It hasn’t been mentioned and it is a bit pricey, no doubt, but do NOT take the Circle Line tour. Most of New York’s interesting things are on the interior, and the Staten Island Ferry and the East River ferry show you most of the good stuff for a lot less.
Assuming all of you are in good shape you can probably get to places faster on foot than on the hop-on hop-off bus.
There’s also a Fire Department museum. It’s tiny, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s on Spring Street, in an old firehouse.
And there are pictures on the wall (sometimes – I think they rotate them occasionally) of several relatives of mine (a couple of generations back). One Chief of Department, a couple of battalion chiefs. Lots of firefighters in the family, on one side, to this day (and cops on the other side – how much more Irish-American New York can you get?).
I was wondering if this would be moved to IMHO.
When walking in Manhattan, the grid system works out to about 1 mile for 20 blocks going north-south and about 1mile for 6 blocks going east-west.
Awesome suggestions guys. Question: Does google maps work reliably in NYC? I’ve had some gps problems around a lot of tall building before.
- My plan is to book parking online somewhere (there’s tons of places to do this). We won’t be returning to the car until the end of the day.
- Saturday.
- Probably rolling in around 11 or so, have lunch somewhere. Leave time is flexible but probably around 7pm. Late this month, as the trees are turning.
The north-south distance is pretty much exact, while the east-west is more approximate.
The numbering east-west is about a hundred numbers to the block, but it’s not exact, as it is in Salt Lake City.
I once played guide for a family friend for a day trip to Manhattan. Two meals in the city, and she insisted on going to 1) The Hard Rock Cafe and 2). The frickin’ Olive Garden in Times Square.
No real reason to go to Times Square during the day except to get discount Broadway tickets. After dark, you can do a walkthrough to see the neon and lights.
NYC Ferry charges$2.75 for a single ride, which is equal/cheaper than the subway. There are other ferry lines that have stops near Wall Street that are NOT inexpensive, such as NY Water Taxi. The ferry is wonderful in nice weather, and not so wonderful on a drizzly, windy November day with choppy waves
I like the High Line, but I will admit it is not a pleasant experience in poor weather and overly crowded in peak hours during good weather. It’s certainly nicer than walking over the same ground at street level. Rather than treat the High Line as a destination, think of it as a way to get from place to place. The south end has the Whitney and Chelsea Market, further up are the many art galleries in Chelsea. The north end used to be a kind of desert, but the brand-spanking new Hudson Yards.
It is a very good museum, but the cheapest tour ticket is $27. Granted, you can go to the visitor center/gift shop gratis.
Keeping strictly to the parameters set with the OP is pretty difficult, and a lot of people don’t seem to be paying much attention to them. Broadway shows? Movies in Times Square? The Guggenheim? The Central Park Zoo?
The OP has $200 for a party of seven. That is about $28.50 per person for a day that will include lunch and dinner. A one-way subway ride costs $3, so a round-trip for the entire party wil cost $42, or 1/5 of their budget. There is also a group member that cannot walk much more than wandering around midtown (Penn Station to Rock Center and back).
Ummm…is the parking fee coming out of your $200 budget or is it separate? Parking for the day is going to cost a good chunk of change. If you can get into the city about two hours earlier, you would probably be able to park for free in lower Manhattan on a Saturday. (All the Wall St types and city government employees won’t be around.)
Oddly enough, all the years I lived in Queens and came in often, and the four years I worked in the city over the summer, I never went to Chelsea. I was more an East Village type. Plus, if you live in the city I can see walking the streets as being a drag, but New York streets are among the most interesting in the world, and so walking them is a plus.
Thus is generally true, but large swathes of the far West Side (west of Penn Station) north of Chelsea are pretty dreary walks, especially going north-south. It seems like only chains can afford the rents on some of the the avenues, so you can basically count the number of Citibanks, Starbucks, and Duane Reades you pass by. You can also pass a bunch of construction sites, or buildings with empty storefronts, as owners are trying to sell the buildings off to developers planning the next big Hudson Yards-like project.
I don’t know about Pizza Suprema, but I can 't see the OP fitting their party of seven into the branches of Xi’an Famous Foods or GoGo Curry that I’ve been to.
NYC is also the land of the $10-12 avocado toast. I think you’re way overstating the budget eating, especially in the touristy areas of Manhattan that the OP is likely to be going to. I once took a day bus trip into Manhattan (3.5 hour ride) with a friend and her parents, and her parents were agog at the meal prices at places I thought were inexpensive. They considered any entree over ten dollars as expensive/fancy and sure as heck weren’t going to eat “weird” food.
I rate the Transit Museum as one of the better non-major, non-art museums in the City. I mean, it’s underground in an unused subway station, so how cool is that? However, it is $10 a ticket, so $70 for the group, plus $21 to get over there via subway. That’s $91 out of $200 dollars, leaving about $15.50 per person for two meals.
There might be a cheaper way to get over to Brooklyn, if the OP takes their trip before Governor’s Island closes for the season (check). The ferry from Battery Park is free on the weekend, and from Governor’s Island, one can take the other ferry to Brooklyn Bridge Park and walk to The Transit Museum or walk around the cobblestone streets of DUMBO before walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
I already booked parking for $19 for 12 hours by Madison square garden. And no, that’s not part of the budget. It’s not a hard $200 either, but I would rather not spend money on anything but food and maybe cheap transportation in the city this go around.
The ferry lands in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Heights end of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Still plenty of cobblestone streets there – it’s one of NYC’s prettier neighborhoods, and it’s designated a historic district, so it’s pretty much untouchable by developers. One could still walk to the Transit Museum, which I think is actually closer to Brooklyn Heights than to DUMBO.
Or walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park to the DUMBO end, which is a nice walk in and of itself. Then up along Old Fulton Street (right past the famous Grimaldi’s Pizza, if you’re hungry, but there’s always a line there) and right onto the Brooklyn Bridge for the walk back.
Check out the Time Warner Center, Brookfield Place and Hudson Yards. Basically a tour of the various upscale mixed-use commercial developments / shopping centers.
That is a really good deal for NYC.
This is the problem - herding 7 people around is… troublesome.
Otherwise, I did this about a year ago (but I was on my own.) I hadn’t been to NYC in over a decade so, it wasn’t like I was familiar with the place. I went to Central Park, Times Square (I’m a tourist - I’m ok doing touristy things) went to a couple of museums (MoMa & Whitney), walked around a lot (including part of the High Line), and then left. But it was just me - and I like walking and I didn’t have to negotiate with 6 other people. Also, I was lucky in that it was a sunny, warm (but not scorching hot) day. You will want to make alternative plans in case of weather.
Good luck!
Head straight to Zabar’s for real bagels, not the chewy wad that calls itself a bagel in the Pacific Northwest.