NYC Itinerary Help!
 

Okay, so I've never been to NYC before, and am very excited, but am having a little trouble designing my itinerary. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated... Here it is...

My husband, my mother-in-law and myself (all in good physical condition) will be traveling to NYC in October. We will be taking a non-stop red-eye flight on JetBlue from Ontario, CA to JFK arriving on Oct. 2nd at approx. 8:30am. So, we basically have 4 days of being a cheesy NYC tourist, hitting all the classic Big Apple destinations and stocking up on as many I heart NY t-shirts as will fit into our suitcases. Now how to do them all while maintaining a realistic itinerary. We will be staying at the Casablanca Hotel on 43rd St. in the theatre district. Below are list of items that we would like to include in our vacation.

1. Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island (am ordering the observaotry tickets for the Statue and would like to allow for plenty of time to explore the Ellis Island museum as both my husband's grandparents as well as mine came to the US thru Ellis Island).
2. World Trade Center Site/Memorial
3. Chinatown and Little Italy for good eats
4. Walk across Brooklyn Bridge
5. St. Patrick's Cathedral (maybe Sun. mass?)
6. Central Park
7. Empire State Building (better to see during the day or at night?)
8. Broadway Play
9. MOMA
9. Times Square

Woops, I guess I must have brushed up against the return key. Anyways, how do you suggest I try to include these 10 things into 4 days and in what format or order? Open to all suggestions! Thanks so much!

THe first 4 must sees on your list are all downtown, so it would be pretty easy to do all of that.

I don't think the Statue is open but could be wrong, check the website for more info. I would get to the ferry over to Ellis Island, on the FIRST ferry of the day, and stay on the boat don't get off to see the statue, and spend more time on Ellis Island.

When you get back, walk through Battery Park, and see the temporary memorial to 9/11. At the center of the complex was a large globe and somehow it survived the collapse of the buildings. Right now it is in Battery Park and you can leave flowers or a note and there is an eternal flame.

From there you might walk up Broadway and see the Wall St Bull, The Customs House,(home of the Native American Museum), Trinity Church (interesting graveyard here, Robert Fulton and Arron Burr are burried here) and Wall St. Up a couple more blocks to the Merrill Lynch building (very tall black building on your left) and turn left, that is the site of the World Trade Center, it is more like a construction site now, and on the fence is an accounting of 9/11 which is very moving.

If you want theatre tickets while you are downtown, you might walk over to the TKTS booth at the South St. Seaport for half price tickets and then head up to Chinatown/Little Italy.


From there walk up Mulbery St to Old St. Patricks and see the old graveyard behind.

You are have now walked up through Soho, so you might want to explore that area a bit. A couple more block north at Houston St. (pronounced House-ton) you are heading into The Village and NYU and lots of interesting restaurants, shops are to your left.

From here you might get on the bus up 6th Ave. and get off at 34th St which is Herald Square, Macys' is here and the Empire State building is just a block to your right. I think the view is better at night.

YOu might try to do MOMA or The Met Museum and see Central Park. The Met has a garden on top of the museum so you have a lovely view of the city and have a drink and drink in the views.

The fall colours will not really be in full force for your trip but you should be able to see some colour in the trees.

You might enjoy a stroll down 5th Ave to see the sites and St. Patricks is on 5th and 50th St.

THere is a much larger cathedral in the city St. John the Divine, which is further uptown at 110th and Amsterdam.

Another fun trip might be to the Cloisters which is at the top of the island, and easiest to see by subway, the A train to 190th St and walk through Ft. Tryon Park to the Cloisters, which is part of the Met Museum, and houses a wonderful collection of art from the
1400's - 1600's.

Have a wonderful time while you are here.

Go to the Empire State Building around dusk. That enables you to see the city and to easily pick out various landmarks while there is still daylight, yet will allow you the magic of seeing New York City by night. It is truly magnificent.

Buy your tickets to the Empire SB in advance. I didn't and had to wait in line after line after line.

Sounds like 2 days downtown and 2 days midtown should cover your wish list.

