New York

[murph]

Anyone here been to New York, I planning to go in march and looking for recommendations on the best area to stay and the must see's etc

[isle of man]

stay in the w hotel http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/index.html and when you get off the plane go to the news stand and buy a city map the folding type you can put in your pocket....use a taxi wherever possible...... if your doing the tourist thing buy a all-in-pass they cost about $70 usd.


peter henry

[oakeedokee]

and if you visit the empire state building (which is a "must do") do it first thing in the morning as the queues get rather large. And take the Manhatten island sunset cruise, not the daytime one. You then get to see the skyline during daylight and at night, and the tour guide is superb.

[denviks]

totaly agree with oakeedokee. make sure you are early. a couple of things worth doing is work out your money carefully. i bought a digi camcorder while there. a few places seemed very exspensive when you worked it out. i ended up haggaling a better deal   saved about £150 over uk prices. little italy is worth a visit
we spent 5 days there last year. we stayed in new jersey as it was alot cheaper to stay there .it was a 10 min bus ride in the morning into manhatten. most hotels run a bus service which cost us about $10 a day for 2.
you will definatly need a good map and good walking shoes. in the 5 days we were there we managed to fit almost everything in. but we will be going back again as its a brilliant place.
are you going with the misses?

[Colin 009]

Do  the empire state building at night, wicked, dont walk more than 4 blocks as you'll be nackered, use Taxis, the subways good as well.

To shop head out of the city and into New Jersey where you'll pay less tax on everything.
You can get a bus from the Port Authority bus station on west 41st street and 8th street, that'll take you out to the Willowbrook mall, where theres serveral outlets.

Vist Concorde which is moored on the river next to USS Intrepide an aircraft carrier musesum. west 46th st.

Helicopter rides are a must, did mine from the Port Authority dowtown-manhatten-wall st heliport which is near Battery park.

If your there for a sunday you must do "Brunch" its an orgy of eating.

vist the statue of Liberty, but IMHO dont bother climbing up the statue as its cramped and takes too long when you get to the top theres not much to see.  Now I 've typed it you probly not allowed up there anymore.

Ellis Island is worth a vist.

Hooters is a great place to eat, :D    they do great chicken wings.

[denviks]

Helicopter rides are a must, did mine from the Port Authority dowtown-manhatten-wall st heliport which is near Battery park


i agree mate. we did that aswell. well worth doing  

[MuddyMike]

If time permits hire a car and take a drive up state for a couple of days, follow the hudson river up towards the catskill mountains. New York state is a wonderfull place try to se a bit of it.

Mike

[beast5680]

views from empire state are breathtaking if its clear as well

[murph]

I'm taking the missus it's her 40th birthday surprise, going over for 5 days.

Thanks for all you info it is always best to get the inside info from people who have actualy been there

Thanks Again

[smog]

Battery park is well worth a visit, look for a statue/art work of some one trying to grab the hand of a person seemingly to have fallen off the opposite peir thing.

Central park, Times Square at night is amazing, The site of the twin towers, Ellis island (get a tour guide) Contrary to what others have said Empire state is well worth it but regardless what time you go expect to queue for ages, UN buildings take the tour, chrysler building, buy a bagal from a street vendor same with corn dogs (some stuff has to be done.

If you get chance to go state not the city visit the finger lakes sooooooo cool and so many other things upstate.  I really wouldn't bother with the pony n trap rides they are overpriced and personally they ain't what you see on TV, have a pic taken with a cop just for fun ask em about their guns.

Visit the Disney store just because it's huge and full of really fat kids running around spending with their parents credit card, visit Schwartz toy shop (Tom hanks in BIG did the jumping around on the walk on piano)

Try to get into ANY of the major network TV companies to pick up a show usually they are free or pretty cheap and well worth a laugh.  Mc donalds just to feel like you have been ripped off all these years by the english tiny burgers (they have HUGE meals and they are standard!).

Errrrmmmmmmm loads more stuff to see and do, i visit at least 3 or 4 times a year to visit friends and family out NY state so get to do all the 'tourist' stuff and also the kinda normal stuff like shopping at CompUSA or even going to Walmart and seeing their TV's that make our TV's look like dwarf things for 'little people'.

Go to a decent Mall and sit and watch the world go by, if you love Jewish food NY has amazing places to eat.

I am lucky enough to have a friend who is a teacher in the so called 'Bronx' and i have visited the area a few times, it's a real weird kinda place that feels oppressive yet not as bad as it is made out to be on TV, (though there are gangs of 'youths' standing on street corners n in the road so you have to drive around them. (NOT SUGGESTING TO GO THERE just i have been lucky to have been)

Thats about it really because everything else seems to have been covered by others and by myself.

Want to know more or want to see shedloads of pic's of places i have too many to count.

weirdest thing i remember is seeing a 'bag' lady i took a pic will dig it out if i can just because it showed the poverty side of such a huge city millionaires living along side tramps.

