I am going to NYC what should I see and do there?

Question

I plan on shopping and seeing the obvious tourist things WTC, empire state bldg. liberty, ect... where should I shop? and what are some random little places tourist don't know about?

Answer 1

For tourist stuff...first, get a good tour map. Then I recommend you take the BIG APPLE double decker tour bus for an overview of the city. There are several different neighborhoods so I'll highlight these and what to see:
Upper East Side: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim, Whitney Museum. Walk up and down Madison Avenue for awesome shops and boutiques 96th - 57th st. Walk Park Avenue for architecture all the way to Grand Central Terminal and see the treasures located within. Walk along 5th Avenue to see/go in and out of Central Park - go for a run, go to the Central Park Zoo, go to the Carousel, go for a gondola ride at the boat house.
UPPER WEST SIDE:
Museum of Natural History -a must! on Central Park West,
Walk along Columbus Avenue. Visit the West side of Central Park and pay respects to John Lennon's Strawberry Fields.
MIDTOWN:
Shopping - 57th St (Chanel and the gang), Fifth Avenue - must see Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks and FAO Schwartz - many other fun stores.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Museum of Modern Art
Sony Bldg
Rockefeller Center
Go west to awesome new Time Warner center and visit the new Mandarin Hotel bar/restaurant for awesome view and treats!
Oh, Bloomingdale's is on 59th St and Lexington.
Empire State Bldg.
The Intrepid Aircraft Museum is fascinating and on the West side...worth the visit even if you have no kids.

CHELSEA:
Walk around the blooming area sprouting awesome restaurants and shops. Chelsea Pier is fun.

WALL ST:
Pay respects to the 9/11 victims and heroes at the WTC site., Walk Wall St., visit the Chase Hdqtrs, Federal Reserve. Seaport area is great to see.

THE VILLAGE:
Funky shops in the West Village. Walk through the NYU Washington Square Park. The East Village has some shops from new artists and designers

SOHO:
Great galleries and shops on n off West Broadway. Walk thru to Little Italy for awesome meals and desserts...walk through Chinatown. CANAL STREET has stall after stall of Designer "copies"...bring cash and bargain and watch your purse!

These should put an awesome smile on your face. Bring your camera and takes lots of photos to remember your trip. If you dont want to be touristy go downtown and get lost there. For shopping, I prefer the Upper West Side boutiques to 5th Ave and Midtown because I try to avoid tourists. Amsterdam and Broadway have a lot of cute ones from about 84th to 60th (which is near Columbus Circle, and I think you should check that out too)

Answer 2

SHOPPING ON 5th & Madison!

Eating at Wo Hops on Mott and Elizabeth in China Town. Order the sea snails w/ Black bean sauce, or the chow mei fun. Or anything really, it is all excellent! It is a little hole in the wall dive in a converted basement with the most authentic and delicious chinese food ever!

Central Park Horse and Buggy Ride (don't mind the smell, it passes.)

FAO Schwartz

Staten Island (take your car on the boat and drive) From there, You can get to the malls, and NJ outlet stores.

Times square SWAG BAGS! Just watch for the guys that walk around with the sheets and the carts filled with the best fake bags in the world! Only place you really can't tell the difference.
Barter with them, they will go quite low, especially if you start to walk away...

Little Italy best Italian food in NYC! Any place you stop will do! Stop at Dean and Deluca for a fantastic culinary experience.

The French Culinary institute offers really cheap gormet meals and you get to watch the students cook it! How Hell's Kitchen is that? Awesome!

Helicopter rides are expensive, but worth it!

Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to the little shopping area on the other side. Best Chocolateir in the world hides there...


I shop and my hubby is a chef... Can you tell?


All of the museums and theatres are excellen as well.

Call ahead for tickets to a live taping of Dave Letterman.

Answer 3

Manhattan is a great place to shop and window shop (some expensive stores there!). Go to the ethnic areas, Little Italy, etc., for great food and atmosphere. Wolf's Deli, been around for half a century and has the best corned beef and incredible sour kraut. And go early to The Peking Duck, a fantastic place to eat...what else...Peking Duck!

Answer 4

Take a nap in Central Park. NYC can be exhausting.

If you're a Lennon fan, go see Strawberry Fields.

And there's this great pastry shop in Little Italy.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

see a Broadway show, eat in a Chinese restaurant. get to try the wonderful new york pizza, nothing like it. walk around Rockefeller center. see a show in radio city music hall.

Answer 7

Please don't eat anywhere that has a theme (i.e. Mars 2012 JekyllHyde, Forrest Gump) and don't eat anywhere that has a franchise in other towns (like Olive Garden, Pizzeria Uno Chicago Grill, TGIF). Absolutely no offense to those restaurants, which even I go to as to experience what the rest of the country is subjected to -- but YOU WILL BE IN NY!!! There is a different international cuisine on every corner! Don't be afraid. Read restaurant reviews and calm down. Watch the cooking shows on PBS and cable. Clean ethnic food will not make you sick, nor will you be served anything dangerous or weird, like cat, or garden snails. If New Yorkers eat there every day and you read nothing going wrong, then it's safe. I'd be more worried about mice droppings in the french fries at the ChuckECheese than eating delicious fresh cold (cooked) shrimp rolls at some Thai restaurant.

