New York City
 

My girlfriend and I will be taking two 16-year teenagers to New York City (for the FIRST TIME) on August 16 (we arrive at 2pm) departing on Thursday at 4pm. Can someone please advise us what are the must do/must see, nice affordable restaurants and also nice shopping--ideally armani, gucci/ abercrombie for the girls outlet would be great.

August 16 is a Sunday, so the OP has 3 full days with a half day at each end.

Give us a price for what you consider affordable. (Armani and Gucci?)

Also give us an idea of your interests. Your "must-see" may not be mine.

We'll need a lot more input from you. Asking, "Can someone please advise us what are the must do/must see, nice affordable restaurants and also nice shopping" in New York is like saying, "I like food. What should I eat?"
Also, I'd suggest you do a little research, like perhaps reading a guidebook or two.

Manhattan is a HUGE place. There are thousands of restaurants and shops in the city.

Where are you staying?

What is your budget?

What are your interests?

Really, sweetie, get a clue and give us some details if you want help.

PS
If you want designer outlets, you have to go to a place like Woodbury Commons--one hour drive from NYC.

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7

Thin

I'll bite, because I just got back from taking my 16 and 13 year olds shopping in NY. Their favorite places were the tiny boutiques in Nolita. Some are very pricey, others are not, but the clothes are more unique than what you'd find at stores like Abercrombie. You could start out in SoHo shopping at the larger stores like H&M and Top Shop, then walk a few blocks over to Nolita.

Oouch---sorry that i had not been more clear--Sorri...
Hotel--Holiday Inn Soho-I pay an employee rate. So if you are going and need an employee rate, let me know.
Budget-Lunch $20/dinner $35-40 per person
Shopping--checked with website on woodbury common and it seems it's far away and we don't intend to rent a car. SoHo shopping(and our hotel is in SoHo--how cool is that)and Nolita sounded like a cool place for the girls-thanks missypie!
Interest--Theatre i.e. jerseyboys,World trade centre, status of liberty/trump tower/art gallery etc
I'm from Toronto and if i buy a Gucci scarf here it costs $500 + 13% tax, if I could get it for 50% off like $250--to me that's a great price. An armani suit costs $1500 here,and i was told it's 'cheaper' in NYC coz your consumer broadbase is alot wider--do i make sense? thanks for all your help:)

For theatre tickets, get thee promptly to broadwaybox.com. They tell you all the current discount codes. Lots of the "always sold out shows" really aren't this year. I can almost guarantee that the girls (and you) would LOVE In the Heights. I was able to get fabulous seats for $57.50 each on Broadwaybox.com.
Last week we saw Wicked, Billy Elliot, South Pacific, Lion King, In the Heights and Phantom of the Opera and my teen girls loved every one of them. (But In the Heights has the hightest "teen cool" factor.)

One more thing - get up early one weekday morning and go to Century 21. It opens at 7:45 on weekdays and you want to get there early because it gets crowded later on. They have lost of discount designer clothes and accesories - it's a huge store and you never know what you're going to find. Right now I'm wearing a fabulous $150 belt that I got for $50 there.

As it happens, Century 21 is right across the street from the WTC site.

if you really want to go to the woodbury outlets, there are bus excursions from NY. check the website, but it will most likely be a full day affair. lots of sales right now in all the stores since they are getting rid of summer things. I second Century 21.

If I may be perfectly blunt. To come to NYC for the first time and go to Woodbury would be a waste of a good visit.

Shopping in NYC is vastly different than the suburban mall model. There are many bargains to be had and unique stores to visit.

VOW--VOW--now I can't wait to go! Am going to book the theatres proposed by missypie after this and Century21 is a real estate co. in TOR-LOL-can't imagine it being a department store. Will skip woodbury mall as it's a day trip so will stick with the city--hope we can find nice on sale stuff. Thanks muchly you all--that's a great help as i'm now armed with information from people who have been there and done that. appreciate that muchly:)

Restaurants in Soho that I recommend include:

Aqua Grill
Balthazar
Mercer Kitchen

Stores in Soho that teens may like:

Pearl River Mart on Broadway
Mavi Jeans on Broadway
Kate's Paperie on Spring St (near Balthazar)
Anthropologie on West Broadway
Bloomingdale's on Broadway

In the summer months there are all kinds of vendors selling jewellery all over Soho. There are several near the entrance to Balthazar.

