Does anyone think my New York itinerary is missing anything?

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

New York Trip with DH and DS's 10 and 7 I'm just over a month and I've had the time over Christmas to come up with an itinerary. Can anyone spot any problems with it such as 'must do' things missed or any things in there that are a waste of money.

Day 1: arrive at approx 9am having left UK at 6am so find hotel (near Time Square) to drop bags off then explore Time Square, 5th Avenue area including M&M world, Macy's etc check in at 3pm dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner then have a relaxing evening in the hotel and an early ish night
Day 2: Central Park, Central Park Zoo and Ice skating at the Woolman rink
Day 3: Natural History Museum and Rousevelt Tram
Day 4: One world observatory, 9/11 memorial (not the museum), Staten Island Ferry, Sea Glass carousel then walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to watch Basketball at the Barclays Centre.
Day 5: The Highline, Trump Tower and anything else we ran out of time to do on the other days or things we want to go back to etc
Day 6: check out and fly home

If your boys liked Home Alone 2 then a quick walk through the visitor lobby in the famous hotel (The Plaza) that featured in the film (where Kevin speaks to Donald Trump) by Central Park is cool. Also have a giant pretzel from a cart as warm and filling for all the walking you'll do.

I grew up reading the Eloise books so always make a pilgrimage to the Plaza hotel.

Def Empire State - book tickets in advance because it's cheaper.

We did the high line in winter (1st week Jan this year!) And it was miserable. The play bit was closed because the grids were too slippy with the wet and frost.

Beware of doing too much the first day- DD was nearly 9 and by 7pm was falling asleep in her dinner! We'd left the UK at 8am, arriving at the hotel about 2pm. Don't underestimate the time to get through immigration! And the taxi queue at the airport too.

We will definitely fit a trip in to South Street Seaport ticket booth to see if there are any cheap tickets going. I'll have to see when we are there if the budget will stretch to the Empire State Building as the One World Observatory is on DH's must do list. Is it really frowned upon to use the pay what you wish option at the Natural History Museum? as we could save some $'s if we did that.

Is it really frowned upon to use the pay what you wish option at the Natural History Museum?
It is but put on your best West Country accent and they will have no idea what you are saying or where you are from
we discovered that best West Dorset is great for commenting on other bus passengers

PS I always use the subway to come in from JFK or Newark
as then you get to sit and look out the window as you go through the outer boro's
NYC wiring is a sight to behold

peace DH has a broad Geordie accent it usually has the same affect, I'll get him to do the paying.

China town and Little Italy.......China town for main course, Little Italy for dessert.

I really liked the Central Park zoo, the sea lion display was awesome! We did the Empire State view during the day and the Top of the Rock at night so we got to see the view both in the day and all lit up. Definitely would recommend a City Pass, we got ours online with a 20% discount. Didn't rate the Guggenheim, it was floor upon floor of burnt shit when we went!

One time I took my kids to the Guggenheim. Luckily they were too busy waving at each other across the spiral to notice that the main exhibition was Mapplethorpe photos

PS I always use the subway to come in from JFK or Newark

I used it last week from jfk at rush hour. Never again. It was worse than the Tube at rush hour.

Ah yes, I try to time flights to avoid rush hour !

The best bit about Macy's is the windows (particularly at Xmas), so just wander past - same for Time Sq. Both very near your hotel.

I love The Empire- it's so familiar!
The High line is a summer thing. The hop on hop off tours are great.
Walk past Trump towers (and Tiffanys) en route to Central Park - go skating, it's wonderful.
The helicopter tours are the best thing I've done in New York, but not cheap.
Grand Central station is lovely for a quick visit. The children will love the whispering subway (underground walkway where the acoustics are clever). The library is gorgeous too.

Yes please don't pay the recommended entrance....we did at the MET, it was around $68 for the 2 of us and the people who went through behind us told us we were insane, only polite British tourists pay the suggested amount . It's a fantastic place but almost a bit overwhelming due to the sheer size and DH had more than had enough after 2 hours.

I would not recommend the subway from the airport unless you are on a serious budget. After a transatlantic flight and US customs, you need to get out of the airport and to your hotel PDQ.

My advice would be to leave Central Park till the end if the trip. It's just a park. A big one, granted, but just like any other municipal park in the UK. The reason New Yorkers make such a fuss about it must be because none of them have gardens snd it's their only outdoor space - I cannot think of any other explanation. We went there on our first full day and I couldn't believe we had flown half way across the world to come to what looked like our local park. We went again towards the end of our trip and after five or six days of skyscrapers, car horns and traffic fumes and appreciated it quite a bit more.

Your first morning seems a little tight we arrived after a flight from , Columbia and were literally hours queueing for immigration

Totally agree with Balloonslayer about Central Park. It really is one of Jose things, like the zoo, that only make sense if you live in Manhattan.

This is such a brilliant thread, can it be moved to the travel section so that it doesn’t go pfff after 90 days?

TENEMENT MUSEUM. You need to pre book and choose which tour you want to do but it’s fabulous and there are really great ones for kids.

I’d skip Ellen’s Stardust Diner. I found the food was awful, entertainment was good, service was all false smiles, ‘give me money as I’m a struggling Broadway wannabe’. Bloody hideous.

Totally agree, utter waste of time and money for terrible food

I was recommended Ellen’s. I’d been to NY countless times, and never heard of it, it’s obviously a tourist trap 🙄 I wish I hadn’t bothered. We went that time with dc.

Like a previous post, we were overlooked as a family, which really fucked me off.

It was all the fake Broadway smiles, ‘here’s your shit food, now give me a tip’ 🖕🏼

Oh, no, I skipped all those obvious tourist trap eateries. If you go to Central Park, have a wander around the UWS as well. I think we ate at Barney Greengrass (contradicting what I've just said re tourist trap eateries ). Well, we got food to eat in the park but it is a really authentic NYC deli - and you can eat in.

ChippyMinton, that's an excellent idea about moving the thread, so I messaged MNHQ about it.

And by the way, I am very impressed by the general level of New York knowledge here on MN.

Ellen's stardust diner is amazing! Very talented staff