# What Would You Do As A Tourist in New York? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873 "2018-10-12T20:16:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/41 "2018-10-18T17:08:05Z")
NYC, especially Manhattan, has a certain exciting vibe. Maybe not everyone will get that, but I certainly did. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/42 "2018-10-18T18:20:29Z")
> [@K364](#): > > NYC, especially Manhattan, has a certain exciting vibe. Maybe not everyone will get that, but I certainly did. Agreed. I’ve been to almost every major U.S. City, and there’s a feel to New York that’s like nowhere else. It’s difficult to put into words, but it is palpable. My longest trip there was four nights, in 2012. We didn’t really have a plan, we just explored. Went \*all \*over the city via train (it was easy and cheap), stayed out until all hours, and never once felt unsafe. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/43 "2018-10-18T18:36:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > all we are going to do is eat This should be #1 on the list. Lots of great restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/44 "2018-10-18T19:26:01Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Agreed. I’ve been to almost every major U.S. City, and there’s a feel to New York that’s like nowhere else. It’s difficult to put into words, but it is palpable. It’s the smell of urine. Quite palpable indeed. MMOA is on my list. The rest of the city–you’re welcome to it. It’s not my least favorite city, but it’s near the bottom. New York is one of those places that is entirely populated by people who aren’t from there. It has become a city largely defined by what television says it should be. The feeling I get when I’m there is that it’s a city that everyone agrees you SHOULD like although they aren’t sure why other than everyone else says you should like it. They then participate in a group delusion about how awesome it is as a way to justify paying 50 grand a year to rent a studio apartment to be close to ‘where things are happening’ without ever bothering to actually participate in many or any of those ‘things.’ The people actually participating in those ‘things’ are tourists who don’t really like them either, but since everyone has told them how awesome they are, they feel they must agree (New York bagels are a prime example of this, but I digress.) ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/45 "2018-10-18T19:32:57Z")
Interesting, **senoy**. This sounds a bit like how I would describe San Francisco. I _like_ the city, but one is constantly dodging all sorts of people engaging in transgressive behavior (homeless folks begging, naked people, protests, evangelists, performance artists who think I’m a damn easel, etc.). That’s part of why people who live there wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but there’s an undeniable downside to it also. What are some of your favorite cities to visit? ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/46 "2018-10-18T19:57:12Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Interesting, **senoy**. > > This sounds a bit like how I would describe San Francisco. I _like_ the city, but one is constantly dodging all sorts of people engaging in transgressive behavior (homeless folks begging, naked people, protests, evangelists, performance artists who think I’m a damn easel, etc.). That’s part of why people who live there wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but there’s an undeniable downside to it also. > > What are some of your favorite cities to visit? In US/Canada? New Orleans, Savannah, Victoria BC, Quebec (and Montreal to a lesser degree), San Diego. I actually have an irrational love for Baltimore, largely because it has been gentrification resistant to a large degree and people who live in Baltimore are still mostly Baltimoreans, but I digress. I don’t mind DC as a tourist city though I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s easy to get around in and everything is free. I have a soft-spot for Chicago since I spent almost every summer there growing up and my family still lives there, but if I looked at it objectively it’s probably not that great. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/47 "2018-10-18T21:52:19Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Interesting, **senoy**. > > This sounds a bit like how I would describe San Francisco. I _like_ the city, but one is constantly dodging all sorts of people engaging in transgressive behavior (homeless folks begging, naked people, protests, evangelists, performance artists who think I’m a damn easel, etc.). That’s part of why people who live there wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but there’s an undeniable downside to it also. I live in the Bay Area now, and have been using a set of flash cards for self-guided walks all around San Francisco, and to my amazement New York is a lot cleaner than SF, with fewer homeless on the streets, and fewer panhandlers than 40 years ago. A lot of people still see NY as it was in the '70s. But it is different tpday. No subway car I’ve seen has even one bit of graffiti. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/48 "2018-10-18T21:56:57Z")
