New York with Teens - a trip report
 

We recently returned from a week in New York City with our two teenage daughters. It was a wonderful trip, due in no small part to the helpful information that I gleaned from these forums. I’m going to write a report of our trip with the goal of not only trying to repay the generosity that is found here, but also to possibly help the next clueless person who comes here while planning a vacation.

If you would like to see photos – caveat: I’m a prolific, but not necessarily good photographer – you are welcome to check out my blog. http://hopelesslyordinary.blogspot.com/ I’m in the process of completing a mini, pictorial report there.

My husband and I and two daughters ages 17 and 14 are the main characters in this report. We also have a 21 year old son who was unable to come with us. We are from a mid-size city in the southern US. I hadn’t been to New York since I was a teenager, my husband has been once for only two days. The girls had never been. We were all very excited about this trip.

We arrived at JFK and made our way to the taxi stands. I was surprised at how many “rogue” drivers approached us to ride with them. I felt sorry for those arriving who didn’t speak English or who didn’t understand the way things work.

We arrived at our hotel, got checked in and headed out the door to explore the immediate area. We stayed at the Residence Inn near Times Square. We did this against the advice of many here, and of course, you were correct. Actually it is a great place to stay in many ways, large rooms, well-equipped kitchen, good location, free breakfast, near a subway station, unfailingly polite and helpful staff. However…as many of you said…it was not a good room for four. The girls had to sleep on the sofa bed which was too small and a little uncomfortable. Fortunately they are young and resilient. I tried not to feel tooooo guilty about sleeping in a comfortable king sized bed.

Our first stop after check in was for food. Pizza. New York style pizza. We ate at John’s Pizzeria because we were starving and it was nearby. It was ok. Not fabulous, but pretty good. Then it was off to Times Square. I had no idea that the streets around Times Square were closed off all the time. How did I miss that? Although it’s kind of nice for the tourists, I imagine that it’s a big pain for the locals. Anyway, Times Square was crowded, rowdy, loud, and frenetic. The girls really didn’t like it at all. My youngest said, “I’m not sure I’m going to like New York.” We assured her that it wasn’t all like this and shortly thereafter discovered the M&M store. This was a great balm for her unsettled nerves.

Although they are way past the Toys R Us stage they still wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel and wander through the Barbie collection. After all, there was no chance of being seen by anyone they knew! After noticing an H&M and a Zara near our hotel, they were definitely feeling like they could deal with the city.

After Times Square we wandered over to Bryant Park. What a gem of a park! It was there that we first noticed the unusual talent that New Yorkers seem to have of shutting out the rest of the world. It was a sunny afternoon and the park was crowded, however you could tell that each couple, or single person, or small grouping were lost in their own world, oblivious to those around them. I guess that this is necessary defensive mechanism living where you are always surrounded by strangers.

We watched some Italian men playing bocce and have figured out the game. Someone tosses a ball, then everyone sits, smokes, drinks coffee, and talks for an indeterminate period of time and then someone else tosses another ball. My kind of sport.

We then walked over to the Public Library. Wow. I loved this building. I can’t imagine ever being able to do research in the reading rooms without being distracted by the ceilings and windows and sheer size of the room.

We dropped the girls, tired from the 4:30am beginning to our morning, back at the room while my husband and I went to Grand Central to pick up our Metro Passes. We purchased the $25 unlimited passes. This was definitely the way to go for us as we rode the subways everywhere we went. We figured it out and although we were only in New York 6 days it more than paid for itself. My husband and I wandered through the food market at Grand Central and took back a few pastries and some cheese and fruit to have for dinner – as well as a bottle of Italian wine from the wine store there.

It was a great start to an amazing week in the big city.

OK, what was next? Keep up the good reporting, thanks.

Having been in the city with a 12 and 13 year old,this past April, I am chuckling, and enjoying your beginning report. It sounds familiar- hope to hear more.

<< Times Square was crowded, rowdy, loud, and frenetic >>

Yep. That describes it. Everyone I know who lives here avoids the area like the plague - except of course when we go to theater!

emalloy - I'll be back with more as soon as I have time to type it up. Thanks for the encouragement!

Capecod - You will hear more - isn't it fun to experience things through the eyes of a teen? I loved it.

