Got a trip to NY coming up in October, 14-21st, and thinking of a few things to do. Options include 3 days in NY (have to be there on 16th for a ceremony) and road trip to Niagara Falls. Or spend the whole week and really explore the city.
Open to your ideas!

nothing much to do in new york

go to northumberland

Its a great city to wander around but I think 3 days would be enough for me. High Line park, museums (There’s quite a few but natural history and Intrepid would be my pick), boat trip, food!

There must be lots of other threads, but using the awesome STW search machine, I only found this one

Depends what your idea of fun is but i went five years ago and loved it.

Here’s a copy and paste from a colleague whose husband worked there for a few years:

The Stone Rose bar is an old favourite of ours – they have great cocktails and lovely views over Central Park. Nice place to take the missus for a sun-downer.

Rudies is a typical American dive bar but very cheap, really near Times square and you get free hot dogs (it’s a sticky floor type of place though!)

Near Times Square is a deli called The Stage – they do ridiculous sized sandwiches. you can ask them to wrap up what you can’t finish and take it with you. Their NY cheese cake is great too – but again on the very big side!

Hoboken has great views back of Manhattan and have some very cheap bars and restaurants

Walking over Brooklyn bridge is great

One of our most fun afternoons was roller skating in Central Park

For the ferry to the statue of Liberty – get up really early to queue for tickets at battery park. It’s a really good trip and you can stop off at Ellis island as well

You should definitely check out Chelsea and Greenwich – loads of restaurants and bars and if its hot they all have Mediterranean style al fresco dinning.

There are loads of cheaper more authentic bars in the East Village and Lower East side – Alphabet City has some nice ones too (‘Sunburnt Cow to name one).

Meatpacking district is one of the best areas to go out late and is ‘downtown’.

Bars & Restaurants

• Stone Rose – Columbus Circle on SW edge of central park (go into shopping centre and take the lift to 4th floor). The Mandarin bar is also here up the hotels tower – need a jacket to get into the nicer bit with the view.
• White bar is in the W Hotel half way down Times Square on the West side (towards 8th ave) – take the lift up to reception and its on your right
• There is a revolving bar at the top of the Marriot in Times Square which has now reopened following renovation – defo worth a look! (best to book)

• Katz’s delicatessen is the one featured in ‘that’ scene in ‘When Harry Met Sally’. great food at good prices there too and you can sit in the seat if it’s free, it’s signposted

• Hudson Hotel – bar with outside courtyard – near Stone Rose but back near 9th Ave – very trendy bar & great cocktails!
• Rudi’s bar & grill – genuine dive bar – is on 8th down around the low 40’s in streets – $6 for a pitcher of beer and free hot dogs! Zanzibar nearby is nice.
• In the meatpacking district their is a hotel overlooking Soho House called the Ganzevoot which has a nice balcony – and opposite is Pastis restaurant – one of best in NY but have to book!
• All the good clubs are in the Meatpacking district – Crowbar is a good one.
• And of course Hogs and Heifers is round the corner – the original Coyote Ugly bar complete with loud-mouthed barmaids dancing on the bar, bikers and a wall full of bras donated over the years! Don’t even think about ordering a beer in here without also getting a shot or the barmaid will tell the whole bar what a weakling you are… over her megaphone! A definite N.Y. experience!
• There is also a bar down here with a huge fish tank behind the bar and female dancers put on mermaids tails and swim through it!

There is a Brazilian restaurant between 8th and 9th (nearer 8th) on 49th street called the Churrascaria Plataforma which is great unless you are a veggie – they bring around huge cuts of meat on spits and slice you off a bit. The meat is fantastic and you get to try all the different cuts. Note it is NOT the restaurant with the Brazilian flag outside on 8th Ave – it is the one round the corner towards 9th with the doorman.

I’d also recommend the dinner cruise on the World Yacht – its a buffet style affair but a great cruise around the city with some spectacular views – and it goes up past the Statue of Liberty too.

http://www.worldyacht.com/
For something different take the Path train to Hoboken in New Jersey – you get good views back of Manhattan and you can get great steaks at cheap prices plus student priced beers.

