).

We generally don;t get substantially cooler until mid October or so - and can still get Indian Summer days of 80 degrees then.