New York for new year!

[HarryDresdensLeatherDuster]

Any suggestions? I think it will be me and 21 year old DS. I went in my teens but not since.

Where to stay? What to see? Where to go? Where to eat? SO many questions!!

What can you afford??? It will be cold!!! Buy Lonely Planet and plan from their suggestions. There have been loads of ideas on threads here but you have to think about iconic buildings, museums and galleries, Central Park and the Highline, theatre and what you are interested in. Plan to stay within walking distance of some of your highlights. You cannot walk to everything! There are some great hotels but budget dictates - as everywhere!

What BubblesBuddy wrote.

What is your budget per night; NYC can be expensive and it receives a high number of visitors all year round.

I was there in Dec 2017. It was bitterly cold; think of the "Beast from the East" type winter storm cold but somewhat colder that between Christmas and New Year. The windchill was particularly nasty. Many stores ran out of thermal garments. You would not be able to walk on the highline at that time of year and the period between Christmas and New Year seems to be peak time in terms of visitor numbers.

The Rockettes Christmas on Ice show at Radio City Music Hall is certainly worth seeing.

Thanks for your advice. I have been looking at The Library in midtown right near Grand Central station. Budget is healthy but not limitless!

The Rockettes show sounds like a good one - I assume I can book it online from here? I can do cold and have many thermals already so that bit isn't too scary!

Any 'must eat' places for a 21 year old???

I assume your 21 year old isn’t just looking for burgers so you can try: Rouge Tomate, Smith, Totto Ramen, El Margon for lunch, Viceversa, Betony, City Bakery, Shake Shack, Hectors Cafe and Diner, Jeffrey’s Grocery for brunch, Spotted Pig, Redfarm, Saxon and Parole, Siggis for the fireplace, Tacombi, Ruby’s, plus someone will post and say Ellen’s Diner (yuk!). Again, Lonely Planet is your best friend in each neighbourhood.

The Library Hotel is ok but Americans rate it highly due to free wine and cheese at around 5 pm and a breakfast. These are rare inclusions in the price. The hotel is very beige. We have never been back at hotel for 5.

A much better choice and not much more expensive, is the Crosby Street Hotel. Fantastic!!! Not so good for midtown but the price on booking.com is a bargain!

However, not sure how any of the hotel rooms work for 3 adults.

Thanks for all of this - loads to consider. I had looked at the Crosby Street Hotel but it is nearly £2k more than the Library! If it is just me and DS, I might manage but if the other two DCs decide to come I will be looking at over £6k for hotel rooms alone. Money I would rater spend on other things!

When you still haven't settled the basic questions, I always advise starting with buying one or two guidebooks. Luckily, there are quite a few for NYC.

There does now seem to be a huge price difference. The Library seems a better bet at the price!

Be prepared for the cold - we went between Christmas and New Year, and it was freezing - around minus 10 with a windchill of minus 18 degrees. We had snow, which was lovely, but the cold did stop us doing some things such as walking the Brooklyn Bridge (too cold!) or ice skating (massive queues).

Also, the days between Christmas and New Year are the busiest time to visit. We’ve been a few times, but this was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. This meant that we didn’t do as much as we’d planned as everything was so busy. Avoid Times Square unless you like fighting your way through crowds who are shoulder to shoulder. Pre book main attractions such as the Empire State or Top of the Rock.

DON'T do Times Square for Midnight.
There are much nicer parts of the city to celebrate

DON'T think that the shopping will be cheap

Eat on the streets not the Avenues

It WILL be cold

Thanks for more input! My alternative offer to the DCs was the Caribbean so they can't moan about the temp!

Ta1kinpeace [sad} we wanted to see the ball drop but where is better?

Anywhere .....
we went at noon - so we could take selfies with the clock showing 12
but for midnight you are penned in for several hours and the bars around there charge $$$$$$$

There are lots of other places where people gather / where you can watch the cool lights on the Empire State

I agree with Ta1kinpeace, don't go to Times Square on New Year's Eve. It will be ridiculously full, you need to stand there from latest midday onwards and can't leave or you'll lose your spot. Unless you are happy to pay $$$$$$ for some of the restaurants nearby and watch from the window.

Much better to go to Central Park. This is where the fireworks happens at midnight and beforehand there are plenty of food vendours, music etc to celebrate. At midnight the runners start, literally small marathon type running, so if you like, you could join? Quite nice, everyone cheers them on and it was a fantastic atmosphere. Some people run in funny costumes, really great to watch.