I live on the UES and highly recommend these Italian restaurants:

Spigolo (my favorite)
www.spigolonyc.com
If you go, be sure to ask for the great house made breadsticks that are at the bar only.

Sfoglia
www.sfogliarestaurant.com

Sandro's
www.sandronyc.com

The first two are quite small and reservations are necessary.

Sandro's was off our radar and was recommended by a native of Umbria whom we met while in Italy. We traveled thousand of miles to learn of a restaurant a few blocks from home!

While it's true that the UES is mostly residential - very upscale to the south and west - moving to more upper middle class as you go north and east ending in a bunch of dormitoriums in the east 90s.

However, it also has Museum Mile - probably the greatest concentration of diverse museums in the world - from the Museo del Barrio, Cooper-Hewitt design museum and Museum of the City of New York down through the Met, the Guggenheim (much better building than exhibits) to the Whitney the Asia Society and the Frick - plus a ton of others. You could spend weeks just in these museums - never mind the other side of the Park.

Cooper Hewitt is closed until 2014, but they have some satellites around the city until the renovation is complete.

This is the restaurant link i assume acpg meant http://www.sandrosnyc.com/

Oyster.com has lots of photos of your hotel. Not what I'd pick (there are too many new hotels with fresher rooms) but fine.

Cibo is a popular ItalianAmerican restaurant with good value prix fixe menus. http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/cibo/

Frick.org is a popular smaller museum.

Italian: Fagiolini on 38th and Lexington...Awesome.

has anyone been to south street seaport at christmastime? is there caroling every night?? xmas shops (like st.bart's)...thanks

For NYC at Christmas info - either search for existing thread or ask a specific question of your own.

As for Seaport not sure - and it may change any year. You would need to look at the Seaport web site.

so anyway, has anyone been to the seaport at xmas? thanks

I used to work a few blocks from there and they would have choristers but exactly when as others have noted contact the Seaport.

It is basically a mall with a crummy food court and some lousy restairants with some common ground out front. Of all the attractions in NYC, to me it is near the bottom.

For interesting commercial kiosks before Christmas try Union Square, Bryant Park, and Grand Central. There is also one at Lincoln Center but I am not sure it is open everyday.

The tree at the Met Museum is one of the most elegant holiday decorations to see.

thanks, we've done those outdoor shops so maybe we've hit 'em all. how about chelsea pop-up market? i can't out much about it on-line (esp hrs, dates in winter/christmas, etc)

Someone else mentioned it already, but the Frick is a wonderful museum on 5th and 69th street.

yeah, i heard it's frickin' awesome....

can someone tell me the quickest, easiest subway route between GCT and the river cafe, brooklyn

The easiest thing to do is take a cab.

If you can't pay for a cab you won't be able to pay for the River Cafe either. (The prix fixe dinner is $100 per person for 3 courses - so with coffee, glass of wine, tax and tip - in excess of $150 per person.)

If you really want to take public transit go to hopstop.com (The route they show is 40 minutes, using 2 trains and then walking 7 to 8 blocks.

ha ha, very funny. no, price is not the issue. just wanted to be eco-friendly. thanks

any one been to the strand hotel?? booked it thru nycluxuryhotels.com......any feedback? thanks

Sorry ... Never heard of it.

The Frick was beautiful. No photos allowed, not even outside. Make sure you use the audio tour, or it'll go by too fast, it's pretty small.

Have never heard if it either. Apparently it's on 37th just west of Fifth Ave, I took a quick look at the reviews on tripadvisor and they appear to me to be canned. I can't imagine so many extremely positive reviews (and some with incorrect information that sounds like it comes out of a sales brochure). It look like they have a campaign of one extremely positive post every day.

If anyone here has actually stayed there I would be really interested in hearing about it.

The Starnd is much nicer than the aroosevelt.
http://www.oyster.com/new-york-city/hotels/the-strand/

There are several Xmas. Markets in NYC. Closest to the Strand will be the one at Bryant Park. The singing xmas tree at the Seaport is fun if you're going to be in the area anyway.