NYC 4-day Itinerary
 

I have a 4-day itinerary below that runs from Saturday to Tuesday. Any comments/suggestions would be great!

SATURDAY

1)Arrive at hotel in Midtown West at 1pm
2)Lunch near the Met
3)Spend the rest of the afternoon at the Met. Can a city pass be bought here?
4) Dinner - any suggestions? Preferrably in Midtown West, not too pricey.

SUNDAY

1) Leave for Brooklyn Bridge at 8am
2) Walk from the Brooklyn side across the bridge towards City Hall & pass by Woolworth Building.
3) Breakfast/brunch at Mocca Lounge.
4) Pass by Ground Zero
5) Shop at Century 21
6) Pass by Wall St.
7) Shop/explore Canal St/Chinatown. Have lunch around the area.
8) Mid-afternoon: take a Circle Line cruise -- which one is better, the Circle Line at 42nd Street or Circle Line Downtown? Circle Line Downtown seems newer & nicer, and the tour is one hour compared to Circle Line at 42nd which is two hours. The tour provided by Circle Line at 42nd is included in the City Pass - is this one worth it?
9) Early evening: check out Times Square
10) Empire State Building -- which is also included in the City Pass..how bad are the lines on a Sunday night in late March/early April?
11) Dinner suggestions near the Empire State Building?


MONDAY

1) Morning: Art & Observation Tour at the Rockefeller Center (tours the NBC complex & ends at the Top of the Rock)
2) St. Patrick's Cathedral
3) Afternoon: MoMA (included in City Pass)
4) Late afternoon: is it reasonable to insert the Guggenheim after MoMA and before the Broadway show? We already have tickets to the show.
5) Evening: watch Broadway show

TUESDAY

1) Start at Trump Tower & shop around/explore Fifth Avenue stores
2) Which section of Central Park would be good to visit? What's there to do..for about an hour or so?
3) Leave the city mid-afternoon.

These other sites aren't incorporated in the itinerary...any suggestions on what to do here?
-Frick Collection
-Grand Central Terminal
-Chrysler Building (aside from seeing it from the Empire State Building, if we go to the actual building site, what could we do there?)
-Serendipity3 (good for just dessert? the Frozen Hot Chocolate?)

Hi, Ruth!
<Late afternoon: is it reasonable to insert the Guggenheim after MoMA and before the Broadway show? We already have tickets to the show.>
No, I don't think you can both MoMA and the Gug in one afternoon. You'll need a bite to eat, at least, if not dinner, before the show, too.

I adore the Frick and would make time for that instead of Trump Tower and 5th Ave shopping on your last morning. (5th Ave is really not so hot for real shopping.) I suggest taking a spin along 5th Avenue after St. Pat's on Monday, provided you get an early start with the Rock and NBC tour; you should still have time for a nice afternoon at MoMA. After the Frick on the last morning, you can stroll Central Park. A lot of people like to visit Strawberry Fields, and the boathouse.

IMO, Serendipity is a lot of bother for nothing all that special--yeah, the frozen hot chocolate is good, but not worth the crowds.

Chrysler has a cool lobby, but there's nothing to do there that I recall makes it worth a visit.

Have fun, sounds like a great trip!

Ruth,
Due to your late arrival in mid-town, I would have lunch in Grand Central on day one, then hop on the subway to go to the Met.

For dinner, if you walk over to 9th Ave., between 43-49th there's a lot of ethnic restaurants that are reasonable and good. Everything from Thai - Italian - French-fusion, it's fun just reading the menus!

You should be able to buy a citypass.com at any of the venues it covers.

There are not a lot of good/quick eating options near the Met. You could head to Grand Central when you first arrive after checking in, have a look around and grab lunch there. Junior's is a deli (famous for their cheesecake) and there's a Two Boots pizza and a number of other decent places. The Oyster Bar is there and a cup of clam chowder and some oysters would make a good lunch. Sit at the bar. You can get a subway there up to 86th st., the nearest stop for the Met museum.

