Travel
matthewsbride05
member
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NYC must dos
in Travel
What are your NYC must dos? We are going to see Wicked and staying in the theater district for two days next week...My DH has never been to NYC; I've been a few times. TIA.
Re: NYC must dos
Get breakfast/brunch at Balthazar
I listed sweets places in the post the other day about Serendipity (was that your post???)
Statue of Liberty I think is closed for renovations. I've never been though (and I live here and grew up nearby).
For cards, Greenwich Letterpress is my favorite store (it is all letterpress though). Kate's Paperie is good but a little more generic. I think the only location that remains is on Broome St. in Soho. House of Cards and Curiosities might be good for you if you like weird cards.
If you're only going to one museum, I'd pick the Met, hands down.
Do you like bookstores too? You may want to check out The Strand.
Some others you may want to try then: Three Lives & Company, Partners & Crimes (mysteries), Bonnie Slotnik (cookbooks), Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books, and Bookmarc (Marc Jacobs's bookstore). They're in the West Village.
Books of Wonder is a cute little bookstore in the Flatiron District.
You can still get onto Liberty Island and walk around, but inside of the statue is closed for renovations (and the tickets are hard to get anyway since you need to get them in advance). The ferry ticket should also include admission to Ellis Island, which is cool. If all you want is a nice photo of the statute, you can take the free Staten Island Ferry ... it goes right past the statue. Take it to Staten Island, get your photos, then take the next ferry back to Manhattan.
I would stay away from the touristy areas for your meals. The restaurants in the Theatre District/Times Square tend to be really overpriced and not very good, plus it's mostly chain restaurants anyway. I used to work pretty close to that area and I had some really good lunches on Ninth Avenue in the 40-50s blocks. Room Service (Thai) was one of my favorite lunch spots. I also found that the souvenirs were cheaper the farther away from the Times Square area that I went, if you want an I
NY t-shirt or something.
For just walking around, I like the Village.
Cheap lunches - there are several Gray's Papaya hot dog locations throughout the city. I always go to the one on 8th Street and 6th Avenue. Two hot dogs and a soda/juice for under $5. And there also a few Shake Shack locations - shakes, burgers, hot dogs - I've been to the one near Port Authority Bus Terminal (Midtown) and that was good, and I think there's also one in Union Square.
MH is into craft beers and his favorite places are The Ginger Man, Rattle n' Hum (both are near the Empire State Building), and Blind Tiger (in the West Village).
Ferrara's Bakery in Little Italy is touristy, but their sweets are good. Another touristy-but-good place is Katz's Deli (from "When Harry Met Sally").
If you can make it over to Brooklyn, get some barbecue at Fette Sau.
Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, go to the observation deck, the view is amazing, The Rock Cafe is on the pricey side but they have a great bruch. You can walk around Times Square to soak in the "vibe" but avoid the restaurants there, they are over priced and virtually all chains with mediocre food.
Go to Little Italy (Mulberry Street) and have some pastries. There's the Intrepid Museum and Ground Zero. Just and FYI, you can't just show up at the 9/11 museum and expect to get in, you have to get your tickets ahead of time. You can go the reflecting pools though. They are finally making progress on the Freedom Tower (now called One World Trade Center) and Four World Trade Center.
One word of advice, pre-order your tickets to ESB, SOL and RC online and pay the extra $$ for the express pass. It can be a 2 hour wait for any of those sites but w/ the pass, you go right past the lines and get right in.
As far as places to eat, try going off the beaten path. There are great medium priced restaurants in Chelsea (west side in the teens and 20s), Gramercy Park (east side in the 20s), the Lower East Side (between 14th St. and Houston) and Kips Bay (east side in the 30s).
There is a great place on 19th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, closer to 6th on the south side of the street that sells all kinds of paper, stationary and scrapbooking stuff. If you want to check out a small bookstore (not a big chain like Barnes and Noble), there's a place called Idlewilde Books on 19th Street just a little ways down from the paper store, closer to 5th Avenue.
For museums, you might want to try something a little different. There's the Firefighters museum, Police museum, the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. The Museum of Television and Radio is cool, I think that's in Queen which you can get to by train. And the Transit/Subway museum in Brooklyn. If it's not too cold, you can walk across the Brooklyn bridge too. And Franuces Tavern over by the Seaport is cool. You can eat there and for like $7 you can get a tour of the building and see where the Revolution got it's start in NY. There's also Teddy Roosevelt's Birthplace on 20th Street just off 5th Avenue.
Also add: Pony Bar on 49th & 10th Ave - every beer is $5.
I like Fette Sau, but HATE HATE HATE their seating arrangements. If you go, go right when they open. It's first come, first serve seating, and people will reserve space for their friends, take up more room than they need, and then laze around, not allowing space for other people. If you want BBQ also try:
Hill Country (both the chicken and the original restaurant) - Flatiron District
Rub - Chelsea/Flatiron
Wildwood - Gramercy/Union Square
Daisy Mays - Far west side (like 10/11th Avenues)
Dinosaur - Harlem
Blue Smoke - Gramcery (higher end, but well worth it)
Go on the walking tour with a guide. The guides are all people who were personally effected by 9/11. Our guides were a lady who previously worked in the WTC and served as a volunteer during the clean up and a lady whose husband was on the plane that hit the South Tower. Amazing, moving, heartwrenching but also really interesting.
Take a Tour called PhotoTrek Tours. This Tour offers a private and custom Walking Tour of New York City. The Tour Guide is Marc Samuels. He is both a Licensed Tour Guide along with being a Professional Photographer. You receive photos with you in all photos with New York City landmarks as a backdrop.
The website for PhotoTrek Tours is www.phototrektours.com