NYC - what to do, what to see, where to go, what to eat????

[LookItsMeAgain]

Loads of questions. The last time I was in NYC it was the early 1990's so I've grown up and had a family in the meantime. We'll be heading over for 1 week soon and I'm looking for advice on what to do, what to see, where to go and places recommended for food.

Are there things we should arrange to do prior to our departure so they are booked ahead of our arrival?

All advice welcome!

Also, if you have any must-purchase items, please let me know. I'm really looking forward to this trip so any advice on what to do etc. will be great!

Native New Yorker and Yank here.

How old are your kids?

TimeOut NY is a great resource for what's going on in terms of events, shows, etc.

My favorite touristy type activities are the

9/11 Museum

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

The 9/11 museum is very well done and not at all morbid. At the Intrepid Museum, you get to tour an aircraft carrier and a submarine. My kids loved both.

Try to have lunch or dinner here at the Union Square Cafe. It's casual, relaxed, and impeccable food and service.

Happy to answer questions.

Must do:
9/11 museum
The Met
MoMA (but avoid on Free Fridays)
The High Line (but avoid at weekends)
Walk over Brooklyn Bridge
Katz’s Deli
Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building

If time:
Broadway show
Ellen’s Stardust Diner
Central Park
Grand Central Station
Times Square (walk through it once but don’t spend much time there)
Oculus
Chelsea Market

Where to eat:
Katz’s Deli
Ellen’s Stardust Diner
Chelsea Market
Juliana’s Pizza
Junior’s

if you want to go to the statute of liberty and ellis island you will need to book this in advance as it sells very quickly, id say if you want to see both get a early ferry as some of the later ones wont give you enough time

observation decks, i would book closer to the day you want to go in case the weathers shitty, nowt worse being up say the empire state and its cloudy and you cant see anything - you can usually book these a few days in advance or even the night (or on the day) before depending on what time of year you are going and not fussy about what time you can get

im not going to suggest what to do and see as the list is endless, but when planning group things close together as you can, nowt worse doing a day downtown and you have something to do in midtown, its a nightmare rushing about like that and dont over plan, plan your days to be a bit flexible and leave your last day empty - you can use that to catch up missed stuff or just wander about

my favourite thing really, is getting the NYC ferry over from pier 11 at wall street to Dumbo wandering around there then walking the brooklyn bridge - walking from brooklyn you get the manhattan skyline and dumbo is a great area

get a weeks metro pass each its 34$ dollars (its 1$ for the card and $33 for the weekly pass) - you can also use the new system called omny by using a contactless card and will convert to an unlimited pass once you have spent the 33$ however this only works monday to sunday so if your doing a week say wed to wed id go with the metrocard

You should book everything before you come. You'll avoid the queues at the museums and Union Square Cafe can be very hard to get reservations for popular times.

For breakfast: Bubby's in Tribeca (it's different from Bubba Gump Shrimp place)

We loved the night time Harbour Cruise, so special and the Statue of Liberty was stunning at night. As was the whole city...nba game? See what's on in madison square gardens? Empire State for us, Brooklyn bridge, intrepid air museum. I guess the usuals Macy's, eating in a diner, Times Square.

And I highly recommend spending some time at Ground zero. Another really special moment for us...to respect and remember

Shamelessly following as hoping to do this in a couple of years with my 3 DDs.

The two really must-see museums are the Met

www.metmuseum.org/

and the American Museum of Natural History

www.amnh.org/

There's a brilliant planetarium that's part of the Natural History Museum, well worth it if you're there/

www.amnh.org/research/hayden-planetarium

watching as heading (hopefully) to NYC in October with DH and DD (11)
by then it will have been about 20 years since I was last there.
on the list so far are walking the Highline, Serendipity 3 for frozen hot chocolate and going to the Harry Potter store (DDs choice)

We are going imminently and have on our list:
High Line
The Edge
NY Public library, Grand Central, quick peek at Times Sq at night
Wall St (might go into Century 21 whilst there)
Oculus
Staten Island Ferry
Soho for shopping: DD has a whole list of places inc Glossier, Hollister, Unfashional etc
Lower East Side for eating, again DD has list inc 375 Chicken & Fries, Doughnut Plant etc
Central Park, by bike
Guggenheim or MoMA
Williamsburg for brunch
Brooklyn Heights plus Dumbo, ferry and walking over Brooklyn Bridge

I’ve booked a place for supper most nights, plus the bikes for Central Park and the Edge tickets as cheaper if book ahead.

No Broadway for us as we aren’t into it, and live nr London so see shows there. No sports as only interested in basketball and nothing on whilst we are there.

In terms of shopping, apart from DDs list and Century 21, I’ll get some jars of grape jelly and they want to go to Target and Trader Joe’s.

"Wall St (might go into Century 21 whilst there)"

I regret to inform you that Century21 closed down and will not reopen until Spring 2023. The Oculus is certainly worth a look.

