Things to do


General introduction
For most visitors Manhattan is New York City, and although the other boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island each have their own sights, most visitors don’t even consider trying to fit in any sightseeing outside Manhattan.

As a first-time visitor to New York City you can’t see and do everything and you shouldn’t try… But you can get a great introduction to the sights and visit the ones you find most interesting.

See our suggested walking tours
In our opinion, New York City, like most other major cities, is experienced the best by foot. However, a double-decker bus tour is a good way to get oriented.

Gray Line New York Tours lets you get off at top attractions and reboard a later bus to continue your exploration. If you prefer to explore more on your own, we recommend that you take advantage of the cheap and highly effective subway system.

As some of you might know, Søren are notorious for planning long extensive sightseeing walking tours packed with attractions. Please have this in mind when reviewing the walking tours below.

If you have more than a few days in New York City, we strongly advice you to split both of the two walking tours below into two-day-tours.






A visit to the Statue of Liberty will always top my (Søren) own personal must-see list for New York City, so naturally this is day one of our suggested itinerary.

Other must-see sights include the Brooklyn Bridge, the observatory of Empire State Building and Times Square.






Entertainment
New York is world famous for it's Broadway shows and other great entertainment. Please refer to this website if you are interested in catching a show and want to learn more: www.nyc.com/theatre.

There is a TKTS booth on Times Square, where discounted tickets for same-day shows are sold: www.entertainment-link.com/tkts. Be prepared for a long line and waiting in up to two hours. If you would like to order discounted tickets online, we recommend this link: www.entertainment-link.com

Inspirational websites:
www.mustseenewyork.com

www.nyctourist.com

www.nycvisit.com

www.lonelyplanet.com/newyorkcity

www.parkermeridien.com/nyc

www.greylinenewyorkcity.com





Walking tours – day one 

Statue of Liberty
Take the subway to Bowling Green (green line) which puts you at the entrance to Lower Manhattan’s Battery Park, where ferries depart to the Statue of Liberty (the ferry makes a second stop at Ellis Island, which has an impressive Immigration Museum). Ferry tickets can be bought in the small fort Castle Clinton located in Battery Park.

If you are interested in entering the crown of the Statue of Liberty, make sure that you depart with one of the first ferries out, to avoid the more than three hours waiting lines that start forming from early morning. Be aware that the view of the Manhattan skyline is not any better from the crown than from the foot of the Statue. Also, before going up, make sure that you feel up to the long steep and narrow climb up the many steps.



Wall Street & South Street Seaport
From Battery Park walk up Broadway and make a right onto Wall Street and the financial district, home of the New York Stock Exchange. Continue up Broadway until you reach St. Paul’s Chapel. Make a right onto Fulton St. which will bring you to South Street Seaport, which offers opportunities for both shopping and dining as well as great views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge
Returning back to Broadway, there is the option to continue west on Fulton St. towards Ground Zero, or turn up Broadway towards City Hall and the pedestrian entrance to Brooklyn Bridge. Returning back from Brooklyn Bridge to the City Hall area there are several subway entrances.

Walking tours – day two

Rockefeller Center
Take the subway to Grand Central Station. Make sure to admire the sky ceiling, before you make your way west towards Fifth Ave, where you should turn right and continue up towards Rockefeller Center. Fifth Ave and the area around Rockefeller Centre is world known as a shopping Mecca, so this your time to shop ‘til you drop…

St. Patrick’s Cathedral
After visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral (opposite Rockefeller Center) continue up Fifth Ave towards Central Park. Make sure to check out more of the countless stores on the way uptown. If you are interested in contempary art, turn left at 53rd Street and head to MOMA (the trendy Museum of Modern Art).

Central Park
Otherwise continue uptown to 58th Street and turn left at the impressive Plaza Hotel (its Oak Bar overlooking Central Park has lots of history). Continue west towards Broadway, where you have the choice of walking into Central Park or turn left and stroll down Broadway. Central Park is also neighboring two of New York’s best art museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum.

Times Square
Continue down Broadway until you reach the point where Broadway and Seventh Ave intersects. This is it - Times Square, with all the hustle and bustle you can ask for. If you are interested in going to a Broadway show, there is a TKTS ticket booth in the middle of Times Square that sell same-day tickets at discounted rates.

Macy’s department store
Continue down Broadway until it intersects with Sixth Ave, around 34th Street where the world’s largest department store: Macy’s is located. The place is huge, so set aside a few hours if you want to browse most of it.



Empire State Building
Another famous landmark is neighboring Macy’s – Empire State Building, which is located on Fifth Ave between 33rd and 34th Street. Take the elevator to the 86th floor Observatory, which offers great views of all of New York City.

Walking tours - day three

More shopping
No matter where you are in New York City, there are lots of shopping opportunities. Please note that the two walking tours above also takes you by lots of stores… if that wasn’t enough, we have collected a few more suggestions for you.

Downtown
Located Downtown you will find the department store: Century 21 – known for it’s discount extraordinaire concept. Century 21 is located between Broadway and Church St at 22 Cortlandt St, close to Ground Zero, should you wish to visit this to show your respects.

Also located Downtown, one of New York City’s premier shopping areas, with lots of cool stores, are SoHo (which is the square mile between Houston Street and Grand Street, from Broadway to Sixth Ave).

Close by is China Town, which besides raw fish and Dim Sum restaurants has lots of stalls with fake watches and leather bags, especially along Mott Street and Canal Street as well as Mulberry Street in Little Italy, which intersects with Canal Street.

Midtown & Uptown
If you haven’t yet had time to explore Fifth Ave from 50th Street to Central Park you better be wearing your best shopping shoes, as there are lots of stores – including all the major designers as well as more accessible retailers such as Banana Republic and Liz Claiborne. Start off at the department store: Saks Fifth Ave, located at Fifth Ave and 50th Street.

Right at the corner of Fifth Ave and 59th Street you will find the landmark institution for children of all ages, FAQ Schwartz – a huge toy store where touching the merchandise is all part of the fun.

Continue east along 59th Street until you reach Third Ave and another department store: Bloomingdale’s.

Going back west to Madison Ave and heading up, you will encounter just about every upscale merchant on the planet. Even if you wallet is not exactly the right size for shopping at these stores, you should check out a few of them just for the fun of it – e.g. Barneys at Madison Ave and 61>st Street, which is a large upscale clothing store.

Outlet stores – Woodbury Common
If you feel like bargain hunting, maybe you should consider going to the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, which features more than 220 stores, including name brand outlets such as Adidas, Banana Republic, Calvin Klein, Coach, Donna Karan, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Max Mara, Nautica, Nike, Versace, Levi's, Salvadore Ferragamo and much more. Day tours are available at Gray Line New York Tours. www.greylinetours\woodburycommon

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