MadGrip

I've booked to take the girlfriend to newyork for 4 days in early april for her birthday, she obviously knows cos shes had to book time off work, but I'm looking to book something for while we're there that'll come as a nice surprise. I've never been before so I'm a little unsure of what to expect or where to go. We're staying in a hotel in Brooklyn which overlooks the Brooklyn bridge. Can anyone recommend anything? I know there's the helicopter flights around the statue, broadway etc, but what else

Cheers

Phil

SJ_Skyline

The rockafella, the empire state, grand central station oyster bar, quality meats (best steak I've had), horse drawn buggy ride round central park, shopping on 5th avenue, sex & the city guided tour and the obligatory trip with a crazed taxi driver on crack!

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Empire State Building has good views
See a show (eg, 42nd Street)
Ellis Island (really interesting museum - see who from your family emmigrated to NY)
Buying sandwiches at almost any Deli is an experience in choice
Hell's kitchen for Italian food
Shopping (exchange rate is in our favour)
Walking - when I went, just spent ages wandering around - so much to see.

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Oh, and can I look after your car whilst you're away?

Sonic'

Rockerfella is supposed to be a lot better than empire

There is so much to do you wont get to do it all anyway, eg Liberty is most of the day, Empire will be most of the day, so try and plan ahead what you want to do

Trucker Ted

Looking at this thread with interest as we are going to NY later in the year,then looked at "your scooby"after reading this post.........Well !!!!

Your Integrale looks awesome mate, you must get a right buzz taking that out on a nice summers day.

davyboy

Went a couple of weeks ago, 2nd time for me. The best tip I have is plan everything ahead. Even down to where you want to eat every night.

B&H sound and vision is worth a trip! Not on Saturday or Friday afternoon though.

See if there are any events at Madison Sq Gardens, we saw the nicks which was a good night out,

To me new york comes alive at night, so go up the empire state building around 5pm and watch it go dark. I'd also like to do Ellis Island around dusk so I can take pics of the skyline at night.

On the day we arrived it snowed, 7 inches! So I bought a gore tex jacket and shoes...and some binoculars and a new camera case.





Went to watch the New York Nicks



And of course went up the Empire state building B)











Grand Central



Rockerfeller Center



Handfeeding the local vermin



Brooklyn Bridge



The Subway



External view of the Emprire State Building



Times Square



Statue of Liberty



NY Skyline





Central Park

Sonic'

Davy my Sister & Hubby were there a couple of weeks ago too

They stayed in the Milford Plaza for 7 nights, they took 700 photos but only seen the first 200 upto now, havent even got to the snow pics yet

They went to the Zoo in central park which is a first for them and they really enjoyed it (they have been to NY about 10 times now)

They went to the top of the Rockerfella and said it is so much better than Empire and something they hadnt done before either

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Cool, winter looks the time to go, great pics Davy

I'm going to look into doing this next winter

Sonic'

Take some thermals tho, it s f00king freezin mid feb

Last time we went we got stranded for 2 extra days as the snow was proper blizzard style worst fall since the 1800's apparently, and it only snowed for about 3 hours too

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I love snow!

Sonic'

So do I

I got told off by the NYPD for bellysliding down Broadway on Times Square in the middle of the road

They were NOT impressed

It snowed that bad that the next day a lot of people were walking round on Ski's !!!

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Would belly sliding come under the 'no jaywalking' rule? You nutter

scoob_babe

Great pics Dave
We went end March last year and it was obvious that they'd had heavy snow recently but it was pretty mild when we went.

mamoon2

Like others have said, plan your trip down to every last detail.

We went at xmas just gone and first thing we did was go find somewhere that sells a map and guide book, which we happened to walk in Grand Central Station! The guide books are excellent and NY is really easy to navigate round.... Streets Horizontally Avenues Vertically.

Also if going into other disctricts like Financial / Soho / Tribeca take the subway instead of a Taxi as the subway is only $2 a ride and quite an experience, Taxi would cost $20.

Even just walking round NY is amazing and like someone else said the Delis are great, massive choice of quality food. Theres a nice one opposite FAO Swartz.

davyboy

Same place we stayed! 21st -24th Feb we were there.

Freak

Disagree with the above- don't plan everything to the last detail.
Know which of the main attractions you want to fit in, and approx when...but everything else dont plan too much as the plan will go to crap very soon.
Literally something on every block to do or see.

Also you can be sensible with certain attractions.
Like the Empire state....get there around 30 mins before the last upward elevator in the evening....tiny lines in comparison to the daytime (fancy standing around waiting for 3 hours??), and you get to see it at nite.

Liberty island I wouldn't bother with... horrendous lines to get there, horrendous lines to get up in the statue, and when you DO get there, you will find that can only go up as far as her feet- you can't go up any higher post 9/11.
I would suggest getting the Staten Island ferry (which is $free) from battery park (bowling green - downtown 6 train) which goes right past liberty...get some good pics with none of the hassle. Then you get to see it again on the ferry back.
The chopper ride is ok- quite pricey though. Again, book in advance or get there early to avoid long lines...

And congrats for staying in Brooklyn and not being a sheep and staying in the hell that is times squared or midtown.. I'll pm you some local eateries and stuff nearer the time- stuff you won't find in the guidebooks

davyboy

Isn't the last elevator about 1am?

We didn't have to queue at all at 4pm.

I'd agree with the staten island ferry thing. Liberty island and ellis island require bag checks too, and the whole process to get there and back takes about 4 hours!

MadGrip

some great ideas there, many thanks, we're both really looking forward to going

BOB.T

Are you allowed to push hot dog stands down the subway steps? I'd really like to do that Then I'd buy a kwoarfee

Will

Impressive pics Dave. Was that a Crown plaza hotel in 1 pic???

Fuzz

Plenty of lubrication.

davyboy

Union Sq Park I think

Sonic'

I take it you havent seen sleepers then

Will

Cheers

little-ginge

I wanna go

but my other half doesn't 'do' cities.. so I'm stuffed seeing as he would be the one paying

MrJim

Yea leave your other half behind and go by yourself have a much better time

ChrisB

We went up the Rockfeller at 9am one morning, no queues. Then we did the Empire about 10pm one night - again, no queueing. Walking through all the barrier lines for queueing shows how long you must wait during the day

Will second SJ's recommended of the Oyster Bar @ Grand Central (though miss it if you really dislike fish!). Good beer to be found at the Heartland Brewery.

Here's a couple of my pics:



Doesn't blow out the electronic adverts but is quite dark elsewhere.

1.6 second exposure:

MadGrip

Thanks to everyone for your advice and opinions, looks like theres lots to see & do , and I'm sure we'll be back there to continue the sight seeing thing.

FREAK: I'll await the pm, thanks very much, we fly out on the 11th of April

cheers

Phil

DanTerzo

iTrader: (1)

Been a couple of times now, amazing place! Wouldnt say you need to have everything planned, just have a good idea of what you want to do, a lot of the sights are easy to get to, with plenty of info or leaflets to help you out if your stuck or lost.

As been said, try and see an event in Madison Square Garden, what a place! We went to see NY Rangers against Atlanta Thrashers? I think thats ther name, play Ice Hockey, Tremendous! (dont pay more for seats down the front if you go, we paid 40bucks each for seats up the back and they were perfect)

Its surprising how good it is just walking around. No doubt you will do Macy's and Bloomingdales and all that.

If your thinking of buying any electrical goods soon then hold off, theres lots of bargains to be had over there