Planning a last min. trip to NY for Xmas but have never been there! Any ideas where to stay,or not and what to see on a 3 day trip? Lower east side Man.seems to have the most tourist sites can anyone help?
Thanks, Joe in ca

Actually, the Lower East Side has very few tourist attractions.

Start here, perhaps?

http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgr..._york_city@111

The first thing to do is find a hotel room right away. You are very late in planning a trip to NYC during a peak, peak tourist season.

I would recommend in looking at hotels in Midtown. The theater district has quite a few hotels and around the fifth avenue shopping (rockefeller center). This is the area you would stay and be a tourist. You can see a show, walk around Rockefeller center, window shop on fifth ave, see st.patrick's cathedral, etc.. The Lower manhattan area can be a day trip down by cab or subway. You can visit ground zero there. It is really dead at night.
I would check hotel prices and availability asap. This is a pricey time to visit NY., but a fun and pretty time too.

You don;t give your exact dates - but on another travel board a poster reported finding nothing under $500 per night for the week before Christmas. Suggest you find a hotel immediately - don;t be picky about where - as long as its within your budget.

Try Midtown, upper west side, village, chelsea - anyplace that has room - as long as you can make a cancelable reservation. Then you can checkout the hotel here and on Tripadvisor. And we can provide other suggestions.

(And lower east side of Manhattan has very few attractions - but until you tell us what interests you - museums, galleries, fine dining, shopping, typical tourist stuff - or any special interests - people can;t help much.)