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