I am going on vacation to New York City next week. Staying at a hotel in downtown New York City, somewhere around 30th and Broadway or somewhere around there. Anyways...

Outside of the obvious attractions (Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Wall Street, Empire State Building) anyone been there that can recommend several ideas? Going with mother and sister, so places need to be family orientated please- no bars, nightclubs, etc.

BTW I want to see 9/11 Ground Zero but did not list that as an attraction because, well.. not sure it can really be classified as that.

Thanks in advance.

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There are some great comedy clubs all over NYC. You'd do yourself a disservice if you didn't visit at least one.

You MUST check out Zabar's at 80th and Broadway. I think the street address is 2245 Broadway. IMO they have the best bagels in the city. Try those and their rainbow cookies for sure. The olives they have are pretty spectacular as well.

And it's a short walk from there to the Museum of Natural History which I'd also highly recommend. The planetarium by Central Park is kinda meh.

If you like medieval art The Cloister's is a good museum to see. However it is at the tip of Spanish Harlem so you'll want to take a taxi or bus up to the door. It's unsafe to walk there. Even just up the hill to it from the metro bus stop.

Honestly, I wouldn't do Statue of Liberty. You're going to blow at least half a day on it if you take the ferry over. I went in winter (in the late 80s) and it was still crowded as all fuck over there. It's really cool to see, but it was so crowded over there, we didn't even get a chance to walk up her. That would have taken all day if we had.

Absolutely go see some Broadway shows, you can get tickets cheaply through agencies or see if the theater has any cancellations and get them even cheaper. Scalping is illegal, so you'll be able to get tickets even to popular shows pretty cheaply through brokers.

And oh god...find a good food guide and sample around. But you MUST go to Katz's deli. It's on the lower east side, so if it's too far out of your way, hit Carnegie Deli...but Katz's is the shit.

Oh and DON'T eat at the place in Central Park...waste of money IMO.

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I would honestly, instead of blowing the entire day on the Statue of Liberty, take a train into Philly, grab a morning one...should be about 2.5 hours. Once in Philly jump on the Duck Tour, you can grab it at the 'Independance Mall' center they have set up. That tour will hit all the highlights of Philly and converts to a boat to take you on the river too. It's AWESOME. The entire tour is like 2 hours, and completely worth it. Then grab a bite to eat, there's lots of good places. Don't wander around outside of that part of the city alone though. There's no where really within walking distance from Independance Hall/Liberty Bell, etc that you're going to get in trouble so you're fine on foot. But there's some really bad neighborhoods not too far from there if you're driving and dunno where you're going. Then you can hit Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell (which is behind glass, because of that fucking asshole a few years back who attacked it) and then there's like a tourist center where you can see movies and stuff.

If you're into science and cool stuff, the Franklin Museum is really cool. I love it, and it's always worth it to me, but it's more for people really into that shit, or kids. I wouldn't spend time on it unless you are really really into it.

But you could easily do MUCH more and see much more historical shit in the same amount of time, IMO. Then catch the train back late afternoon/early evening. Also, you'd have time to do 2 tours if you wanted, the trolly or bus tour is also good (Duck is the best). Bypass Betsy Ross's house if you go...it's a tourist trap and waste of time.

Independence Hall alone though is worth the trip. I'd pick that over a gift from France

Have fun!

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Oh one last thing, look up tourist tips or whatever online before you go. But there's just basic stuff you can do in the city to avoid having a chain snatched, purse snatched or being pickpocketed.

I wouldn't freak out on it, but I'd just read up and use common sense. Like if you're carrying a lot of cash on you, don't carry it with what you're paying with, never flash a big roll around, blah blah blah.

And when you're unsure where the safe areas are in the city, *ask*. The hotel people will tell you, they live around there. Last time I was in NYC, Times Square was still a shithole, so it's been awhile since I've been there.

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Be careful with this one... if you want family friendly some of those comedy clubs are not where you want to go.

As for other places to go... you can't go to New York without seeing a Broadway show! Go see Wicked!

http://www.nytix.com/Broadway/DiscountB ... kets/TKTS/

1/2 price same-day tickets. They usually go on sale around 10 am.

