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What to see - short time limit - DC / NYC
Afty
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi,
I'm going to be coming to the states at the start of october for a funeral, but have some extended time afterwards to visit/sight see.
I have a single free day in DC and 4 days in NYC. I want to spend a couple of the new york days doing the usual sightseeing empire state / statue / broadway / times sqr.
What else shouldn't i miss?
I'm going to be coming to the states at the start of october for a funeral, but have some extended time afterwards to visit/sight see.
I have a single free day in DC and 4 days in NYC. I want to spend a couple of the new york days doing the usual sightseeing empire state / statue / broadway / times sqr.
What else shouldn't i miss?
Afty on
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If you're a music fan at all, you can visit a memorial to Lennon at Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Also if it's a nice day you can pretty much just hang out on the rocks and listen to some pretty wonderful street musicians. If they have their case open and you're digging them, tip 'em a dollar or two.
South Street Seaport has all sorts of tallships you can check out. I'd suggest the Intrepid museum, but it's gone for renovations and whatnot. There's a mall there with an actual storefront for these guys.
If you're an international politics dweeb like myself, the UN Headquarters is on the lower east side, and they offer 45-minute guided tours that are pretty awesome. Check their website for more on that, because there are certain times of the year where tours aren't being conducted.
There's plenty of hidden gems to discover in NYC, but if you're only here for a few days, I'd recommend just hitting the usual touristy stuff plus maybe some things I've mentioned here. While it's totally worth it to do it once, expect the Empire State Building to take up at least half of one of your days, especially on a weekend.
i really like the idea of hanging out in central park and listening to the musicians.
Think i might give the UN a miss but thanks for the empire state heads up !
1) The Holocaust Museum is amazing, but is, not to be trite, a serious downer. If you have one day and don't want to be disturbed/depressed by what you see, it's not for you. No judgement here, it's just not going to give you Happy Memories. And since you're coming here for a funeral, you might not be in a good frame of mind to go to a museum that literally puts into scale the 6,000,000+ people who died in the Holocaust.
2) Check the National Gallery website to see what exhibits they have featured. The regular collection is great, but nothing special if you've been to other art museums. However, they usually are hosting at least one special exhibit which can be fantastic. Last time I went they had an Edward Hopper exhibit and a photography exhibit that consisted entirely of random amateur snapshots from the introduction of the first consumer cameras up to about the '70s. Both were excellent.
3) It's not free but if you are a news/politics junkie you might want to check out the Newseum, which just opened. I haven't been yet but its supposed to be great.
4) Smithsonian: honestly if you only have one day, I'd skip the Smithsonian. It's school trip central and free, which means you have to put up with lots of people who don't know how to behave in a museum, or don't care because they're not paying for the experience. Unless there's a special exhibit you want to see the permanent collections are pretty tired and if you went in school, they are probably exactly the same now. Same goes for the monuments.
Definitely go to the National Gallery. At the East Building (Modern Art) there's a really cool exhibit of ancient artifacts from Afghanistan - some really neat stuff.
In NYC, there's a pizza place when you cross the Brooklyn Bridge and walk a little. Its on the left. I think its name starts with a G. Not sure. But you just walk up from the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory. They make the best pizzas in the US.
Out of the ones I ate :P
Seriously though, they make authentic Italian pizza. Its a family restaurant, everyone from the cooks to waiters are part of the family, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. They have their awesome house wine as well. You should give it a try. The name is: Grimaldi's Pizza. I just found it thanks to Google Maps.
Afty: You gotta try their pizza. Its awesome.
Be ready to wait a long time in line to get in as they only sell whole pies, don't deliver and don't do reservations.
You won't be disappointed: http://www.grimaldis.com/
I will bear that in mind thank you Basar
Financial District in South Manhattan - So much stuff to see in a small area which is why I suggest stopping over there. WTC Site is unreal, and there's so many great tributes and stuff around there. There's the NYSE and across the street where George Washington was inaugurated. You're also pretty close to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island which were great to see. You can buy tickets in advance which I suggest doing.
St. Patrick's Cathedral - This is pretty close to Rockefeller Center (stop by here if you haven't penciled it in) and one of the coolest churches you'll see in the USA.
Oh, and if you see a Halal street vendor, try the chicken or lamb with rice and with white sauce. It's fucking amazing! Especially at 1 in the morning when you've been drinking.
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
I will say that if you got there- start from the top. The top floor, that is. That's where the dinosaurs and woolly mammoths are. The rest of the exhibits are cool, but dinos are what the place is most famous for and really the one thing you are not likely to see anywhere else. You don't want to spend all your time on the first floor dioramas and then have to rush through the awesome giant skeletons because 5 o'clock snuck up on you and the museum people are trying to kick you out because they all want to go home.
That's another thing too- always check the times on museums before you go. A lot of them close at 5 and you do not want to be the person that shows up at 4:15. Not worth your time and the employees will hate you.
I suppose I should make the disclaimer that I work in a museum.. in case that wasn't blatantly obvious already.
In DC I most enjoyed the Hirshorn, but I understand that modern art is not everybody's cup of tea. There were some really awesome light sculptures and they made the whole thing worth it to me.
Oh, and I say this in every NYC thread I post in, but if you are going there for more than a couple of days and are planning on taking the subway a lot, think about getting a week-long MTA pass. Even if you aren't there for the whole week it may still be the best value for your money. Consider that every time you swipe the thing it is 2 dollars. If you are shuttling up and down town to look at museums and such all day, you may swipe that thing as much as six or seven times in one afternoon. My first time in NY I spent 12 bucks a day at least on subway rides. A weeklong pass is something like 28 bucks and you never have to think about it. The only thing it isn't good for is you can't share it with another person- there's a timestamp of 18 minutes you have to wait between swipes.
--Obviously if you havent been to Yankee Stadium yet and are a baseball fan or a US history buff its an amazing experience. Tickets are getting hard to come by and very expensive, so order now if you want to go. Its worth it though, especially because the Yankees are starting to heat up and are in the middle of a playoff push.
--There are several Museums that are free on Fridays, which is really nice. I know that the Guggenheim and MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) are both free and packed on Fridays. They are both only open from like 4-8 though, so you kinda have to plan a day around those if you want to. In my opinion MoMA is a better museum, and has some amazing paintings by many great artists. Right now they have an exhibit on Dali, which is very nice.
On other days of the week, i think that admission rate for MoMA and the Guggenheim is 20 dollars per person.
--If you are a fan of Monty Python, you might like Spamalot. I just got two tickets on the upper deck for 40 each, which is really cheap for a broadway show. Show itself is a riot too.
--Central Park is really nice to walk through, and Strawberry Fields is one of the most peaceful places in NYC. Its worth a visit. If you do make it up there, you should walk about 8 blocks or so to 80th and Broadway, for H&H Bagels, and Zabars Grocery Store. Both are fantastic NYC places that can be packed, and offer great bagels, sandwhiches and ice cream. They are good places to stop before heading over to Central Park for a nice picnic.
--For pizza, Bleeker Street Pizza is a really nice pizza place, as is Bella Vita, which is on 43rd between Broadway and 8th. For other types of food, Restaurant Row is on 46th, between 8th and 9th, and has about 15 restaurants or so that are medium range in prices, but usually top notch in food. A few notables are Bangkok House (AMAZING Thai place), and Becco (More expensive but very good italian food).