Northeast - NYC Vacation. Please Help...

First time vacationing in NYC later this year. I was hopeful that some of you could provide me with a brainstorming list of your recommended "must see" or "must do" or "stay away from" items while we are there. There are lots of travel sites with info but I was wanting to take advantage of conversing with people with direct knowledge. Thanks in advance for your input. It is very much appreciated.

How much time and how frenzied do you want it to be?

How much time and how frenzied do you want it to be?

Ten days. Frenzy is good.

Are you looking to bicycle? Where will you be saying? What kind of things are you interested in? For example what kind of food and how much per person can you pay?

Are you looking to bicycle? Where will you be saying? What kind of things are you interested in? For example what kind of food and how much per person can you pay?

Not bicycling specific. More of a recommendation of a location, event, restaurant, view, etc. For restaurants we are vegetarian/vegan but we usually can make that work anywhere (except for steak houses and rib shacks). We are staying in Mid-town Manhattan but don't mind traveling were needed to enjoy all NYC has to offer. The cost of the recommendations are unlimited. I will filter that down later.

You might try posting on chowhound.com for food advice.

Since you are in midtown I suggest taking the #7 train out to queens. In queens it runs at rooftop height so you can see the sights. Go out to 82nd street and walk back under the tracks. Elevated trains are rare, and the NY version is early 1900s with some of the same old time sounds.

If you are into a long walk you can walk across the brooklyn bridge and then even further to the society of Krishna consciousness for a vegetarian meal. You can walk back on the Manhattan bridge. It might be easier to rent a bike to do it. The transit department museum is near by if you are into trains.

Hare Krishna Temple Serves Daily Lunch Buffets. so good. so cheap.
http://www.shopdowntownbrooklyn.com/uncategorized/hare-krishna-temple-serves-daily-lunch-buffets-so-good-so-cheap/

The staten island ferry is free and gives you excellent views.

As far as cultural stuff I think The Cloisters museum is worth the hike up to northern manhattan. I also like MoMa PS 1 momaps1.org.

There is a Caribbean form of vegetarian cuisine called Ital. The only place I know of to get it is Scoops, search on scoops+ital. I do not think it is worth the hike out from manhattan, but it is fairly close to the Brooklyn museum and botanical gardens.

If you are fascinated by old roller coasters the cyclone at coney island might be worth a look.

The high line park is free and is worth a look.

more food
http://streetvendor.org/vendys/
www.famousfatdave.com/

bicycles:
www.bfold.com specializes in folding bikes

"The cost of the recommendations are unlimited. " You're in the right town for unlimited costs, New Yorkers will love you.

You might try posting on chowhound.com for food advice.

Since you are in midtown I suggest taking the #7 train out to queens. In queens it runs at rooftop height so you can see the sights. Go out to 82nd street and walk back under the tracks. Elevated trains are rare, and the NY version is early 1900s with some of the same old time sounds.



"The cost of the recommendations are unlimited. " You're in the right town for unlimited costs, New Yorkers will love you.

If you are going to Jackson Heights you should go 74th St & Roosevelt for Indian Food
http://jacksondiner.com/

I don't live there but these are some of my favorite things in the city:
Art museums or museum of Natural History or Planetarium;
Greenwich Village and Chinatown;
Lincoln Center - opera or ballet or philharmonic;
Take in a play followed by late supper at the Russian Tea Room with NYC literati;
There are all sorts of performances all over the city (even nude plays - the cast not the audience) (I could be wrong about this)
but read up in the New Yorker magazine about what is going on for the week;
Try Manhattan from the water - Staten Island Ferry or 'round Manhattan tour boat.

Yes Berner listed many good things to do. The Staten Island Ferry is free and you go right by the Statue of Liberty. You can use the NYC subway system to get around, it is clean and well run (quite a change from 15 to 20 years ago). The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a good place to go. If it warm you can go to a roof top bar. They also have a very nice member dinning room but you need to be a member. You also may want to check out Grand Central Station the lower level has a food court and the Lexington Ave side has cooked and uncooked food for take out. The Apple store is now at Grand Central but the one at 5th Avenue and 59th St is still the one to see. You might also want to have a drink at the Plaza Hotel.

NYC has a nice bike Path along the West side of Manhattan(you pass the Intrepid) and riding over the Brooklyn Bridge is fun. You could then take the bike lanes to the 59th Street Bridge and go back to Manhattan. A day on a bike in NYC is a great way to see the City.

