Awesome. That is EXACTLY the sort of thing I (and I hope) my wife are hoping for.
My wife is more into this trip than I. Nothing against NYC, but I’ve got plenty of experience w/ big(gish) cities, such that they aren’t my favorite vacay destinations. My preferences tend more towards the nature/solitude. And I pretty quickly get my fill of museums and crowds. So “sort of off the beaten track but still neat things that will make for a good part of a day” are the kinds of things that will really make this trip pleasurable for me. Hell - for me - is a tightly scheduled course from church to museum to show to restaurant.
I could pass a good part of each day just walking the streets - probably w/ a dining destination, and checking things out. Or I could sit in a park and read a book, seeing what happens around me. I bet I could easily spend an entire day walking around Central Park and the streets immediately adjoining it. I guess I’m a pretty boring vacationer!
We’ve enjoyed our stays at the Citizen M hotel in midtown west. The rooms are not big, but they are clean and well-designed - kind of a Scandinavian design meets Apple feel - very hip. Good location on 52nd Street IIRC - can walk to Times Square and the TKTS booth as well as the Met. Maybe a 15 minute walk from the southwest corner of Central Park. The excellent Circle in the Square off-Broadway theatre is right across the street.
Free Tours by Foot has good tours. They’re pay-what-you-wish rather than free. I’ve done a couple of their tours, in Chicago and Savannah, and thought they were well worth it. They have a wide range of tours of NYC neighborhoods: The Best Walking Tours in NYC
Except for the major museums, like the Met, the Museum of Natural History, the MoMA, or the Guggenheim. most of the smaller museums are not going to be crowded unless it’s a special exhibition or a free/reduced-rate day. I’ve been in some museums where I could count the people there with me on one hand.
I did a bunch of posts in the NYC in August thread which cover more of what you are looking for, including neighborhood walking tours. You’d probably like Governor’s Island.
Other walking neighborhoods would be Greenwich Village and the East Village, but they are built more around small shops and restaurants. Haven’t been to either in a while and I really can’t say after COVID what is still around. I noticed a few of my favorite restaurants in those areas have closed.
I would say that if you just aim to walk around, pick a starting point and an ending point, plan to hit an interesting place or two on the way and walk. Have a general idea of what’s in the area and what route to take. Some people might tell you that there are no bad walks in Manhattan, but there are definitely stretches of blocks where the storefronts are empty because the landlord is trying to put together some sort of Hudson Yards-type deal or the rents are so high that only major chains (Starbucks, Duane Reed, Citibank) line the street.
I’ve never done a walking tour in NY, but I’ve done them in Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Berlin and even San Francisco, and they’ve been uniformly excellent.
There are decks of flash card with short walking tours. I’ve never looked at the New York one (but it exists) but I’ve done the San Francisco one and it was good. Too many to cover in a day, and not as good as a guided tour, but a possibility.
I’ve never actually taken any of the Free Tours by Foot walking tours. I just suggested some areas to walk around in and listed the attractions. I have taken one of the tour given by Central Park staff. They are pretty good, but each tour only does a fraction of the park.
If you go to any place staffed by a National Park Service Ranger, take the tour if the timing is right. They are very good guides.
Of course, NYC has an immense number of restaurants of all shapes, sizes, cuisines, and price ranges so I almost don’t think it would be worthwhile to make a bunch of specific recommendations. .
The other thing you have to eat in NYC is, of course, pizza. You can certainly get plenty of mediocre pizza in NYC if you’re not careful (Don’t eat at Sbarro’s), but there is a lot of really good pizza in NYC. Here’s a list of the 30 Best Pizza Places in NYC. A lot of the very best places are out in Brooklyn, but one place not on that list is the original and oldest pizzeria in New York: Lombardi’s on Spring Street in SoHo, established in 1905. No pizza by-the-slice there, though.
Across the street from Lombardi’s is a possible dessert option. Rice to Riches is a shop selling nothing but rice pudding in multiple forms and flavors.
You don’t have to eat Chinese food in NYC, but New York has the best options east of the Mississippi, especially in the newer Chinatown in Flushing/ Queens, which has a lot of regional and speciality restaurants with options you’re not going to see in other city’s Chinatowns.
