3 days in NY with junior school age kids

[SulisMum]

Any suggestions. DCs are 8 and 11.

I thought essentials would be Statue of Liberty (is this still open to climb up inside?)/Staten Island Ferry, Empire State, Central Park.

Would Ellis Island be a bit dull for them? Which are the best kid friendly art galleries? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

When are you visiting NYC?. It can get very hot there in the summertime.

Statue of Liberty has now reopened and it can be climbed BUT its a major hassle in climbing the statue once there (would recommend you book tickets in advance of your visit and once on the island proper security lines are very long). Read www.tripadvisor.com for recent reviews and make up your own mind.

Would read up on Ellis Island on the net and see if you think your children would enjoy visiting it (they may find it a tad dull).

Bronx Zoo is a very nice zoo to visit for the day.

The Intrepid aircraft carrier with the Concorde is in NY. Again both would be worth a visit.

Times Square is always worth a visit, there's a large Toys R Us store there in that general area.

Would recommend you try the Beast Boat (this is a very fast and fun speedboat ride that goes onto the Hudson River and out towards the Statue of Liberty).

They may prefer visiting the Museum of Natural History (the one featured in Night at the Museum).

Rockefeller Centre observation deck would be worth a visit too.

Thanks Attila. It's going to be in August so we'll have to deal with the heat. Some great ideas there - I particularly like the sound of the Beast Boat. And DS loves Night at the Museum.

Sorry name changing and getting muddled up.

I recently spent 3 days in NYC with my dc, also aged 8 and 11 (both boys).

They loved the statue of Liberty ( we got there very early in the morning, thanks to the jetlag, and the lines weren't too long), but were quickly bored by Ellis Island so I'd recommend giving that a miss.

They also got bored quite quickly at the Museum of natural history - although it is big on dinosaur bones if your dc are interested in those. It was quite expensive.

We had to queue for 2 1/2 hours to go up the Empire State Building which was a complete nightmare and I would never do it again. I wish we had gone to the top of the Rockefeller Centre instead as I hear it is much less busy.

I also recommend the Sony Wonder Technology Lab which they really enjoyed. It's free, but you must book tickets in advance.

If your kids are adventurous with food, go to Chinatown for dim sum. Mine aren't and would only eat noodles but they enjoyed walking around.

they really enjoyed travelling on the subway, which is easy and cheap.

Be aware that most of the major tourist attractions have airport-style security, which is a big hassle - don't wear a belt as you'll get really bored of taking it on and off.

Have fun, we had a great time.

We went to NY last summer with Katz and family. e girls were 7y, 6y, and almost 4y. We were there for a week and it was fantastic.

Our girls enjoyed the boat trip and tours on Liberty Islan and Ellis Island. We went up Top of the Rock, visitied central park, Natural History Museum was great. We went to the Guggenheim. the building is great to look at by the Met art gallery would be better inside for the art. The 40 hour buss pass was fab, as was the duck tour. You can go to the huge TOYS R Us, and also the Schwartz toy shop to play the large floor piano from the film Big.

We did loads and the girls loved it. So much so that DH and I are returning this summer with DD (now 8y) with PILs for 4 nights as part of our summer holiday.

We went in May last yer. Some days were lovely and hot, others chilly and wet. Goung IN July this year so hoping it will be hotter.

Fib - really? We had no security type problems. Don't remember DH ever having to have his belt checked other than at the airport.

NY was the most friendly cty I have visited. Whenwe got on the subway people always offered us seats with the children and were quite insistant that we took them. If people saw us with a map they always asked us if we needed help. One oman walked out of her way to show us how to get to the subway we needed. Cafes and restauarants always made us feel so welcome with the children, offering to make changes to meals in order to make them suitable, etc.

Can't wait to go again in a few weeks time.

If you're going to do the Empire State Building, get there for opening time (think it's at 9 - we aimed for about 8:45). Much more manageable queues then. And be prepared for the fact that getting to what you think is the front of the line (i.e. the entrance) is absolutely not. There are queues for security, queues for the first lift, then for the second (walk the stairs for that one. It's only a few floors!)

We attempted to visit Ground Zero, but think we got the wrong side of it, as it was just hoardings shielding the building site. However, it was worthwhile going to the church there, where the firefighters took restbreaks. There's a display in memory of it all and is very interesting.

The hop-on, hop-off tour buses are worthwhile to get your bearings initially.

Also, the queue for the Liberty Island boat tour was about 2 miles (or 2 hours) long! If you want to stop off and climb up (which wasn't an option 18 months ago) you don't have much choice, but we were only looking at it from a distance, so hopped on the Staten Island ferry instead, with no wait, and as good a view.