Some of my favorite places, views and touristy places are:

Battery Park
The bike path along the Hudson (as mentioned above) but be sure to go north of the GWB. The views get more spectacular and there are some interesting tidbits of architecture up there.
Fort Tryon Park
Chinatown (find the place that does the soup dumplings)
MOMA
Museum of Natural History
Central Park
Eat at Carnegie Deli (the sandwiches are as big as your head! They'll fill you twice.)they do have some vegetarian dishes, but doubt they're vegan.
See a Broadway show or two...or three
Ride the bridges (Brooklyn, GWB esp) teh views are great.
Go across the GWB to the Palisades park in Fort Lee NJ. There are some challenging hills and the area is beautiful, peaceful and serene. Take a picnic.
See the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Go to the Liberty Science Center in NJ
Shop at Macys
Rockefeller center
Radio City Music Hall
Brooklyn Botanical Garden (esp when the cherry trees are blooming)
Go to the top of the Empire State Building
Bryant park

Enjoy!

Thank all of you very much for taking the time to help me out. I received great info which is just what I was hoping for.

+1 on the Greenway. You can rent bikes from Bike N Roll (http://bikenroll.com/) at several locations on the Greenway and then follow that around Manhattan. You can go up, past Midtown, the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, through Riverside Park up to the George Washington Bridge and Little Red Lighthouse, all the way to the Cloisters and the northern tip of Manhattan.

Or you can take it south, past the Village, the World Trade Center, Battery Park City, South Ferry where you can catch the boat the Statue of Liberty or the Staten Island Ferry. From there you can go up the east side portion, past the South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, and eventually to the U.N. Cycling on the Greenway is a great way to take in many of the sights in Manhattan and much of it's traffic free.

+1 on the Greenway. You can rent bikes from Bike N Roll (http://bikenroll.com/) at several locations on the Greenway and then follow that around Manhattan. You can go up, past Midtown, the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, through Riverside Park up to the George Washington Bridge and Little Red Lighthouse, all the way to the Cloisters and the northern tip of Manhattan.

Or you can take it south, past the Village, the World Trade Center, Battery Park City, South Ferry where you can catch the boat the Statue of Liberty or the Staten Island Ferry. From there you can go up the east side portion, past the South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, and eventually to the U.N. Cycling on the Greenway is a great way to take in many of the sights in Manhattan and much of it's traffic free.

Awesome. Thank you very much.

+1 on the Greenway. You can rent bikes from Bike N Roll (http://bikenroll.com/) at several locations on the Greenway and then follow that around Manhattan. You can go up, past Midtown, the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, through Riverside Park up to the George Washington Bridge and Little Red Lighthouse, all the way to the Cloisters and the northern tip of Manhattan.

Or you can take it south, past the Village, the World Trade Center, Battery Park City, South Ferry where you can catch the boat the Statue of Liberty or the Staten Island Ferry. From there you can go up the east side portion, past the South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, and eventually to the U.N. Cycling on the Greenway is a great way to take in many of the sights in Manhattan and much of it's traffic free.

I thought the path stopped at the GW?

I thought the path stopped at the GW?

The Greenway goes up to Dyckman Street where there are steps. Then you can either go (walk?) through Inwood Hill Park along the Hudson to the Amtrak Bridge. The bridge will take you into the main part of Inwood Hill Park and down under the Henry Hudson Bridge to a Nature Center with lots of birds and other wildlife. There's the Harlem Shipping Canal that separates Manhattan from Marble Hill/Spuyten Duyvil. Or you can just take Dyckman Street over to the east side and ride downtown along the Harlem River Speedway.

Inwood Hill Park also contains the rock where, according to legend, Peter Minuet purchased the island from the Native Americans for $24 in trinkets. It also has Manhattan's only natural forest. All in all, it's about 28 miles around the island.

If you're planning to ride it's a good idea to pick up a copy of the NYC Cycling map (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikemaps.shtml). It's available online and at most bike shops. Maybe Bike N Roll has a few copies.

I thought the path stopped at the GW?

The Greenway is the pedestrian only walkway on the old west side elevated train tracks. Not to be confused with the west side MUP on the river, that runs from the Battery to the GWB

Green Symphony is my favorite takeout place in midtown. Cheap, awesome, fantastic food. A couple of small tables, but I usually call in for takeout.

More fancy is HanGawi on 32nd. A great eating experience. If you like art museums, take advantage of the free tours and/or gallery talks. It's always great to end the day smarter than when you woke up.

The Greenway is the pedestrian only walkway on the old west side elevated train tracks. Not to be confused with the west side MUP on the river, that runs from the Battery to the GWB

I think you're thinking of the High Line. "The Greenway" usually refers to the path along the Hudson, which actually does go all the way up to Inwood as Stacy says.