You must go to a Broadway Show or two, either buying in advance or going to the TKTS booth and flipping a coin. You will not go wrong; it takes millions to launch a play so none of them, no matter how obscure, could be too bad. Read up on what's going on Off-Broadway, too.

Check out concerts in small venues according to your musical tastes: jazz, classical, up-and-coming rock bands. Chances are you'll be surrounded by "natives", which is what you want.

What do you want to buy? There are fancy boutiques on Madison Avenue above 57th Street. The really famous fancy stores like Prada and Coach (and Nike Town?) are on 57th. Souvenirs are everywhere, but cheapest in the drugstore chains like Duane Reade. Disney Stores are all over the country, but there's one on 5th Avenue. There's the NBA store near Rockefeller Center, Brooks Brothers too. Barney's is on Madison and 60th St. Bloomingdale's on Lexington Ave and 59th and also in the SOHO area. Apple Stores next to FAO Schwarz and also down in SOHO-- both are architecturally different and worth a quick visit. SoHO is great for shopping. Macy's on 34th street is great to visit even if you have one at home. Pearl River Market on Broadway has Asian items. Forbidden Planet just south of Union Square has Sci-Fi Channel- type stuff, and the Strand bookstore has the best finds and deals on signed books. Then there are the bargains at Century 21. There are stores everywhere, some big some small. You have to be more specific on what you're looking for. Maybe you should buy a copy of Zagat NY Marketplace.

Are you bored with Times Square, the Empire State building, Rockefeller Center and Statue of Liberty (all must-sees)?

Overwhelmed by the magnificent art in all the museums (Met, MoMA, Frick, Guggenheim, etc)?

Done with some of the other great museums (Police, Tenement, Natural History, NY Historical Society, Ellis Island, Photography, Moving Image, Television and Radio, Cloisters, Native American-- I could go on-and-on)?

Walked through the Village starting at Union Square (rest-up in the park before starting), down Broadway to Bleecker Street then west till you can't go any further?

Done SOHO from Prince, Broome and Spring Streets east of Broadway, walking west to West Broadway?

Walked the Upper East Side -- Fifth, Madison and Park Avenues from, say, 60th street to 90th-- and seen how the really rich live?

Enjoyed the laid-back Upper West Side and understand why neither Upper East nor Upper West neighborhood resident would live in the other's Side ?

Shopped at J&R Music-Computer-Electronics World near Ground Zero?

Then you're ready for the other boroughs!

I don't just mean going the awesome Bronx Zoo and Bronx Botanical Garden, or simply walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and sitting on the Brooklyn Promenade looking at the NYC skyline; there're other places...

Brownstone Brooklyn: from DUMBO under the bridges to Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill to Prospect Heights, Prospect Park, Botanic Garden (there is an indoor exhibit, depending on when you go), Brooklyn Museum, Park Slope (especially 7th Avenue from 14th Street to Flatbush Ave). You could walk this in a day but you'll be exhausted by the time you hit Park Slope. I recommend taking buses from Brooklyn Heights over to Ft Greene and walk the rest, up Vanderbilt to the Park. Walking shoes time!

Then there's Coney Island, albeit only Nathans will be open.

Caribbean neighborhood along Flatbush Avenue (take the 41 bus or train to Parkside), where you can get genuine roti, oxtails, tropical fruit and shop for bargains.

Brooklyn's Chinatown on 8th Avenue, where souvenirs are cheaper (but probably just as fragile as Manhattan C-town) and the restaurants treat you less anonymously.

Bay Ridge still has some Italian/Greek flavor, but catch it before it goes the way of the heavy Scandanavian influence that used to be there decades ago (5th avenue and 86th street; 3rd avenue between 65th and 101st streets). This is a residential neighborhood and can feel territorial, so know where you're going.

Brighton Beach's Russian strip?

On to Queens: Jackson Diner in Jackson Heights has the best freshest Indian food. It's truly a melting pot around there.

Back to Manhattan: Columbia University campus, up Broadway, east to Harlem across 125 Street. Don't be afraid! Do as you'd do in the rest of the city: act like you know where you going by memorizing your map and do not meet eyes of crazy people looking for confrontations. More good food, bargains and souvenirs.

Koreatown karaoke bars (Manhattan 32nd street)

Continue your research on other websites (try timeout.com, zagat.com, the Village Voice paper) and you'll have a great ol' time!

Answer 8

born & raised in washington, I went to PHX. for like 5 years, why don't you ask a question about AZ. LOL

Answer 9

the buildings

Answer 10

Thing to see.... Your wallet when you are done.

Thing to do....Leave.