Considerations

Most shows are closed on Mondays
MOMA is closed Tuesdays
the Tues. is a Jewish holiday when schools I think will be closed.
ESB and SOL/Ellis Island are very time consuming

Since you arrive on a Sunday and may be a bit tired, I would spend day 1 midtown nearish to the hotel. Check the St. Pat.'s website for mass times and organize your day around that. Assuming good weather, walk around Times Square (checking for those shirts). Spend some time in
Central Park. You should also check the nycvisit.com calendar and see if there are any street fairs or festivals on that day. There's a flea market not too far from your hotel (39th st b/w 9th-10th) on weekends if that interests you. MOMA is also in midtown and would be a good option on Sunday if the weather isn't cooperating.

I would do #1 Ellis Island/SOL on day 2, Monday, and I agree go first thing in the morning if you can. That should take you to about mid afternoon on that day and then you can follow wantsomesun's advice and see #2 and Battery Park. From there you have the option of continuing on to Chinatown and/or Little Italy if you have the time and the strength or head back uptown.

On day 3, Tues. I would plan to see your show this night. Many shows have an early 7 pm curtain on Tues (other nights it's 8 pm). See if any shows that interest you are available with a discount on broadwaybox.com. If yes, buy ahead and avoid lines at the TKTS booth. Perhaps spend Tues. downtown walking the Brooklyn Bridge and seeing Chinatown and Little Italy assuming you didn't do all of that on Monday. If you don't get theater tickets ahead, do follow wantsomesun's suggestion of using the TKTS booth across from the South Street Seaport downtown. It's not too far from the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

While in Brooklyn, consider stopping in Brooklyn Heights for the views from the Brooklyn Promenade. Grimaldi's pizza and the Brooklyn ice cream factory are near the Brooklyn side of the Bridge. Many people like taking the NY Water Taxi from NY to the Fulton St. stop in Brooklyn (Grimaldi's is a block away) and then walking back to Manhattan for the views.

Spend your last day midtown. If you haven't gotten to MOMA yet do that. I agree try to go to ESB at around an hour or so before sunset so you get both daylight and darkness views. I think going after you've been here for a few days is often more fun so you can recognize things you've already seen. Many people feel the audio tour is worthwhile but the skyride thing is a waste of time and money. Do buy tickets ahead on line so avoid that line. You'll still have to wait for elevators though.

Hope this helps. ;)

The hotel is a one minute walk to Times Square so you will be there every day you are in town. You don't have to set aside a time to visit it.

On arrival day go to Mass, do Moma after Mass and then walk to Central Park.

Set one day aside to visit the Statue/ Ellis and that will take a minimum of 5 hours. Then you can walk to the WTC site followed by walking to Chinatown for dinner.

Set aside one day for walking the Brooklyn Bridge, If you do this early in the day you can then walk to Little Italy, SOHO and Greenwich Village in that order and if not too tired do the Empire State building. , Weather should dictate the day to visit the Empire State. Do it on the first clear day you experience. The building is a less than 15 minute walk from the hotel.

Very few shows run on Monday so you could check the discount TKTS booth to see what is available, The booth is on 47th St., a five minute walk from the hotel and I believe it opens at 3 PM. You would have a better choice of tickets on Tuesday. Almost every theater is a less than 10 minute walk from the hotel.

While you're visiting the World Trade Center site I would include a visit to nearby St. Paul's Chapel. It has really dedicated itself to the memories of those who died and volunteered during the disaster and is very moving.

While I agree with all that has been said, I do recommend you get an extremely detailed map to do all this walking and plot your route in advance. It is quite easy to get disoriented and confused when walking from place to place -- across the Brooklyn Bridge, back to Chinatown, into Little Italy, SOHO and the Village. They do all rather fade one into the other, but if you are looking for someplace specific -- say a restaurant, it can get mixed up. You might try one of the Circle Round tour buses to get a feel for different areas.

FYI: The Met is closed on Mondays.

Just a quick note to say thank you to all of you and your very appreciated suggestions! I just stopped by Barnes and Noble and got an excellent Manhattan map to starting plotting our course!Thanks Again!