Tourist advice. I'm going to NYC!

My wife and I will be celebrating our first anniversary, and we’re going to NYC July 28th (Sat) to Aug 1 (Wed). On Tuesday night we’re going to Radio City Music Hall to see Michael Buble, but the rest of the time is open. I’ve already submitted my req. for David Letterman tickets.

I haven’t been there in a few years, and my wife has never been. I would like to do some touristy stuff of course… Statue of Liberty. My wife has never been to the empire state building. I know there’s TONS of stuff to see and do… What are some of your favorites/recommendations?

I just took some relatives on a boat tour of Manhattan a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and only about 2 hours long, giving you plenty of time to visit some of the stuff that caught your eye while on the tour. The one I took cost less than $30 per person. You also get the best view of the statue of liberty. On the island itself you’re looking up at it, from the boat you get the full sense of scale. Much better for pictures.

Walk along the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights about an hour before sunset and then cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Fantastic views of the NYC skyline. To get started, take the A or C train to the High Street stop.

Check out Isamu Noguchi’s museum. Take the tour of the New York Public Library, considered the premier example of Beaux Arts architecture.

Study the subway map, and then use the subway. It’s really necessary–taxis don’t cut it when you’re going up and down Manhattan. And pay attention to whether the entrance you’re going into goes uptown or downtown; some only go one way, and the unwary tourist might not find out until after paying.

The weather can be brutal that time of year. Very hot and humid. Definiately have backup plans that are indoors, and if you do attempt the bridge, bring LOTS of water/gatorade.

On preview, you’re from Georgia, so… never mind. :slight_smile:

This just in, we’re going to see Chicago on Sunday night at the Ambassador Theatre.

OK, that might be your first mistake…

Carnegie Deli and TKTS. Carnegie Deli because it has the best corned beef sandwiches in the world and TKTS because you can get same day Broadway shows for less than half the price. (corner 46th and broadway)

We’ve had lots of threads here about places to go and things to do in NY. You might want to check them out.

If you want to see some of the less touristy, but still really fun and interesting parts of the city, come and spend some time in the Bronx. We’ve got a lot of great stuff to see and do. Check out the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo. (Granted, those get lots of tourists, but their mainstays aren’t the tourist trade, unlike Radio City Music Hall or the Statue of Liberty.) You could take a very free-form, self-guided tour of the borough by hopping on the Bronx Trolley and checking out the different places the trolley stops at.

If you love to eat, make sure to visit Little Italy in the Bronx. It’s a 5-minute walk from my place to Arthur Avenue. Let me know if you’re thinking of coming to Little Italy, and I’d be happy to take you out for tiramisu at Palombo. (The place isn’t on the list in the Wikipedia article. It opened in, IIRC, January or February of this year. It seems to me that the Wikipedia page hasn’t been updated yet. But Palombo, IMHO, has the best tiramisu in the neighborhood, which is really saying something!) If you like fine wines, make sure to stop at Mount Carmel Wines and Spirits. I’ve become spoiled rotten by having the place as my neighborhood wine shop.

Also, if you like the outdoors, spend some time wandering throughPelham Bay Park. The place even has its own beach! I haven’t been to the beach yet, but I’ll bet it’s nice. (I haven’t been living in the Bronx for very long.)

I also suggest you take a trip to amazingly cool, multiethnic Queens. I’ve heard Astoria’s certainly worth a visit (I haven’t been there myself, yet). Definitely check out Jackson Heights, which has New York’s Little India. You could spend some time just gawking at the gorgeous, ornate, hand-worked gold necklaces in the Indian import jewelry stores. Oh, and you can see silk saris, some of which are so finely made that you can pull them through a wedding ring. No, I’m not making that up.

There are an awful lot of interesting museums in Queens. If you go to Jackson Heights, I strongly suggest you have something to eat at Kababish, on Broadway. There’s also a great Indian-Chinese place I went to in Jackson Heights recently, but I can’t remember its name right now. If you’re interested in hearing what that name was, let me know and I’ll send it to you or post it here.

Here’s a thread that might be of interest to you. I’ll be using the info in it myself pretty soon!

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=372940&highlight=visiting+york

Just remember to not try the barbecue sauce.

There are way too many awesome museums in NYC to not go to at least one during your trip.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - this is the biggie, an enormous collection wide variety you can spend a few days here alone

Museum of Modern Art - if you dig modern art, this is the place to see it

Museum of Natural History - go check out the fossils, man

Guggenheim - great building, I haven’t seen their normal collection.

If that’s a little too stodgy for ya, there’s always the Museum of Sex

The Empire State Building is a long wait for 15 minutes of going, wow what a great view.

When my friend and I went a few years ago we enjoyed the Empire State Building and didn’t have a long wait at all. We also enjoyed touring the United Nations and the Museum of Sex, although the MoS had, for its subject matter, just the worst gift shop.

For a bunch of off-beat places to see, take a look at Forgotten NY.

For Real?
Why?

The indochinese place you guys are talking about…is it Tangra Masala? Because I’m going back to Boston this weekend and my boy and I are rendez-vousing in NYC for just Sunday (bi-coastal relationships SUCK) and we’re taking the train to elmhurst to eat at that place. There are some other places on Lexington avenue in the curry hill part of manhattan (chinese mirch, which my parents hated, and indowok) but the Queens location of Tangra Masala is supposed to be the gold standard for indochinese.

I just got back from NYC and had a terrific time. We say just about everything I planned on seeing, as New York is a very walkable city. Very clean, too, this is not the New York Ratso and Joe Buck visited. Case in point: there a Toys R Us in Times Square. We were riding the subway at all times and never once felt threatened.

Instead of the Empire State Building, we did the Top of the Rock (GE Bldg). Less crowds and more area to wander around up top. Another favorite is walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Walk towards Manhattan and you’ll use up an SD card.

Your itinerary may differ, as I had a 2-year-old chaperone, but we hit a lot of hightlights. Here’s a quick and dirty guide of what we saw (with pics), in the Google Maps “My Maps” format.

Because Joey Lawrence is in it, and Bebe Neuwirth isn’t.

See that big statue thingy in the water… I forget what it’s called.

Please remember that “modern art” covers 1885-now. You’ll be seeing Odilon Redon, Henri Rousseau, and Vincent van Gogh as well as those scary scratchy “My three-year-old-could-piant-that!!” artists.