New York

[Euro_Trash]

Searched but any similar posts are 10 years old, so figured I would start a new one - thinking about taking my wife to NY for 4 or 5 nights in October for her bday. Planning to stay right around Times Square and do the full tourist thing - any other advice on must-see or things to avoid? Would really appreciate restaurant recommendations as well!

[prae]

Maybe others will disagree, but there's zero chance I'd willingly stay near times square, regardless of itinerary in Manhattan/NYC. I'd much sooner stay on the lower east side, chelsea, etc, and enjoy the food & drink and overall vibe, and ride the subway around for various itinerary items. You'll have a much higher chance of success "stumbling into" cool restaurants/bars/speakeasies versus a trap like times square.

I've really enjoyed airbnbs during their heyday in NYC, as you used to truly get to feel like a "local", but that was >10yrs ago. Now I'd much sooner pick a boutique hotel I thought was cool.

As for activities, no hate for walking through times square on your way to see a broadway show, which you should obviously do. Half a day walking around central park, maybe shared with a trip to a museum you both find interesting, could be worthwhile.

Standout memories for me beyond the above include walking https://www.thehighline.org/, seeing some standup comedy, walking Williamsburg bridge, pizza in brooklyn, etc. Usual tourist shit. Pack good shoes.

[prae]

the staten island ferry is also a great free way to get a view of statue of liberty, and you can pair that with some more walking around the financial district. fondle the bull's balls, see some IB types jumping off the roof when $NVDA crashes, etc

[BavarianBeast]

https://eviltwin.nyc/location/ridgewood-taproom/

[prae]

whoa - looks amazing. I think the beast's recommendation here also highlights a strong option I've not got a lot of experience to back up: stay in Brooklyn or another one of the boroughs. a LOT of the coolest & most unique experiences from a food & beverage POV will be outside of Manhattan.

I dont think Brooklyn is any cheaper to stay in vs manhattan these days, and you'd need to assess if you're willing to pay the tax on your time / energy travelling that far to get to many of the typical tourist things in manhattan

[killramos]

The only 2 touristy things I really loved was the USS Intrepid ( see a space shuttle and see an SR-71) and One WTC.

Both very cool.

Met was alright too and worth seeing, though if you miss nbd.

Where you stay isn’t super important, if the wife wants to shop I’d say stay near 5th ave if only to minimize carrying shit across town.

Eat hole in the wall pizza. If you want to book Michelin star / top notch restaurants figure out what you want and the reso windows now to make sure you get a reservation. I don’t have any specific recommendations.

Go to shows, shows are cool. I would also personally love to go to some of the tapings of comedy shows but you also need to plan that sort of thing in advance.

[nismodrifter]

I lived there for a year. What I found to be the best way to see cool things was actually to just walk. Pick one of the avenues, and just walk it. You will see cool stores, restaurants, etc. Stop wherever you want and enjoy drink/food as you go. Shop as you go. I'd walk from like Times Square to Union Square, and see so much cool shit along the way.

[haggis88]

Definitely do the hop-on/hop-off bus tours, you'll see a lot of stuff in a quick time and can pick and choose attractions you want to see more of

When we did the tourist thing, we only had about 8 hours for our connecting flight, so jumped on the bus and saw the "big names", got off at Ground Zero area (thing we most wanted to see more of in the limited time) and hopped back on to see the rest via the next bus

If you're going to stay in a cheaper area/borough, try not to "look" like a tourist. I did a job down in Long Island City (near QB Houses) and we stayed about 6 blocks away from there. I walked to the Irish Pub nearby one night and next day, the guys at site told me that it was pretty dangerous for tourists to be walking around at night there. I mean I was in work clothes and not stopping every 10ft to take pictures, so didn't look like a tourist but I get their point.

[CompletelyNumb]

I'll be going in April and eating about 4 tons of pizza. Will report back.

[89coupe]

My favourites were

Empire State Building
Grand Central Station
Union Square
Central Park
Comedy Cellar
Book of Mormon play

Restaurants
https://bessou.nyc/
https://www.qualitymeatsnyc.com/
https://www.noburestaurants.com/fifty-seven/
https://taogroup.com/venues/the-rick...unge-new-york/

[Euro_Trash]

Appreciate all the feedback - received a couple really good PM's and texts so ended up booking a hotel in Chelsea. Seems like most restaurants wont let me book until 30 days out so that is on pause.

[taemo]

What cuisine are you looking to experience in NYC?

We went there last September but only had 1 whole day in Manhattan so we just went down to Seaport, walked through Brooklyn Bridge, lunch at Grimaldi's. then in the evening we just walked around Time Square.

ESB is not worth it IMO, better view at Top of the Rock. Didn't have time to visit the One World Observatory.
On our last night, we stayed at my aunts house in Staten island, so we took the ferry to Manhattan then back so that my daughter could see the Statue of Liberty. the ferry is free for anyone.

