I will be traveling to NYC in August with friends from England. We will take Amtrack from Baltimore. We want to see as much as we can, like the sattue of liberty, empire state building etc. Whats the best way to get around? What are some of the better tourist attractions. We will have about 8 or 9 hours max to site-see.

Depending on the day of the week and time of day, going to the top of the Empire State Building could take a substantial portion of your day as sometimes there's quite a wait. For a terrific view - and one that includes the Empire State Building - you may wish to go to the top of the World Trade Center instead. One of the best ways to see the city is a two or three hour cruise on the Circle Line. You can see everything very well from the boat and the commentary is excellent. The three hour cruise circles the island and the two hour cruise goes around the southern half and back (Midtown and all neighborhoods south). It also passes VERY close to the Statue of Liberty. We've gone to the Statue of Libery and riden the elevator. The boat is better for a wonderful view. There are three or more bus tours with dozens of stops. You may wish to start at Central Park and catch one of these. Each has an uptown loop and a downtown loop or a combination of the two, one or the other would fill a day. They run frequently, make dozens of stops in all the neighborhoods. You can hop off and back on. This is a fabulous way to spend the day. And, you can stop and visit your top priority sights or have lunch or whatever. The commentary is informative and amusing, and on a nice day riding in the open air upper deck is great fun with terrific views. With such a limited amount of time, you may wish to ask your guests what they would most like to see up close and go from there. The taxis are quite reasonable. If there are three or more of you, it's probably more economical to taxi around than take the subway from place to place.

Eight to nine hours in NYC? I spent fifteen days there and STILL felt I missed a lot!

Unless you're a fairly adventurous person I'd have to concur that the best thing to do is take an organized tour. NYC is NOT a city to get lost or confused in; and it's VERY easy to do.

I've done Circle Line and it's good. Also check:

www.grayline.com/destinations/usa_eastern.html
then click on "New York City"

www.tagonline.com/~magic/index.html
I know NOTHING about this company other than their web site, perhaps someone else can give info.

If you DO want to tour on your own, check out

www.theInsider.com/nyc/index.html

One bit of advice I MUST give to first-time, short stay visits: skip the Statue of Liberty! Ride the Staten Island Ferry to view it, YES; but DON'T take the boat to the island itself. You'll stand in line for an hour just to get to the boat;then see nothing there you don't see from the Ferry. If you're foolish enough to walk to the top, you'll stand in line AT LEAST two hours, with the last hour doing nothing but staring at the rear end of the person in front of you, and then see a crowded view for about five minutes. NOT WORTH IT!!

I would concur with first message -- select a tour bus or boat for an overall view since you have limited time.

Most of NYC is on a grid. With a basic map which indicates the primary museums/stores it is really easy to get around. So I must disagree with the second posting re that.

5th Ave is the middle avenue with its buses running down to the tip. Madison Ave buses run up to Met. Museum, for 1st time visitors that is as far north as you need to go. We use the buses not the subway when we go (min. 4 times year)-- you see the stores/people so there's more atmosphere then the subways although it is slower. Tokens can be purchased at Grand Central and perhaps even at your Baltimore train station as we do here in New Haven. If you want to go across the Ave's ask for a free transfer.

I check metrobeat.com:80/nyc for events/show/etc. but there are several other good sites for info. Also, especially on Sat/Sun there are tables at Grand Central with visitor info -- most of the booklets contain a basic map.

Enjoy your day -- we usually plan three things: such as a morning in the diamond district, afternoon at a museum and evening at Lincoln center, and do lots of walking.

Buy a pretzel from a street vendor -- I don't remember any pretzel vendors in London.

Enjoy.

NYC in 8 or 9 hours sounds like what WE do, when WE try to fit in onemore place on a foreign vacation! Definitely check out "Big Apple Tours", or "Grayline" (my husband and i were just saying that "Big Apple" would be our choice if we wanted a formal tour ourselves). I have never been on it, but we are in the City twice a week or so for entertainment, and those red double decker buses are all over the place and usually full! And the people look happy. I'm sure you can find them in the train station, ask at the amtrak booth for the location, or at least for the toll-free phone number where you can call them.

Or, if you buy a 2-hour quickie-tour of the sights, that will leave you time to see a Broadway play, or a concert--and maybe time to have a nice dinner somewhere before leaving. Do your homework ahead of time and get the tickets /reservations before arriving in town! Taxis or the subway will get you place to place, but do plan ahead for this option. Read the NYTimes newspaper on the Friday before you arrive for a great listing of arts.