My favorite museums are USAF in Dayton, Children’s in Indy, and Science and Industry in Chicago. I’m not big on looking at paintings.
I’ve seen the London Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and many others right here in the heart of Indiana. I’m going to see BB king at a place a few miles from my home in a few months.
Well, there is that… I’m working on getting extra grumpy as I get older.
Take a flying trapeze lesson at Pier 40. You’re on the roof. The view is amazing and it’s an incredible experience.
The stimulation of cities (and museums, rides, concerts, plays, sight-seeing etc etc) I find utterly draining to the point of actual illness. So I avoid these things generally. It wouldn’t be a problem for me except for the other people’s expectations part. About which, over the years, I have developed a positive phobia. The fear of having to pretend to have enjoyed myself has been, bizarre as it sounds, quite a crippling one.
I am getting a little better with it.
I feel for the OP; there is nothing to be done in your situation except smile as nicely as possible and wait for it to be over.
I would love to go to NYC again for the food, if nothing else. Corned beef or pastrami sammiches…YUM!
I worked in NYC for six months. They put me in a hotel in town and I flew in each week. I"m like the OP, I’ve traveled for most of my life and am just not into the cities. I got hauled to all sorts of ‘great things’ that just didn’t interest me.
The one thing that I liked about NYC (and this will probably disgust some), was that I found a 24/7 shop that sold chinese food by the weight. Their food tasted really good and I could get something different every day of the week. I usually hit it very, very late because it took me so long to get back to the hotel each night. When panhandlers hit me up for money, I always offered to buy them something in that place. A couple times, they took me up on it and the panhandler would sit and tell me stories that I mostly didn’t believe, but it was interesting to hear their POV. (I made it clear that they weren’t obligated to sit with me, but I think they thought they might eventually score some cash – and that never happened)
So, the one thing that I would go to NYC for is that 24/7 deli, but it isn’t exactly like something that you’d say “OH, you’ll be NYC? You just have to go to…” It really is a dive and the tourists are always dragging the homeless into it to eat.
OMG! I tried lox (lux?). I learned the hard way not to experiment with food in a place where the customers are wearing thousand dollar suits. That just is not a place where you want to be spitting your food out in public.
Where in New York is this 24/7 Chinese place? (I live here, that’s why I’m curious. Don’t intend on feeding any homeless people there though).
To the OP- while your co-workers go do touristy stuff where there are presumably large crowds, why don’t you go somewhere else that’s less hectic. Greenwich village is very nice and you can sit and relax in Washington Square Park or hang out in a coffee shop. Parts of Central Park are fairly isolated, generally the farther up you go. There’s a beautiful garden on 106th St. that’s inside but gated off from the rest of the park (you can still go in though). And as others have mentioned there are plenty of museums.
ETA: I don’t know why I assumed this was a business trip- that’s why I said co-workers. Whoever you’re with is what I meant.
I’m not that excited about New York- it would be nice to see the Statue of Liberty but that’s about it. When we went to the northeast coast we flew into JFK, but drove from JFK to Stamford, then at the end of the trip from Raritan to JFK without stopping. The bridges were cool though.
Sounds great… I think I’ll have one for lunch tomorrow. No plane or taxi involved!
http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/12/corned-beef-from-shapiros-deli-indianapolis-indiana.html
The hotel I stayed in was something like the Washington? (It is an older hotel, probably only 2 star if that, teeny-tiny-tiny rooms, no resturaunt or anything else. It struck me as at least 1920s or earlier hotel. It was also located near a major sports(?) arena --sorry, I’m not into sports, but I had to eat there several times with co-workers who were way into it and we could walk there and back).
The 24/7 deli was out the front door of the hotel, take a right and it would be diagonal across the first intersection. There is definitely a sub-way line that runs on that cross street w/a major subway station farther down the street.
For some reason I’m thinking this was in or near the ‘financial district’ (I was working for NYC HHC in hospitals all over the city and the reason the hotel was picked was because the client was paying for it directly - so it is probably on the economical side of things)
If you could go there and fedex me about 5 pounds of their food, I would love it. I actually get cravings for it sometimes.
Maybe you’d like the Intrepid Museum.
Awesome.
By the time you’ve picked up the rental, driven into Manhattan, found parking, and then left time to get back to the airport and drop off the car, you should have at least 30 minutes of free time in the city. 
Okay, so Googled around and the hotel was “The New Yorker.” Duh. I knew it was the name of a city, just forgot which one. One of the problems with traveling too much.
Seriously, why not just take a taxi in? Even if you have to catch it at the air port. It will seriously cut down on your stress levels and if you factor in the price of parking, it might be a wash on costs. NYC does have good subway/taxi/bus systems.
Flight arrives around 8am. Rental car is reserved. Parking is in a garage for a law firm that the my friend works with. Somewhere near the 9-11 memorial. Just need to be in Zarapeth NJ sometime in the evening. The friend goes there often and says it is a piece of cake.
I’ll be there this Friday. If you see a grumpy guy say hi to me.
It’s on 33rd and 8th Avenue; it is indeed cattycorner to Madison Square Garden, but it isn’t in the Financial district 
The Museum of Natural History seems like a no-brainer, or, if I could only do one thing, the “Scales of the universe” exhibit at the Hayden Planetarium 'round back.
Well, if “the city” near me was Albany, I wouldn’t have any desire to go either.
Cool, I’m familiar with that hotel. F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald used to stay there (and I’ve walked by it a million times). And as Hello Again stated, it’s about 50 blocks north of the financial district.
I rarely go to Midtown, but if I do I will look for this Chinese restaurant!
When you’ve spent some time in Northern New Jersey, you’ll see why NY appeals. Oh, the scenic wonders of the Turnpike, the Jersey Meadows, and US 1.
And I lived around Princeton for 15 years and liked it.
There is the Natural History Museum, the Metropolitan Museum (which has a lot more than just art) and the architecture of the Guggenheim. And Broadway. I’ve been to lots of traveling productions, and I’ve been to Broadway, and there is no comparison. London is the same, no place else.
Oh well, it must have been the financial district that I stayed in in Boston.
It isn’t a restauraunt. Its a place that is open with a lot of steam tables, a row of tables along the wall and check out system at one end. People always refered to it as a deli, but aside from cooler cases along one wall, the biggest thing I remember is three or four rows of steam tables and some of the best food I found in the city… grrrr.. now I’m craving it.
ETA: Part of why I liked their food was because it was very much like the food when I was living in Japan (less the fish based oils).