Visiting NYC in Dec. We are planning on walking a lot, are most of the main ave. safe for a family? What time to is late? Also what are some good stores to window shop? Just trying to plan and thanks for any advise.

you're going to have so much fun, all the avenues are good to walk, just make sure you bundle up, december is going to be chilly. Fifth Ave and the 50s have a lot of good window shopping, expensive though.

New York is the safest large city in American, and that includes ALL 5 of the boroughs.

Manhattan? You're perfectly safe.

Of course don't do anything stupid like tape $100 bills t your clothes.

To determine walking distances in Manhattan use this formula when walking within the area bounded by 14th Street in the south, 110th Street in the north and from river to river. This part of Manhattan is laid out in a grid.

Going north/south (Street to street) - 20 blocks is approximately one mile
Example: 52nd Street to 32nd St. - one mile

Going east/west (avenue to avenue) - From avenue to avenue one block is approximately equal to three north/south blocks.

The other morning I drove from Central Park West (8th Ave.) and 72nd St. to Amsterdam Avenue and 72nd St. At CPW I set the car odometer at Zero. The odometer read 3/10s of a mile, the equivalent of 6 north /south blocks. From avenue to avenue is equal to 3 north/south blocks

Madison Ave. is midway between Park (4th Ave,) and 5th Ave. and Lexington is midway between 3rd Ave. and Park (4th Ave.) so figure the distance as 1 1/2 north/south blocks.

Broadway runs in a southeast direction from 106th Street to 14th Street so don’t consider it in the equation. If , however, you going north/south walking along Broadway will save you time. For example, you have to walk from 5th Avenue and 23rd St. to 42nd Street and 7th Avenue if you walked directly up Broadway the distance walked would be just short of one mile. If you went north on 5th and then west of 42nd St. the distance walked would be 1 1/4 miles.

Enjoy your walks - the best way to see Manhattan.

Any place a family of tourists will go is perfectly safe to walk at all hours. The major risk is being forced off the sidewalk into the street by the mass of other tourists - esp in Times Square and on Fifth Avenue near Rock Center (although when it gets really bad the police put up barricdes to keep the pedestrains on the sidewalk).

Please keep the NYC rules of civil walking in mind.

Don;t just stop in the middle of the sidewalk. If you need to stop and discuss something pull over to the side.

Don't walk more than 2 abreast - if you do there simply isn;t room for others to pass.

And keep in mind that locals are busy - on their way to work or doing errands or on lunch hour - and will be walking much faster than you are - so if you're busy looking around and really clogging up the sidewalk (easy on narrow side streets) pull over and let people pass.

Sorry - for store windows start at Lord & Taylor (39th & Fifth) and walk up fifth Avenue - stop at Saks, Rock Center, St Pat's past Trump & Tiffany and then over 57th St to Lexington and up to Bloomies at 59th.

That's 20 blocks south to north (a mile) and 3 crosstown - about equal to 6 north/south.

Please, whatever you do, just don't stop in the middle of the sidewalk and decide what you are going to do!

I was at Herald Square yesterday, and I can't tell you how many people (visitors) just stop dead-in-their-tracks, requiring everyone else to dodge them! I was just about ready to jump into oncoming traffic, for Pete's sake.

Besides, that, have a great trip!

I recommend the Frommer's Walking Guide to New York. It is small and gives lots of interesting info.

We went in July & thought it the safest city to walk around in - even Central Park. I only felt uneasy twice but that was late on around 10.30 & both times the persons went off the other way. Once back in Liverpool it was noticeable how unsafe you feel compared to New York.