Centralparkgirl - I can totally see why! We avoided it as much as possible - we were glad that our hotel was at least a little bit off of the really crowded sections.

Fun report. I look forward to reading the rest.

What am I missing, we visited New York early April 2007 and didn't find any streets closed off around Times Square or that is was so crowded, rowdy and frenetic, was this because of the time of year we visited?

I am enjoying your trip report, hope to be back there April next year.

5alive - thanks!

nelsonian - I don't have a clue. Streets were definitely closed and it was definitely crowded. Perhaps a New Yorker can answer. The last time I visited Times Square I was 18. That was, ahem, *a few* years ago. We walked through Times Square then and I saw things that were seared into my innocent little memory. ;-)

I had heard it had changed, but hadn't realized how much.

viaggiatrice:

Sections of Broadway from 47th to 42nd Street and 35th to 33rd Street are now closed to cars - for more information google "Green Light For Midtown". It is a recent change.

I am enjoying your delightful report and looking forward to more. Carry on please.

Sandy

Here's a good piece in today's NY Times about the "lounging" in Times Sq. I've yet to talk to any NYers who have a positive view of this . . but . . this to shall pass . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/ny...l?ref=nyregion

Wonderful report and great pictures of your beautiful family.

I've lived in NJ for 25 years or so and the crowd in NYC overwhelms me everytime :)

In April, automobiles were still allowed, but that made it all the more exciting to our teenagers! (We were also at the Doubletree, the choice of the teens).
And of course, the jockey clad guitar player stood out even more, admidst all the taxi's!

David Letterman did a piece about Broadway as a pedestrian plaza -- and the lawn chairs, which he said people have been stealing. It does look kind of weird to see a traffic-less Broadway.

Oh that explains it, I must say it would have a different look about it not having cars in some areas,

Is Times Square any quieter without the cars?

SandyBrit and mp - thanks for the information. That explains a lot. When we walked into Times Square we were shocked to see the lawn chairs - it seemed so incongruous. At first we thought that something special was going on and that people had brought their own - but soon realized that the ones in each section matched. My husband said, "the city provides lawn chairs? We thought it was very strange, but we did get a kick out of it.

zlaor - thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I should get some more on there by tomorrow.

capecodshanty - we were highly disappointed that the naked cowboy (or whatever he is called) was no where to be seen. We looked for him!

azzure - it took us a while to figure out that this was the way it was all the time. We kept looking for a concert of someone to start showing a movie or something! ;-)

missypie, hopefully someone else will answer. I don't have any basis for comparison.

The only major mistake I made in our trip planning was not buying our show tickets in advance. Somehow I thought that there would be more shows available for half price at the TKTS booth. How many years has Lion King been out anyway?! Can there be that many people who still want to see it? ;-)

I went early, picked up tickets for that evening for Mary Poppins, gathered my family, and we headed out to the American Museum of Natural History.

First, can I just tell you how much we loved the subway? Yes, I’m serious. I hear of people who go to New York and only take taxis. Cost aside, the subway gets you almost anywhere you want to go quickly and efficiently. The platforms were dirty and occasionally stuffy, but we rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes and the cars were always cool and mostly clean. We had a great street map that included the subway lines and metro stations. Make sure you know if you are headed uptown or downtown and go for it. Maybe we’re weird, but we enjoyed popping into the subway in one area of town and popping up in a place with a completely different look and feel. And to our mind, it was just short of a miracle that so many people can navigate such a small island with relative ease. OK. Ranting and raving over.

The Museum of Natural History is, well, immense. Each of us selected what we wanted to see and we pretty much only made it to those four areas. Do be aware that certain sections of the museum close early. One of my daughters wanted to see the gems and minerals and that closed at 1:00. My suggestion would be to check out their web site before you go, decide on your must-sees and verify the hours of those exhibits. With limited time you have no choice but to be selective. I think it would take weeks to see everything. Everyone in my slightly nerdy family really enjoyed this museum.

