Everything & Anything New York City

greenface

M4RKM wrote: »

Can I just ignore bits of your post and just talk about the beer or three? No? Oh OK then. lets go



I'm not convinced by this at all. 8pm is the gate time, so by the time you leave the airport it'll be 8.30 at the earliest, if not 9pm, and then 10pm by the time you get through to the hotel. That means, your body thinks it is 3am. If you have energy, yeah, you might be able to head to Times Square and see the flashing lights, but it's a good trek from your hotel. Think about that 5 hour time difference.



The walk from your hotel is 3.5 miles to get just to the bridge, so what I'd suggest, is to get the Subway from your hotel, into Brooklyn, then walk back into Manhattan. That way you can appreciate the views. Don't bother with a taxi, that'd cost a fortune probably talking easily $20, when a $2.25 subway ride will get you there. If you need specific directions, head over to hopstop.com

Ground Zero? I'm unsure why people are still calling it that after 10 years. It isn't a war zone. Locals call it the World Trade Center site. However, it is just a building site, and you can't really see much, as there are high hoardings all the way around the site. The best thing to do, is take in the memorial in place across the road at St. Paul's Chapel where the heroes rested after working at the site. Across Vesey Street is the Preview Site, which shows not only the past, but also what will be. Near the Trade Center Site are lots of other great things like Wall Street, Charging Bull, City Hall Park, Century 21.



Is your ferry at 1pm? I'd advise getting there early, as the queues for security can be rather lengthy (so I've heard!) aim for midday - 12.30. factor in 3 hours for the whole thing, as you're not going to the crown.

Ok, onto beer. I love beer, and I know a fair few bars. From the little I know, I'd suggest heading into Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the evening, there are loads of bars, restaurants, hipsters, and locals who head into this area. It doesn't even get busy til gone 11pm, and as bars are open til 4, then you have plenty of time left in the day. Places like Spike Hill (just outside the L train stop at Bedford Avenue), Teddy's, Brooklyn Ale House, Lorely, Turkeys Nest, DBA Williamsburg, the list is just huge!! If you want, i'll root out my bar crawl list, and let you know where is the best places to go / start end at.



Empire State - get there early to avoid the queues, however, I think things are slightly in the wrong order as you're darting around Manhattan. Look at a map, and this order, and you'll see it as more logical. Also, there are rarely queues at TOTR, just remember to pick up the discount vouchers the guys are handing out. I prefer TOTR to Empire State, the view is more iconic, it is more spacious, and just a better experience.

• Empire State
• Grand Central
• Rockefeller Center
• TOTR
• Saks 5th Avenue
• FAO Schwarz (not toys r us, but toys r us, really isn't in the right direction to where you're going)
• Central Park

I'm still not keen on this, as you're lugging your shopping around Central Park, It seems like you are fixed on Empire State, but the queues are annoying, it has to be done early. if you dropped that from this (and do it tuesday morning more on that in a moment) then you could start in Central park, and work down, picking up shopping on the way, and then finishing off at your hotel. It's just how my brain works, so I hope you get what I mean.

Head over to 9th avenue if you want some cheap food, or Virgils in Times Square if you want some BBQ, but if you want something a bit more romantic, you could be pushed for time and reservations. I don't recommend many restaurants in Times Square, as they're squarely aimed at the tourist trade, and the food is average at best. Virgils is the exception to the rule, however it is just BBQ food, and nothing "romantic"

Now, after you've done the theater, you could go to Toys r Us, i'm pretty sure it's open til 11pm soem days, or something stupid like that, but FAO should be able to get your toy fix, and you get to see the Piano featured in Big (Tom Hanks Movie)



So, tuesday, flight at that time means leave at 6.30pm, so go see some different part of NYC that you've not done yet. The HighLine / Chelsea Market / Greenwich Village, into Chinatown and Soho can fill a day up nicely





I hope there is a typo in there somewhere. Hop On Hop Off Buses, are NOT a form of transportation. What it'll take you to go from central park to your hotel, (about 90 minutes) on a bus, will take 15 minutes on the subway. The subway runs 24/7 and is busy until about 3am. i've even got a packed train at 3am back to my hotel when i was staying in Brooklyn as people are still bar hopping around. Subway is the way to go.

