New York

[Katxie]

Just booked a trip to NYC for next spring - so excited!!

We're doing 5 nights. I've found lots of recommendations for things to do on here, so some of those are:

• Top of the Rock
• High line
• Staten Island ferry
• Brooklyn bridge and wander round Brooklyn
• Central Park
• Wander round Greenwich village
• 9/11 memorial and museum
• Ellis island and the immigration museum there
• Shopping!

What I'm struggling with is figuring out how long we're likely to be at things so we can get an idea of how to split the days up. Any recommendations of what to combine over our days?

Thanks!

If you’re doing the Ellis island your the boat also stops at Statue of Liberty so you can get off there too.
Because of this I wouldn’t bother doing the staten island ferry as all it’s really good for us getting pictures of Statue of Liberty.
The Ellis island and Statue of Liberty take up half a day or more so I’d recommend booking yourself in the first tour of the morning. Queues for security can also be long so get down there nice and early.
It’s really easy to get around NYC but handy to look at a map to see which attractions are close by each other.
Enjoy

If you get the Lonely Planet guide it is separated into sections with a map.

Spend a day doing South Manhattan:
We spent a good two hours at the 9/11 and could have spent longer but our brains had had information overload! If you want to do it well, aim to spend the whole morning there. It’s one of the few attractions that opens at 9am and I’d recommend getting there then.
The Staten Island ferryride each way is approx 25 mins. You must get off at the Staten Island side and you can join the queue to get immediately back on the ferry, so it is possible to spend an hour for the ride back and forth.
However, depending on the size of the crowd that is waiting to go to Manhattan, you may not be able to get back on to the same ferry for the return trip to Manhattan, so plan for at least 60 – 90 minutes for your journey once you arrive at Whitehall Terminal. I’d do the ferry straight after your morning at the 9/11 museum so that you miss the afternoon rush hour. According to the Ferry’s Facebook page, the most popular weekday off-peak times are from 12 pm – 3 pm.
From Staten Island Ferry, it’s not too far to the start of Brooklyn Bridge. I’d allow 45 mins to 60 mins to cross the bridge, and another 2 hours to explore Brooklyn. Have dinner in a Brooklyn and then stroll back across the bridge after dark for a completely different experience.

Top of the Rock is right in the middle of prime shopping district. Allow 2 hours for Top of The Rock. It's near to Times Square so do them together. If you're going to the rock for sunset, spend the first part of the afternoon at nearby MoMA. It's an amazing museum. In the morning of that day you could go to the Met. Then walk from the Met through Central Park to MoMA, stopping for lunch on the way.

I’d also recommend sometime popping in to Grand Central and perhaps even browsing the food hall.

I paid for a tour at the 9/11 museum and I would recommend that. Very moving. I was there a few hours but went there first thing to avoid the crowds.

I also paid for VIP access to the Empire State Building and went first thing. Gets terribly crowded so it was great to be there with plenty of room for photos and simply taking in the spectacle.

Get VIP tickets for Top of the Rock. Saves a hell of a lot of time....go just before sunset so you get daylight and the sunset.
We got the ferry over to Brooklyn from Wall St pier....then subway to Greenwood Cemetery for fab views of Manhattan. Then walked back along Brooklyn Bridge early evening.
We spent 4 hours at 9/11...again booked in advance.

Book to go up inside the Statue of Liberty - it's not a huge or arduous climb, but it's really interesting.

This is amazing thank you all so much! I absolutely can't wait

We loved Central Park, and lower Manhattan - we stayed at The Conrad which was a great location. There is an esplanade from the WTC site down to Battery Park that we loved, and the Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty was amazing. The 9/11 site is well worthy of 3-4 hours, and there was a huge Century 21 close by where we got some fab make up and perfume bargains! Wall Street was worth the walk down too, and there were lots of lovely shops/bakeries around that area. Soho is fab just to wander around, as is Tribeca especially with some of the street markets out.

Times Square was hideous, and we didn't enjoy Top of the Rock either, very badly managed and chaotic. I'd go up the One World Observatory personally.

If you go to the Empire State please please go in the evening. I was given that tip and the view is amazing- NYC all lit up!! There's an amazing restraint called Tao- it's a pan Asian fusion type place- it's awesome!

Walk around the Rockefeller centre - get a guide book that tells you about the buildings and all the artwork
St Patricks Cathedral
Mooch about Little Italy and Little China (next to each other)
central park
Grand central (look up!)