We came out onto Columbus Avenue and asked a local for a recommendation for a late lunch. We ended up at a burger place called Jackson Hole. I need to say that this was not at all a “food” trip. I did not look into restaurants before we left, so we just ate what was close and handy. The burgers here were…different. It was almost more of a loose meat sandwich. There was no way to pick it up to eat it. Not terrible, just strange. The girls loved the shakes and potato skins.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping down Columbus Avenue. This ended up being up one of our favorite areas and one of our favorite afternoons. The neighborhood was great, there were little boutiques in between what I call the “real life” places like groceries, pharmacies, and hardware stores. It just felt like somewhere we could live. My daughters loved a little boutique called Purdy Girl. We spent time in Kiehls, Olive and Bette’s…I can’t remember everything. We wandered down the street going in and out of stores, or just window shopping. It was totally enjoyable.

We closed the evening by going to Mary Poppins. We had great seats and the show was actually quite nice. It wasn’t “Wicked” or anything – but we had fun. The Step in Time sequence was wonderful. Mary flew threw the building, Bert walked on the ceiling. The sets were excellent. All in all it was better than we expected. Our daughters were excited to have finally seen a real Broadway show.

I'm really enjoying your trip report!

Funny you should mention Lion King...I bought our tickets in January for our July trip - front row center mezz; we had to move the dates of our trip and I'm trying to re-sell them - I thought, no problem - it's Lion King - always sold out. I checked and three weeks before the perfomance, the seats right behind mine were still available! Broadway must be really hurting!!!

We saw Mary Poppins a couple of years ago...I thought the first half was dull but the second half was terrific! Did you look around the theatre? It's where the Zigfield Follies used to be - I loved looking at at the photgraphs of Fannie Brice et al.

The change in traffic patterns to TS is about two weeks old. To my ears, it is no quieter. I see no improvement - yet.

About the continuity of the Lion King - new babies are born every day and they're tomorrow's audience!

Samsaf - thank you. I'm hoping to be back later this evening to continue.

missypie - yes, we really enjoyed the theater, and did take the time to look around. I hope you are able to sell your Lion King tickets - as it gets closer to time maybe.

Centralparkgirl - in that case it will be around for a long, long time! My daughters aren't picky - it was all a thrill for them. We could have seen Phantom, but my husband and I have seen it twice so I didn't even mention it to the girls. My husband and I would like to return, just the two of us, for a predominantly theater and restaurant trip.

Hey, FYI,I just sold my Lion King tickets thru StubHub.com. I sold them at a loss (priced the tickets a bit below face value, plus paid their commission) but some money is better than no money. I'm sure others would have put more effort into trying to sell them for above face value, without commission, but I'm a novice and hope to never have to resell Broadway tickets again.

On our trip we're seeing Wicked, Lion King, Billy Elliot and In the Heights. Will probably add Phantom. I hate to pay full price for Phantom and the current disount code expires 2 days before we need the tickets.

I was thinking about Guys & Dolls but it is closing this Sunday (June 14th)!

missypie - so glad you were able to sell the tickets. Phantom was always selling for half price at the Tkts booth, perhaps you could wait until you arrive and pick up tickets for that. I would have loved to see Billy Elliot - next time.

Wow, Missiepie what a great list of shows! I don't know if Guys & Dolls was scheduled for a limited run, but honestly, it looked awful on the Tonys (I've seen multiple productions in my life, and this looked campy and bad), so I don't think you're missing anything!!

Hi, I planned my vacation to NY and Washington. I booked my flights and hotel but...there are a lot of confusing news regarding swine flu spread and number of cases in New York and US and I do not know what to do anymore.Could some one help me with a piece of advice ? Is it true that the hospitals are full of people ill due to this swine flu ? Is it safe to travel ? Are any problems at the airport ?

I’m sorry for taking so long to return to this trip report.

We began our third day in New York touring Grand Central Terminal. My husband and I had stopped by the first night to pick up our Metro Passes, but hadn’t really taken time to explore. It is much more impressive on a sunny morning - what a fabulous, light filled place! We gawked at the beautiful ceilings and windows in the main concourse. As we stood in one stop, craning our necks to see everything, we quickly realized how masterfully it had been designed. Although we were there during a rush time – it never really felt congested, the commuters eddied smoothly and easily around all the tourists. We found the lower level food court to be a quick and easy place to grab a snack. The Oyster Bar also has counter service with really good sandwiches.