A $29 ticket each will give you unlimited bus and subway travel. if you taxi'd everywhere, then you'd be spending upwards of $50 a day probably in travel. Also a 72 hour ticket on a hop on hop off bus is over $100 per person. How someone can recommend these as transportation I have no idea. If you really want (I can't see the time to squeeze it in) just pick a particular loop, but I think you've done well with your itinerary, and if you add in Chelsea / highline etc etc on Tuesday, then you'll have covered a huge amount of NYC.

If you've got any more questions, or want a pub crawl or two, let me know.

I was about to say this :rotfl:


M4rkm also went on to say.


I'm at home now, which means I have my bookmarks in front of me, so I can easily give you a couple of pub crawls. Where to start. Lets do Williamsburg first. This is a great area, and as you're around the same age as me, you should be alright.

Ok, first thing is to get to Williamsburg, from your hotel, go to the nearest subway, and get the 4 or 6 train to 14th Street Union Square. Then from there, get the L train through to Bedford Avenue (first stop in Brooklyn!).

I'm going to try take you on a bit of a loop around Williamsburg.
This will be about a 2 mile loop all in all but you'll have plenty of beer choices. I'll even throw in some other food choices too, which you may want to consider along the route.

Outside the Subway station (leave the exit for Bedford Avenue, head straight over the road, and into Spike Hill. It's a good starting point, as it's so close to the subway.

Once you're done there, head UP Bedford Avenue (with the traffic, that is), and take the 2nd left on North 8th Street. Walk to the end of the block and you have Brooklyn Ale House, on the left, and the opposite corner, you have Teddys.

Again, head up Berry street, and right on North 10th Street, back to Bedford Avenue, then you have Mugs Ale house. North on Bedford again to North 12th Street, and you'll have the Turkey's Nest - This is the neighbourhood dive bar, but they do do 32oz styrofoams of Coors Light for under $4, so you can't really go wrong. Good Jukebox too!

By now you're probably in need of some more beer, or something to eat. So lets tackle both. Leave Turkeys Nest, and walk along the park (North 12th Street), until you meet Union Ave, Walk 2 blocks to Richardson Street, and then at the end turn Right on Lorimer Street. You then have on your right, Petes Candy Store. No, not candy, but more beer. They do sandwiches, but don't bother. They do also have live music in the back room.

From here you can go towards the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and you will get to Withers Street, turn right, and you'll find Bamontes, a proper old school italian restaurant. It's nice, but you'll probably be too tired to continue this amazing pub crawl, so maybe save that for a later date.

If you don't do Bamontes, don't turn right there, but turn left, and you'll come across Lorely on your left. This is the first german style biergarten on your journey around. I've not yet been here, it is on my to-do list, so let me know if you make it.

Once you've done Lorely, head back in the direction you came from, and when you see a hotel on your right, you need to veer across under the BQE, This is the Hotel Le Jolie where I sometimes stay in Brooklyn, Cross under the BQE safely, and then on the left hand side, on the corner of Union Ave, you'll find Union Pool (featured as Brooklyn Pool, on the movie, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist!). Again, this place does live music in the back room.

Walk out of Union Pool, turn left, and down Union Avenue, then Right down Metropolitan Avenue. You'll pass the Knitting Factory, and on your right, there is a new pub that I can't remember the name of, not been in it, and also there is Spuyten Duyvil for some more drinks. (only the second place i'm recommending that I've not been to!)

Across the road from there is a great BBQ place called Fette Sau, bring your appetite, order the brisket, ribs, and they weigh your tray, and you pay by the lb. Pay for that, and grab a communal table, and then choose a beer served from the other bar. Oh yes, this is a great place to eat and drink.

