New York - give me your Highlight// must do/ don’t bother…

[Fishfriendly]

We are off to NYC this summer, with 2 older teens. There’s obviously heaps to do and see so I’m narrowing it down.
Can those who have been give me your highlights or quirky things to do. Also anything that you wouldn’t recommend.
We are not foodies so not needing restaurant recommendations, love sightseeing, history, outdoors etc.
Thanks!

Someone recommended doing the Statue of Liberty on the first morning to me as you’re likely to be up early because of the time difference and you can avoid the queues. We did this and I’d definitely agree, we were awake about 5am, had breakfast and then walked down there about half 7/8ish and were on the first boat, by the time we got back the queue was three hours!! Loved the highline and visiting the UN as others have said. Sunset cruise was fab and if I was to go again I’d like to spend more time in Central Park. The Loeb Boathouse has a really good quick service counter for lunch.

Yes we were on an early boat. More 9am. Queues building on our return. Glad we did Ellis but it was a bit dry if I’m honest. Felt it could have been done better but this was a couple of years ago. We went up to the SoL pedestal which was fab and found the new SoL museum with the original torch really interesting.

MOMA was shut when we went as being redone, pretty sure that would have been one of our highlights if we’d have gone. Will def be going back to do it. I’d pick one area of the Met and just do that. I felt it was better than some of our museums as spread out more and laid out well a as but just focusing on the temple and things near it made it more enjoyable.

I would check if the Met still has a “pay what you want” say. It’s quite expensive if you are just choosing a few galleries. However you do need to be choosy. MoMa and the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum of American art are all worth visiting.

The High Line is worth it. SoHo is more interesting then Times Square. Far nicer places to eat and shop and see an older New York village area. Top of the Rock has good views but the Empire State is a better building.

Window shop down a bit of 5th Avenue and also visit the Tenement Museum. We liked walking back over the Brooklyn Bridge and then walked over to the 911 site. We found it utterly depressing. Depends what you want on holiday as to whether you visit this or not.

I would check if the Met still has a “pay what you want” say. It’s quite expensive if you are just choosing a few galleries. However you do need to be choosy. MoMa and the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum of American art are all worth visiting.

It's still in effect, but only for residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. So many tourists were taking the piss and paying nothing that they had to end the policy for tourists. Admission is $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $12 for students.

Yes I’d be careful with the 9/11 museum. We found it quite traumatic. Also quite hard knowing we’d be getting on a plane again in 5 weeks. Wouldn’t suit all teens.

Oh, I miss it so much!I cannot wait for them to drop their covid mandate so that we can return.
I would say that you should ride the subway if you are used to/comfortable with urban travel in the UK. It is massively more convenient and cheaper than any other way of getting from A to B. You can buy a weekly.
You also need to get your head around the grid system. It sounds simple but you will need to make sure that you really 'get it' and once you have 'got it' then you will be flying through the streets without taking a single wrong turning!
My DCs love the Upper West Side museums and climbing up to the top of St John The Divine for cheaper views than the usual places. My niece was at Columbia during one visit so she took us to places along Amsterdam Avenue which were a lot cheaper and interesting. One of the restaurants was run by students (she also did a shift there). That was the best key lime pie I've ever had.
Whatever you think you will be spending, double it and don't really think about it as anything other than a payment towards being granted the privilege to visit such an amazing place.

only covid mandate is to be vaccinated to enter the USA

@chipsandpeas That's the one I mean 😀

The tv and film location tour is great.
We really liked the singing waiter and waitress diner for its novelty value ( not the food which was grand ).

Oops grand as in ok. It's an Irish expression.

Thanks for all the amazing ideas on this thread! We are off there in August with our teenagers.
Can anyone help me about the various city passes? If you are doing all the core touristy things are they worth getting? Or did you just book stuff individually?

We did it separate. Best thing to do is make a list of what you want to do. Price it up then check with passes. I’d then split your days up into zones to make the most of it. We thought a week would be plenty but we barely touched the surface.

August is hot but manageable and has a lovely feel to it, street entertainment, Central Park etc. I’d make sure you all have hats, sunscreen, refillable bottles and factor in times indoors for heat relief. Plenty of ice creams and cold drinks.