There is also an outlet mall called Empire Outlets on Staten Island near the ferry.

We’ve just come back from 5 days in NYC with our 12 and 15 year old.
For viewing platforms we did The Edge and The Summit - both were great but would highly recommend the Summit for something very different.
If you want to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island I would book tickets in advance - good to go early in the morning before the queue gets massive (you queue even with tickets). We all really enjoyed the trip.
Something else the boys enjoyed was The Beast speedboat which takes a trip from the west side round the Statue of Liberty and back - loads of fun.
I loved Ellen’s Stardust diner, such talented singers, but I am a huge musical theatre fan. The food was average.
One thing we found is that food particularly is super expensive so most of the places we eat weren’t anything special. Four bagels and drinks from some of the more popular bagel spots would cost us $70. We did enjoy Sarabeths and Eataly for a couple of slightly more expensive lunches.
Central park was fab - recommend hiring bikes or scooters. We also got rowing boats out on the lake which we all enjoyed.
Agree with everyone who says walk the Brooklyn Bridge (we did it both ways). The Time Out market in Brooklyn has really good food and a rooftop bar for cocktails.
We used the subway loads and didn’t feel unsafe at all compared to some reports I had read. There are a lot of homeless people around and the smell of weed was everywhere, but it didn’t bother us.
You will have an amazing time.

We got the 'Sightseeing Pass', it is pricy, but amazing if you want to do a lot of typical touristy things. The only things we did that weren't included were The Met Museum and Summit OV observation deck - both of these were great and I would be happy to pay extra again. Summit OV was my favourite observation deck by some margin.

Sightseeing Highlights
Grand Central Station
The High Line
Brooklyn Bridge + DUMBO + Domino Park
9/11 Memorial Museum
Ellis Island, Immigration Museum
Observation Decks (any and all! but my ranking is Summit OV, Top of the Rock, Empire State, The Edge, One World)
Walking Tours (this one and this one were included in our pass and real highlights)
Hadestown
Blue Note Jazz Club

Food & Drink Highlights
Los Tacos No. 1
The Halal Guys
Lombardi’s
Balthazar
Cosme
Carbone
Dominique Ansel Bakery
Double Chicken Please
NR

Went last month. You need to prebook the Statue of Liberty if you want to go up to the plinth (torch was still shut), Ellis island was facilitating - they take a full day combined (ticket covers both). Intrepid air and space museum was very good too. A trip to the 9/11 monument was important to me. But I didn't pay to go into the museum - it's now a nice area to sit and watch the water, very calm. The Met is good, the Harlem jazz museum, Central Park of course. Tiffany's main site is shut unfortunately. Shows, concerts etc you can sort out on arrival, so many - I used the New York music scene Facebook group to find a great gig in a jazz club.

Oh and if you haven't booked a hotel I highly recommend Hell's Kitchen, so many lovely restaurants and didn't need to book at all!

We went to the UN headquarters for a tour. We loved it but I have suggested it to others and they looked horrified 😂

Oh and if you have kids, there's lots of parks but a good playground by the water at pier 25, the Hudson River greenway was nice for a walk

Thank you all so much for the tips so far. I am taking them all on board and hopefully we'll get to do some of them while we're in NYC.

I have a further question - in relation to pre-booking (as in booking before we depart to go on the holiday) tickets for any of these suggestions, are there particular websites that I should use? If I want to get the best deal out there are there sites that offer deals (like 2 attractions for the price of one)?

I meant to add to this are there any particular websites to book tickets for shows that you would recommend? Should we book directly with the theatre or on a website that lists all shows?

We really enjoyed the Tenement Museum

I live in NYC - loads of stuff has already been covered, but RE: tickets, I'd either get the today tix app for rush tickets, or go to the TKTS ticket booth in Times Square. You get the cheaper day-of tickets there. Obviously if you have your heart set on a specific show that might not work, but if you're open to a few, that's where you get the best deal.

Thanks @allfurcoatnoknickers . I've been looking at "A Strange Loop" and thought that a matinee performance might be cheaper than an evening one but I think it really comes down to the seats and where you are in relation to the centre of the theatre and how close you are to the stage. The timing doesn't seem to matter 😆

Start from the junction of Madison Square Gardens/Penn Station (by The New Yorker and Empire State Building) and walk straight down through Greenwich Village, stopping to see sights from SaTC and Friends if that’s your bag. Then keep going straight ahead all the way to the Staten Island Ferry (free) for a round trip taking in a great view of the Statue of Liberty. When you get off the ferry back in Manhattan, walk alongside the river on the promenade and grab a pizza sitting outside right by the Brooklyn Bridge (sorry I can’t remember the name of the place but it’s opposite the pier). Pass under the bridge and then cross the highway into China Town.

There’s a crazy dog park in Union Square where it’s great fun to stop and just watch for a while. Other highlights include the boating lake in Central Park and an evening walk around Times Square, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller etc. Enjoy!