Depending on your budget, you could hit the ticket booth early to get tickets for an evening show, then walk a couple of blocks over to 30 Rockefeller and do the NBC Studio Tour and/or the Rockefeller Center tour.

Grab a hot dog or hit a deli after the tour (or between them, if you do both) and then go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then, time for a nap and/or a quick dinner, and off to the theater!

(me? gay? what?)

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Hope is the new black.

Yankee Stadium Tours

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/ball ... _tours.jsp

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Hope is the new black.

nathan's hot dogs and a staten island yankees (minor league) game

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If the weather is right, the Bronx Zoo is a good time. I would second the recommendation of the Museum of Natural History and the side trip to Philly (duck tours are a ton of fun, did the one in Boston) No idea how old/young your sister is, but my daughters love the American Girl store in NYC.

Food tour! So much to eat in NYC, so little time.

http://www.menupages.com/ is the best resource for finding dining in NYC that I've found. Pick a type of food and then the best-reviewed place. My wife and I used this site and ate at some amazing places. We saw Hitch when we were there on that particular trip and the place we were eating at was IN the movie - Tao, a Chinese Fusion place (the red place they did the speed dating in with the giant buddha).

No offense to tourism seekers, but the food is at least as high on the list as seeing landmarks. You can get the best of every type of food in NYC, and you'd do yourself a favor to really do some research before you go.

Other than that, here is what you should do and what I would do if I were going for the first time.

MOMA - the best modern art museum in the country in my opinion and a must-see. Has some of the most famous works in any US museum, and the museum ITSELF is a work of art.

The Met - huge museum, very diverse collection.

Natural History - If you're REALLY into natural history, you could go, but honestly, the one in DC is comparable if not better, and there's not much there that's really unique. The Met and MOMA are much bigger priorities if you ask me.

Empire State building - can take a very long time but the view is probably worth it. I'd do this over the statue of liberty to be honest.





Central Park - don't plan anything, just wander around (in the day time). Really quite beautiful and the pond with the little boats was a highlight for us.





NY Central Library - this is a really amazing library. Fun to wander around in for an hour or so.



Radio City Music Hall - really cool looking at night.



5th Avenue - FAO Schwarz, the Apple Cube, the shopping is some of the best there is and it's fun walking around there.

Times Square - go during the evening when it's dark. It's cool during the day, but it's amazing at night. You will feel like you are in the center of the world. If you see a Broadway near Times Square, take some extra time before and after to walk around and sightsee.

Broadway - I've seen Phantom, Wicked and Rent. Rent is a classic and is either no longer in production or will soon be gone, you should see it while it's there. Very New York and an awesome musical. Wicked is the best musical I've ever seen if you like more traditional musical fare, and Phantom was hardly worth seeing (for me). Spend the extra money and get good seats, you'll not regret it. You can't see anything of the calibre of Broadway anywhere BUT Broadway, and you must go see at least one, ideally more than one, while you're there.

Grand Central Station - Huge and busy, and the architecture is beautiful.



Leave a lot of time to just walk around. Go to the financial district, some of the famous churches in the area. Don't plan so much that you can't just wander around and soak it in. The great thing about cities like NYC and San Fran is that they are almost as much fun to just walk around than to do guided or scheduled activities. Very friendly for walking.

Nice pics

I'm taking our band to New York to perform and sight see in April of 2010. I'm looking forward to it!

Thank you all for the advice and information. I wrote out some of these things so will share with mom and sister and we can make some informed decisions. I am allocating 100 dollars per day, so 400 for the entire trip. I hope that is enough money, I don't plan on buying any souvenirs- just eating and tickets/tour fees/etc...

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It's not enough money

Well unfortunately for me, it is what I can afford. I guess I just have to be wise and spend thrift... I figured it wasn't enough, but unfortunately I don't have many options to increase it at this point.

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Well like I said, if you spend a lot of time just walking around and absorbing the architecture, you can do it cheap. It's really the food that is expensive. Luckily, even the cheap stuff is pretty darned good.

