Yes, I assumed “LGA at 9am” meant “I’m out of my gate at 9am with nothing but carry-on bags”. If the plane is scheduled to touch down at 9am, you’re probably not getting out of there for at least 30 minutes, even more if you have luggage to retrieve (but you don’t, right, or you wouldn’t be talking about running around NYC in one day?).
My impression of Triboro Bridge traffic around 9:30am is that it’s not that bad, if you’re not going into midtown (hence my suggestion to start the day at 79th St - south of that is where the congestion begins). This is from the perspective of someone who lives in Queens not far from LGA (in NE Flushing/Bayside) and on occasion over the past 5 years, has driven into Manhattan in the morning over the Triboro (at 7-8am, not 9am). Most of the traffic on the GCP was clogged behind the BQE exit ramp which I think you will be able to bypass coming from the airport; the bridge itself wasn’t bad and the FDR Drive was similarly fairly smooth to 96th St.
It’s a crapshoot, though - I’ve also had it be a complete standstill. I’m also assuming, perhaps wrongly, that traffic gets better after 9, not worse.
Taking a bus to the 7 train isn’t a terrible idea (though GCT is not the last stop, Times Square is), but I’d hestitate to send first time travelers to NYC on Queens buses, and they’d also bypass Central Park that way. And if the plane touches down at 9am, the cab ride to Central Park is actually more likely to go smoothly (if my “traffic is better at 10am than 8am” theory is correct).
If it were me, I’d try to do what I outlined, and if too much time is lost on the cab ride to Central Park, or if airport delays on landing push 9am “I’m out of LGA” to 10am, I’d:
walk along Central Park from 79th to 59th as before
skip Rockefeller Center, and take the subway from Lexington Ave./59th St. to Grand Central
walk around GCT instead, and go to ESB from there on foot
lunch in GCT may be more attractive anyway (oyster bar?)
proceed as before
As for the pizza - last I checked there is no such thing as Chicago pizza by the slice, which is a critical difference. But I digress
Argh! you’re right about the 7 terminating at 42nd. God how embarrassing! The q47 is pretty easy and lots of people use it-- I wouldn’t consider it your basic average queens bus ride, because it’s a well worn path for tourists and locals and ends in something like a small bus station, not a roadside bus shelter.
And any rate, its just one option, I’m not saying it is necessarily best.
However if you’re proceeding to ESB on foot, going back to GCT for lunch doesn’t make much sense when Koreatown is right there. But now we’re quibbling.
I never had reason to take a bus from LGA to Main Street Flushing (I took the 26,27 from near my house) but I think that sounds like a great solution. You can also see the old Worlds Fair site from the 7, so that is a plus. And either GCT, or Times Square, or even 5th avenue between them are good places to start.
I went to grad school at the U of I in Urbana, where they did sell Chicago style pizza by the slice. And when I went to Hebrew School there was an Italian bakery a block away which sold what they called Sicilian pizza, which came in a rectangular pan and was thick like Chicago pizza. Our teachers were not thrilled about us getting this.
In any case, they should indeed get cheesecake from someplace good. Now that’s one thing New York beats everyone in. Pastrami also.
I looked up the bus schedule for the Q47; on weekdays between 9am and 10am it runs roughly once every 15-20 minutes, and takes about 21 minutes to get to 74th/Roosevelt St. which is a local stop.
So on average, it would be about 30 minutes including waiting for the bus to go from LGA to 74th/Roosevelt, then to take the subway to GCT from 74th would be about 25 minutes… If time is more important than cost, I’d say it’s worth risking the cab ride if visiting Central Park is high on the list (which it would be for me). You might find yourself outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Ave. in same the time it’d take to reach the 7 train and start climbing up those 3 flights of stairs to the 7 train platform.
(I personally hate, hate, hate taking city buses, especially in Queens, a sentiment built on long experience)
The entire Circle Line loop tour is indeed boring, but they do a half-circle that’s not as bad. (I’ve done both.) They go up the East River as far as the UN and turn around, and in one of the directions they buzz the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The Staten Island Ferry is FREE.
If you’re dog-sure you’re doing Empire State Building, you cam buy advance tickets and skip some of the lines. Depending on time of day and season, you could be in line there for two hours that you don’t have. Also, IMHO the extra bucks to go up from the 86th floor observation deck all the way up to the needle is not worth it - the view’s not that different and you can’t go outside.
I agree that Top of the Rock is a reasonable alternative to ESB, especially if you’re planning on visiting Rockefeller Center anyway.
Katz Deli is expensive, nowhere near anywhere else you want to see, but still worth it.
Be a local - take the subways. Nothing on the surface moves that fast.
You can take either that or the q33, which runs every 10 minutes between 9am and 10am.
Not to say I don’t hate the bus. Believe me, I hate the bus. Sometimes, the bus is the the better of a choice of evils. From Roosevelt Ave, you can also get the F to Rockefeller center, which is faster (5 stops) but doesn’t have the cool skyline views.
If a quick photo op and “I saw it” is good enough, you can do those. I’d limit it to about four, plus the good times in between, if you don’t want to make it a breakneck visual scavenger hunt. Just doing ESB can take two hours if the lines aren’t too long, and Liberty Island three to four.
Try: in at Grand Central;
Walk to/through Times Square;
(Maybe) Do the ESB (have tix in advance)
Walk up to the south end of the park;
Cab to Ground Zero (have your passes in advance);
Walk to Battery Park and see the SoL from there.
Junior’s, of course, has the best cheesecake. This is widely known.
But Flatbush Avenue might be a bit out of the way for this mad dash of a trip. Junior’s has a branch in Grand Central, though, on the lower level. Same cheesecake.