Century 21 is very hit and miss. I wouldn't trek all the way down there--unless you specifically wanted to see WTC site--if you only have such a short time in the city.

Shopping is fun, but if I were coming to NYC, I certainly wouldn't spend all my time hunting down a Gucci scarf.

Don't your girls want to see the MoMA or Museum of Natural History? Central Park?

Thin

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an amazing fashion exhibit - The Model as Muse that they would enjoy

I'll have to disagree with Cries about Century 21. First, it opens at 7:45 in the morning...you could shop there for two hours and still be out before the other stores open at 10 am. It doesn't really take time from your day because nothing else is open then anyway.

Second, it's not really "all the way down there" from SoHo - it's 4 subway stops on the Yellow line. (The Cortland stop which is just right there is closed for rennovation [Did it ever open after 9-11?] If you get off at the Rector stop, keep the church on your right and it's 3-4 blocks away.)

Here's a perfect day: Take the subway to Century 21 and be there by 8 am. Shop. Look at the WTC site while you're there. Take purchases back to hotel in SoHo. Shop SoHo, eat lunch, shop more, shop Nolita. Back to the hotel by 5 pm for rest and to get ready. See In the Heights (on 46th street - should be a 7 pm curtain) then walk two short blocks over to Johns Pizzaria on 44th street for a late dinner. You can do cultural stuff on other days, but the 16 year olds will think this is the perfect day.

BTW, the Broadway shows (except for Phantom) are dark on Monday nights, so Monday would be your night to do something else.

Depending on their interests both in Soho

KidRobot
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kidrobot-new-york-4

Maxilla & Mandible
http://maxillaandmandible.com/body.htm

My girls loved Desigual.
http://nymag.com/listings/stores/desigual/
I loved it, too, but the clothes were a bit young for me. It was their favorite store on Broadway (in SoHo) but I only let them buy one thing each because it was pricey...but such fun clothes!!!

Check out www.dailycandy.com Go to the New York City edition and click on "fashion." All the sample sales are listed.

I second the recommendation of "The Model as Muse" at the Met. It is wonderful.

You can spend a nice morning at the Metropolitan Museum (opens at 9:30 - closed Mondays) - see the Costume Institute Show, the Francis Bacon show, the great Egyptian collection, and don't miss the new Engelhard Court in the Americn Wing - and check if there is a Highlights tour that morning (ask at front desk) - no extra charge. For lunch: take the 79 St. bus on the corner of Fifth Ave and get off at 3rd Avenue. Walk north into the 80's and you'll pass all sorts of restaurants for lunch with reasonable prices and outdoor tables. Or - take the 79 St. bus westbound and get off at Columbus or Amsterdam Avenues - again lots of selection of restaurants - - and unlike those restaurants that cater to mainly tourists in Times Square area - customers they'll never see again -- these restaurants cater to locals so they have to be good to survive.

If you are going to museums, the girls can get their tickets for 2 for $5 and I believe one adult can also get a $2.50 ticket. Go to http://www.highfivetix.org/splash.aspx.

Someone on this board recommended that site to me and it saved us $40.50 on tickets to the Guggenheim last Sunday.

Missy: No such thing as the yellow line. Trains in NYC have letter names and numbers, they're not referred to by color.

If you go to the Met, and you should definitely go to the Met, have pizza at the little joint on 82nd and Lexington. I think it's Famous Ray Bono's Pizza. The price of the Met is suggested donation, not an admission price. You can pay less.

If you are staying at the Holiday Inn Soho, you are only a 15-20 minute walk from Century 21, and you will pass by Canal street, City Hall, The Brooklyn Bridge--all worthwhile.
Not "out of the way" at all!

Okay, it's the line that will be yellow on your subway map and the line where the letters on the sign are in yellow circles. It's actually the N R W line.

If I can make one suggestion: if you assemble a list of stores or restaurants you definitely want to try to find, take the time to google them and get the street address and maybe even look at the picture on google maps to get an idea of what it looks like. In the past in big cities I've made the mistake of noting recommendations such as "right across the street from..." or "two blocks away from..." Two blocks in what direction? Recently, one "right across the street from" turned out to be across the street and 5 blocks down from."

