My husband and I will be in New York Thanksgiving Week and we want to visit Strand Bookstore. We're staying at the NY Hilton and we're in pretty good shape. Is it within walking distance? (I have studied a map, but I'm not quite sure how far Strand is from our hotel). Are there any other shops, museums or inexpensive restaurants near Strand we should visit? Is Chinatown far from Strand? Thanks in advance for your answers.

The Strand is just south of 14th St on Broadway and quite a bit of a hike from the Hilton on 6th and 53rd ST. You can of course walk if you would like to see the city on foot. Walk down 6th Ave to 34th St where 6th Ave and Broadway cross and continue down Broadway to Union Square, through the park and one two more blocks down broadway to 12th and you will find the Strand on your left.

It's 20 blocks to the mile here, so figure a two mile walk.

Bundle up it will be pretty cold.

The city will be all decked out for the holiday by then so enjoy.

Also forgot to mention there is a holiday fare in Union Square that you will probably find fun, lots of interesting gifty stalls with unusual items for sale.

Have a wonderful time while you are here.

The Forbes Museum is down in that area somewhere. I'm not sure what's still in the museum, but I'm sure it's worth a look. It's a delightful monument to one man's electic vision, as it were...

Thanks for the helpful replies. We will visit Union Square and the Forbes Museum after our visit to Strand.

If I were doing the walk, I'd head over to Fifth Ave. from the Hilton and walk down Fifth, at least to ~34th st. for more interesting sightseeing. If you get too cold or tired, just hop on a Fifth Ave. bus which would be going in the right direction (downtown).

From your hotel at 53 st, you'll pass Rockefeller Center (50th), Saks, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the main Public Library(42nd), Lord & Taylor(40th), the Empire State building (34th) just to mention the highlights.

The Strand is on 12th & Broadway. The Forbes museum is on 12th & Fifth. Here's more info on the museum.

http://www.theinsider.com/nyc/hidden/004forbe.htm

It's been famous for their collection of Faberge Eggs but I thought I had read they were going back to Russia. Anyone have info on this?

I agree the Union Square market is fun and worth a look if you enjoy outdoor food markets.

Here are some other ideas that are near that area

1. In the teens (~16-20) on 6th ave. there is a "strip" of discount stores like Old Navy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, TJ Maxx I think and a few others. These will be packed over the Thanksgiving weekend.

2. 8th st between Broadway and Sixth is known for it's shoe stores fyi.

3. One of my favorite stores is ABC Carpet and Home on Broadway & 18th st. It's a home furnishings store but it has great gift items like candles, picture frames etc. not to mention some beautiful and unusual Christmas ornaments. Not inexpensive but very nice and not stuffy.
abccarpet.com

4. Here's a map with shops in the west village starting at 6th ave. You'll be on Broadway which, at 12 st is on the east side (it's the only ave in NYC that, because in runs diagonally, starts on the west side and ends on the east side.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/images/s...estvillage.pdf

You would be about half way between your hotel and chinatown at the Strand. Canal St. in Chinatown is a popular discount shopping st.

Thanks for the info, mclaurie. It sounds like the walk to Strand will be an all-day event. It might get expensive, too!

I've always found great deals at the Strand, so for me it gets "heavy" rather than "expensive".

ABC is fun. And you can eat at Doug Rodriquez's place. Really good food and drinks!!!

One nice thing about the Strand (I assume it's still operative,) is that they'll ship them for you. Get the books weighed, and pay the shipping charges on the book-purchase bill. My recollection is that Argosy (up on 59th) is the same way. It's the only way to do book shopping in NYC...beats having to carry them around.

If you walk it will take close to one hour. You can check out the Christmas store displays on 5th Avenue around Rockefeller Center. You can also drop by the NYC Public Library on 42nd and 5th to visit probably the only other building in NY with more books than the Strand. Make sure you check out the big reading room on the 3rd? Floor. After walking by the Empire State Building you can walk by Madison Square Park. Then you can either walk through the Flatiron area by walking down Broadway and seeing the beautiful cast iron buildings that at the turn of the century housed the great NYC department stores or you can walk around Grammercy Park a little further east. If you walk around Grammercy Park continue on Irving Place and perhaps drop by Pete's Tavern for a beer or some tea (food is not very good) and check out the booth where OHenry wrote Gift of the Magi (might as well since you are getting into the Christmas season). Then walk over to Union Square Park. If it's saturday, Monday, Wednesday or Friday there will be a farmers market there, although in November December it is not as large as even the farmers don't like to freeze. Then onto the Strand. Do not go to the Strand looking for a particular book. Just go to get lost among all the books. There are great inexpensive restaurants in the east village, just east of the Strand. You can go to the 2nd Ave. Deli for some great corned beef, pastrami, chopped liver or Franks on 2nd Avenue for Italian, Veselka on 2nd Ave and 9th St for that hot bowl of soup and Polish food. Interesting shops on 9th between 1st and 2nd. Be careful not to get any spells cast on you in the witches store. No great museums in the Village area. If you still have energy (maybe after the soup?) you can go to Soho.