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Appreciate that tenfoot, hope the rest has been good.Cheers
Hmm, missed this thread last week as I'd just got back from.. 4 days in New York!
Things we did that were great:
Empire State Building - either get there early to beat the queues or arrive at the end of the day, so there aren't too many people, and you get to see the city in daylight, then hang around as the sun goes down and all the lights come on
Brooklyn bridge - get the subway to Brooklyn, then walk along the river and back to Manhattan over the bridge. We did this first morning to make a grand entrance (sort of)
MoMA - great collection
Run around Central Park (or at least the reservoir), just to feel like a local.. or at least to put it on strava to show off
Guggenheim - great building, thought-provoking exhibition (modern Chinese art), smaller than I expected.
Random restaurant in Chinatown. Lots of pictures, waitress who barely spoke English, great food (helped by aforementioned pictures)
USS Intrepid - get there early to have small queues for the Submarine. Nice to see the aircraft and Space Shuttle, but the best bit was walking round the sub and the tower and talking to the veterans who actually served in those vessels. Brilliant guys, happy to chat and makes the history much, much closer.
Statue of Liberty - seems a bit small when you see it from the boat. Seems huge when you're standing under it! Worth reading the panels around the island.
Mexican and burger restaurants, bagels, donuts
Rich people's Halloween decorations.
Things that were a bit meh:
The Met and Natural History Museum - huge, but old fashioned
Ellis Island - hugely important site for American history which had no cultural resonance for me
Little Italy - seems to only be one street, surrounded by expanding Chinatown? It was raining so we might have missed some bits
Pizza - bit underwhelming. Should have made more of an effort to get recommendations.
Shopping - everything seemed expensive
Things we didn't do (time constraints)
The Highline
Smaller museums
General exploring : Brooklyn/Queens/SoHo/Greenwich/etc..
Walking is both a great way to get around, and an arse. In a district, great. Between districts, use transport otherwise your feet will kill you. We ignored the park the first half dozen times we went, but have gradually started to use it more. Took the kids fishing, which pretty much kept us busy in the park all day. Staten Island has a dingy pizza place just off the ferry, with school canteen decor - yet the pizzas are awesome. Otherwise just follow your nose and be willing to experience what New Yorkers do - always something fun around the next corner.
Tenfoot - it took us over 4 hours just to drive to JFK from New York last time. I'd recommend a taxi from the airport, just so that you experience the thrill of doing 80mph on the hard shoulder, in stationary traffic whilst the driver watches YouTube vids.
Cheers for all the latest update, I’ve a feeling I’m planning on doing too much and going to spoil it, going to thin my to do list down a bit as fancy getting a good few scoops in at a few random bars I stumble across one afternoon.
Smiththemainman- back home now and exhausted.
On top of what I wrote about up there, we had breakfast in Dunhills, and Juniors , both on 45th St, went to Grand Central Station, subway to the Guggenheim, had a walk around Central Park, took in a film, had a circular trip around Manhattan on a boat, and went up The Rockerfeller in the dark.
.The Guggenheim building was fantastic to be in, but the art, an exhibition of Chinese art, left me cold. There were a few original Picassos and a Paul Klee to see which was good. The boat trip, called Best of NYC, run by the Circle Line, was a nice way to see the whole of Manhattan, took around 2/1/2 hours with an entertaining guide giving interesting information. After 2 days of walking, it was a nice way to spend a bit of time chilling.
Try to leave a reasonable amount f time to get to the airport, as the queue through security to get out of the country was around 30 minutes - at 6am on a Sunday morning.
Cheers Tenfoot everything you mentioned is on my list , looked at the cruise as it’s on the “freebie” pass , did it take you up close to Liberty?
Yeah, within 30 - 40 metres I would think. Dress up warm, as it's pretty chilly out on deck. The views of Lower Manhattan from the boat were worth the trip alone, for me.
EDIT: we also had a look around Bryant Park near The Rockerfeller, which had a small Christmas market and ice rink. Very pleasant.
Cheers wife been on about that park and ice rink
Sitting on plane waiting to fly back from my the day business trip to New Jersey, the work was completed in one day leaving 2 days to follow the recommendations for NY from this timely thread.
The Intrepid was so cool, was slightly disappointed by the construction of the Blackbird like plane, not as sleek as I thought it would be. The space shuttle was amazing, twice as big as I thought it would be.
Great thread.
We are thinking of going next February so these suggestions are really useful.
What's the best (cheapest) way to get from JFK airport to New York - I have heard the taxis are very expensive?
Thanks!