Once done at Fette Sau, keep walking down Metropolitan, Now, you can do one of 2 things. Keep going with this epic crawl, or when you hit Bedford, take a right, and head back up to the subway.

Keep going? Good. Walk past bedford, and on Berry take a right. next block on the left hand side you have Radegast Biergarten. Good beers here too.

Now, as you walk out of Radegast, head down the other direction to what you walked (yeah, you've had to double back on yourself, and walk down 7 blocks to South 4th. On the corner of South 4th and Berry, you'll find a small neighbourhood bar that I adore. Great beer, and the huckleberry lemonades, which are much more alcoholic than they taste.

If at this point you've not eaten, well, you can do one of 2 things, eat at the bar, but they don't do food, but they do have a folder of menus, so you can basically choose anything, make a phone call, and get it delivered. Also, this bar does cups of tea. english breakfast tea. posh green tea.. but you don't want tea.

Your other option, is to leave the pub and turn right, and at Driggs Avenue, turn Right, and then you'll come across Peter Lugers. Bring cash only they don't accept credit cards, and have a great steak. Depends on how much beer you've consumed though.

Near Peter Lugers is Marcy Avenue on the J train, so you can head back into Manhattan there. Change at Chambers Street for the 4/5/6 back up to your hotel, and sleep off Williamsburg.

Now onto Beers. Kelso of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Brewery, and Sixpoint are all local breweries, so I'd recommend you try some of them on your journey around. If you want to be cheap and blend in, it's a $2 pabst blue ribbon..(not my thing!)

That is a complete night there for you in a post. Maybe print off a google map of the area, and zoom in as most of my suggestions do have little icons on there, so it's easier to navigate, but ask any of the hipsters that have just woken up, and they should be able to help you get your beer fix. most are on my map of Brooklyn, just untick the boxes at the bottom and leave drinks ticked. I really should update this too - http://nyc-map.com/brooklyn.php

If you want, I'll do you a Manhattan based pub crawl? I'm hoping you say yes to be honest, I love planning pub crawls..

M
I was typing this when you posted
you just beat me to it again great advice again mark.

I dont think i have that many letters on my keyboard :rotfl:

THEN I SET MY ALARM AT 4-30 AM THIS MORNING TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE PRAYERS AND A JOG ONLY


MA4RKM
"Pick up and ground transportation courtesy phone as you have to call them!"

There you are at it again.

Alwaysthinking_2

Thanks again M4RKM - and greenface (he's quick isn't he???) it looks brilliant. I'm impressed - you do know you boozers don't you! Why not give us the Manhattan one too - as much as I intend to have a good go at doing at least one of your epic crawls, I'm sure many other readers will be interested too. It's forums like this that make a holiday as good as it can be, the depth of knowledge from experienced visitors is worth a fortune. You should be charging for this sort of info!

M4RKM

Greenface - I was awake at 4.30 for some absurd reason. I was buzzing last night when I booked the Mondrian Soho for my bonus night in NYC. And i've got a bargain rate of just under $200 for the night. After it's opening rates, these rooms are going to be over $400, so I had to splash out a bit. Also, you need to learn how to use the quote tags... *grins*

AlwaysThinking - I'll give you a Manhattan pub crawl when I get home from work tonight.. Maybe that Williamsburg could be split into 2 crawls, it just works logically to walk around in a big loop though..

M

gregg1

Alwaysthinking wrote: »

Right folks - first post so be easy on me! My wife and I are travelling to NYC this sat 12th Feb to celebrate my wifes 30th for a few days (kids free!). I'm sure this has been covered over and over, but it'd be a great help to have a response that suites our plans directly please? We're interested in any tips, bargains, must sees/do's etc

Planned the following so far:

Sat: Arrive at JFK Sat 8pm, transfer with Carmel to the Affinia Dumont, 150 East 34th. Dump the suitcases and head out to take in the surroundings, maybe times square, and esb (pre booked express tickets) and eat. Jet lag - sleep!