Botched reply. See below. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/49 "2018-10-18T21:58:39Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > [ul] > [li]The Guggenheim Museum[/li][li]Metropolitan Museum of Art[/li][li]American Museum of Natural History[/li][li]Museum of Modern Art[/li][li]Whitney Museum[/li][/ul] > > These more or less speak for themselves, I think. If you like museums. Be aware that one of the two dinosaur rooms in the AMNH is closest for renovation. Still worth going to. I just came back from the Frankenstein exhibit at the Morgan Library, which is also wxhibiting one of their three Gutenberg Bibles, plus fascinating Assyrian seals. Only takes a few hours. Not nearly as much stuff as what you’ve got listed, but worth a visit if you have a spare afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/50 "2018-10-18T22:03:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > With that said, the one thing I’d make sure to do in New York would be to see the Statue of Liberty, since that’s (so far as I can tell) the only thing that New York has but Cleveland doesn’t. There are plenty of things that New York has more of than Cleveland, but what’s the big deal there? You gave one answer yourself in the previous poat - Broadway shows. I see road shows in San Francisco, and they are very good, but we’ve seen four Broadway shows so far, and will see a fifth. That’s a whole season in the hinterlands. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/51 "2018-10-18T22:42:27Z")
> [@K364](#): > > Book a show or two as soon as you can because tickets are hard to get. > … > Central Park is wonderful. Maybe some of your favourite TV and movies were shot in NYC and now that I think about it, see the “Moonstruck House” in Brooklyn Heights if you go there. Central Park: If you want to go for the hoky, take a carriage ride. Spendy - and they only take cash - but fun, and the driver will point out all the famous landmarks from movies etc. There’s also a statue of [Balto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balto), the famous sled dog that helped deliver diphtheria medicine to Nome, Alaska. Why it’s in Central Park, I have no clue :D. We actually stumbled across it by accident a couple years ago. Having been to NYC for shows twice this year - once just 2 weeks ago - I can ramble on about that. Advance tickets: only for the really, really hot shows like Hamilton. Anything else, you’ll probably be able to get tickets fairly close to your trip. Even the “never discounted” shows like Book of Mormon, Wicked and The Lion King usually have some availability - I’ve seen all of these by going to the theatre when we got into town and buying the tickets there - I _refuse_ to be gouged by TicketMaster. If you’ll be in town for a few days, go to the theatre as soon as you can. For some of the really hot shows, you won’t get seats together - but the single seats are often fairly decent (we had one very, very good seat at Wicked and the other was merely very good). To get a feel for whether this is likely to work out: look up tickets for a show for tomorrow and see what its availability is like. If they have seats, you can probably count on them being available for _your_ trip. Quite a lot of shows have remained playing by making use of the TKTS system. Same-day tickets are sold at close to half off. Yeah, you won’t get the _greatest_ seats but we’ve gotten some fairly decent ones. You won’t always sit together - but the only time we’ve been seated separately was this past trip, where they really didn’t have much left by the time we got to TKTS in the late afternoon. If you do TKTS, go to the one at South Street Seaport (near the financial district). You can buy tickets for Sunday matinees on Saturday afternoon, and if it’s really jammed, you might have a _5 minute_ wait. Versus the one in Times Square, where you’ll wait at least a half hour, often much more - and you can only get tix for the upcoming show. Times Square is really quite a sight, especially at night. It’s got a life of its own. It’s insanely crowded and you’ll have trouble even walking anywhere - but it’s worth seeing once if you’re in the neighborhood. The nearby avenues can be pretty jammed with pedestrians: we stayed at 37th between 8th and 9th Avenues, needed to get to a theatre at 45th between 7th and 8th, allowed ourselves a half hour for the walk - and barely made it. The theatres themselves are impressive - often very fancy-looking (inside more so than outside). But they vary in comfort. We saw one show at the Lyceum where our knees were jammed up against the seat in front, and one at the Schubert where we actually had _legroom_. That one also had a working elevator - a HUGE one. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/52 "2018-10-19T01:22:09Z")