The Chrysler building is across the street from Grand Central on Lexington ave. Only the lobby is open to tourists, but not on weekends.

For dinner on Sat. night, it's impossible to give ideas without some more detail on where in midtown west (ie if you want to be near your hotel, it makes a big difference if it's the Hudson vs. the Millenium Broadway). Also, it would help to know whether you'll make a reservation (some places are so popular, it will require it) and what time you want to eat. Midtown west includes Times Square and those restaurants are busy early for pre theater people while other places outside that area are not. There are just too many choices.

Alternatively, you could go to one of the nicer places inside Grand Central like Metrazur for dinner on the first night. They do a prix fixe dinner. Menupages.com is a good place for researching restaurants. OPentable.com is a site where you can book a lot of restaurants.

Century 21 will be a madhouse on a Sun. afternoon. Either go there when they first open or go on a weekday morning.

Near the ESB, it's not great eats. 32 st. is "little Korea" if you'd like a Korean meal there are some very good places. Otherwise, Artisanal, a French brasserie is not far.

Not sure if the Guggenheim is open on Mondays but I don't think it's worth schlepping all the way uptown for it and then to come back. I'd try to hit it after the Met on Sat. if you have the strength.

The Frick is wonderful and I'd rather spend time going there than to the Guggenheim. It's on the way to or from the Met.

The Guggenheim and MoMa would be too much, I'm guessing. You have almost no "breathing room" in your schedule and I wouldn't pack it anymore.

I'd also say the whole Ground Zero, Chinatown, Canal Street, Century 21, Wall Street are optional. If there's something you'd really like to do, these could easily go by the wayside.

Thanks, NewbE! Your suggestion to stroll along 5th Ave after St. Pat's on Monday sounds good..what we really wanted to do was just check out H&M and window-shop along the stores on 5th Ave. There is an H&M on 5th Ave/51st St so that'll perfect to go to after St. Pat's. (It's a 1-minute walk from St. Pat's to that H&M, according to hopstop.com which I'm using for directions.)

I'll check out the Strawberry Fields and the boathouse suggestions - because we'll definitely have to at least take a peek at Central Park!

Thanks, mclaurie..I do have follow-up questions..

We're staying at the Hudson. If we leave our things at the hotel, go down to Grand Central station for lunch (too bad the Chrsyler lobby is closed on weekends so we can't swing by), and then head back up to the Met on the subway -- would that be wasting time or is it well worth it compared to heading to Jackson Hole on Madison Ave/91st St and then walking to the Met after lunch? (I was looking for a fast & reasonable place to eat before going to the Met, and one of the things I found was Jackson Hole..although Burger Joint inside Le Parker Meridien Hotel got better reviews for burgers but I think it's out of the way.)

We do want to check out the Grand Central Station - so if Saturday lunch is a good opportunity, then we'll take that! By the way, we can get Metrocards for the subway at Grand Central Station right...are they available at every station too -- like the Columbus Circle station?

I'll definitely use Menupages.com when looking for places to eat at.

MetroCards are available at virtually every subway station--easy to buy from the machines.

It's somewhat out of your way to go to Grand Central from the Hudson, but it is a time to get to see the place unless you can figure out another time to go. I certainly don't recommend Jackson Hole for lunch instead. It's quite a bit further north than the Met (although close to the Guggenheim.) I think you need to start plotting this all on a map. maps.google.com might be helpful.

Actually, Burger Joint is very close to your hotel and would be an easy stop after checking in to go there and then head up to the museum maybe by bus on Madison ave. Bus will take longer than subway, but it will be closer to the museum than the subway stop. You could also walk through the park up to the museum, or head to the Frick first. The Met is open late on Sat. (9 pm), so if your feet hold out, you could do both.

Make sure that you check whether MOMA is closed on Mondays are many museums in NY (and worldwide). I know that the Guggenheim is closed on another day. (Tuesday, I think)
Check closing time of museums. Many museums have a late night until 8, but I think it is usually, Friday.

MoMA

Museum Hours
Saturday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Sunday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Monday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesday closed
Wednesday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Friday 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/