New York
Getting into Town (and back again)
At JFK, ignore the taxi touts. They will lie to you and cheat
you.
You could take a SuperShuttle bus, but book in advance and only
talk to the uniformed guys managing the Ground Transportation Desk. They will drop
you to your door for a reasonable rate, and you get an early chance to see some
sights on the way. You can also book your return trip at the same time.
But why pay over the odds? It’s so easy to get to Brooklyn or
Manhattan for the price of one subway ride, plus the airport train.
Get on the AirTrain at JFK Terminal 7 towards Howard Beach,
this has an additional $5 fare
Buy subway ticket (or use MTA pass – see below)
Get on the back of the A train here and go through to
Broadway Junction.
Get off here, go up the stairs, go up the escalator, and
over to the L Platform towards Manhattan.
At the end of your holiday, you may leave your suitcase
at your hotel. But what if you’re in an apartment? There’s only one solution:
Luggage Storage – Schwartz Travel
visit
355 W 36th St, between 8th &
9th Ave. – 2nd Floor
Close to MSG, Penn Station (West
Side) & Port Authority
A.C.E. Subway stop, next to the
Wyndham Hotel
Open Everyday: 8am - 11pm
or
34 W 46th St, between 5th &
6th Ave. – 4th Floor
Close to Times Square & Grand
Central Terminal
Same Building as Via Brasil &
Subway
Open Everyday: 8am - 11pm
Travelling from Penn Station back
to JFK:
Take LIRR train, get off at
Jamaica Station, $7 – it might cost more but it’s much quicker
Take AirTrain, get off at
Terminal 7, $5
Somewhere to Sleep
It used to be so easy to rent an apartment in NYC. Now the law
forbids holiday lets unless the landlord is resident. Don’t take the chance –
you could arrive and find that your let was illegal.
Our favourite holiday let has closed, but we'll do some research before the next time we go - sorry!
Getting Out
MTA now have an Omny system tha is fare-capped - if you make 12 journeys using the same contactless card/phone/watch in one week, you travel free for the rest of the week
MTA 7-Day Unlimited Ride Card,
$33 for unlimited subway and local bus rides until midnight on the seventh day
following first usage
Use the subway. Use buses. Get on a ferry. Get on the Roosevelt
Island cablecar. Explore!
Eating In or Out
Reputedly the best pizza in town ... John's of Bleecker Street,
278 Bleecker St.
When we heard about Rice to Riches we couldn't believe it. A
cafe that just sells rice pudding? But dozens of flavours… even a small portion
will fill you right up.
37 Spring St at Mott St
Two Boots Pizza
The pizzas were
amazing. Adam had “The Dude” – a Cajun bacon cheeseburger pizza pie! They have
other locations around town, and a concession at Citifield.
Skylight Diner
402 W 34th Street at 9th
Avenue, near Penn Station
Comfort Diner
214 East 45th Street
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), between Grand Central
Terminal and the UN
Brooklyn Diner
212 West 57th Street
(between Broadway and 7th Ave), near Central Park
155 West 43rd Street
and Broadway, just off Times Square
Shop Til You Drop
Big Department Stores:
Barneys New York, 660 Madison Ave
at 61st St
Bloomingdale's, 1000 3rd
Ave at 59th St and Lexington
Macy's, 151 W 34th St
at 7th Ave
Saks Fifth Avenue
get a tourist discount card from these (showing your passport) with
limited discounts
FAO Schwarz
30 Rockefeller Plaza
best toy shop in New York
Crate & Barrel
650 Madison Avenue at E 60th
St
611 Broadway at Bleeker St
979 3rd Avenue at E 59th
St
451 Broadway at Grand St
amazing homewares
Old Navy
Times Square
Atlantic Center, Brooklyn
144 W 34th St at 7th
(Fashion) Ave
GAP-quality clothes but at much cheaper prices – stock up on tshirts,
jeans, chinos and more – don’t buy all at once and you get a discount coupon on
your next purchase!
Have a Rest
Bryant Park, 6th Ave between 40th and 42nd
Streets. Round the back of the NY Public Library. Free wifi. Nice café.
Symphony Plaza, 8th Avenue and West 56th
Street. Not too
noisy and good seating. Watch the office workers and tourists pass you by.
Special Tips
Easter Sunday
Williamsburg Ascension Church, 127 Kent between Franklin St/Manhattan
Ave
(walk or take line G to
Greenpoint Avenue)
very welcoming, with post-service
reception & desserts
or
Church of the Ascension, Fifth Ave at 10th St, Manhattan
traditional service (people dress
quite smartly here) and a great welcome
then
Easter Parade 10am
Fifth Av from 49th to
57th Sts
bonnets optional!
