I'm in a New York State of Mind
 

Hey GC I'll be in NYC for 5 days. Are some museums more overrated than others? Which places are a must see? Where is the best place for a NY slice of pizza? Favorite places to shop. Any suggestions would be great. :)

Pick up a copy of
Gerry Frank's Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York

One of the top NYC guide books.
Pizza? NYC? Just about any place. John's is one of the best.
Original location on Bleeker Street may be the best of those.
Grand Central is rather interesting. Took a tour of it once.
Find the whispering corner.
One can spend a day all around Rockefeller Center. Several tours for it, NBC, and Radio City.
One of the two best roof top views of NYC. The other being The Empire State.
St. Pats very close by.
Be very hungry if you go to any of the remaining true NYC deli's.
And one can try for tickets if either baseball team is in town.
Get a NYC subway map; best free map of NYC.
Many web sites; this is the official one: http://nycvisit.com/
Bring your comfortable walking shoes. For walking and subway are the best way around town.

One thing that is off the beaten path is the Cloisters in Manhatten. http://www.metmuseum.org/cloisters/events/

Very true-it was rather interesting and nice to see.
IIRC there is a guide book for NYC called Off the Beaten Path:D
The following is an article based off of it:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g6...aten.Path.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio..._New_York.html

You two have offered quite possibly the worst advice to any tourist. Cloisters? yes, if I was a 10 year old boy. Johns pizza? the empire state? rockefeller center?

I'd rather walk into oncoming traffic than deal with that garbage.

The Cloisters is actually pretty interesting, and you can use the same "badge" for the Metropolitan Museum during the same day -- The Cloisters being a unit of The Met.

And, The Met is great. The museum and the opera, but I'm talking museum in this case.

Something many people don't realize is that at some museums, the admission fee is just a suggestion -- you can pay more or less.

MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) is also good. Wearing comfortable shoes is good advice for all of these. Check out the MoMA store across the street, too.

I (we) try to see at least one show every time I go to the city. Last time (about two weeks ago) we saw Spring Awakening. Dark, but really good. You can find half price tickets for some of the less popular shows at the TKTS booth at the Marriot Marques. Some shows also have lotteries for unused tickets or sell standing room only tickets. You have to research those, because they are at different times of the day -- not just prior to showtime. I've also been known to stand in line for unused or returned tickets to the big shows. I saw Spamalot that way when I just decided on a whim to stand in the line. That is full price, though.

I worked for NBC for a number of years, so the NBC Tour is nothing to me, but the Radio City Musical Hall tour was fun when we took it several years ago.

If you're going to be at Rockefeller Plaza (Radio City), a lot of the famous stores (Saks, etc.) are in the same block of Fifth Avenue on the East side of the Plaza. Just go out the arcade by the skating rink.

I can't even remember the name of the place, but the best Pizza I've had in NY was at a place at about 34th and Third. There are a lot of spots, though. Just be sure you like thin crust and grease.

I always think it's fun to walk around in Central Park which goes from 59th Street to 110th between Fifth and Central Park West. There's a lot to see there and it's only a few blocks North of Rockefeller Plaza.

Finally, although it sounds really "touristy," if it's your first time in the city, don't discount one of the double decker bus tours. You can cover a lot of ground, and the ticket is good for 24 hours and you can get off and on as often and as long as you want.

Also, get a MetroCard (daily, weekly, monthly) to use on the subways and bus systems. I agree, the subway is great! Plus, New York is one of the worlds great walking cities! The only reason I take public transportation is if I'm going to divergent parts of the area -- like Midtown to the Village or something like that.

Have a good time.

Teacher's girlfriend: "my firm has season tickets to The Met."

Barrymore/Josie: "oh well..haha...i love baseball..haha!!!"

Teacher's girlfriend: "*blank stare* Nice to meet you."

~ Never Been Kissed

The met (museum) is considered a k-mart of art. The MoMa offers more of an original and cohesive collection. You probably don't need comfortable shoes for the MoMa given how small it is unless you're planning on walking over the bridge to PS1 after. For more traditional art, the Frick is much better.

People who talk about the greatest pizza in NY, don't generally talk about it by the slice. And John's is considered a tourist joint but the rest like lombardis and ferraras and the 5-10 other old, pizza by the pie joints are pretty much the same. And those aren't greasy.

And spring awakening? How risque deltalum.

I second central park...only because my apartment is right next to it and that makes all the ladies up in NYC dig me.

Although the tour is kinda lame (one room), the Brooklyn Brewery's not a bad stop. The brew's pretty decent too.

http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/home/

I've always heard lots about the big apple,
So I thought I'd come up here and see,
But all I've seen so far is one big hassle,
Wish I was camped out on the Okachovee.

If this is the promised land,
I've had all I can stand,
And I'm headed back below that Dixie line

So, do you have any positive POV's to offer up?
And as it seems that you live in NYC, perhaps you should think about what your
out of town friends/family would enjoy rather than yourself.
I posted just some of what my Big Sister and her family loved on their last trip.
And she loved the information provided by Gerry Frank's book.

I haven't noticed an Impressionist collection like that at K-Mart, and Mrs. DA really likes the Tiffany glass collection.

But, to each his own.

There are a number of excellent smaller galleries, but I don't think you can go wrong with The Met for a first time visitor because there's a whole lot of stuff under one roof. Otherwise, you're wasting travel time going from one small place to another.

Quite the reflection on your sister!

Umm the Frick is across the street. And that entire area has a lot of large museums right next to each other. But I guess the frick, gugg, whitney, cooper hewitt are all small and can't compare to the k-mart art collection. And when someone is done checking out the non-kmart art collections and wants something more fun, the brooklyn museum has a rather fun collection and I think the murakami exhibit is still up.

Coming from a non-NYer who is there at least once a year but rarely goes to the City.....

FAO Shwartz (i feel like i spelled that wrong)
Tiffany's... to browse
Central Park (never been in 27 years that I've been going)
Statue of Liberty tour (never been)
Get a hot dog at one of the many corner stands
Buy an I heart NY shirt
Take a pic in front of Playboy
Isn't the Sex Museum in the City or nearish?
Soho.... buy some bags if you're into name brands but can't afford (illegal but fun)
Walk on the Brooklyn Promenade
Ground Zero.... yes it's sacred and has become quite the tourist stop, but I had the most amazing and sad feeling being there. You can feel the heaviness in the air and it's SO quiet even though there is busy citylife going on around.

If you make it into Brooklyn, stop in Carroll Gardens. Go to Vinny's on the corner of Smith and Union. He's got the greatest food in the area. Annnnnd he's my uncle! i have to plug..... http://sugarcookiebrooklyn.com/2007/...-thy-neighbor/