OH yeah go visit the presidents former homes, for the life of me i can't remember the area but they are in the buildings that look like the stuff 'Friends' was filmed in (thats if you want to)

k done now finished rambling hoped some if any helped, have a great time out there and if you need some contact numbers out there give me a shout, just in case anything goes screwed up.

[Bush Tucker Man]

Don't look at all the rubbish everywhere after the stores have closed
It was piled 3foot high around Times Square when we went.

We were on honeymoon (Oct '98) stopped in the Marriot Financial Centre which was about 300yards(?) from the 'Twin-Towers' & Yacht Club.

Then moved onto various other centres (Toronto was best , CN Tower. WOW!!!)

[Baby_Rhino]

Sounds like you need to go for a month to fit everything in  :?

[FITZ4X4]

My top tip is buy a Insight Fleximap from WH Smiths before you go. These laminated foldable maps are excellent. I have bought them for each city I have visited and they have always proved invaluable. The New York one is excellent and well worth a fiver!  
Look here for details http://tinyurl.co.uk/0b12

Also read the Rough Guide here http://tinyurl.co.uk/yp96 Either buy the guide or print out the pages from the website.

Get a taxi from the airport to your hotel. A New York taxi trip is a must. If you survive the Taxi ride use the Subway and shankes pony to get about. Buy a 7 day metrocard for the Subway $21 that's your transport sorted. You can use it to get back to the airport if you don't want to pay for another white knucle taxi ride. You have to pay an extra couple of dollars for the last part of the train to the airport.

Next tip is take the Staten Island Ferry why cos it's FREE and you get gret views of NY and the Statue of Libertey! http://www.siferry.com/

As other replies the Empire State is a must, Centarl Park is nice. I'm sure your wife will want to vist Macy's (very big, very boring) and a load of the other major shops.

If you want to treat her to a nice meal there are some excellent Italian resturants in Little Italy. I can't remeber the name of the one we went to but it was superb.

Another nice thing to do is to get the subway to Brooklyn (I can't rember twhich station but it's on the Fleximap) and walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge, great viwes of NY and intresting photo of the cars below your feet. http://tinyurl.co.uk/yp96

We went for 5 days and that was just about right any longer and my missus would have driven me made with all those shops!

Have a nice day

[landyman Ash]

Hooters is a great place to eat, :D    they do great chicken wings.

If there tasted like a dead dog you'd still recommend it  

[Colin 009]

Hooters is a great place to eat, :D    they do great chicken wings.

If there tasted like a dead dog you'd still recommend it  

You know it makes sense.

[Popeye]

If you have a few minutes spare after all of that wonder across to central park and have a sit down with a coffee and watch the world go by. For me it was like a good massage,watching everyone rushing about, jogging and playing "soccer" while I just relaxed and watched.

Also find yourself a good diner where the locals eat or a sit down deli ,where it's a pick and mix style food court with foods from every part of the world . You pay by weight not what it is, go to a table and eat or take it away your choice.

[clips]

when we went, i hadn't quite realised the sheer size of the place and so didn't do some of the things we had hoped as they were opposite ends of the city. were only there on a long weekend.
 arrived as shops closed, and met all the bins being put out, hotel enterance was just a side door between shops and we wandered what the hell we were doing there :shock:
 finaly plucked up courage to leave the hotel room later on, had coffee at maceys and watched the shoppers, then wandered up to times square and broadway. the lights by night are fantastic!
 if we went again we would look at hotels north of empire states (about 25th street up i think) as it seems cleaner and more business like up there.
 Take a walk into central park and just sit and admire how easily such a massive city vanishes!
 The Geugenheim (sp!) is a remarkable place if you like art and buildings.
and if art is your thing, the brabbingtn gallery on 5th avenue, is an art shop but upstairs in the origionals lounge has Dhali's, Miro's, and some fantastic current artists such as britto

 If you like shopping, it has everything, but phillidelphi next door is a tax free state!! and has the Liberty Bell for history.

 your best bet is to do as you are doing, and plan ahead where you want to go, and be realistic depending how long your there.

[murph]

This is it I'm finally off to New York city, :D  :D  told the girlfriend the other day she was gobsmacked,  :o  looking forward to a good break, although we will probably be knackered after it all.

I will be trying out some of the suggestions on here.

[denviks]

have a great time mate....you will love it...... 8)  8)  8)

[bezzabsa]

Always wanted to the a weekend there, but after reading this post looks like waiting and booking about 6 months!!!!!
Can anyone reccocmmend (???????what does that say?) a GOOd weekend destination??

[bezzabsa]

apologies for the above post , think i had temporary dyslexia when i typed that!

[Evilgoat]

Anyone here been to New York, I planning to go in march and looking for recommendations on the best area to stay and the must see's etc

Was there in 98 for work and didnt like it much then TBH

Then again on 14th Nov 01 and I dont think I could go back :(

[marjan]

We are stopping off in NY for a couple of days to finish off a New England Holiday in September but to be quite honest I'm not particularly looking forward to it at all - I hate noise and crowds, give me my Samurai up on the Yorkshire Dales any day of the week! :D