My nieces are coming up to visit for Christmas and apparently there’s a trip into New York City being planned. And I’m the tour guide.
I haven’t been to NYC in several years. One thing I’ve heard about however is the new park called the High Line. It sounds great except for the fact that we’ll be visiting in late December.
Can any locals tell me if visiting this park is a do-able idea in the winter or is this pretty much just a summer-only place.
It is a long walking path along the West Side of Manhattan. It elevated with no weather protection. In other words, on a cold day, it will be cold. It is fun for city and people watching, but the weather matters.
The crowds are intolerable in the summer, so I’d say the middle of winter is an ideal time for the actual strolling part. The foliage obviously won’t be lush, but it’s not like they remove it for the winter – It’s still pretty interesting if urban landscaping interests you. Art exhibits should be up for the most part, and there’s a fair bit of bizarre/ugly architecture in the vicinity. Most of the food cart vendors won’t be open, which is a shame.
To be clear, it’s just a long very narrow elevated park. It’s cool how they converted old railway track, but it isn’t fundamentally different from other recently constructed parks. You can see public art in virtually every NYC park, for instance, and as for vendors, there’s a Christmas Market in Union Square in December. IMHO, the Irish Hunger Memorial is equally beautiful and unique (though, obviously, smaller).
I’m going to second the Irish Hunger Memorial. They imported dirt and foliage from Ireland - it’s like a chunk of mid 1800s countryside in the middle of NYC. It’s very well done. I might be hesitant about the High Line in winter, but if you bundle up you could still have a great time.
Depending on the ages of your nieces,the High Line may be a bit boring. I’d say hit the Empire State Building, The huge Toys R Us has an indoor Ferris Wheel, definitely Madame Tussaud’s, Discovery Zone, the Children’s Museum, Skating at Rock Center.
The most newly added section has see-saws, which is fun.
Here’s a current photo showing what it looks like in winter. As long as it’s not windy or too cold it should be OK.
Thanks for the link. I wasn’t aware of that, even though some of my ancestors were Famine immigrants. I’ll have to check it out the next time I am in the area.
Sorry, not a fan. And I’m easily impressed when it comes to things like that. But I’ve lived here 12 years, and there was so much build-up when they were planning the thing that by the time I saw it I really didn’t think it was anything special. Now, I will say that if you do end up going, be sure to also check out the Artists and Fleas shops nearby. Very cool!
I am planning on taking them to Chelsea Market so I’ll point this place out to them. Thanks for the recommendation.
Not going to help the OP to much in terms of tourist info, but this Pamphlet was issued in the mid 1930s by the New York Central, to publicize the then new West Side Improvements (which include the High Line, plus updated yards along the west side, and cut and cover of the line in Riverside Park).
It was a massive infrastructure undertaking at the time, and produced a lot more efficient freight delivery system. Unfortunately rail freight service in Manhattan declined precipitously starting in the 1950s, as large and mid-size manufacturers moved out, and by 1980 the last freight train ran along the high line (supposedly a load of frozen turkeys). In effect, that section of infrastructure was used for it’s intended purposes for less than 46 years. The St. John’s Park Terminal building, which was the Southern terminus of the High Line, still exists, and I believe it’s used by UPS. The High Line itself was removed for a dozen blocks north of that.
The West Side line thru Riverside Park is currently used by Amtrak.
Another suggestion along the same lines in the Elevated Acrein the financial district. Nice views of the water from a greenspace located about 20’ above the roadway. It’s well hidden, with only a small sign marking the stairway leading to the park. Even knowing the address and being on foot we almost missed it.
I liked it, but agree that I think it would be boring for kids. It is kinda like walking on a wide boardwalk, but with no stores or anything else to look at.
God, the hype about it was unbelievable! But as others have said, it’s really just an elevated boardwalk - nothing spectacular. If you happen to be in the area anyway I’d say go up for a look, but I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way. Take them on a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge instead, or (another transit-related thing), the sky gondola from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island. Lots of people assume that will be enormously expensive, but you can actually get onto it with just your subway card, and it’s kind of a neat experience.
The link below has the 8 best places to sop at while walking the high line.
I highly recommend a stop at Chelsea Market.
IF you’re in the area it is ‘nice’. I’m sure for the locals its really great. It’s a hike from any subway stop. So when you’re at Chelsea market, take a look. But really over hyped.
Guess I should have read the whole thread. 
Seconded.
We heard of it during a jaunt to NYC a few summers ago (from another person we were chatting with in line at TKTS) and it sounded cool. We finally visited it 2 years ago, in late-ish March.
It’s quite a climb up from the street - about 2-3 stories worth of stairs - but it was pretty cool walking along it. Unfortunately when we were there it was before food vendors etc. had set up shop for the season, so I’m sure we missed out on some local color.
Basically if you have reason to visit that part of town, and the weather isn’t too dreadful, it’s worth stopping by, but it’s not a can’t-miss sight.
If the High Line is too high a climb, how about something at street level?
South of Washington Square (LaGuardia Place between Bleecker and Houston), you can visit a re-creation of a tiny slice of pre-European settlement Manhattan:
The Time Landscape:
I’d suggest Top of the Rock over the ESB; the ESB’s fine and all, but if you go to the top of it your view and pictures will all be missing the single most iconic part of the New York skyline.
Depending, again, on tastes, ages and stuff, a visit to the Obscura antique shop might be in order. All manner of oddities and neat stuff; if you’re lucky, one or both of the owners will be there. They’re quite charming. The show was the subject of the Science Channel show “Oddities”. Different part of town, though–East Village, on First somewhere around 12th or 13th, I think.
They’re older than that - college age. So shopping will be a big factor. I’m figuring we’ll spend some time in Greenwich Village (is Bleeker St the main shopping area?) and maybe Chinatown.
We visited Times Square the last time I took them to New York, which was several years ago. They were younger and liked the Toys-R-Us store at the time but I doubt they’d be interested this time. They also liked the Virgin Records store and that would have been good to go back to but it’s closed since we were there. But we’ll probably go back to Times Square so they can take some pictures if nothing else. Maybe we’ll go to Junior’s for cheesecake.
We also visited the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center last time. So I figured I’d aim for different places this time.