Four days in New York
 

We have 4 1/2 days in New York, staying at Hotel Indigo in the Lower East. I know my must-does as follows and need advice from those in the know on the best way to string them together. We are happy and able to walk reasonable distances and will take the train otherwise. I just need to get my head around a day-by-day itinerary for my selected sights which makes logistical sense.

The High Line
Staten Island Ferry
9/11 Memorial
Museum of Modern Art
Central Park
Tiffanys
NY Public Library
Guugenheim
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Walk over Brooklyn Bridge
Soho - walking around
Greenwich Village - walking around
Times Square
Grand Central Station
American Museum of Natural History

We're happy to walk and are quite "busy" travelllers. Just need advice about the most effective way to tackle these destinations in 4 days using public transport.
Thanks in advance.

Get a map of Manhattan (or go to Google maps), Mark all the places you want to see. Find a subway station near each group and there you have an itinerary!

I've decided to ignore that last reply and try again. We are prepared to walk quite a bit but I've been trying to get my head around the NY subway and find it terribly confusing, especially travelling from East to west or VV. That is why I'm hoping someone with local knowledge may be able to tell how to best group the sites over 4 days from a public transport perspective. I will ask the hotel for specific subway directions for each day, once I know where I'm going.

I am not being lazy or stupid. New York is a big city. Would be glad of some local advice.

With thanks.

Most subway lines follow a north-south route along one avenue through midtown Manhattan with stops at about the same streets (8th, 14th, 23rd, 28th, 34th, 42nd, 50th, 59th...) and then change direction to head to Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. A few lines make the connection east-west. (Not sure what you mean by "VV.") The bus system also follows routes north-south along the avenues, and has crosstown (east-west) routes where subways stop (8th, 14th, 23rd, 28th, 34th, 42nd, 50th, 59th...). You can transfer between bus and subway on the same fare.

The first best advice has already been given, and I encourage you to follow it: Organize your choice sights on a map. The geographical proximity will begin to set the plan. Then you will see which subway line is nearby and how it might connect to the place you plan to go before or after. The more you become familiar with the map of Manhattan, the more comfortable you will feel traveling on public transport.

I'll begin by listing your choices geographically, north to south, with gaps to show the sights in the same general vicinity:

Guggenheim (89th & Fifth)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (82th & Fifth)
American Museum of Natural History (81 & Central Park West - equivalent of Eighth)
Central Park (59th to 110th, Fifth to CPW- all your museums border on Central Park, which is 2.5 miles long)

Tiffanys (57th & Fifth)
Museum of Modern Art (53rd & Fifth)
Times Square (42nd-47th & Seventh)
NY Public Library (42nd & Fifth)
Grand Central Terminal (42nd & Park-the equivalent of Fourth)

The High Line (14th-34th & Tenth-Eleventh)
Greenwich Village - walking around (Houston (equivalent of 1st)-14th)
Soho - walking around (Canal-Houston)

Brooklyn Bridge
9/11 Memorial
Staten Island Ferry

Here's a link to an old but still helpful thread about using the subway and bus system. Scroll down for my step-by-step instructions.

https://www.fodors.com/community/uni...subway-804446/

Thanks so much Ellenem,
This is just what I needed. I'm sure the hotel will give me directions if I know where I want to go, but I needed this first step filled in. I'm normally a very organised and competent traveller but the NY Metro has me rattled.

With thanks.

Just reading the post you suggested. So walking a city block might only take a few minutes? That's really important to know. Thanks.

Did you see this, Ravenwing?
 

Calm down. Study a map. Plot your sights on Google maps. It will suggest subway and bus options for you.

Sometimes looking at the bus map instead of the subway map can be helpful--it is drawn to scale and shows the subway lines and stops in addition to the bus routes. Zoom in on just the area you need.
Attachment 1039

Helpful hints:

• 20 streets to a mile, so to walk from 42nd St to 62nd St is one mile. A New Yorker walks street-to-street in a minute, a mile in 20 minutes. Visitors usually take longer because they pausing to see things.
• Avenues are farther apart--perhaps the equivalent of 3-4 streets between each avenue. So to walk from Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue might take 8 minutes.

I'm not local, but I have made multiple trips to New York. I have found this map to be helpful and worth carrying:

https://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Lam...+York+City+map

The subway can be intimidating, but you will get the hang of it quickly. And even though you are only there for 4.5 days, I recommend buying the 7-day MetroCard. Our most recent trip was November 2017--we were there only 5 days and decided to do without one, opting to add $ as needed to our card, thinking we would save money. We didn't, or it was such a small amount it wasn't worth the stress and hassle.

