For visitors it's hard to know where the highlights of each place are. Here are a few "sample tours" I created with some of my favorite places:
CENTRAL PARK AND METROPOLITAN MUSEUM: Number 1 to 72nd Street. Central Park is huge and runs from 59th to 11oth Street. All areas are safe except you must be more careful in upper reaches (say 96th to 110). Nice tour-- 72nd Street to Central Park (http://www.centralparknyc.org) , past Dakota, 55 CPW ; through Strawberry Fields, fountain at 72nd, up to Great Lawn at 81st St, “near Belvedere Castle/ Turtle Pond, down through Ramble (don’t get lost) or go across 81st lower end of Great Lawn to Metropolitan Museum. DON’T PAY the 20 RECOMMENDED PRICE! Give them $5 and just say “2 please” and they will give you two metal buttons …At Met. Museum take elevator to Roof Garden for great view of Central Park (esp fun on Fri and Sat night—open until 9PM). IN CP take a rowboat on lake, or go to CP Zoo (near 65th on east side) or all the way up to Conservatory Garden (5th and 103).
5th AVENUE: Number 1 to 59th Street—walk west to 5th Avenue along bottom part of park. Walk down 5th. St. Patrick’s Cathedral (51st); Rockefeller Center, Radio City (Sixth and 50th), across (east) to Grand Central Station (42nd), United Nations (east River bet 42nd and 48th entrance First and 46th) www.un.org) 9:30AM-4:45PM. Tour is 45minutes if you want one-212-963-TOUR); Empire State Building (34th St), Gramercy Park (23rd St), down to East Village--Sunshine Cinema.
34th STREET—Number 1 to 34th Street. Macys and LOTS of clothing stores—H and M, Forever 21, Sephora are all on 34th Street from Macys then going EAST (not west which is mostly trashy stores) etc. Mostly commercial and pretty crazy.
SOHO—Number 1 to Houston—walk east and then south. Soho is THE hip/celebrity laden shopping area, mostly bounded from Prince Street (one block I think below Houston Street) on the North to Broome on the South but you can go more south than that. Mosty it is a lot of expensive stores but Broadway starting from Prince and going down (South) is a good place to start--has some good, inexpensive clothing stores—very cute stuff. H&M but also smaller stores not too expensive for clothes shopping this area is good.
CHINATOWN (Canal Street)—Number 1 to Canal Street. This area is all around Canal Street. It is pretty insanely busy and crowded so only go when you are in a good mood. Cheap cheap cheap t shirts though for souvenirs. (like 5 for ten dollars). Pearl River Mart is on Broadway two blocks north of canal (past Grand and then past Broome). You can walk to Soho and even the West Village from Chinatown or vice versa).
LINCOLN CENTER (60th St area near Amsterdam): Number 1 to 66th Street. Lincoln Center (Met. Opera, NYC Opera, et al) walkthrough down to
TIMES SQUARE: Number 1 2 or 3 to Times Square—42nd Street. has become pretty crazy and touristy but still a “must” if just for the scene with the electronic bulletin boards everyone is used to seeing in movies. TRL Live – MTV Studio is somewhere down here but mostly it is places like chain restaurants –(eg Bubba Gumps) and this is where the theatres (Broadway shows) are. TKTS booth here where you can get reduced price tickets for shows the same day of the show. Broadway, Off-Broadway, Dance and Music events. Tickets are available at 25%, 35%, and 50% off full-price (plus a $3.00 per ticket service charge) and are available on the day of Window 6 is a separate PLAY ONLY line. Same-day discount ticket buyers may queue to purchase tickets for Broadway and Off Broadway dramatic plays. These productions will be indicated on the electronic boards with a letter P.
DOWNTOWN (Statue of Liberty area/Financial District, Battery Park, Castle Clinton, World Financial Center, WTC ): Number 1 to end of line –Ferry stop (Stay in front four cars if you get off this stop)--or 2 or 3 to Park Place…this is where you can reach the Battery Park Promenade (gorgeous green promenade walk by the Hudson River—a MUST to do while you are here), can see the Statue of Liberty, can take the Staten Island Ferry (cute trip back and forth), WTC area (you can see the WTC area which is west of Broadway, at Church—surrounded by fence, hard to miss), South Street Seaport (on the other side—East River--Pier 15 16 and 17-shops, restaurants…. Pioneer-90 minute tours). Also some stores but not a lot –best is Century 21 (outlet store-Cortlandt b. Bway and Church). Wall Street is down here. Pretty quiet on weekends as mostly these are financial services businesses down here.
BROOKLYN BRIDGE (entrance on Park Row-walk across to Brooklyn. Great walk about 45 minutes, ice cream at the end of it, can take water taxi back across to Manhattan—this is very fun to do!!!! )—or walk halfway across then back. You can walk to Brooklyn Heights and the promenade which has a great view of Manhattan, and some nice little shops, then take the 2 or 3 train back home from Brooklyn Heights.