Only you can answer that based on what you want to see. We are going in 4 weeks. We’ve just looked at the pass prices and what we want to visit whilst there and for us as our time is limited and don’t want to be chasing our tales we are booking individually. If we had longer there then probably we’d do for a pass as the numbers would stack up. But as with any city there’s more to do and see and experience apart from ticking off the big attractions.

@VeronicaVanHoopen where do you get standby tickets for a show!
heading to NY for five nights in October with DH and DD (11) so keen to do this

@ClosedAuraOpenMind We went to the theatre for the show we wanted to see at about 10:30am in the morning and bought them directly. From memory we haggled a bit too! Not sure if there is a central place like the Leicester Square ticket place - there must be, but we didn't use it!

Ellens stardust diner is a must for breakfast.
try one of the little delis as we found they did an amazing corn chowder.
Bryant park for ice skating, much cheaper than at the Rockefeller.
horse and cart in Central Park. Or picnic in warmer weather.
helicopter ride if affordable/weather conditions are good.
Empire State was for me the thing that made New York so was not debatable.
tv/movie scenes coach tour
hop on hop off bus tour

that's interesting...DD is a huge Harry Potter fan and I know Cursed Child is on....

If you are going in the summer it will be hot, hot, hot. So you will go from cold drinks place to cold drinks place in the shade as much as you can.

To be honest you can just walk in any direction and enjoy whatever you bump into as it is icon after icon. I love the MOMA and the Whitney. And the camera shops. And the little art galleries that are never in the same place next time you go.

My one place to go is to the dosa guy in Washington Square for a masala dosa.

It's up the red steps bang in the Middle of Times Square but there can be queues. Maybe somebody will recall the name.

theres also a harry potter shops down by the flatiron building which has some VR stuff on as well

its the tkts booth and the queues can be long - you can download their app which will tell you what shows are being discounted but you cant buy via the app
theres also todaytix which also offers some discounted tickets to some shows and you can buy on the app which can be handy if you dont want to queue at the tkts booth

They have a website too.

www.tdf.org/nyc/7/tkts-ticket-booths

We have been a few time previously, but going again in May half term.

Previously:
> Hop On Hop Off bus routes - great way to get your bearings and see the main sites; you can then decide which you want to visit further in more detail later in your trip
> Top of the Rock and Empire State Building - TOTR had the best views imo (including the Empire State Building itself) but ESB was a nicer building. Neither were too busy when we went, we went first thing.
> Guggenheim Museum - inside the building is fab to look up from the centre.
> National History Museum - depending on your children you could spend all day in there
> Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island boat trip - we enjoyed this; Ellis Island was particularly interesting, more so than Statue of Liberty (you couldn't go up the Statue of Liberty when we have been before)
> Central Park and all its sites - so much to see and down, we always have picnic there getting food from a nearby deli
> Big piano; was in FAO Schwarz but that has closed down. I think it is now in Macy's

This time we are trying to avoid doing just the same things we have done before., though we do plan to picnic in Central Park again and we still visit the sites such as Times Square, etc.
Other thoughts so far include:
> Statten Island Ferry
> Coney Island for the afternoon/evening (beach/boardwalk, see the Zoltar machine from Big and try and ride Cyclone)
> World One observatory and 911 tribute museum
> Highline
> Katz Deli (been before but DD wants to go again)
> Ellen's Stardust Diner
> eat traditional New York bagels somewhere - need to research where to go for that yet
> Broadway show if we can get last minute tickets to see something
> possibly a baseball game, not sure on that yet though

In the past we have used the Subway a lot and plan to do the same again this time. It is $33 for an unlimited 7 day pass if I remember rightly. Otherwise there is a LOT of walking and I don't want to wreck my joints/feet doing too much of that again!

Will be reading through the other posts now to see what we might add to our ever growing list of ideas!

That's good to hear re Tenement Museum as DH has flagged this up to see. Which of the tours did you do? Seems to be several different ones to choose from.

Aren't the art galleries a major attraction - not top of the list for teens but at least they would be able to say they'd been there (to whichever you choose).