Top of the Rockefeller Center > Top of the Empire State Bldg

Also, the Tenement Museum is a must see. Vegan cupcakes @ Babycakes around the corner is a good follow up. Also Great veggie Sri Lankan food at Sigiri on 1st Ave btwn 5th & 6th Sts.

I think you're thinking of the High Line. "The Greenway" usually refers to the path along the Hudson, which actually does go all the way up to Inwood as Stacy says.

Ahh!, thanks for the clarification

SB

The Highline is a must: it winds through Chelsea at third-storey level, making you a tourist, voyeur & resident all at the same time. Sunsets can be fantastic.
Art museums: MOMA, the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim are, of course world-class, but there are tons of smaller, focused places to see great art, such as the Museum of Art & Design, P.S.1, the Frick, Cooper-Hewitt, to name a few.

Other museums: AMNH is the big one, but the Museum of the City of NY, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hall of Science in Queens are all worth checking out. The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens is fine as well. The Japan Society, Goethe House and about 200 others have shows you may be interested in as well.

This only scratches the surface. I'd strongly suggest a plan before you get here, though. NY can be overwhelming.

Funny I was just going to suggest the High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/) too. It's only a block or so east of the Greenway and runs from Gansevoort St in the Meat Packing District of the Far West Village up to about 30th St in Midtown. Bicycles aren't allowed but there's usually enough bicycle parking at each entrance. They offer organic food on the High Line or you can pick up something nearby and eat it there. There are redwood loungers, tables with chairs, tables without chairs, benches and a lawn where you can lounge.

Live theatre. See a broadway or off broadway show or two while in town. Order online in advance for hard to get tickets. Try Playbill.com for discounts, or for day of discounts you can go to the TKTS booth in Duffy Square (48th and Broadway). Also Lincoln Center. Lots of museums. A search on Yelp can find you lots of vegan/vegetarian restaurants in NYC. If its summer you might want to make a day trip to Coney Island and take a ride on the cyclone. Also a 7 day unlimited metro cards will probably cover most of your transit costs on buses and subways.

Take the free ride over to Governor's Island. If you take a bike you can get around it 15 minutes; if you walk around you can enjoy the view of downtown Manhattan, sculpture, some history, and a great view of Brooklyn.
I also suggest the Circle Ride around Manhattan.

Governors Island is only open Friday through Sunday and is closed on major holidays. Anyone planning to go there should check first. http://www.govisland.com/html/home/home.shtml

Best part is Free Bike Fridays where you can get a bike from Bike N Roll for a free hour.
Both the Circle Line, near West 42nd Street and the Governors Island Ferry are right on the Greenway.

If you are into a long walk you can walk across the brooklyn bridge and then even further to the society of Krishna consciousness for a vegetarian meal. You can walk back on the Manhattan bridge. It might be easier to rent a bike to do it. The transit department museum is near by if you are into trains.

Walking on these bridges is a great idea, but if you only want to do one I'd recommend taking the A,C to High St, eating at one of the many delicious options in DUMBO, and then walking BACK on the Brooklyn Bridge. Much better view in that direction.

If it's still open, I'd send my touristing friends to grab a pie to go at Grimaldi's, eat at the water, and then walk back on the bridge. Never disappointed. There are many other good food options there, though. Yelp will be your friend, especially if you have a smart phone.

Do a pizza tour in the West Village. John's, Bleecker St. Pizza, Kesté, etc. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch. Sweet Revenge is there, too...they do gourmet cupcakes with beer/wine pairings. Yum.

Saigon Shack is a newish banh mi place that's great on MacDougal St. (I think they have veggie options...). On the same street is Mamoun's Falafel–their spicy sauce will kick your butt. Milk and Cookies has great...well...milk and cookies. Blind Tiger Ale House has a ridiculous beer selection. On West 4th is a vegetarian (vegan?) restaurant called Red Bamboo that we love taking our veggie friends to. Next door is a Belgian beer hall called Vol De Nuit with great frites.

Over in the Lower East Side, do a tour of Arlene's, Piano's, Rockwood, etc., for local music acts and cheap drinks. Dragon Shack has great, cheap tacos, and an awesome spicy/sweet variation on your typical Vietnamese Iced Coffee. There's lots of good food there, too. Again, Yelp it up.

When are you coming here? Starting in the summer they're getting the bike share program up and running. Will be an awesome way to see the city.

The High Line is a must. Walk the whole thing. It's friggin' bangin'.