I'm not criticizing anyone's directions here. Most of us are relying on memory. It's just that you can save yourself some walking (and perhaps complaints from the teens) if you know the exact address.

If you ask a NY'er where's the yellow line, I hate to think what answer you may get.

As BigRuss noted people use letters and numbers or nicknames like the Lex local, the 8th Avenue, or the Shuttle not colors.

I was assuming they would be looking at the subway map or the subway signs. If anyone had told me to go to the Lex local or the 8th avenue, I would have been lost.

Always ask. New Yorkers who do not know where they live know the subway lines and stops in Manhattan below 86th street and are always proud to share their knowledge with you.

They will not know, however, the bus routes other than the ones they take. Just another NY idiocyncratic characteristic.

You might pick up New York Magazine, they list sales and sample sales all over the city. Also Daffy's will be one of the girls favorites and they are all over the city. The biggest is in Herald Square near Macy's. Daffy's is all designer at great prices.

For CHEAP jeans and tees and accessories, you CAN"T BEAT Conway.
Conway is also in the Herald Square area, 35th and Broadway and 34th between 7th and 8th. Designer look jeans $10, tees $5 or less.

Filene's is also in the city at Union Square so you might check there as well.

Hope this helps and have a great time.

My D's walked straight in and out of Conway and spent about 2 minutes at Daffy's. (They also hated Macy's.) It's very hard to tell what the 16 year olds will love and what they will dislike. Just try to go to a variety of places you don't have at home, for the adventure of it.

Also, for any stores or restaurants that you're making a special trip to visit, check the web site or call to see if they are still around...the recession has hit a lot of restaurant and retail locations nationwide. A store that was a big deal six months ago (the Virgin Megastore, for example) might not exist anymore.

My DD lives in NYC and her fave store is still Urban Outfitters - and we have one in Austin!
Fave place for her to eat _ Cafeteria, 17th/7th. She likes Bottega for dinner - so do I.


Your girls would probably love "In the Heights" on Broadway.

Near Cafeteria is Le Zie, where we ate the other night and everthing was superb, the satff was extremely cordial and not one dish was less than excellent. It is Venetian cooking. We have eaten there many times over the years, and for some reason I always forget to recommend it.

You need to purchase a good guidebook, read it and take notes. Then come back and ask specific questions. NYC is not a city you can "do" in 3 days, so you do have to choose what you want to do from the options.

Even though you forget to recommend Le Zie, Adu, I don't and have been recommending it for years here. :)

However, I don't think teenage girls would like Le Zie.

Here is another resto the snappers may like:

www.kittichairestaurant.com

Thin

Here's my advice on restaurants: unless you are planning an entire evening around a "destination restaurant", figure out where you are going to be at meal time, then post a question like "Does anyone know of any good restaurants around 17th and 7th?" Folks on this board know so much that I can pretty much guaranty that whatever neighborhood you'll be in, someone will have a great suggestion. You don't want to be eating a nice dinner in SoHo, being a nervous wreck looking at your watch, knowing you have to race uptown in a short while for a show.

One more thing...with respect to asking directions (e.g. subway lines and busses) from locals...If you are a tourist, you will likely be spending lots of time where the other tourists are, and it may be difficult to actually find a New Yorker...the employees in the stores live there, but they are swamped with customers. On both of our recent trips to NYC, foreign tourists have asked us questions, thinking we were locals. So get a subway or other good map.

True Thin, you often mention Le Zie. It was mixed aged crowd the other evening but for the most part it is usually a 30 year old and over crowd.

Younger crowd

Xunta-tapas bar
Veselka-Eastern European
Lombardi's-pizza
Virgil's-BBQ

I'd also suggest a trip to the Lower East Side as a fun day for the girls. St. Marks Place from 3rd to 1st Ave has lots of stores they will like, some good restaurants and lots of college age kids.

Around the corner on 2nd AVe, just south of St. Marks is Pomme Fritte, with THE BEST fries, and lots of sauces to choose from, they will love that stop.

Hope you all enjoy your trip.

There are a number of designer/owener shops, mainly owned young women from East 9th to East 12 from Aveneue A to 2nd Ave.

There are also unique clothing stores on Mulberry and Elizabeth south of Houson.