The initial advice was good - and ellenem did the work of grouping them so it should be very straightforward to find a nearby subway station. Google maps is very helpful there. It also shows several subway stations for various lines near your hotel.

That grouping shows 4 logical clusters. One thing you need to consider is whether it's realistic to visit all 3 museums plus Central Park on the same day. You will probably want to save one of those museums for another day. It will be easy enough to revisit that area via subway from any of the other 3 clusters of must-does.

I found it simple enough to use my smartphones navigation app to get around the subway system. Just enter your destination, select the mass transit option and it will pull up bus and subway routes. That is very useful once you're out and about rather than trying to rely on paper maps and/or directions from your hotel. You'll lose GPS underground so I just took a screenshot of the route/stations and used that to keep track of where I needed to either change lines or head to the surface.

I also agree that first bit of advice was helpful and really a logical starting point for planning your trip.

One other thing to keep in mind: how long to spend at the various attractions. MoMA and the Guggenheim are fairly good sized, while the Met and AMNH are huge. You could easily spend a day each in the last two of you wanted.

Other attractions, such as the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, and the NY Public Library won’t take that long.

If I recall correctly from one of your Europe posts, you are also planning a round-the-world adventure? Regardless of whether that plan has changed, learning to navigate the MTA will likely be invaluable practice for your other destinations, with the added bonus of "learning the ropes" in your native language.

The MTA also has an app that we have used with success; it includes a route finder, as well. Happy Planning!

Thanks to everyone for this input and SusieQQ I apologise if I gave offence. I felt that you were putting me down a bit. I had studied posts and maps, but New York is a really big confusing city and the more posts I read about taking the subway, the more confused I got. I am on a round the world ticket which has come up unexpectedly and in a short time frame, and I do need to calm down, but thanks to good advice have all but the New York leg sorted. I have purchased a big map today, which I have started drawing circles and arrows all over.

With thanks.

Actually, I was going to suggest grouping venues by area also so am glad you apologised to SusieQQ for any misunderstanding.

Others please confirm or clarify but I'm going to put an asterisk by the most time-consuming places. A question mark if I'm not certain. DH and I tried to visit the biggest first on any given day--eating and fatigue can be factors even if your feet are great.

Guggenheim (89th & Fifth)
*Metropolitan Museum of Art (82th & Fifth)
American Museum of Natural History (81 & Central Park West - equivalent of Eighth)
Central Park (59th to 110th, Fifth to CPW- all your museums border on Central Park, which is 2.5 miles long)
[Actually, you could spend a long time at the 3 museums--pick your favorite type!]

Tiffanys (57th & Fifth)
*Museum of Modern Art (53rd & Fifth)
Times Square (42nd-47th & Seventh)
NY Public Library (42nd & Fifth)
Grand Central Terminal (42nd & Park-the equivalent of Fourth)
[DH and I spent a longer time at Grand Central--very interesting to us]

?The High Line (14th-34th & Tenth-Eleventh)
Greenwich Village - walking around (Houston (equivalent of 1st)-14th)
Soho - walking around (Canal-Houston)
[I don't know how long the walk takes. Move one of the 1st museums to this day, then taxi or subway to Soho or GV]

Brooklyn Bridge
9/11 Memorial
?Staten Island Ferry
[Again, I don't know how long the trip takes. Move one of the 1st museums to this day, then taxi or subway to the Memorial?]

Your hotel is in easy walking distance to SoHo and Greenwich Village so you could always do one of these first and go on to other places later or vice versa. The bus ride down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square in the Village is a ride I like.

Your hotel is also near to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum which is fascinating for history buffs and to Chinatown and Little Italy.

Thanks Ellenem for putting those walking distances in perspective. For a start I can know see that we will be able to walk between more destinations than I originally thought. Very useful to know. Also your grouping of destinations is going to be my starting point.
Thanks for the good map Musicfan and I will definitely purchase the 7 day card as it sounds so much simpler.
WhereAreWe, TDudette and Bachslunch, I will definitely look at the timing issues of museums in particular. I know we're trying to cram a lot in to 4 days, but this may be my only chance to visit New York so want to see as much as we can.
Vttraveler, maybe we can walk to either Soho or Greenwich Village the first night we arrive (before the 4 days) if it is that close.
SusieQQ, thanks for your help.

I know I have been given the tools to work out a feasible itinerary for visiting this amazing city.

With sincere thanks.