I’m going to NYC for five days in November, but I go about once a year to visit my father in the Bronx, and lived there for a while years ago. New York City is just so big to really attempt to cover everything. A lot of your itinerary is going to depend on your interests, the length of your stay, the location of your hotel, and the season/weather. Before you go, I would check the following: -MTA Alerts: For subway and bridge construction. -Weather reports: For example, three straight days of during rain will mean a lot of museums. -Special exhibits: Can’t decide which museums to visit? Check websites for special exhibits. -Special event calendar: Your visit might coincide with a once-a-year event. Outer boroughs? When I go to NYC, I visit my Dad in the North Bronx, so schlepping out to the far ends of Queens or Brooklyn eats a lot of time, unless Dad and I drive. Of course, I’ve seen/done everything in the Bronx. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/53 "2018-10-19T02:35:17Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > The feeling I get when I’m there is that it’s a city that everyone agrees you SHOULD like although they aren’t sure why other than everyone else says you should like it. They then participate in a group delusion about how awesome it is as a way to justify paying 50 grand a year to rent a studio apartment to be close to ‘where things are happening’ without ever bothering to actually participate in many or any of those ‘things.’ The people actually participating in those ‘things’ are tourists who don’t really like them either, but since everyone has told them how awesome they are, they feel they must agree (New York bagels are a prime example of this, but I digress.) I would disagree. There is a certain energy to living in New York that you just don’t get anywhere else. It’s not really about the “tourist stuff”. It’s really more about the local neighborhood stuff that you would only really go to if you live in the neighborhood. Plus I just tend to like living in an urban area where everything I need is in walking distance. That said, it would be nice if New York moved away from the media portrayal as a giant halfway house for emotionally maladjusted 20 and 30 somethings to go on alcohol and drug fueled all night sex benders and live beyond their means until they get their shit together. Also, NYC is also rapidly starting to look like something out of Blade Runner with it’s giant glass mega skyscrapers and chain coffee shops on every corner. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/54 "2018-10-19T03:08:22Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > …There’s also a statue of [Balto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balto), the famous sled dog that helped deliver diphtheria medicine to Nome, Alaska. Yes, I went to Central Park every time I visited Manhatten… and I always visited Balto… inspiring… [Balto Statue in Central Park | Central Park, NYC](https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/balto/) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/55 "2018-10-19T03:25:42Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Quite a lot of shows have remained playing by making use of the TKTS system. Same-day tickets are sold at close to half off. Yeah, you won’t get the _greatest_ seats but we’ve gotten some fairly decent ones. You won’t always sit together - but the only time we’ve been seated separately was this past trip, where they really didn’t have much left by the time we got to TKTS in the late afternoon. > > If you do TKTS, go to the one at South Street Seaport (near the financial district). You can buy tickets for Sunday matinees on Saturday afternoon, and if it’s really jammed, you might have a _5 minute_ wait. Versus the one in Times Square, where you’ll wait at least a half hour, often much more - and you can only get tix for the upcoming show. I’ll repeat the trick I learned. If you are seeing multiple shows using TKTS. and the second one is within a week of the first, you can show your old tickets to one of their staff (red shrts) and you get to jump the line. We got tickets for The Bands Visit in Times Square in under 5 minutes. We would up in Row B too, on the side but not crammed against the wall. An aisle seat too. Load the TKTS app which shows you what is or what recently has been available, and where. We’ve used the South Street Seaport one, but there is also one in Lincoln Center, which I have not used. South Street Seaport is quite a shlep unless you want to do something down there. But you can catch the ferry for Roosevelt Island near there. There is also a free lottery for Hamilton and Book of Mormon tickets. Don’t count on winning but you never know. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/56 "2018-10-19T14:30:25Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Fair point, **Balthisar**. I’m often perplexed when I hear people talk about their vacations in terms of food or shopping. There’s a certain ritual about getting a good bagel in New York, but there aren’t many things that can’t be fabricated anywhere in the country if you really want to. NYC water is different than water elsewhere. It’s the NYC water that makes a NY bagel a NY bagel, just not quite the same anywhere else. > [@StusBlues](#): > > So far on my list, I have: > > [ul] > [li]Empire State Building[/li][li]Citigroup Center[/li][li]Rockefeller Center[/li][li] **Freedom Tower** [/li][li]Central Park[/li][/ul] As I said [elsewhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21266707&postcount=9), do not face forward in the Freedom Tower observation deck elevators, either going up or coming back down. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/57 "2018-10-19T16:16:49Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Some folks may not agree with this, but… Go to Coney Island! Yes, it’s cheesy and somewhat dumpy, but it’s still the real deal. Take a ride on the Cyclone and grab a dog at Nathan’s. At the risk of sounding corny, there is a sense of “place” there that is becoming rarer and rarer in this homogenized world. I agree. It’s not any cheesier than the boardwalks on the Jersey Shore and the people are more interesting IMO. I took my family out there last year to see the NY aquarium (which has since been improved dramatically but I think is still minor as far as Aquariums go) and to just check the place out. My daughters (both 15) went back last summer to hang out with friends. A nice escape. We rode the Wonder Wheel and Cyclone together, which was a hoot, but the Cyclone guy had to push a bit to get the bar latched across my paunch :eek: If you’re a tourist in the summer with a free afternoon and/or evening it might be fun. It’s a bit of a schlep to get out there though, so you don’t want to schedule things too tight. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/58 "2018-10-19T16:26:20Z")
Some random stuff to do: - Governor’s Island (just south of Manhattan) - Walk around the Oculus (the new NJ Path station / shopping mall at the Trade Center) - Take the Staten Island ferry back and forth to Staten Island (it’s free) - Walk around the Winter Garden in Brookfield Place (formerly the World Financial Center) - Eat at the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park (Flatiron District) - Look at the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal - Eat dinner on Restaurant Row (W46th between Eight and Ninth Ave) - Check out Bryant Park (42nd and Ave of the Americas next to the NY Public Library) - Go to the Bronx Zoo or NY Botanical Gardens ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/59 "2018-10-19T19:54:38Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > Agreed but I would have to do a bit of research for my meal choices. I want new flavors and new experiences. I have no interest in a top notch steak house or the best pizza slice in New York. Find me some mediocre Moroccan or some ptomaine_ish_ Iranian meals and I’m happy. I don’t just want a meal, I want an adventure. Do you know of a (North) Korean BBQ joint where if I order extra kimchi, I get placed on the no-fly list? Maybe a Caribbean place where each meal comes with a complimentary scotch bonnet high colonic just so you know what tomorrow morning is gonna feel like. Maybe a tapas place that keeps trading insults and firebombs with the Basque place across the street? That’s two places I can try. I did a food tour. They took us to a number of lesser known spots all of which were excellent. During the tour the guide would answer questions on where to eat a particular type of food. It was part of the package deal of the New York Pass which also included the Hop on and off bus tours and a shopping tour as well as admission to a number of museums and attractions. I did look at what I wanted to do and check to make sure it was a good deal for me. I think I got a 10 day pass. for me it was worth it. I rode all of the Hop on Hop off buses and actually used them instead of the subway as they were more direct than the subway, although looking at it today, they don’t have as many routed as when I wen a few years ago and it is only for 1 day. I think mine was 2 or three days. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873/60 "2018-10-20T08:48:11Z")
Ride the Staten Island ferry across and back. It’s cheap and something you should do. Combine it with your trip to the Statue of Liberty; they both go from the bottom of Manhattan. One thing I regret not doing when I was stationed in NYC was never taking a Circle Line Tour up the Hudson River. Or around Manhattan to, for that matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-as-a-tourist-in-new-york/822873.md?page=4)