Baseball Game
This is unlike any other sport
anywhere. Forget the game. It’s like a combination of pantomime, rounders,
eating, patriotism, and more eating. Don’t worry about the scoring system. Or
the fact that despite lasting for 4 hours the score is only 6-2. Just go, eat,
enjoy, and eat some more!
Let’s Go Mets! https://www.mlb.com/mets/tickets
Here Come The Yankees! https://www.mlb.com/yankees/tickets
Must-See Sights: Manhattan
Museum of City of New York
1220 Fifth Av (between 103rd-104th)
Subway 6 to 103rd St, open
10-18, $10
Grand Central Terminal
Tours: Audio Tour $7 from GCT
Tour windows 9am-6pm
Municipal Art Society – tour
window on Main Concourse – 12.30pm every day $20
Empire State Building
350 5th Ave at W 34th
St
8am-2am $25
Whatever time of day or night you
decide to go, you have got to do this once!
United Nations Building
1st Ave at 46th
St
10am-5pm
$16 for a tour, but we showed our
passports and went in, saw some great exhibitions, visited the shop and café,
and didn’t really need to see the General Assembly. Expect school groups
aplenty.
Check https://www.un.org/visit
Federal Reserve Bank
This is one for nerds, the
exhibition is good, the tour a little slow, but you get to see the gold
deposits and the history of the US banking system.
Book a tour 2 weeks in advance at
http://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/visiting.html
Meet at 44 Maiden Lane with
ticket and passport
High Line
Best idea ever – an elevated
railway that was ready to be demolished is turned into an elevated garden walk
high above the Manhattan streets. See New York from a different angle, enjoy
the space, the quiet, and the plants.
The south end is near 8th
Ave subway on the L line. The north end is not really near anywhere, but Penn
Station is closest.
It’s also handy for Chelsea
Market, which has nice shops and eateries.
MOMATH: The National Museum of Mathematics
11 East 26th Street on 5th
Ave
A pricey nerd visit but if you’re
reading this you might be just the type!
10am–5pm, 7 days a week, $16
New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building
5th Ave at 42nd
St
10-6 Tu We 10-8, Su 1-5
Free tours at 11am and 2pm daily
9/11 Memorial
You must get tickets in advance,
and you purchase them at a different place to the memorial itself:
The Preview Site is at 20 Vesey
Street between Church St and Broadway, round the corner from St Peter’s Church
If you haven’t bought tickets
online, you can get them here, but there’s a queue. It opens at 9am so it’s worth
getting there beforehand. If you need to pick up breakfast, there is two great
Pret A Mangers just round the block: 100 Church Street, or 179 Broadway.
When you have your ticket, it’s 5
minutes walk to entry at 1 Albany Street at Greenwich St.
Daily, 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
The whole place is a building
site so allow time to get through the traffic, and cross safely.
Lower
East Side Tenement Museum
103 Orchard St (Broome-Delancey),
Lower East Side, 10-18, $22
It offers tours of an apartment building recreating the 1870s
and 1930s.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Av (82nd
St), Upper East Side, Tu-Su 9.5-17.5, Fr Sa 9.5-21, Subway 4,5,6 to 86th
St
They claim it costs $25 but it
REALLY is optional. HONESTLY. Pay what you can afford, or what you think it’s
worth. If you’re only popping in for a break, don’t pay full whack. They won’t
be rude to you when you say “I’d like to pay this much”.
If you are buying tickets online, you have to pay the standard price.
Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Av (89th),
Upper East Side, 456 to 8th St
Fri-Wed 10-18, Sa 10-20
$22
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave at 75th
St (take 6 train to 77th)
Wed-Sun 11-6 (Fri to 10)
$25, or pay-what-you-wish Friday 7-10pm
MOMA – Museum of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St between 5th
& 6th Aves
1000-1730 and Fridays until 2000
usually $25, free Fridays 4pm to
8pm, but the queues for this are horrendous – easier to pay!
Design store across the street,
and another at 81 Spring Street in Soho, which are open M-Sa 1000-2000 and Sunday 1100-1900
Must-See Sights:
Brooklyn
New York Transit Museum
Boerum Pl, Tu-Fr 10-16 Sa Su
12-17,
Subway lines A,C,F,R to Jay
St/MetroTech, or subway lines 2,3,4,5 to Borough Hall, $7
The only subway museum that’s
actually a whole subway station in itself – with carriages from the past
centuries on the original tracks!
