NYC in a weekend?

[starbright83]

Hoping to get some advice on a weekend in NYC!

I'm taking my 13 y/o daughter to NYC for the weekend and wanted to get some feedback on our plans. I've never been there and want to make sure we are seeing/doing all that we can without overdoing it! Any comments/suggestions that you have would be appreciated!! I tend to overplan our trips and like to be prepared when I travel, especially when it's to a new place. So I'm trying to get a tentative plan in place so I know where to go but still keep it loose enough to be able to do what we want!

We will be staying in Manhattan the entire time. Food/fancy restaurants are not that important to us. I was pretty much planning on grabbing food at interesting/fun places, rather than having a huge meal at a restaurant. We do like shopping and would like to find some cute neighborhoods that we can walk and window shop/boutiques, etc.
I'd also like to make sure we see some of the big tourist locations, as it is the first trip for both of us.

Here's what I have so far.

Hotel is by Times Square.

Flying into JFK on Friday afternoon - taking a cab to the hotel to drop off bags.

Friday afternoon - Walk around Times Square and Midtown. Check out the shopping/lights/sights, etc.
Dinner at John's Pizzeria. Dessert is hopeffuly at Milk Bar for cereal milk ice cream!
At night, I was just planning on staying near Times Square and checking out the lights/stores. I didn't want to venture too far away at night, especially when I won't be familiar with areas/neighborhoods.

Saturday morning - Doing a double decker bus tour and Top of the Rock. Hopefully, this will let us see all the big sights.

Lunch - maybe finding someplace near one of the stops? a deli or something?

Afternoon - shop. hoping to get a better feel for neighborhoods from the tour.

Night - not sure..

Sunday morning - Pedi cab tour of Central Park. Still debating on 1 hour or 2. Lunch at the Shake Shack.

Afternoon - maybe walking around more in Central Park or go to the MOMA.. maybe more shopping/walking, depending on how Saturday goes.

I made us appointments at a Dry Bar to get blow outs on Sunday afternoon.

Night - going to see Wicked on Broadway at 7pm. Hoping to find a nice inexpensive place for dinner nearby the theater.

Monday - our flight is at 12:30 from La Guardia so just hanging around Midtown/Times Sqaure before going to the airport.


any thoughts or feedback??? Is this doable or too much? any suggestions on good shopping areas or neighborhoods to check out?

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted]

Looks pretty good to me. Restaurant options I can suggest near TS/Wicked are Five Napkin Burger on 9th Ave or pretty much any other type of restaurant on 9th Ave. it's basically overflowing with eating options

For shopping I would squeeze a stop in SoHo/West Broadway or, depending on your shopping budget, a walk along Bleeker St. A treat at Magnolia Bakery would be a must in that case.

[hz80408]

Oct 29, 2012 11:19:28 GMT -5 @jewels6711 said:

For shopping I would squeeze a stop in SoHo/West Broadway or, depending on your shopping budget, a walk along Bleeker St. A treat at Magnolia Bakery would be a must in that case.

There are a few Magnolia locations, but Bleecker is the best!

[downtownbk]

Seems very doable!

Check out "The Ride" for Saturday night. It's an interactive bus tour that I bring my visitors on. I dont want to tell you too much and ruin the surprise, but it is really fun and sort of like a broadway show and city tour in one. It leaves from Mariott Marquis.

Before Wicked, you could do Ellens Stardust diner. It's not fancy and the food is good, not great. But, it's also interactive where all the waitstaff are aspiring broadway performers and they sing during your meal. It's also a good stop for breakfast.

My visitors with teenagers also loved Chinatown. Shopping for sunglasses, etc on the street. Lots of great restaurants down there for dumpling lovers plus just a few blocks to great shopping in Soho.

[downtownbk]

I just remembered...check to see if the holiday market has started at Bryant Park. That's fun shopping and its open late, so you can end the night with some hot chocolate and walk back to your hotel. It's close by TS at 42nd/6th.

[winnied]

This sounds great! I hope you guys have a fun time together!

[Deleted]

I hope you aren't planning on going THIS weekend Might not be able to....

[starbright83]

thanks everyone for the feedback!

unfortunately, we are planning it for this weekend and it's not really feasible for us to reschedule since flights/hotels are already booked. I will just be hoping for the best!

[Deleted]

One note if you actually mean this weekend -- the marathon is this Sunday so that won't be a good day to explore Central Park. So I'd maybe flip the Saturday daytime stuff and Sunday daytime stuff.

[starbright83]

v - I've already scheduled our pedi cab tour for Central Park on Sunday morning. Do you think that will be affected by the marathon? Is the marathon through Central Park?

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2012 14:16:31 GMT -5 starbright83 said:

v - I've already scheduled our pedi cab tour for Central Park on Sunday morning. Do you think that will be affected by the marathon? Is the marathon through Central Park?

