What are the MUST DO's in New York??

Aidan_Smith

Proberbly everything is already mentioned but try to goto the empire state at dusk to see the best of both (we went twice - day & night).
Security is pretty strict as you would expect for the empire state and liberty/ellis island ferries.
You can spend forever in places like ellis island and the natural history museum.
You can by the way go to the observation bit on the top of the empire state but it costs a little more, Empire state building is definately a highlight.

Aidan_Smith

To save alot of foot ache (even if you do (sensibly) get a rail card on your first day) & see alot quickly / get aquainted, get the full ticket bundle for the (is it grey hound?) tour buses.
You can then go on several tours on open top coachs of manhattan and brooklyn, the coachs loop and you can get on and off at all the relevent stops.
Going across the Manhattan bridge to Brooklyn (They cannot go over the brooklyn bridge for some reason but its worth walking anyway) at night (up top) is a bit daunting, but the views are fantastic!

blindman

flower_chops wrote:

We're going in a few weeks and I am SO excited!!!!! We're staying at the Pennsylvania which I'm also very excited about as it's the one in the Glen Miller song ("Pennsylvania 6-5000")!

We're there for a week and am going to print all of this out so we can choose all the things that are recommended, that we have the time for!

Haven't been on holiday for nearly 12 years so am really looking forward to it x

Oh dear....
Tripadvisor review Pennsylvania Hotel

hollydays

It is classed as a budget hotel.Its a great location.I have stayed there.pm me if you want any info.

Rachel71

Hello

I went to NY in Easter and then, to go up the statue of liberty you needed a time pass. You can get them from the ticket office for the ferry to the island but they only have a limited number so you need to get there early (we got there at 10.30 and missed out although apparently you can reserve online - googling throws up https://www.statuereservations.com/index.html). We did go to Ellis Island (same ferry but no timepass required) which is really interesting. There's a cafe on Ellis Island but the food wasn't great and was kind of expensive, so you might want to take something with you if you go around lunchtime. Theres a security screening to get on the ferry (queue of about 40 mins when we went) and I think that you can't take bags onto the statue.

If you like shopping, there's a big outlet village about 1 hr from new york http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7 - we took a bus although I can't remember where from. It has quite a lot of shops with some okish discounts - not silly discount cheap though. I seem to remember (although this is really dredging my memory) that Tuesday is a further 10% off day for the over 55s so if you are over 55 and go on a Tue, be sure to take your passport to prove age (as I'm not sure about this, might to worth ringing/emailing them to check if you go).

You'll have a great time!
Rachel

steve237

Hop on and off the subway and get lost in the different districts... great for people watching!

Have a great time

steve237

The American Museum of Natural History is supposed to be the best in the world - I certainly enjoyed myself there! Only had half a day and it wasn't enough time. The space show is supposed to be incredible but I didn't have time.

Lucie_2

Another vote for a Big Apple Greeter, I only had 3 days in New York, but a morning spent with a native showed me more of the city than I would have found in a whole week on my own. It's completely free, they won't even accept a tip or even let you buy them a coffee!

shopndrop

Have been trying to download a request form for the Big APple Greeter for a few days but it just keeps timing out on me. Is there any other way of requesting a greeter?

where2save

I'm having no luck downloading the Big Apple Greeter form either.

Most people seem to prefer the view from the Top of the Rock compared to the Empire State Building. ToTR gives you a great view of the ESB and Central Park (so go up in daylight or it will look like a big dark blob)! If you do both (which I think I will do), go up the ESB at night as an alternative and to avoid queues go late (they are open until 2am on Thursday, Friday and Saturdau until the end of the year).