There are evening (and daytime) cruises on the Hudson which are good. We did one that left in daylight, so we saw the city then, but came back at night, so we also saw it lit up. Plus Statue at night. Awesome.

Horse and carriage rides round Central Park are an absolute rip-off. They'll quote you a price for half an hour, but which is only 20 minutes, and tell you that the tip is on top of that. And get arsey if you mention that surely that's optional.

We did the subway. Once. Nightmare. I have a good sense of direction and can usually find my way round anywhere, particularly in London, but the mapping system there was the most confusing I've ever seen. And you need loads of change. You can pay by credit card in a machine but it wouldn't accept mine as I couldn't off a zip code for residency! Dunno what I was doing wrong, but after that we took cabs everywhere. Actually turned out cheaper for 4 of us. Oh, and make sure you do use the yellow ones. We avoided a major rip-off by someone touting for business after the evening cruise who quoted $35 for a trip which was about $7 in a yellow one.

Had problems finding public loos. Kept having to go to cafes - where inevitably there was only one (grubby) one and a queue.

I love America, been there loads of times, and NYC is without doubt the dirtiest, graffiti-daubed, aggressive city I've been to. But undeniably exciting. Glad I've experienced it. Not sure I'd go again, however.

Oh, I adore NYC. Cannot wait until my kids are old enough to appreciate it.

August is going to be tremendously hot and muggy, though, so don't over fill your days with sightseeing.

Go to the Empire State either very early, or at night (shorter queues, move faster, views of the lit-up night city are spectacular and it will be cooler).

I've found the subway very easy, but I'm a Londoner, so maybe it's because it is smaller than the tube system here. Yellow cabs great fun from a tourist perspective, though.

If you are in the village and want ice lollies in the heat, I wholeheartedly reccommend The Pop Bar - such a fun ice lolly shop.

If you want a fairly tacky but very child friendly day out, get the ferry to Coney Island. There is a fairground and it's a real New York family day out.

Go and see FAO Schwartz toy shop (but only if you are planning on buying something small for the kids...you won't escape without spending something).

Dunno if your kids like cake, but there are loads of cupcake places in NYC (google Magnolia Bakery, Billys, the Cupcake Cafe) - it;s the home of the cupcake, in fact.

Get last minute tickets to something on Broadway?

There are also outdoor film showings in some of the parks over the summer- definitely Bryant Park, possibly Central park.

I'll think of more! My favourite city in the world.

If you keep to one exhibition, the Met is good for kids. they have a rooftop cafe which is nice.

Also, google Dylan's. It's a sweet chop owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter which is pretty cool.

Oh, and the Tenement Museum if they like history. Their tour is very interesting and short enough that kids won't get bored.

clam - we found the subway on the whole very easy - our guidebook map was very good IIRR. We must have fallen lucky as we had no real queue for the ferries and found NY very clean - far cleaner than most UK cities that's for sure.

Took DCs aged 10 and 6 to NY last August and had a great time - would love to go back. We used the subway all the time - we bought one day passes from the hotel concierge (you can also get them from subway ticket booths) which saved a lot of time and hassle. Younger DC did not need one so squeezed through turnstiles with me.
We did the Staten Island ferry instead of a Statue of Liberty tour - cheaper, faster, friendly locals to talk to... I think the highlights for the DCs were the toy stores (ToysRUs on Times Square, and FAO Schwartz), plus spotting loads of places they recognised from films - lots of bits of Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Brooklyn Bridge etc. Also the bookshops - though I was very frustrated at spending most of my time in the children's sections rather than being able to explore the whole of the Strand bookstore.
For the Empire State Building I booked online in advance and printed out our tickets, which meant we skipped some of the biggest queues - we went late morning when it was pretty busy, but didn't have to wait for too long.

Thanks everyone - some great suggestions. Now wishing we had more than 3 days!

I am going back to NYC at the end of July with dd1 (16). We have friends who live in NJ so stayed with them 2 years ago & visited on 2 different days. This time we are staying in Manhattan for 5 days & have purchased New York Passes for use to enter most places. The ones we have bought are valid for 7 days, the next ones down are for 3 days. It has cost us about £250 for 2 adult tickets but cover everywhere we want to go including, Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Top of the Rock, 2 hour boat trip in the evening, Guggenheim etc. After our stay there we are then going to visit with our friends for 3 days before coming home.
Might be worth googling for them, we bought them online Memorial Day weekend & got a discount & was able to pay for them with a Visa debit card via a secure site.

The Museum of Natural History is fab since it has been refurbished. The Met has fabulous mummies etc. ToysRUs and FAO Schwartz were, unsurprisingly, popular. I think that there are still penguins and polar bears in Central Park. Pizza every few yards....