New York City
New York is not the kind of place where you have to figure out what to do. The problem is deciding what not to do. Shop till you drop? See a show? Go to a museum? (Which one? There are at least 80 to choose from.) Maybe you just want to explore the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
Activities and Attractions:
So much of what New York City has to offer the visitor could arguably be called the best in America. This is certainly true of the city’s cultural offerings, including Broadway shows, which will be some of the best live theater you’ll ever see. New York’s famed performance halls, such as Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and Carnegie Hall are so iconic that a performance almost can’t help but be a magical experience.
The museum scene is a similar embarrassment of riches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is considered the best museum in the United States. Add to that classics like the Guggenheim (where even the Frank Lloyd Wright façade is a work of art), the MoMA, and the all-time favorite American Museum of Natural History, and you’ve got enough to keep the museum buff going for weeks.
One of New York’s greatest attractions is in its diverse neighborhoods, each one like a small city unto itself. Downtown, once-bohemian SoHo has grown up into a cluster of boutiques and galleries. It also harbors fine restaurants and a growing number of upscale hotels. So bountiful is SoHo that it’s beginning to spill over into neighboring Nolita. On Lafayette Street antique and home-design stores reward patient shoppers.
Midtown’s 34th Street offers Macy’s. One visit and you will believe its claim to be the world’s largest department store. Midtown East is where you’ll find storied 6th Avenue, home to high-profile Tiffany’s and Bergdorf-Goodman. For the pinnacle of New York shopping, head uptown to Madison Avenue between 57th and 79th. The Upper East Side is where you’ll find Barney’s New York and other purveyors to the elite.
It’s true that most native New Yorkers wouldn’t be caught dead at a lot of so-called tourist attractions, but that’s their loss, because the city has some great ones. Don’t be afraid to take the elevator to the top of the world-famous Empire State Building, where the views stretch 80 miles. Ditto the Statue of Liberty. You can’t ascend the torch anymore, but the pedestal view is still great, and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum is a moving tribute to the immigrant experience so many Americans share. Finally, consider paying a visit to Ground Zero, where the twin towers used to stand. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but here is one place where locals and visitors alike at least pause in sober, respectful silence.
Insider Tip:
Manhattan, high-energy and chaotic as it can seem, is mostly laid out in an orderly grid. Numbered streets run east to west, and numbered avenues run north-south. This dissolves into urban planning anarchy downtown, however. When trying to keep your bearings in lower Manhattan enclaves, it helps to keep in mind what the cute neighborhood names mean. “SoHo” is short for “south of Houston Street.” (“Houston,” by the way, is pronounced “House-ton.”) NoHo is north of Houston. The “TriBeCa” neighborhood is in the “triangle below Canal Street.” Finally, “Nolita” is the “neighborhood north of Little Italy.”
-Exclusively for Perfect Escapes by Nicole Clausing |
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