When I went I flew into Newark rather than JFK; no immigration queue. Bus from the airport to one block from Grand Central Terminus, $17 per person
Taxi from JFK to Manhattan is flat rate (about $70 inc tip).
If there are 4 of you then it's about the same as the buses and takes you directly to where you want to go.
If you're 1 or 2 then train/subway or bus
Not wanting to restart the thread but wanted to personally thank all the contributors.
Trip done and dusted, 4 beautiful days one drizzly morning. JFK immigration was about 45-60 minutes so not too bad. Couldn't be bothered with carting cases on public transport so joined the yellow cab queue , $65 inc tips tolls to Novotel hotel in Times Square. $75 for the return yellow cab arranged by concierge, maybe extra for Thanksgiving day? Only took one taxi in the 4 days that was after a meal in the Oyster bar in Grand Central and we had done 30000 steps. Averaged 21000 steps a day over the 4.5 days.
After arriving in NY late afternoon we collected the New York pass from the Big bus shop in Times square , headed to MOMA but it was 4.45 and shut at 5 so we wandered around just taking it all in and having a few beers here and there, ended up in Rosie Ogradys.
Day 2 was up early in Dunhills for breakfast then a stroll and onto the Intrepid museum (excellent) , lovely walk along the Highline to the end and into Greenwich village and Blind Tiger for drinks and lunch. wandered up to Flat Iron and this was my favourite building in New York. Went up the Empire State for sunset, beautiful views but bloody freezing up top. Then went to 230 5th rooftop bar in the igloos for amazing views of Empire States. Meal in Olunneys times square, sports type bar with ok food.
Day 3 was up early again and our one and only tube (where a kind tube worker showed us how to use the ticket machine and then finished with here is your change but I will keep $3 for my trouble and was gone before I knew what had happened) trip down to South Ferry for our Helicopter flight, that was an amazing 15 minute $240 not cheap but that was my main present loved every minute of it as it was a bluebird day so views to die for and got 2 front seats next to pilot. Next was $2.75 ferry to Dumbo where we ate the nicest burger ever in Sugar Cane(sister restaurant to Duck and Waffle in Heron Tower London, never eaten there but drank in Sushi Samba) a new establishment in this up and coming lovely area. Walked back over Brooklyn Bridge and visited 9 11 , didn't have time for the museum as there was a big queue and I wanted to surprise the good lady with an afternoon of LFC in Carraghers bar, it was rammed with a great atmosphere and we both had a good time. Bryant park was next before heading up the Top of the Rock for drinks and onto Grand Central Station and the Oyster bar for food.
We had wanted to go to Ellens Stardust diner for a meal but every night there was 50 plus in the queue so kept avoiding it.
Day 4 we walked out in the rain round the corner at 8 am only 5 in the queue so joined it and were in Ellens five minutes later in to an already bouncing atmosphere, cracking Breakfast of sirloin steak eggs and hash browns and superb entertainment from very talented singing staff looking for a Broadway break. Next was an open top bus tour up to Natural History Museum, what a collection buy way too much to see, a nice wander through Central Park to the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, amazing building but the contents were not for us, the highlight being a Lavazza coffee and a carrot cake. Walked down 5th Avenue , museum mile past the Central Park zoo and past Trump Tower and the posh shops and finally to Jimmy`s corner a bar owned by a trainer who Ali and the other champs used to look up when in New York for a bit of training. Great traditional bar with everyone sat at the bar and best value in The city $7 for a pint and a bottle of Corona, we abused the cheap beer for a few hrs before heading back. It was Thanksgiving Eve and rammed so we settled for a little pizza restaurant nothing special but $107 for 2 pizza and 4 bottle $10 each drink WTF, felt ripped off .
Cheapest round Jimmy`s $7 dearest Top of the rock $22 (always two beers without the tip.)Rudest bar Playwright Celtic pub where barman talked to another punter from asking what we would like and then threw 4 one dollar bills back at me which landed all over, needless to say he got none of them and we decked the drinks and left. Most meals about $60 average with 4 beers on it. Always had time to go back get changed maybe have a kip each evening for an hour or so. Times Square is manic and everyone wants your dollar but no one over pushy.
Last morning was a stroll away from the Macys parade down empty streets to a cruise round Lady Liberty on another bluebird day on a near empty boat, this was amazing and the perfect end, had an excellent lunch at The Beer authority by the magnificent Penn Station opposite the New York Times/ Madison Square Gardens then wandered up 42nd street seeing the remnants of the parade and back to the hotel and the taxi. Thank you so much for all the tips it defo helped us have an amazing time and left us chomping at the bit to return in the not too distant future.