Perhaps no vacation in New York City is long enough to experience all there is to see and do in the city that never sleeps. It's said that by the time a person sees every show on Broadway, he would need to begin all over again to see the new ones. To dine in all of the city's 24,000-plus restaurants is quite impossible, too. While it's fun to know that there's no exhausting what New York City has to offer, you can certainly make a good start beginning with the highlights.
East Side, West Side
- Manhattan's geography makes it easy to explore on foot because most of the streets and avenues are laid out like a grid. Stroll along famous Fifth Avenue which divides East Side from West Side. At 59th Street, wander into Central Park, which has a rowing lake and cafe, a small zoo, running and biking trails and grassy lawns, such as Strawberry Fields, dedicated to John Lennon. Downtown in the oldest part of Manhattan, the grid is replaced by streets that wind through trendy neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village, SoHo and Tribeca. A wonderful vantage point for a panoramic view of New York Harbor, Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty is from the historic Brooklyn Bridge. When you're ready for a ride, hundreds of buses ply the streets, and subway trains whoosh through 600 miles of underground tunnels.
Give Your Regards to Broadway
- You can't miss the heart of Manhattan at 42nd Street and Broadway, known as Times Square. By day, it's a crowded, bustling place. By night, the lights of Broadway shine so bright that it always looks like daytime. Within a few city blocks, 40 theater marquees are illuminated with the names of famous stars and Broadway shows. You can choose an afternoon matinee or an evening performance while saving a fistful of dollars at the outdoor TKTS half-price ticket booth in Times Square. Dinner and a show is the quintessential Manhattan evening. Reflecting the international flavor of New York City, Restaurant Row on West 46th Street showcases about a dozen different national cuisines in 20 different restaurants, all on one block.
New York State of Mind
- Window shopping and New York City go hand-in-hand. It's a good way to explore all five boroughs and their neighborhoods, meet local merchants, stop for a coffee, do some prime people-watching and soak up the atmosphere and feel of life in the big city. Browse eclectic boutiques or poke around Chinatown, Koreatown, Germantown, Little Brazil or Little Italy for souvenirs and ethnic food delicacies. Back in midtown Manhattan, on West 34th Street across from the Empire State Building, Macy's Herald Square is America's largest department store. The flagship of Saks Fifth Avenue faces Rockefeller Center next to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Columbus Circle overlooks Central Park from a vertical urban shopping mall, and Madison Avenue is the place for upscale boutiques mixed with art galleries and quality secondhand clothing stores.
The Very Art of It
- Whatever your interests, New York City has museums to match. Some of the finest collections in the most visited cultural institutions on the planet are found on the Upper East Side. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is second-busiest, hosting more than 6 million visitors a year. Beginning here at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, Museum Mile comprises 10 museums including the well-known Guggenheim and the Cooper-Hewitt. Within 15 minutes' walk of the Met, the Frick Collection and the Whitney Museum of American Art are two more top choices. Any of these museums can account for the better part of a day, so choose according to your schedule to avoid museum fatigue. In midtown, the Museum of Modern Art is highly regarded for contemporary classics and avant-garde. On Central Park West, straight through the park from the Met, children can be treated to dinosaurs and planets at the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium.