Let us know how it goes, NYC is just about my favorite place. I'm jealous.

Who took those photo's joxur? Nicely done.

Depending on where you eat, food is pretty cheap in Chinatown.

I took all of those - 4-5 years old before I really got into photography and got a DSLR. Thanks!

Sarissa - yeah, the little divey hole in the wall place we randomly went into in Chinatown was really good.

My advice would be to skimp on the lunch and breakfasts and find a good place for dinner. The pizza in NYC is really good on the side of the road, at least for lunch, and my wife (who lived in Manhattan for 7 years) still bemoans the lack of street vendor bagels.

Little Italy plz!

I am back. Was able to see a lot of things- those double decker bus tours of NYC are fantastic. Did a tour of lower Manhattan, upper Manhattan, one of Brooklyn (which was bleh), and a night time tour of the city. When we were on the Brooklyn tour we were able to take some views of the NYC skyline- just amazing and breathtaking at the same time.

Whomever recommended Katz (forgot who)- props to you! 15 dollars for a corned beef sandwich, and it was the best sandwich I might have ever had. And that place was beyond packed. Also had some of ... Julie's (?) cheesecake, supposedly the best cheesecake in the world. It was VERY good I must say. The one place I wanted to eat at that we didn't was that pizza place in Brooklyn with the 2+ hour wait lines. Maybe next trip...

Did a tour of NY Public Library, went to MoMA (Friday nights are free from 4-8), did NBC Studio Tour- sat in the SNL seats, which was very cool. Went to the top of the Rockefeller Observatory instead of Empire State Building (sister wanted to go there and not Empire /shrug), saw the new World Trade Center site and the new vision/plan for that area. Was a bit disappointed that there wasn't much "tourist" stuff at the place- basically you walk to the area and it is, well, a construction site. Which yeah it is a construction site, I guess I was expecting a bit more "touristy" like things there. Did a lot of walking around, which sucked cause I only brought one pair of shoes and naturally it decided to give me a blister on the left foot which is now huge lol.

Obama was in town on Saturday night, getting dinner and a Broadway play. We did the night time tour on Saturday, and right as our bus started to make a turn I saw the calvacade coming down the street. They had a lot of streets blocked off, we had to take a lot of detours, and there was a crap ton of police around (naturally).

Walked through Central Park on Sunday- did not realize that there was a
Jewish parade going on that day, so we could not get to our tour bus stop and decided to walk the remainder of the park on foot. You don't really think 56 blocks is that big for a park until you actually start to walk it Ton of people out there, was an absolute gorgeous day on Saturday and Sunday.

Mom and sister did their first NYC taxi ride from airport to hotel, and chose to never get into a NYC taxi again. Did the subway thing, which they liked even though they had no clue how to read the subway map. Was a bit disappointed that they were not willing to try different NY restaurants and foods- on Saturday night my sister wanted to get a McDonalds (!!) instead of trying one of the local small restaurants on any of the streets/avenues. So that was a little bit bleh, but we did get a hot dog from one of the street vendors (was not that impressed) so did that.

Overall I would say that we did a lot, saw a bunch, and yet there is still more to see. Was not able to take in a Broadway play, did not go ferry over to Statue of Liberty, and still did not see any of Wall Street. If I had the disposable income and financial means to do so, I could definitely see me living in New York. Mom and sis were very quiet all weekend, that was the one negative- the lack of casual conversation. I dunno if NY just overwhelmed them to where they did not enjoy it, but I hope they enjoyed the sites and the city.

I will say that for anyone who does visit, to get a bus tour of the city. It really allows you to see a lot of the city, and if you were fortunate like we were to get some knowledgable local tour guides it really adds to your NY experience. We did the Grey Line one and was able to get unlimited amount of four tours listed in paragraph 1 for 48 hours at like 47 dollars with tax. To me, well worth it.

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I may be heading up there at the end of the month. Thanks for the tips.

See if you can get to the taping of any of the late night shows. I went to the taping of The Daily Show a couple of time when that tall guy used to host it. (Cannot think of name)

Craig Kilborn

Also one of the best ESPN anchors ever...

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