Attractions
• The helicopter trip is well worth it and either goes from near the Aircraft Carrier (bit further South) or down on the southern tip – company is called Liberty Helicopters. At the minimum do the trip that goes down Manhattan and round the statue of liberty.
• If you want to go into the statue of liberty (you can only go into the feet – not the head since 9/11 – similarly you can’t go into the stock exchange anymore either) you need to get a ticket early in the morning from the office in Battery Park.
• If the weather is good there’s Coney Island (NY’s Blackpool complete with a lot of freaks and the world’s oldest roller coaster – the Cyclone – definitely worth a ride as it feels like it is going to fall apart!). You can get there on the tube in about an hour. This is also the home of the Hot Dog – it was invented here at Nathan’s which is just outside the tube stop. For a better beach you can catch a NJ transit train to Jones beach – about an hour away.
• You can book tickets to go up Empire State online and print them out – saves part of the queue if it is busy (best to do this on a weekday if poss as the queues at the weekend are huge! ).
• Central park is great for a walk – or hire Rollerblades from the hire shop on the West side – around 72nd-75th street (check guidebook) – check out Strawberry Fields and the ball parks. There is an open air swimming pool right at the top if its hot. Don’t forget your Frisbee!
• Down the south end you have the WTC site – the scale of which is unbelievable. Its also a nice walk over the Brooklyn Bridge (above the traffic) and you get good views of the city.
• Take a tour of the UN headquarters located at First Ave at 46th Street. You get to go into the general assembly and security council which is very interesting.
• N.Y. has all the major US sports teams if the season is right – drink some beer at the Baseball or go for the action of Ice Hockey or Basketball. American Football may stop and start allot but its a great spectacle and you have the Jets and Giants to choose from.
• Or take in a show on Broadway – there is a ticket booth in Times Square but be warned – the queues are long!
• The Chrysler Building is worth a look – but you can’t go up. And the N.Y. Public Library is as seen in Ghostbusters and more recently the Day After Tomorrow. Grand Central Station is also worth a look while you are down there and Bryant Park is a great place to stop for an Ice Cream or a cwafffeee.

Shopping
Clothes are much cheaper in N.Y. – bargains galore can be found at Century 21 opposite the WTC – but its a TK Maxx effort – everything jumbled up! Much better to head to Macys in the Fashion District or Bloomindales further North – both are good. Saks near the Rockerfeller Centre is really good – but pricey – especially for women’s clothes. And of course you have to have a wander down 5th Ave to check out the boutiques.

I bought a colleague who was visiting NYC access to one of the foodie tours – https://www.foodsofny.com/ – she loved it.

depends what you’re into – culturally there are loads of things to see just walking around , museums and art galleries , the gugenheim is worth a visit more for the building than the contents , foodwise there’s Chinatown or little Italy or 8th avenue -jewish area with bagels and good streetfood as well as the other stuff people have said. If you go shopping be aware you get more discount the more you buy so one big shop is better than several little ones.

Depending on your musical tastes/history you can also visit The Chelsea Hotel where Sid and Nancy did their thing or go to see The Dakota Mansions where John Lennon was shot or Greenwich Village where Bob Dylan learned his trade.

Many, many previous threads on this!

Top of the Rock
Guggenheim (Only if the exhibition within is worth seeing)
The Met museum. Awesome.
Virgil’s for ribs.
Etc.

One WTC + World Trade Center memorial
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building if you can stand queueing
Central Park
shopping on 5th Avenue if that floats your boat
USS Intrepid
Broadway show
Museums – loads of them

Niagara Falls – the falls themselves – are amazing, but not worth a road trip from NYC. Certainly not worth an overnight stay.
Have a couple of days in Toronto instead (and as well as NYC) & do the falls as a day trip, it’s only 90 minutes away

We did one of the food tours which was great.
Also a speedboat ride that went round the statue etc, and the helicopter ride but it was foggy sadly.

Rowing boats in Central Park. Brooklyn bridge.

Rockaway beach is good. It’s not hard, not hard to reach.

and road trip to Niagara Falls

It’s a long trip (nearly 400 miles). When I was there I did it by train – Amtrax to Buffalo then (IIRC – it was 20 years ago) a local bus service to Niagara – did it in a day (I was in the States for two weeks and had an East Coast Rail Pass – managed to do New York, Washington, Memphis, New Orleans, Niagara, Chicago and back to New York).

Get to Times Square and get cheap same day tickets to a show. We did Miss Saigon and it was amazing.

We flew to Niagra and drove back. The falls are amazing. The town on the Canadian side is like Margate.

very interested in this. will be there soon…

nothing to add, but saving 🙂

hookers and coke surely

Scotts Pizza tour

Fun, informative & best pizza we’ve eaten

Everyone we’ve reccomended it has come back loving it

Fantastic, thanks everyone. Making a list now and checking the other threads!

Springsteens in town if you can afford scalper prices.

Don’t know how many folk you are going with, but we did a treasure hunt around the Village through work. I think it was Watsons tours.

It was loads of fun.

Empire State Building if you can stand queueing

Top of the Rock if you can’t stand queues, and also want to see the more iconic buildings. Like the Empire State. 🙂

Williamsburg bridge is the best and Williamsburg is hipster cool with singlespeeds and a great clothes recycling shop.
Fish and the Blind Tiger on Bleecker Street. Amy’s bakery.
Dave’s, Avenue of the Americas, for cheap jeans and Carhartt etc.

oh and of course ya gotta go to Toga Bikes