Thanksgiving in New York City
 

I am thinking of skipping Thanksgiving with the family, and going to New York City over the holiday weekend (leaving for NY after work on Wednesday evening). What, if anything, of interest to tourists is open on Thanksgiving Day? The museums are closed, and I expect most shops and restaurants will be as well. Would appreciate any guidance from locals.

Thanks!

If you're thinking about a show for the evening, the performance schedule is on the <i>Playbill</i> site: http://www.playbill.com/article/broa...mance-schedule

the Macy's parade

Some (but still not most) stores are open on Thanksgiving, but Macys doesn't open until after 5. Most restaurants large and small serve a Thanksgiving lunch or dinner (but reservations are getting hard to get at the better places).

Several tourist attractions are open, including the observatories, and the touristy "museums" like Madame Tussauds or Ripley's. The Central Park Zoo is open, as are all the ice-skating rinks. Museums typically close, but the Museum of the American Indian is open. The Radio City Spectacular has shows, as do some Broadway productions.

•These attractions are open on Thanksgiving:
•Central Park Zoo
•Circle Line 2 Hour Semi-Circle Cruise & 3 Hour Full Island Cruise
•Ellis Island
•Empire State Building
•Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum
•Statue of Liberty
•Top of the Rock Observation Deck


if you don't have a place to stay you may find it difficult. lots of visitors in nyc this time of year

How will you get there? The day before Thanksgiving is the busiest flying day of the year. Trains will be packed, and I-95 is a nightmare in my experience.

Where will you stay? If cost is no object, you will find a place, but if you are in a budget . . . .

Where you will eat and what you will do are t problems. If you are skipping the family thing, you probably don't care about skipping the turkey. People watching will keep you busy all day and into the night, assuming that it isn't raining.

But you have to get there.

Good luck!

Here are two alternatives, off the wall and dependent on where you live and how energetic you are.

1. Take the first plane from your airport to LGA or EWR and take public transportation into the city. Have a day in the city. Get back to the airport in time to get the last plane home. Flying on holidays is not so bad.

2. Fly from home to Boston (where 50,000 students will be leaving). Take the P&B bus or rent a car and spend the day in Plymouth, hopefully visiting Plimoth Plantation, an authentic reconstruction of the colony. Watch the parade. Go back to Boston for the night and take an early plane to NYC on Friday morning, probably JetBlue to JFK or maybe a shuttle to LGA. Spend Friday and Saturday in the city, fly home Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending on hotel and flight availability.

Business travelers go to NYC for the day all the time. People I know go from Boston to NYC for museum shows and even opera matinees without staying overnight.

The 23rd is the busiest flying day of the year and I would assume most flights are full by now - have you looked to see if there are even any sights?

Above is a list of places that are open on the day - and don;t forget the Staten Island ferry runs 24/7/365 if the weather is decent and you want a view of the SoL and Manhattan skyline on the way back.

As for round trips in one day I used to have a client in Cincy and routinely did that as a day trip - but it was a long one (be at the airport before 7 and not home until after 10 pm ( and that was before 911 security).

I've spent T'giving in NYC a couple of times. Both times the weather was bitterly cold, so check the weather if you plan to spend time outside. It's a windy city. (I live in Boston, so when I say bitterly cold, I'm not speaking as a Floridian).

First time: Macy's Parade on Upper West Side (which is really a lot of fun) and then I had dinner with some friends in Brooklyn. You can't beat those balloons.

Second time: Slept in. Went to the movies! Had dinner at some rather nice restaurant but don't recall which. A lot of restaurants are open. I think we might have gone to look at Xmas store windows after, but I may be delusional about that and confusing it with a trip closer to Xmas.

Restaurant selection was definitely not a problem. Make reservations.

The Rockettes at Radio City.

I flew into JFK on the 23rd and the terminal was the quietest I have ever seen. Immigration was almost empty, whizzed thru customs and the taxi ride to LIC was very quick, however the traffic leaving the city was heavy.
I just did not find the city as busy as described here, certainly the stores were busy, 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center, but no more crowded than it usually is.