What to see - first time in NYC

My girlfriend and I are going to visit NYC for the first time in late August this year. We will arrive a Wednesday afternoon and leave Sunday evening.

We have booked a room at Casablanca Hotel. We are from Norway and will arrive at JFK in the afternoon (approx 6 pm). Due to the time zone diffence I think we will be a bit tired, so it shouldn%26#39;t be so much on the program that evening. Maybe dinner and just looking around the hotel?

Other than that we have no clues about what to see in NYC. Some friends of us told us that the statue of liberty was not worth the waiting. Maybe Empire State Building and/or Top of the Rock?

We are both in the early 20%26#39;s. Please give us some advise on that to see and experience in NYC. We are not typical partypeoples, but like to go out for a good dinner and wine.

Can some of the NYC local experts could give us a few suggestions for our days in NYC?

Thanks!

What to see - first time in NYC

Hi, if you do a search for trip reports, you%26#39;ll find plenty of ideas to get you started. Also have a look on the pages on the left for a city overview, attractions and restaurants.

From what people have said on here the whole ';going up'; experience is much more pleasant at TOTR than the ESB and it also depends on the time of day - the day views are better at TOTR, the night time views are better at ESB.

Hope that helps.

What to see - first time in NYC

My personal Things-Every-Visitor-Must-Do list is the following:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Empire State Building or Top of the Rock

The American Museum of Natural History

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (or even just seeing the statue from the Staten Island Ferry)

Museum of Modern Art

Times Square

Broadway show

Walk across Brooklyn Bridge

Central Park

Grand Central Terminal

Explore Greenwich Village, SoHo, and Chinatown

Shopping--Fifth Avenue, SoHo, Macy%26#39;s, Bloomingdale%26#39;s

The United Nations

Eating at any of the hundreds of great mid-range restaurants in the city, and at least one blow-out top-notch dinner

Poster QueensBoulevard has a terrific guide for first-time visitors. If you search for ';spiel for first timers'; in the box above, you%26#39;ll find it.

one of the best nyc experts here, Queensboulevard, had put together a huge list of trip reports on this forum that are quite helpful. these reports are written by several groups of people who have visited and then posted their experiences here. very entertaining and full of valuable information. im afraid you may have to search through the previous pages to find the exact threads where these are posted. a bit of work, but will be worth it for you to search. good luck and get ready to read alot of info!!!!!!!!!

I bumped up both sets of trip reports for you to read....have fun!!!!

I took the Circle Line Harbor Lights cruise my first night in NYC. It%26#39;s relaxing to just sit on the boat and watch all the sights go by (both in daylight and as the lights come on), plus it gives you a good sense of where everything is. It%26#39;s pretty inexpensive as well, plus there are usually coupons in the free tourist publications you find around the hotel.

Have fun!

Thanks for all the good suggestions.

These are on our to do/see list:

- China Town

- Little Italy

- ESB

- TOTR

- Brooklyn Brigde

- A Broadway show (suggestions anyone? Something comedy?)

- Walking around Times Square, Fifth Ave. ++

- Central Park

- Sightseeing with a boat?

Any more suggestions? As metioned earlier we have appox. 4 days in NYC.

Hi,

My boyfriend and I went to New York last year in February and I have to say the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was one of the highlights for us -admittedly it is disappointing not being able to go up the statue but you can go up to the base if you purchase tickets in advance and if you go first thing the queues are not too bad - and you can stay as long or as little as you like as there are regular ferries to take you back to the start.

Also, we did both the TOTR and ESB and both were great - although we did ESB twice - and nighttime was quieter and great views.

from what ive read, litty italy really doesnt exist anymore. when there, we drove through where it was supposed to be not anything of significance.

TOTR seems to be the choice of those there and also from the travel reports seems the one to do.

we took the staten island ferry and thats about as close to the water as id want to get.

central park is on my next visit to do list....again we drove around it a couple of times but didnt walk anywhere as we were running out of time

Here is a collection of trip reports (that buca mentioned) written by couples. Click through the pages to find similar trip, and perhaps you can steal an itinerary!

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k472956-鈥?/a> Collection_of_trip_reports_from_couples_great_ideas-

Regarding dining: I%26#39;d recommend exploring these interesting areas for nice but moderate places to eat:

Lower East Side (Schiller%26#39;s Liquor Bar, Stanton Social)

Hell%26#39;s Kitchen (Vynl, Uncle Nick%26#39;s, West Bank Cafe)

Chelsea (Lasagna, Le Zie, Rocking Horse, Intermezzo)

Use menupages.com to search for restaurants. The menu prices on the websie are slightly outdated, but the reviews are very helpful.

www.menupages.com

If you want to see the SOL, but not ';waste your time';, you can do it two ways:

1. Take a round-trip on the free commuter ferry, Staten Island Ferry, which passes by the Statue from a moderate distance. Takes about 1 hour total.

2. Spend the day at Ellis Island, which is really interesting anyway. The ferry stops at Lady Liberty first, but you don%26#39;t need to get off. Just continue to Ellis Island and enjoy the story of USA immigration and our big beautiful ';melting pot';.

yellow cream