Fun once in a life time expeiences in NYC
 

WE are looking for fun once in a life time experiences in NYC. It could be anything, cost anything etc. Just something that would be really really cool!

Take the subway to Greenwich Village and take a walk through the Village, the East Village, Broadway, Canal Street, SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. Snack at bakeries, fruit stands, and street food along the way.

Enjoy, HTTY

Taylort771 , on one of your other posts you asked about "cheap" helicopter rides. Now you're saying "could cost anything".
It all depends on what YOU want to do. NYC has high to low priced options for just about any interest. At the highest end, I suppose you could rent out an entire floor of a luxury hotel (or a concert hall) and hire some celebrity to come over or do a private concert. At the low priced end, you could walk around and see where movies or Tv shows have been filmed.

To give you good suggesions, how about if you tell us what you're interested in (views like from a tall building, boat, helicopter) , food, theater, art, shopping -- and some actual budget and I'm sure we can come up with something fun for you. But throw us a bone first

Sorry, again i am new at this. The reason i asked about cheap helicopter tours is because i really cant justify spending $140+ pp for 15 min. We really dont know what there is to do nowadays we used to live in Manhattan but that was 15 years ago.

No need to justify spending or not spending!

Manhattan is the same as 15 years ago--and very different. How about a little more about you--who are you, ages, what do you like to do. Maybe you never went to the top of the Empire State Building ot Top of the Rock, or maybe you're sick of stuff like that. Maybe you'd like a private tour of a museum? Or some great music venues--maybe your favorite singer, musician, band or orchestra is town while you're here . By the way, it's a good idea to put the dates of your trip and other relevant details (ages, budget concerns, etc) in every post. Most people won't cross check your information and this way everyone who wants to help can give you the best suggestions

We are both 70 and my grandsons are 17,11 at time of travel. our budget is $1200 for the 4 days

Ok, now there's something to work with. I assume the budget does not include hotels? That would take up most or all of the $1200 at most times of the year. I'm also going to assume that you're especially interested in stuff for the boys to do rather than adult activities.

If the boys like a certain sport, see if there's a game on (again-- when are you traveling?). On another post someone asked about trapeze lessons . She was asking about winter, so that won't work for her, but it may interest you. Music? Comedy clubs ?(tough with an 11 year old, but may be possible or you could spilt up one evening). Are they from another big city or a smaller town or suburbs?

Take the boys to a Broadway show. You can get good values here if you aren't set on going to Wicked or some other sold-out production: www.broadwaybox.com

Send the young men on a speedboat tour of the harbor: http://www.circlelinedowntown.com/shark.asp

Take a walk: Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Park Avenue (for people watching), Times Square

Go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and/or the American Museum of Natural History

If your grandsons have never been to NYC, all four days will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

HTTY

Oops, $1,200 for four days? How many nights? Won't the hotel room consume most of your budget?

Some places boys might like

Paragon Sporting Goods

Forbidden Planet-filled with stuff including graphic novels and older kids toys

Chelsea Piers-Wonderful and expensive sports complex

Madison Square Garden-see if they have tours-home of the NY Rangers and Knicks

Evolution on Spring Street-They will love this place. Filled with real skulls, insects in amber, etc.

Be careful about B'way shows and boys that age, many B'Way shows are intentionally aimed at 12 year old girls.

The Cage-street basketball in a smaller than usual court. If you step on the court, you better know how to play. Sixth Avenue and 4th Street.

Grey's Papaya-A NY institution-cheap franks and cheap drinks-a teenage boy's heaven.

The budget does not include hotels as we are using points. We are traveling at the beginning of OCT. 4 days and nights, our flights arrives at 8 am the first day. We are from Atlanta so a pretty big city.
Thanks fr all the suggestions

Here is a fun place for dinner. The food is great, the atmosphere is convivial, and the waiters treat everybody well: http://unclenicksgreekcuisine.us/

HTTY

Has anyone mentioned Central Park? boat ride and walk around after the Met.
I hear the hi-line is great.

Fuezer Bruta is an off Broadway show that young men/boys seem to really like. You stand through the whole performance though. There are often discounts on the left column of broadwaybox.com

accomplicenewyork.com is part street theater, part tour, part scavenger hunt. Everyone seems to love it.

There are lots of fun cruises including sailing ones, some of which are regularly discounted on goldstar.com

Top of the Rock and the Highline Park are probably the 2 most well known "new" things in NYC.

If you will be here the 8th and 9th of October, that is Open House NY weekend. It's an annual event when many places around the 5 boroughs that are not normally open to the public, or have an admission fee, are open for visitors. Check out the website for something that might be of interest; www.ohny.org

P.S. As for that helicopter ride, there really are enough places in the city from which you can get fabulous views without spending $140 each - e.g., ESB or Top of the Rock; a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; a free ride on the SI ferry.