Sun: Up - Breakfast (deli near hotel?), and (somehow - walk/taxi/subway/bus???) get to Brooklyn Bridge, then ground zero, then Battery park for 1pm ferry to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (pre booked with Pedestal pass). Back from there then free time to fill - any suggestions? Maybe a beer or three and some good quality sitting / people watching for the evening???

Monday: Empire state if not done Sat night, Central park wander, Rockerfeller Center (wife wants to ice skate here) and Top of the Rock if queues not too bad, toys r us (pressies for the kids!), Saks 5th Ave, Grand Central Station, eat, back to hotel. Out to see Lion King 8pm, with either early meal before or late meal after (any suggestions near to Times Sq?). Mid priced (not over fussed about daft expensive food) nice atmosphere for Valentines?? and drinks after.

Tuesday: Flight at 22:25 JFK - LHR. Leave day free to wander - see what we've not managed to yet, spend any remaining cash!

Have been told the open top red buses are worthwhile for just the general tour, and to use as main mode of transport for hop on hop off with the 72 hour ticket etc? I'm not sure if to do this, or get a 7 day metro card each, or even just use taxis here and there when needed?

Any of your help / suggestions will be greatly appreciated. REALLY looking forward to getting there now!

For the record, we did one of the loops on the bus tours and thought it was great. It really is a personal choice and yes of course it takes longer to get round but we found we saw loads we may have missed and the tour guides are usually brilliant and you get to learn quite a lot about the different areas whilst just sitting back in your seat and enjoying the view.

greenface

I will put learning tags on my very long list of things to learn. Thanks . Sorry got to go gas is running out of my computer needs a shilling.

Savvy_Sue

M4RKM wrote: »

Maybe that Williamsburg could be split into 2 crawls, it just works logically to walk around in a big loop though..

M

I felt tired just reading it ... :rotfl:

M4RKM

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I felt tired just reading it ... :rotfl:

I really enjoyed writing that, because I was sitting there imagining the streets as I wandered down them.

That isn't that bad a loop, It's 11 bars, and about 2 miles of walking. I always thought the point of a bar crawl, was to, well be kinda merry at the end of it.

The thing is also, that some people will walk past a bar, and think that they don't like the look of it. So, if that happens, that 11, goes down to about 8, but you still get to see a different area, one that hop on hop off buses don't go.

Also, what could happen is that you get to bar 5 on the crawl, really like the atmosphere, start chatting to people in the bar and you end up spending all night there.

the only place I missed off that, was a trip to the Brooklyn Brewery itself, but that's only open Friday evenings, and Sat/Sun daytime.

M

My_Fathers_Daughter

Boo hoo - I am really jealous of your pub crawls! Not for me this time with the kids in tow but I am VERY much looking forward to experiencing NYC through my 11 year olds eyes!! It is certainly going to be a much different trip to last time we were there.


Any thoughts on taking a buggy on the subway? We do have a fancy buggy where the legs fold in and you can run it on 2 wheels but is it likely to be a nightmare?


Also - did anyone spot my post about when the April deals are likely to be released? I have seen a few deals that run through but most at the moment seem to stop at the end of March.

M4RKM

My_Fathers_Daughter wrote: »

Also - did anyone spot my post about when the April deals are likely to be released? I have seen a few deals that run through but most at the moment seem to stop at the end of March.

April deals are slowly appearing on travelzoo..

$199 -- W Downtown - Includes two cocktails per person as well as two appetizers - Valid for Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 11 - May 1

$82-$99 -- New Brooklyn Hotel - Most three or more night stays through May - bookit.com

M4RKM

I've sorta lost my mojo with this "Manhattan" pub crawl, it just doesn't feel right. So, if I were to crawl around a certain area (away from midtown that is) in Manhattan, where would you choose?