I would recommend the metropolitan museum of art, I was very impressed with it and I thought it was better than the British Museum, it's also next to Central Park so you could do both over a morning and lunchtime. I liked the boating lake in Central Park, loads of benches around it and full of new yorkers going about their business/walking their dogs

We got this and ended up saving hundreds!!

https://www.newyorkpass.com/?aid=84&utmmedium=search&utmmsource=googleNYP&utmadcampaigngroup=NYP&matchtype=e&utmmterm=new%20york%20city%20attraction%20pass&utmcreative=266387991525&addisttype=g&KPID=goocmp-914639892adg-477733446822ad-266387991525kwd-3190534654922dev-mext--prd-&gclid=CjwKCAjw0ZfoBRB4EiwASUMdYZFRaYvFWNDJO84Yb2W1FEnMs7dEChc8lQmhMMO28EIP06kLI8KthoC-AgQAvDBwE

Google nyc pass and you can compare prices and attractions etc!

Following as also going to NYC soon

High Line and Greenwich Village. Brooklyn Bridge and 911. Central Park, Metropolitan Museum and 5 th Avenue shopping. Staten Island/Ellis Island. Brooklyn is a long way from Central Park. You might want something Central such as Empire State, Radio City Music Hall and other galleries and museums. High Line is also fairly low down. Where are u staying? Travelling up and down takes a lot of time!

Yes Times Square is hideous.
Good restaurant Bocado on Upper West side near museums. Excel lent 3 course lunch for $28
We liked Eaterly near the Flat Iron...Great for a food experience.
The Museum of Design and Art restaurant is fab with wires of Central Park.
We enjoyed the Fire Brigade museum in Soho

Catch the subway to the Lower East Side. I love the Tenement Museum and the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Both well worth a visit and a change from the big tourist spots.

I went up into the the Crown at the Statue of Liberty. Cost more and had to book in advance but it was amazing. Unfortunately the day I booked Manhattan was fogged in so I saw the bottom of her torch and that about it but I am still glad I went though! Takes a long time as you have to put your stuff in lockers etc but she was so beautiful I spent a few hours just mooching around.

I went back one afternoon and saw her from the Staten Island ferry. Luckily once we got off sat Staten Island, a ferry was due back so we hopped on that and came back over.

I would also recommend taking the metro to Brooklyn and walking back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. Views are stunning.

I'd recommend brunch at Tavern On The Green in Central Park. The lobster Benedict is totally worth a visit.

We were at the 9/11 museum for a good 4 hours!

I don't know if you're going with DC but if you're not then do check out Cafe Wha in the Village one night, particularly when the House Band is on.

It was a Mumsnet recommendation to me and was brilliant!

But eat beforehand as the food looked dire.

You need to reserve in advance.

cafewha.com/enhancedcalendarwithprice.cfm?

If you're interested in social history at all the Tenement Museum is worth a trip. They do various 2-3 hour tours which you book online.

Native NY here. I would advise dividing Manhattan into sections
Uptown, Midtown,Downtown. Because you don't want to waste time travelling across the city ' - which could waste hours. The subway is great, but you don't want to waste all your time on it.
Brooklyn needs another consideration.I would plan on walking the Bridge and either spend the day on the Brooklyn side, on the Promenade , etc. Or walk into the city and do Chinatown , etc.
Have a great time.

Make sure you get to the boat launch in plenty of time for Ellis island/statue of liberty because the queue to get thru security is really long (like HOURS).
We did a food tour - it was THE best thing I've ever done.

famousfatdave.com/ - he will structure it depending on how long you have. It's amazing!!

😩We've booked 9, what on earth time will we need to get there?

I would get there for 8 at the latest. We missed our trip because we'd have never got through security in time but ours was early afternoon...
You'd hope that at that time of day, it would be quieter?

My biggest recommendation is to think about what you really truly actually want to do, not just what the 'must do's' are - other people's holidays are not really of interest to anyone so no one is going to hold you to account if you decide that actually you don't want to do X. That sounds a bit shirty, it's not meant to at all, just that with a destination like NYC I think there's all these sample 3 day itineraries, or lists of top 10 things to do in NYC etc, and it's sometimes easy to end up doing a check list of them but still kind of feel like you didn't see the place.

On a more practical note, I agree with those saying to split the things you want to do into areas of the city and group them accordingly. I'd also add in some down time, either to actually chill out somewhere or just so that if you see something else that interests you, or you stay somewhere longer than expected, it doesn't totally throw the rest of your plans out.

We went at a different time of year and our favourite things that we did were mostly seasonal so not relevant to this thread but we enjoyed an early morning trip to Central Park, a mooch around the Union Square green market and a wander along the High Line.

PS, I'm not trying to be snotty about top 10 lists - if the things on them all appeal to you then do them!