While I am a theatre nut, I usually take great caution recommending Broadway or off-Broadway shows for young boys/men. But I think McLaurie's idea for Fuezer Bruta is brilliant. I wouldn't even call it a "show" in the sense of other shows, but I am willing to bet the guys will love it.

I think fuerza bruta is a brilliant suggestion too. ;)

What does the group think of a visit to the Intrepid?

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions it gonna be fun!

No Open House New York is the following week this year because Yom Kippur is Columbus day weekend.

I second the mention for the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge - really fun, especially on a weekend morning.

How about a Yankees game? - that's something they won;t easily have access to in Atlanta.

Early Oct should be the beginning of the playoffs - and I'm assuming they'll be in. (But the good seats are expensive).

I wouldn't do a heli ride - not because of cost but because of safety.

I second nixing the helicopter ride. Unsafe. Head to Top of the Rock instead for the best views.

I second the Intrepid idea. Not sure on timing but you may even get to see the Enterprise Space Shuttle being brought in - depends on when they shuffle the shuttles around.

Definitely agree with Central Park including the zoo.

TOTR and the Natural History Museums are both great and worth the time.

"I second nixing the helicopter ride. Unsafe."

While I'm not big on the idea of the helicopter ride and its cost, this really surprised me. Have there been accidents with the helicopters we haven't been hearing about? Apparently so if they are deemed "unsafe".

Yes, there have been accidents. Collisions with tour helicopter and small planes . . . helicopter lifting off the helipad and dropping into the East River . . . enough accidents to be concerned about safety.

Collision over Hudson River, several tourists died a few years ago.

This article is from 2009; I'm not sure if the tourist crash was included but it can be googled if one is further interested:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0...nt_id=28763295

We take the water taxi from Wall Street to Brooklyn. And while we are waiting, we watch the helicopters take off and land on the next pier. I always feel like I have should have my cell phone in hand and ready to call 911 about a chopper in the river.

Well, it's happened, Aduchamp1. You're not overreacting by any stretch.

Interesting. While we've all heard about and seen many pictures of a couple of small planes crashing into buildings and landing in the Hudson, I had never heard about these "tourist" helicopter incidents!

In fairness to the helicopter company(ies), the most recent crash -the one ywo years ago with the Italian tourists which collided with the small plane - was the fault of a negligent traffic controller who was on a cell phone with his gf and did not assume control after the Teterboro ATC's signed off.

The heli was not visible to the small plane which was directly above it, and the ATC wasn't paying attention.

Not that it matters -- the victims are still dead, but -- just saying that the helicopters are not necessarily inherently dangerous.

Still, I would avoid it for a lot of reasons, including cost, other options, and yes, safety.

Things my NYC boys love:

Museum of Natural History
The Intrepid
Blue Man Group (although fuerzabruta looks cool too)
Sony Wonder Lab
The Beast (similar, I guess to the Shark)
Evolution (recommended by Aduchamp, my kids go crazy in this store)
Brooklyn Boulders (climbing wall)

And also, I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've gone here, but my kids LOVED the ridiculous Ninja restaurant.

We loved the Real Food Tours of NY - the Greenwich Village one is fun and has stuff the kids would like - pizza, bakeries, etc. We enjoyed going to a Yankee's game as well. The kids would probably like going to Serendipity for ice cream sundaes and frozen hot chocolate. And of course the park and the Top of the Rock.

I agree that the boys would enjoy the Intrepid.

The Beast high speed (it's safe) boat tour. The kids will love it and you'll get to see much of the coastline. It's just an hour's tour but lots of good fun.

The Circle Line website for the Beast out of Pier 83 states that it is only a half-hour ride.

We are doing that with our kids in August.

I was going to mention the Ninja restaurant. I haven't been there, but read about it and it just seemed like it would be fun - especially for the boys.

When we went to NYC on Columbus Day weekend of last year, we took a walking tour with Real New York tours. It was very interesting and if you book a private one, they will personalize it to your interests.

There's also a big parade. We missed the real Columbus Day one, but we saw part of the Spanish Columbus Day one. The costumes were pretty amazing.

I wonder if tours of the ball parks are available in October. We've done that in other MLB cities.

I am sure teen boys wont be into Broadway shows of any kind... not even those :-)

But, the Beast/Shark on Pier17 water speed boat is fun.
As is a helicopter tour, and the Intrepid.
If the weather is nice, go down to Coney Island to ride the new rides, like the canon or the sling shot.

What type of music do they like? Tell them to go to Time Out NY on-line and see if there is anything they might like. There are venues that do not serve alcohol.

The baseball season for the Mets and Yanks ends Sept 28. But here are the sites for tours:

http://mlb.mlb.com/nyy/ballpark/stadium_tours.jsp

http://mlb.mlb.com/nym/ballpark/tours.jsp