New York for Newbies (specifically Manhattan)

Last summer, my family visited Manhattan for the very first time as tourists! (I'd been there before for business, but how much fun could one have while working?) There were so many tourist-y things to do there was no way we could get to them all in one vacation. Besides, we had so much fun, we just have to go back!

But being that I'm getting up in years, I thought I better write down some of the stuff I learned as a first time tourist so I can remind myself before I go back the next time!

Getting Around

Do not, I repeat, do not rent a car. There a number of reasons for this, especially if you are not venturing off Manhattan, or at least very far from it.

Why do you need a car? As long as you stay somewhere reasonable, you can walk, take a cab, take a bus, or take the subway just about anywhere you want to go.

And where are you going to keep a car? Parking? Yeah, it's available, but at what cost? And the traffic? Well, it is New York City. Sometimes it wasn't so bad, but at other times it was pretty horrible.

And just what would be the cost? Our hotel would let us park it in their garage (and allow us to get to it once per day!) for only $55 per night. We saw some short term parking for $12 for 15 minutes. Yeah. No thanks.

The Right Way To Get Around

The two best ways we found of getting around are to 1) walk and 2) take the subway. Two other methods are taking the bus and/or a cab. We never had to do either of the latter two.

Must do #1: Buy a Metro Card. This will get you on the subway. We bought the 7-day unlimited pass. Very reasonable price. I believe it was $31 for summer 2014.

Must do #2: Download a copy of an app that knows the transportation systems around NYC. I used one called CityMapper for my iPhone. If you enter a start and end location, it will tell you how to get to your destination by walking, cab, subway, and/or bus, and the time it will take. I'd just enter the points, select a subway route and it'd tell me how to get to a subway station and which line to take.

Hint: You'll want to know that most subway routes will point you to either Brooklyn (south-ish) or to the Bronx (north-ish). Very important to know that if you're at Times Square and you want to go to the 9/11 Memorial, you need to head toward Brooklyn!

To/From the airport: Most of the family took a private shuttle service. Don't know if it's the case with all the shuttle drivers in NY, but if you sit up front, it's kind of like a death-defying thrill ride. Really. I'm thinking my daughter, who came a few days later, had a better idea. She got on a bus to the subway station and rode that in. Except for the luggage schlepping up and down the stairs, it seems to be at least as good a way to get to your hotel, and probably a lot cheaper!

Sleeps

We only know one place: The Hilton Garden Inn Central Park South on 54th. Very convenient to Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, 5th Avenue, and on and on. Smallish, but nice, rooms. The employees were quite nice too.

Eats

Hint: It's expensive in New York! My $1 large McDonalds soda in Utah was about $2. Kinda how most things are (but maybe not to that extent). Get used to it.

5 Napkin Burger: Burgers and more! But yeah, burgers. Definitely burgers.

Carnegie Deli: Fun little place. Tons o' meat on them sandwiches. I had Pastrami on Rye. Could only eat half, so I had the rest to go. The cheesecake also looked really good.

Doughnut Plant: Yum.

Dylan's Candy Bar: What's not to like? There's also a "vintage" candy section downstairs where I saw candy I hadn't seen in years!

John's Pizza: Mmmm... Pizza... Very good. Excellent garlic rolls!

Junior's Restaurant and Cheesecake: Good food. Very good cheesecake.

Il Palazzo: Little Italy. Yummy food. Creme brulee.

Luke's Lobster: Seafood sandwiches. Well worth the effort (walk) to get there. Look 'em up. Yum.

Pick A Bagel: Really good bagel sandwiches. We went there for breakfast.

Sarabeth's (Central Park South): Best French Toast ever. Most expensive French Toast ever.

Shake Shack: Yum. Worth the wait. Yes, you will be waiting. Fantastic shakes, very good burgers. Forget the hot dog.

Wasabi: Fast food Japanese. It was surprisingly good, actually.

Sees

9/11 Memorial: Definitely have to see. You'll know why when you get there.

Broadway Shows!: Well, duh! (Of course, this only applies if you're cultured, like me...) Best thing to do is to check out scheduling and available shows and buy tickets well before you get there. Barring that, and if you want to take a chance, see what shows you can "rush." Some (all?) shows will let you stand in a line a number of hours before the show for a chance to buy a few of the tickets available. We did that for "Newsies." Usually it's on a lottery type system. All four of us put our names in and my son and I made it! We were allowed two tickets each so all four of us were able to see the show. Unfortunately, only two of us were able to sit together. The other two were spread out in the theatre. They also weren't the best seats in the house either. However, if that doesn't bother you, go for it!

Brooklyn Bridge: We rode the subway over to Brooklyn and walked back over the bridge. Nothing amazing, but kind of fun to do. You can also see the Statue of Liberty from the Bridge. Way off in the distance.

Central Park: Yes, you must go if you've never been. There is plenty to see and do there so give yourself at least half-a-day. You might want to download an app to help guide you around everything there is to see there. Wear your walking shoes!

Metropolitan Museum of Art: We spent half a day there. Could've used at least another half day. Definitely a must see. I'm going back for sure.

New York Public Library: Another must see. We spent a half-day seeing the exhibits. Well worth the time.

Statue of Liberty: We didn't actually go to the Statue. We'll do that next time. This time, we rode the subway to the Staten Island Ferry (free, by the way) and did a round trip. It goes by Liberty Island so we got to see it at a distance but were able to get a few decent pictures. If you want to visit the Statue, I think the only cost is the fee for the ferry to get to Liberty Island.

There are so many things we didn't get to see due to time constraints. Put those here as they come up!


Other

For snacks or anything you forgot to bring, Manhattan does not have those big grocery stores. At least not the kind that I'm used to. What they have are places like Duane Reade and they're everywhere! Every few blocks or so. They're probably closer to a drug store (like CVS Pharmacy which they have), but on the other hand, I'd never seen a drug store with sushi! The closest thing to a real grocery store I found was a place called Gristedes, just a block or so away from the hotel. I'm sure these types of stores are everywhere around Manhattan.