We noticed this food truck on 6th ave outside of Rockefeller with a long line up, wouldn't mind trying it next time we go there
Adel's Famous Halal Food - https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restauran..._New_York.html

[Rocket1k78]

Went there last year for a week with the Wife and I love that place! We got one of those multi day pass things for the tourist attractions and checked a lot of the touristy things off. We stayed by the big Macys store and just got on the subway to get around, get the 7 day pass, we didnt think we'd need it but by day 3 we finally got it and still came out cheaper than buying per ride. Check the weather and if you see rain even for 1 day, bring some rain boots and umbrellas. We got lucky for the most part but the one day we booked a walking food tour it was rain all day so we had to get rubber boots and umbrellas there. Also check the forecast if you're planning to do one of the observatories, if the days clear try and get that out of the way right away just in case the weathers over cast the next. We did the One world day one and then the Empire a couple days later and we couldnt see anything because the clouds were so thick, they did warn us ahead of time though but we had that pass so went anyways, got stuck in the elevator coming down for 20 mins which was pretty scary. Be prepared to drop cash though, I knew ahead of time it was going to be expensive but It was still shocking lol My wife tried a new coffee place every morning and it was on average $8 usd for a latte, the worst was $12usd with tax and tip which is fucked. We were walking around and I saw one of those fresh juice places so I figured lets get some, grabbed 2 bottles of an OJ/lime thing without looking at prices, $27USD for 2 bottles of 400ml juice. The biggest shock was some japan based ramen chain, you sit in individual booths and there is only one choice for broth but you can pick noodles and fat level of soup, no prices on this order sheet. Went up to pay for 2 bowls of ramen and the cashier says 50 something, so I thought she got ours mixed up with someone elses, nope it was ours and they were 23 usd a bowl and tbh it wasnt even great.

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I lived there for a year. What I found to be the best way to see cool things was actually to just walk. Pick one of the avenues, and just walk it. You will see cool stores, restaurants, etc. Stop wherever you want and enjoy drink/food as you go. Shop as you go. I'd walk from like Times Square to Union Square, and see so much cool shit along the way.

Thats what we did and then subway'd back to the hotel lol Theres something to see and do on every street it seems.

[flipstah]

Went to NYC for the first time last year; Times Square is a dump.

Other boroughs were cool to visit!

[D'z Nutz]

Yeah there's nothing special about Times Square. I mean sure, if it's your first time in NYC, go do the tourist thing and go see it just to say you've been there.

I find with NYC, it's best to keep your schedule loose and flexible. It's really easy to just find stuff to do cause there's always something coming up. On one of my visits, I was hitting up a place not far from Times Square but didn't really have much planned that day. I went for a walk after and ended up coming across people filming a movie and spent the next several hours hanging out with other travellers and extras. (The movie ended up being the first Michael Bay TMNT.)

I did some cool walking tours listed here:
https://freetoursbyfoot.com/new-york-tours/

If you like stand up, hit up the Comedy Cellar and just hang out. It's not unusual for very well known established comedians to randomly show up cause they're working on their sets. People have said when Dave Chapelle shows up, he's on stage for hours and well into the early morning.

If you're into museums at all, American Museum of Natural History is a no brainer. I actually ran out of time the last time I was there, so I gotta go again. Museum of the Moving Image is fun and when I went there, it was free on certain time/days. New York Transit Museum was also really cool.

If you make it to Harlem, go to Sylvia's for some delicious fried chicken and waffles or some soul food; just don't go on a Sunday morning cause it gets busy after everyone gets out from church haha. New York Pizza Suprema across the street from MSG is my favourite pizza place there.

See if there's any auctions going on at Sotheby's.

Of course, see if there's any concerts or shows going on while you're there.

If you wanna check out the Brooklyn Bridge, seriously go do it at night. It's just way too fucking crowded during the day.

The High Line was really cool and Chelsea Market isn't too far away either.

[g-m]

I went again last year and there are way more crackheads than there were 10 years ago. I guess that's everywhere though.

I found the natural history museum kinda lame. The building was cool though but it was no Deutches Museum and I would say pass on it.

[Rocket1k78]

We didnt see anything this crazy on the subway but it was pretty intimidating.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreak...re&utm_term=10

[Euro_Trash]

@killramos and I discussed; we both agreed that we are both too soft for the subway

[killramos]

I think “candy ass” was the technical term

[you&me]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Appreciate all the feedback - received a couple really good PM's and texts so ended up booking a hotel in Chelsea. Seems like most restaurants wont let me book until 30 days out so that is on pause.

I would definitely let the hotel know now if there are any specific restaurants you want a reservation at, or even ask for recommendations for certain cuisines or experiences... I've got some pretty tough reservations / neat experiences that way, when I wouldn't have otherwise known how to go about it (beyond something like Opentable).