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington
Ave
Artists & Fleas
70 North 7th Street between Kent
& Wythe Avenues, 3 blocks from the Bedford Avenue L train
Indoor market near East River
State Park (see Smorgasburg below)
Brooklyn Public Library
Grand Army Plaza, corner of
Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway
SHOPPING:
Atlantic Terminal Shopping Mall
Atlantic Ave at Flatbush Ave
(Metro 2,3,4,5 Atlantic Av at Barclays Center)
best buys: Old Navy, Target,
Uniqlo
826NYC/Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co
372 5th Ave at 5th
St, Brooklyn
Part of a literacy project, your
kid can also buy all of their superhero needs! Seriously!
Spoonbill & Sugartown bookstore
Bedford Avenue between N 4th
and N 5th Aves
10am-10pm
Williamsburg browsing streets:
North 6th Street
Metropolitan Avenue
Bedford Avenue
Berry Street
Wythe Avenue
Franklin Street
EATING:
Smorgasburg
an open air food festival that
happens each weekend from Spring to Autumn
East River State Park at N 7th
St and Kent Ave
176 Lafayette Avenue (between
Clermont and Vanderbilt)
80 North 5th Street at
Wythe Avenue (Winter only)
Also hosts a great fleamarket,
Brooklyn Flea
Junior's Cheesecake
386 Flatbush Avenue Extension and
DeKalb Avenue
home to the original 'New York
Style' cheesecake
Kellogg’s Diner
514 Metropolitan Avenue, at Union
Avenue, near Lorimer St subway
The diner near our apartment,
which provided breakfast, dinner, shelter from the rain, and a great place to
meet the local community. Great corned beef hash!
Must-See Sights:
The Islands
ELLIS ISLAND
Ellis Island is more than just a stop on the Liberty Island ferry.
Immigrants to America were kept here until processed, and even quarantined if
necessary. It’s worth at least half a day’s visit, if you’re interested in the history of American immigration,
and you want to search for your own relatives.
STATEN ISLAND
Staten Island Ferry
Whitehall Terminal near South
Ferry subway
free trip with great views of
Statue of Liberty
When you arrive on the island,
talk the footpath to the right of the terminal and walk up the hill turning
left onto Wall Street. You will shortly reach the Island Museum on your right.
This is like stepping back in time. There’s a “Wall of Weird”, a fluorescent
mineral room, and some original sketches of the ferry from 100 years ago.
For details of other sights on
the island, such as a fort and Historic Richmond Town, go to http://www.visitstatenisland.com/
CONEY ISLAND
This of course isn’t an island
you get to by boat. Instead, take the F, D, N or Q lines from Manhattan or
Brooklyn and get off at Coney Island Terminal, or other stops W 8th St NY
Aquarium, or Brighton Beach (see below).
Damaged by storms in 2012, there
is an enormous amount of heritage to visit here. We took bus 74 to the end of
Mermaid Avenue, at the west end of the island, and then walked back along the
(very windy) Boardwalk promenade. When you’re up to W 19th St, head
inland and check out some of the more famous attractions:
Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs
1310 Surf Ave
Coney Island Museum
1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn,
NY at W 12st St
There are two big amusement
parks, Luna Park and WonderWheel, right next door to each other. Both have lots
of rides and stalls, and different pricing points. What you need to know: the
free restrooms are in the Lunapark. FREE LOOS! You’ll need them. Thank us
later.
If you carry on walking East past
the Aquarium, or catch the subway another couple of stops, you come to Brighton
Beach. This is not only chock-full of Russian émigrés, but has some amazing
shops full of Russian gifts, clothing, books and DVDs. Check out St Petersburg
at 230 Brighton Beach Avenue.
Must-See Sights:
Queens
Queens has lots to offer, even if it seems relatively out of
town.
The Queens Museum of Art has a fantastic scale model of
Manhattan and the surrounding area - try to find your hotel! It also has good
temporary exhibitions. Corona Park, Queens
Explore round the rest of the Park, site of the 1965 World's
Fair. Marvel at the Unisphere. Flushing Meadows is nearby, where the tennis US
Open happens each year.
There’s a Zoo, and also the New York Hall Of Science https://nysci.org/visit
Then get back on Line 7 and go to Flushing. This town has
fantastic sights and shops, and one of the oldest buildings in New York, the
Bowne Meeting House. http://www.bownehouse.org/
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