I'm going to NYC for the first time on wed 24,staying for 6 days. I'll be in manhattan most of time, what neighorhoods should I avoid if I don't know the area to well. thank you for your help.

New York is the safest large city in the country. And the tourist sights you will be visiting are all in perfectly safe areas. There are a few areas of the city - most outside Manhattan - that are less pleasant and you would not want to wander at night - but they are not really near anything a tourist would be likely to visit.

While we are on Manhattan neighbourhoods, we will be there next Spring and will be there for three or four weeks ( 2 in Downtown and 2 UWS probably). We want to systematically cover the various neighborhoods largely on foot. I know we will never see everything but I am at a loss to determine how long we should devote to wandering say the Village,Chelsea etc. This is probably a strange question but for instance can Little Italy and China town be tackled on the same day or are they large enough to warrant more time? Can New Yorkers or others who know NYC humour me? Thanks.

Peteralan, you can easily tackle areas like Little Italy and Chinatown in the same day. Have a great trip. NYC is fabulous.

Little Italy is smaller than people think - it will literally take you less than 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It's 2 blocks long. You could easily do Chinatown, Little Italy, and one other nearby neighborhood (such as Tribeca, Soho, the Lower East Side or Nolita) in a day or less. The West Village and Chelsea are another good combination for a day's walk. So are the Lower East Side and the East Village. A stroll on the Upper East or Upper West can be combined with a trip through Central Park. And, of course, there's Times Square + Midtown.

NYC is very safe. Probably safer than your hometown, believe it or not. It is also very compact. Yes, it is huge, but huge in population and things to do, not in size.

People coming from L.A., Denver, or Dallas often think Manhattan will be the same size or larger. You can walk from one side to the other in 45 minutes, and can walk from the bottom to the top in less than 1/2 day. It is amazingly compact and you will find that you can explore 3-4 different neighborhoods easily within a day. The problem for me is that I get stuck in great museums/parks/restaurants, so I don't make it very far.

Midtown East on Fifth Avenue (especially the 57th Ave area) and Madison Avenue are particularly dangerous for me. Avoid them at all costs if you have credit cards with large lines of credit.

Thanks Suzanne etc...I have a better idea now. I know where I want to go but before I just didn't know how much time to devote to browsing the various areas. Thanks again!