The last 3+ miles of the marathon (and the finish line) are in/along the park, and some of the park drives will be cut off for runners (and there will be a ton of spectators and people who have finished around).

www.ingnycmarathon.org/documents/INGNYCM12_Course_Map_ForWeb.pdf

[Deleted]

Since I've been living through this for a few days -- I would STRONGLY encourage you to cancel the trip. Large areas of the city still don't have power. Hotels are a disaster because residents without power are overcrowding them. If you call your airline and hotel I'm sure they would be very accommodating of your cancellation (I have canceled hotels and flights due to hurricanes before, with no issue despite no insurance). If they wouldn't be, your credit card company would be.

You will not be able to do a lot of the things you want to do, and the residents are just trying to get by. I live in the West Village and as of now my building has no electricity, heat, gas, running water, elevator (and I live 200 stairs up), etc. There is barely any cell reception. There are no subways below 34th Street. This is not a good place to be, and it won't be a good place to be this weekend. And honestly, the city kind of needs to be expending its resources on making sure that people who live here and have nowhere else to go have power and clean water to drink and stuff rather than dealing with tourists.

[Deleted]

Nov 1, 2012 11:29:38 GMT -5 v said:

Since I've been living through this for a few days -- I would STRONGLY encourage you to cancel the trip. Large areas of the city still don't have power. Hotels are a disaster because residents without power are overcrowding them. If you call your airline and hotel I'm sure they would be very accommodating of your cancellation (I have canceled hotels and flights due to hurricanes before, with no issue despite no insurance). If they wouldn't be, your credit card company would be.

You will not be able to do a lot of the things you want to do, and the residents are just trying to get by. I live in the West Village and as of now my building has no electricity, heat, gas, running water, elevator (and I live 200 stairs up), etc. There is barely any cell reception. There are no subways below 34th Street. This is not a good place to be, and it won't be a good place to be this weekend. And honestly, the city kind of needs to be expending its resources on making sure that people who live here and have nowhere else to go have power and clean water to drink and stuff rather than dealing with tourists.

Thanks for posting this. I am supposed to be in NYC next Tuesday-Friday and I have been struggling with what to do. I have not checked in with my airline and hotel yet, though.

So what I'm hearing from you is, that's probably still too soon, right?

[Deleted]

Nov 1, 2012 12:41:18 GMT -5 @tee72 said:

Nov 1, 2012 11:29:38 GMT -5 v said:

Since I've been living through this for a few days -- I would STRONGLY encourage you to cancel the trip. Large areas of the city still don't have power. Hotels are a disaster because residents without power are overcrowding them. If you call your airline and hotel I'm sure they would be very accommodating of your cancellation (I have canceled hotels and flights due to hurricanes before, with no issue despite no insurance). If they wouldn't be, your credit card company would be.

You will not be able to do a lot of the things you want to do, and the residents are just trying to get by. I live in the West Village and as of now my building has no electricity, heat, gas, running water, elevator (and I live 200 stairs up), etc. There is barely any cell reception. There are no subways below 34th Street. This is not a good place to be, and it won't be a good place to be this weekend. And honestly, the city kind of needs to be expending its resources on making sure that people who live here and have nowhere else to go have power and clean water to drink and stuff rather than dealing with tourists.

Thanks for posting this. I am supposed to be in NYC next Tuesday-Friday and I have been struggling with what to do. I have not checked in with my airline and hotel yet, though.

So what I'm hearing from you is, that's probably still too soon, right?

I think Tuesday through Friday should be okay, honestly -- most people in Manhattan will be back in their homes, I think everyone will have electricity, stores and restaurants will hopefully have gotten food deliveries, etc. And when the electricity is restored to downtown, the subways would come back fairly soon I would think.

If you need to be in an area of the outer boroughs that currently doesn't have power I would advise against it -- they have a long road ahead of them (though in some areas lots of people have generators). But I think Manhattan will be close to business as usual by Monday. Just not necessarily before then.

[mariafromnj]

This weekend is going to be a mess in NYC. There are still parts with no power. They refuse to cancel the marathon so that is going to bring more chaos into the city. If you can find a way to cancel, do it. Most hotels are fully booked and will probably work with you since so many people are still looking for rooms.

[Deleted]

Starbright, did you end up coming to NY?

[starbright83]

Yes, we did end up going. It was a really great trip. We were still able to do mostly everything we wanted to, the exception being ground zero was closed. But we went to the musuem instead. The part of Central Park that we went to had very little downed trees, but alot of it was blocked off due to the marathon.
My BIL, who lives in the Bronx, told us that it was very quiet in the city and traffic was lighter than normal, due to the gas shortages. Since it was our first time, we didn't really notice any of that and we really didn't drive anywhere, just walked or took the double decker bus tour.
I think most of the power was restored by Saturday, we saw a few businesses closed but not too many. We went to the West Village and Soho on Sunday and were able to walk around and shop without too much being closed. Or at least the stores we wanted to go to were open.
So all in all, it was a good weekend. Thanks for all who gave advice/suggestions!!

[Deleted]

I was walking around the West Village (which is where I live) and Soho on Sunday! I totally agree with your BIL about the traffic. Soho is usually a madhouse during the day and it was so nice that it wasn't crowded for once!

Glad you had a nice trip!

[Deleted]

Glad you had a good trip!

[mariafromnj]

Glad it turned out to be a good trip!