We then took the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was my selection. I don’t need to say much – you all know that there is an amazing collection of art here. I will say that this is an enormous, overwhelming museum. If you have certain masterpieces that you feel you must see it would be worth taking some time before you go and browse the website, familiarizing yourself with the lay-out. Or you can do what we did and just wander, never knowing quite where you are, but engrossed by one amazing discovery after another. I’ve never wanted to be a character in a book so badly before. The crowds were pretty fierce at times – in certain areas – and I kept dreaming of hiding out in the bathroom and being there after hours so that I really had time to peruse whatever I wanted for as long as I wanted.

The place is mind-boggling. We particularly enjoyed the Greek and Roman rooms. My family wore out before I did – they aren’t as interested in art as I am. At one point my daughter was taking a photo of a painting with her cell phone. I asked her what had drawn her to that one. She laughed and was honest with me, “I’m just sending it to (her best friend). I told her that I saw this today and it reminded me of her.” In case you don’t have teenage girls – this was not meant to flatter the bff. Oh well. They were extremely patient as they followed me around.

After several hours at the Metropolitan Museum we emerged to a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Fortified with a snack from a cart we headed out across Central Park. Central Park was so much more than I anticipated. We all loved it. It was so much more accessible than I expected, so much prettier. It is basically, a very large, well-tended, but homey backyard for an entire city. People were playing softball, basketball, jogging, sunning, walking their dogs. Children were kicking around a soccer ball, playing on the playgrounds, riding their bikes. Summer was in the air and the atmosphere was pleasantly festive.

We saw the obelisk, climbed to the top floor of the castle and saw the turtles at the slightly scummy turtle pond. We debated whether or not to rent a boat to row on the boat pond, but decided that we were too tired. However, this is such a picturesque spot and we scoped out a few places under the willows on the edge that would have been perfect for a picnic.

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain were wonderful. We sat here and rested our legs, watched people walk by, enjoyed the performers, and just soaked up the atmosphere until late in the afternoon. There were so many things I still wanted to see at the park, but we were exhausted and never got a chance to return. This is one of the reasons that I must go back to New York.

Most of our fourth day was spent touring Liberty and Ellis Islands. My youngest daughter claims this as her favorite day. I think that we all enjoyed it.

We took the subway to Battery Park and made our way to the Ferry. We had already purchased tickets, but found it wasn’t really necessary. The ticket lines were very short. It was the line to get through security that took the most time. I don’t remember for certain, but I would guess that we waited about 30 minutes. Once you are through security the lines to get on the ferry go quickly. I’m not sure how many people each ferry holds - easily hundreds.

We found a spot on the top deck because we wanted the breeze and the views. The ride over was short, but gave you time to try to imagine being one of those who had left everything they had ever known, coming to what they only could hope would be a better life, facing the unknown. I imagine this glorious statue must have been quite moving for them. I’ve seen the Statue of Liberty from a distance on an earlier trip to New York, but never up close and personal. Although we didn’t have tickets to climb to the base of the statue – these must be purchased in advance – it was nice to be able to walk around the island.

After that it was over to Ellis Island. They say that 40% of Americans have a relative who entered the country through Ellis Island. It was hard to imagine that this important part of our history was allowed to fall into ruins before finally being restored. Definitely, definitely get the headphones as you walk through. They added so much to the experience. The rooms are narrated by the voices of people who actually came through the island. Their stories were interesting and moving.

We came back through the park where my husband was coerced into being in an act with some street performers. The girls got a huge kick out of that. We all laughed until our sides hurt and I took tons of photos of his embarrassment.

We then set off to explore a little of the financial district. We were there on a Saturday and the streets were deserted. What an eerie feeling! There were times when we were the only ones on a street – then suddenly we would come upon a tourist attraction and there would be people. It was so unexpected and odd. We definitely want to go back during the work week.

It was also hard to find a place open for a very late lunch. We ended up at the Fraunces Tavern. We were pleasantly surprised with the menu and the quality of the food. It was also very cool on this warm day with nice service and a relaxing atmosphere.

We walked on Wall Street, peered at the New York Stock Exchange, went to Trinity church, saw the charging bull – all the usual heart of the financial district stuff. It was down here that you really get a sense of the grandness, the importance of New York – even without the throngs. This is New York – the concrete canyon - but it’s also strangely beautiful.

Since you were on Wall Street on a Saturday, was it heavily guarded? We were there on a weekday morning a couple of years ago and the number of armed guards around the stock exchange was unnerving. I said that if you had a death wish, all you'd have to do is to run toward the stock exchange.