If you can’t get all the way out to Flushing, there’s plenty to see and do in NYC’s original Chinatown in lower Manhattan. You’ve got old school classics like Nom Wah Tea Parlor, a dim sum place dating back to 1920, or Wo Hop, a no-frills basement restaurant dating back to 1938.
For hotels, I recommend looking into places in the Long Island City (Queens) hotel district. Most of the hotels are either one or two subways stops, 5-10 minutes, from the 59th St shopping district (think Bloomingdale’s) on the Upper East Side.
I’ve stayed in lots of the hotels in the district, for convenience I recommend one of the ones near the 39th St train station - it’s two stops outside of Manhattan, but the closer Queensboro Plaza train station is formidable, it’s in an area with heavy traffic and can be tricky to access.
My specific recommendation (which may be on the pricey side) is the Hilton Home2 Suites, which is an extended stay hotel. I stayed there a few weeks ago. It’s a new building, my room was like a small but sleek and modern studio apartment, with a kitchenette with dishes and cutlery, seating area and a bedroom area that can be closed off with a curtain.
It also has a really good free breakfast as such things go, and you can snag some extra microwave breakfast sandwiches for later. If that’s out of your price range but you like the area, look for the hotels near them, I think there is a Holiday Inn and a couple of independent hotels. I’ve stayed in most of them, and they’re all decent or better.
The area was only zoned for hotels 10-15 years ago and most of the hotels are new construction.
Just a recommendation from a former long time resident who was displaced frequently during her apartment renovations, and who still has to visit on occasion to manage her rental property. I hope your trip is awesome, no matter where you stay.
OK - asking for opinions now that we are kinda overwhelmed by hotel choices.
Some of the main things my wife wants to see are the art museums. Looking at Midtown, I see proximity to the Lexington line looks like a good transportation option to go N and S, and hook up w/ other lines. (My preference is to subway/walk when possible). I see several options in the area between 48th and 53d including:
Courtyard by Marriott, Hilton Garden Inn, Benjamin Royal, Kimberley, 48Lex, Best Western Plus. Al are easy walk/close enough to SE corner of Central Park, Grand Central, Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square, etc. All score 4+ “very good” on Google reviews.
All are w/in our price range, and all look “good enough” - such that I’m not dying to spend days on the computer checking out hundreds of hotels, dreaming that one will be “perfect.” My process would be to compare these 6, decide if we want a large chain vs a smaller boutique, compare aspects of the rooms (views/beds), possibly breakfasts, and just picking one.
Anything wrong with my assessment of the location, or the 6 I named?
We go through a cycle of getting excited about this trip, and then getting overwhelmed by the plethora of choices… Thanks in advance.
Nevermind. My wife spoke w/ someone who recommended a couple of hotels closer to Times Square. The location does not really look superior to the one I suggested, but she is the one who really wants to do this trip, so I’m happy to go with whatever she wants. Just the normal spousal challenge, where one spouse asks the other for input, and then just decides to go in a completely different direction!
I’ll let you know what we end up doing. I’m sure it will be fine. The myriad choices - all of which involve considerable $, is the kind of thing that tends to make me choose against travel so often, and just hang out in my lovely home and yard!
I wouldn’t sweat it. The hotels near Times Square should be within easy reach of the subway station and a free transfer from the 7 or S train to the 4 train going uptown. Or you could take a bus transfer.
Google maps will give you routes, or the MTA trip planner: Trip Planner
I know you said 6 but look at Club Quarters. nice, kinda-botiquey small chain, good reviews. They have one across from Rockefeller (the Jewel by CQ) that I stayed at a number of years ago (with an outdoor bar overlooking RC) & also one closer to Times Square (that I’ve never been to). I just stayed at their WTC location last month which is more common for me when using them in NYC. Typical nice-but-small-NYC hotel rooms. They do have free chilled water & bottles station in the hallway, nice touch if you’re going to be walking around on a hot day.
And I pretty quickly get my fill of museums and crowds. So “sort of off the beaten track but still neat things that will make for a good part of a day” are the kinds of things that will really make this trip pleasurable for me. Hell - for me - is a tightly scheduled course from church to museum to show to restaurant.