zappazoe

I actually won a trip & my husband & I will be going to NY April 20-22. We're staying at The Time NY, which I understand is right near Times Square. The only thing we have planned is lunch with the editor of the magazine I won the trip from & a shopping spree after that on Saturday. I'd love some recommendations on where to go, where to eat, what I must see, etc. We want to utilize our time as best as possible & soak up as much as we can. We are, however, on somewhat of a budget, so nothing too expensive. We love good food, cocktails, historical places & SHOPPING! I'm so excited!

cabovacation

Wow! I just want to say congratulations! What fun! I'll leave the tips to the much better NY experts on this forum. Yeah!

Margo_Chester

That's great - congratulations! Other than shopping what do you enjoy? Museums? Theater? On Friday evenings The Guggenheim Museum hosts Pay What You Wish beginning at 5:45 p.m. so you could enjoy the museum and save a little $. What type of food do you like and what are you comfortable spending for dinner for two of you? Give us a little more detail and you'll get lots of great ideas.

mclaurie

Congratulations! Would you share which magazine?

Despite your budget, you should really see a Broadway show. Consider going to the TKTS. booth and getting same day discount tickets (usually $50-60/person) for a show. There are 2 booths, one at the side of the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square and the other downtown at the South St. Seaport which is usually less crowded. Here's a website that will show you the exact locations, times they're open and you can also see what shows have been available recently.
tdf.org/tkts

Here's a guide from NY Magazine on discount shopping and eating.
nymetro.com/cheap

For good dining near your hotel, there are 3 good Italian restaurants with excellent value menus, Vice Versa, Maria Pia and Roberto Passon. Check reviews and specific menus on menupages.com which should also have links to their respective websites.

For breakfast, Art Cafe on Broadway & 52 st., is good and reasonable.

There are some wonderful FREE things you can do. Among them--walk the Brooklyn Bridge (from Brooklyn to Manhattan) for outstanding views of the skyline. Take the subway to Brooklyn.

While you're downtown, take the FREE Staten Island ferry roundtrip for wonderful views of the Statue of Liberty.

Have fun!

orangecats

Congratulations! And April is a wonderful time to visit New York.

First of all, I have to say that I'm all for getting OUT of midtown as soon as possible. Other parts of the city are much more interesting and without the tourist crush.

I'm not a huge fan of "broadway shows." Depends on what you're interested in, but there's a lot of interesting dance and theater in the city. Smaller venues, cheaper tickets. I would suggest looking at the Joyce Theater, St. Ann's Warehouse (in Brooklyn), among others.

A great place for a cocktail is the Grammery Tavern (near Union Square). Beautiful ambience. Feels like you're out on the town.

Dinner. Well, what do you like? One of my all time favorites is Cafe Mogador in the east village (either 8th or 9th street between 1st avenue and avenue A). Delicious, not exorbitantly priced, moroccan food. I often the the "lamb grill" which includes sort of shishkabobs of savory lamb, peppers, tomaotes, and onions with tasty rice and a cucumber/tomato salad.

For Korean, I suggest Do Sirak on 13th (or 12th?) street right near union square. They have many tasty things, but I like the shrimp and vegetable stir-fried rice.

It depends on whether you eat a lot, but lunch at the Blue Water Grill can be very affordable and feel unbelievably special. I usually get their lobster bisque plus an appetizer.

What kind of shopping do you like? For the ultimate NYC experience, you could try Loehmann's -- a large discount department store on 7th avenue at 16th street. Unfortunately, the country is getting pretty homogenized, so you'll probably find many of the stores you usually shop in all over the place.

If you'd consider going out to Brooklyn, think about spending an afternoon at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (lovely that time of year). My favorite Brooklyn clothing store is called "Sir." Strange name. It's located on Atlantic Avenue. Has really beautiful and unique women's things. It's a small boutique.

Good luck and have a wonderful trip!

bd24

I agree, spend some quality time out of midtown. Wonder through Greenwich Village (take the 1 train to Christopher St and walk east down the small tree-lined streets with brownstones) for lots of small cozy restaurants and shops. This is the NYC New Yorkers love not the Disney circus (Times Square) they all avoid.

zappazoe

Thanks for the replies & tips! It is our 8th anniversary 4/24, so we'd like to go out for one more expensive dinner at a nice spot. I won the trip through Lucky magazine. I still can't believe it. My husband would do a broadway show if it was something funny I think. He's not so much into musicals, but I think he'd like it more than he realizes. We love sushi, so any sushi recommendations would be fabulous!!! We definitely want to see the WTC & the Empire State Building (I know, we're such tourists...lol). Our budget isn't that tight or anything, but we want to spend our money wisely. My Mother told me about the TKTS too, so I don't need to order anything like tickets in advance, right? Thanks so much to everyone for the ideas!!

basingstoke2

If the weather is good, the outdoor cocktail lounge "Top of the Tower" at the Beekman Tower Hotel across the street from the UN will give you great city and river views.
If you like art galleries, the many small galleries in the SoHo area can be a treat and are free. The Museum of the City of New York located next to the Natural History Museum has a dull sounding name, but it is not. It is worth a visit. A walk in Central Park is always a treat on a nice day.

jodeenyc

So I realize I'm going to catch flak for this but here goes. I've been to every sushi restaurant from Nobu to Blue Ribbon, etc. etc. My favorite will always be Yama on Carmine.

Ok go ahead ..