My wife is constantly saying that her dream is to visit New York and like most wives she will no doubt eventually get her way. But before she does I’m interested in the views of others.
We live in Europe so other than being to Florida the rest of the USA is still unexplored territory for us and with the rising value of the dollar versus European currencies the liklihood is that it will remain so for another year or two. But back to my query! A friend of mine and his wife recently travelled there for 4 days and their description was that after a short initial buzz they found it a noisy, unfriendly and very expensive city. I know all cities are noisy & unfriendly but I gather that New York reached new heights for them.
Question: Is it worth visiting and if so for how long? If not are other cities like Boston a better option?
Sorry folks!.
I had more than one window open and posted this to Great Debates instead of to the IMHO forum.
Moderated please move the thread as obviously was never intended as a Great Debate.
I think New York is worth a visit once. Maybe for a week, just to take in the sights…Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Broadway, and maybe catch a ballgame. However, I myself find New York to be a dirty, expensive, overhyped city. But worth a visit once. After New York, I would recommend Los Angeles/Orange County (my hometown) as probably one of the best places to spend a nice vacation. Great weather, plenty of interesting and different activities to do (Disneyland to the beach to Santa Monica to the mountains)and it’s not as expensive as a lot of other cities. Also, Boston, Chicago, and Washington DC/Baltimore are some of my favorite cities. And San Diego is beatiful, as is Phoenix, San Francisco, and Honolulu.
Plenty of cities I’ve left off here, and I’m sure many other people have their favorites. It all depends on what you are looking to do during your vacation. I would recommend taking your wife to NYC once, however, as it really is worth it once or twice.
I’m a male who has worked and lived in New York and visited there frequently. I didn’t like living there,but love to visit. Most women absolutely like it,while it’s a mixed bag with the guys. Not knowing your interests nor budget,it is almost impossible to say how long you should stay. I would venture that the more time you put into planning your trip the more you will enjoy it.
One touristy thing I would definitely recommend is to take the Circle Cruise around Manhattan.
Well, it all depends. . .
I’m a New Yorker, born and raised. I love the city and hope to be able to live there in the future, but. . .
I’ve always had the impression that it’s a better place to live than to visit. Yes, everyone is in a hurry. No, not all of the touristy things to do are even remotely enjoyable (I strongly suggest skipping the Statue of Liberty; it’ll take up a whole day and exhaust you for nothing. You can take the elevator to halfway up and hang around for a while, but if you want to go to the top you have to walk up the stairs the whole way, and then they herd you back down after a few seconds to make way for everyone else. Ugh.)
I like that when I sit on the subway next to a flamboyantly gay black man dressed as a pirate, I’m not phased at all (and neither is nearly anyone else). I like that if I want to get anything from Twinkies to Chinese food at 3 in the morning, I can get on the phone and have someone bring it to me. I like that, given a day to myself, I can do almost anything I want. Perhaps I’ll go have lunch in Chinatown, followed by cheesecake and espresso in Little Italy (two blocks away). Perhaps a trip to a nice museum, eh? (By the way, The Met and the MoMA: yes. The Museum of Natural History: no.) Little things, you see?
I don’t know that this would make for a great vacation, however. If you do want to visit, a week seems like a good amount of time . . . maybe 5 days. Just make sure you don’t follow the tourist path. Do the Chinatown/Little Italy thing (Joe’s Shanghai on Pell street, get the soup dumplings). Argue with the 12 Tribes of Israel on 42nd Street (don’t ask). Go down to St. Mark’s Place or Washington Square Park and try to differentiate between NARCs and actual drug dealers.
You get the idea.