Taking Daughter to NYC for 16th Bday
 

We are visiting NYC for 4 days in June, staying at the Cosmopolitan. Can you share your ideas that you think a 16yr old, high fashion/ artistic young woman would like, that her frumpy mom would also enjoy?
We are planning on going to MOMA, the Tennant Museum, camping at TKTS to get tickets to a show.
She is excited about H&M, the little boutiques and shopping- she is in running for the shopping queen title here in Apex!
I would like to take her to some cool places to eat and people watch.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I have been making my lists and saving my money!

Do a search in this forum and you will find numerous posts re the Salisbury Hotel

Ignore my previous post which was meant for someone else. Your daughter might find the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology interesting. It is at 27th Street and 7th Ave. There is no admission charge.

also, make sure to log on to www.nysale.com a few days before you leave so you can take her to the hot fashion sample sales going on. She'll love it (as will you)!

You might check the website for the Metropolitan Museum to see if there is a Costume Institute exhibit running while you are here. Currently, there is one for Coco Chanel.

She might enjoy shopping all of the booths along Canal Street where they sell knockoff designer stuff. For the really good (but really $$$) shopping, try SoHo.

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of info I am looking for, she has told me she wants to shop the knockoff places, and sidewalk vendors, but I wasn't sure where they were.
The museum of fashion sounds intereting even to me!

nymetro.com is the website for NY Magazine. They have everything imaginable on there from info on sample sales to a shopping search engine to shopping maps of various downtown areas. Their search engine is reasonably good. Here's the link to the shopping maps which are not so easy to find

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/shopping...ghborhoods.htm

Some other shops she might like are Pearl River Mart, Forever 21


There's an interesting art exhibit called ashesandsnow.com that you both would like. Someone also posted about a museum I've yet to visit for Himalyan art

http://www.rmanyc.org/

The Forbes Gallery on lower Fifth Ave. is free and interesting.

We took our 17 & 15 yr old daughters to NYC in Dec. They loved SoHo, H&M...
We took them to dinner at a really inexpensive Indonesian restaurant near NYU which they enjoyed and for pizza in SoHo which was also a big hit.
Their favorite though was Blue Man Group show.

For information on the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology go to

http://www.ny.com/museums/FIT.html

My almost 15 year old daughter and I go to NYC every summer. Shopping is high on her list too. She loves H&M. There is a sitting area for parents in the front of the store (5th Ave. store). There are parents from all over waiting patiently for there kids! Strawberry is also a favorite of my daughters. She loves China town. We love to eat at Serendipity, east 60th st.(212-838-3531). You just never know who you will see there. Make a reservation because it can be hard to get into in the summer.

Last summer we rode the hop on hop off bus. Both my daughter and a friend enjoyed the bus. She also enjoyed the United Nations, Battery Park, Public Library. The line at TKTS can be very, very long. She enjoyed Hairspray and Wicked last summer. You could try to get tickets to Good Morning America. We did that and it was fun. Also sometimes in the summer Today and GMA have those outdoor concerts. Usually they are good acts. There is always so much to do, that is why we go each summer. We use the trade off system I do want she wants and she does what I want. Thank goodness she loves art as much as I do. We are from a very small town in the middle of nowhere in Washington State so I guess we just love the hub bub of the city. Have a wonderful time and enjoy each others company.

There are TWO H&Ms on Broadway in Soho. There's also a number of fairly inexpensive boutiques on Broadway mixed in with the mall-type stores.

Places I recommend for lunch, brunch or dinner in Soho are Zoe, Balthazar, Mercer Kitchen. Good food, good setting, good people-watching.

Ooh, I recommend Blue Man Group too - so much fun!

Be sure to walk down St. Mark's Place (E. 8th Street) from Astor Place to Avenue A (East Village) to see an incredibly eclectic mix of people and interesting stores. I'd suggest walking these blocks in the early evening, either before or after dinner in the area (at Lavagna, for example, an amazing Italian restaurant on East 5th Street).

St. Mark's Place offers some of the best people-watching in NYC and is very "cool" with the younger crowd.

Enjoy!

Young ladies love H&M. Also, MAC cosmetics. Take her to a MAC counter for a "make over". (Leave your credit card behind, have them write everything down. You can always order online when you get home, with no sales tax. They're not high pressure, but it's probably best to purchase just one or two items, anyway, until you get a good look at everything in the natural light once you go outside.)

The cosmetics counters at Saks, Henri Bendel and Barney's are fabulous. In SoHo: Shu Uemura, MAC...have their own outposts.

You will have such a great time while you are here, tons of shopping and good prices. A favorite of teens here is Conway (I know I'm gonna get slammed on this one), a great place for tees and jeans and trendy kid stuff at great prices. There are several but probably the best is right next to Macy's at 35th and Broadway.

Daffy's is also a cool store and she will find loads of things she will like there as well.

DON'T stand in the line for TKTS on Broadway, you will be there for HOURS in June, go to the TKTS booth at the South Street Seaport. They open there at 10am and there is no where NEAR the line, it's more of a NYCers place for tickets. It's in the Prudential Building at Water and Fulton St.

The South Street Seaport is a fun place for some shopping as well, and there are a couple of good restaurants there and a food court across the street at Pier 17.

14th St and Union Square has a fairly new DSW Shoes and a Filene's Basement, and a few more boutiquey stores on 14th St. From there walk down Broadway for some fun funky stores your daughter will love.

When you get to Canal St. turn left and head toward Chinatown which will be around Mott St (turn right) and one block earlier (Mulbery St.) and you are in little Italy.

Also get a copy of New YOrk Magazine, for all the sample sales that are going on while you are here.

Some restaurants she might enjoy are The Stardust Dinner on Broadway around 48th St. Mars 2112 a block further north. Jeckel and Hyde on 6th and 57 and just about anything in Times Square.

On Sunday we walked from Chinatown up to Houston St, a block east of Broadway and there were several new shops open catering to the younger crowd. Walking that way will take you by some interesting sites, including Old St. Patricks Cathedral and the graveyard there.

Have a great time while you are here, and let us know if you have any other questions.

I also forgot to mention the free movie night in Bryant Park. Bring a picnic and sit out on the lawn or find a couple of chairs and a table and enjoy a movie on Monday nights (weather permiting), several thousand people gather each week and it's a fun evening. You can get the schedule by doing a google search for Bryant Park.

Again ENJOY!!!!

Sephora does free makeovers. No pressure to buy. But you need an appointment. Several locations.

sephora.com

Canal street for purses! Soho for unique vendors and handmade jewelry and movie and tv scripts! 8th street for shoes (not cheap, just fun) H&M for everything half-naked women running around between the racks trying to grab things first! So much fun! I miss it so much!
have a great time

woops -
I MEANT to say Sample Sales for the half-naked women running around grabbing things first (I've been one before...)
all part of the NYC experience!

You guys are the best, thanks for the great ideas!!!

Aside from all the fashion/shopping spots everyone mentioned - if you have time, you should spend some time at the South Street Seaport. Although it won't have the shopping your daughter is looking for, it is still a lot of fun. You get great views of the Brooklyn Bridge as well as the ships at the port, people watching, great restaurants and a lot of street shows. Good spot to unwind after a long day of shopping...there is a shopping mall at the seaport with touristy stores that might appeal to your daughter.

Also - take a stroll down 5th ave with all the nig name department stores.

Regarding broadway tickets - rather than standing in lines at the TKTS booth - you should look into which of the shows have the lottery or rush system in which it is first come first serve or a lottery system to get great front row seats for a cheap price.
This is how we have been able to see a lot of shows with great seats:

http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuz...cle/82428.html

have fun!!