1st draft of my itinerary - experts opinions needed!!

Hello all!

I will be visiting New York on the 17th of November for 5 nights, I will be travelling with my brother, he is 29 and a bit of a sci-fi geek. I am 25 and like a lot of alternative music/fashions. Have planned my itinerary but need help and suggestions with restaurants and timing of what I am doing. We are not into the whole broadway show thing at all, or pubs/clubs. I have been to NYC before but my bro hasnt. However, he doesnt want to go up the Empire State Building as he is afraid of heights, shame cos its really cool.

Dyou think I am being a little ambitious with my time on some days?

Dyou think I will have to make reservations for Virgils on Thursday night?

Any suggestions of what to do on my last day?

Let me know what you think!

Thursday 17th November.

Flight with American Airlines, land JFK at 12:40pm, Taxi to Hotel Newton on Upper West Side, get to hotel about 3pm.

Straight to Times Square (On Subway from 96th St to 50th St on the 1 train), have a wander around square. Dinner at Virgil’s BBQ. Walk up 7th Avenue, have a wander around Rockefeller Centre. Back to 50th St subway and back to hotel.

Friday 18th

Breakfast at Key West Diner.

Subway 1 train to 59th St, walk across to FAO Schwarz and East to Bloomingdales and Levis Store.

Subway down to 42nd St, Grand Central Station, Juniors Cheesecake.

Walk along 42nd St to Sixth Ave, then walk down sixth to Macys. Walk down 5th to 32nd St to Manhattan Mall. Then subway to 23rd St. Walk down Sixth Ave to TJ Maxx (between 19th and 18th) and Loehmanns on 7th (bet. 17th and 18th).

Maybe time for Greenwich village?

Saturday 19th

Up early for Queens Mall, take 1 – 2 line to 59th St, walk east to Lex to 59th St subway. Take R train to Woodhaven Boulevard.

After mall, possibly Museum of Modern Art in afternoon?

Maybe time for Metropolitan Museum of art?

Sunday 20th

Tickets for Statue of Liberty at 10:45.

Up early to subway, 1 train to Charles St, or Cortlandt St if open. Walk to Ground Zero, St Pauls Chapel. Also Century 21. Then walk to either Charles St or Rector St for subway to South Ferry.

After SOL take 1 train back up to Rector St, walk up Church St up to Fulton Street go East and follow road until South Street Seaport and Pavilion shops.

Monday 21st

Soho, get on B . D train down to Broadway – Lafayette St. Browse Soho look for Paul Frank and Yellow Rat B@stard shops. Walk up Broadway to 12th St for Forbidden Planet shop, then to St Marks Square.

Tuesday

Flight home at 7pm

1st draft of my itinerary - experts opinions needed!!

Make sure you have alternative plans due to inclement weather or other hiccups that may arise.

Be flexible, if you don%26#39;t get to see something one day, just go back.

I do not believe Virgil%26#39;s takes reservations for parties of two. Anytime I%26#39;ve been to Virgil%26#39;s there was always room....no worries.

You could use your last day as a fill-in for what you may have missed earlier in the week.

Have a great time.

1st draft of my itinerary - experts opinions needed!!

Itenerary is looking good. There is not much to see in Manhattan Mall but you can breeze through it on your way to catch the subway. You will definitely have time to hit the village after TJ Maxx and Loehmann%26#39;s. (It will also make for a good plan B..should you not catch either store on a good day.)

Queens Center rocks!!...I have been going there quite a bit lately. The Yellow Rat B*stard in there is actually quite big for a mall store. The food court is also no joke. They really did capture the suburban mall experience w/ some NYCentric flair.

Thanks for the tips!! Think I will leave the last day free, just in case we miss something.

The Queens Center Mall does look really good, as opposed to the Jersey Gardens one and the Woodbury Common one. I was looking for more of a typical american mall rather than an outlet mall. Also looks a lot easier to get to, if ive got my directions right anyway!

Woah, impressive. Very well planned. (Wouldn%26#39;t it be funny if you reported back that you just ended up tossing the whole thing and just hung out in Central Park for a week, eating pretzels and rollerblading? OK, *I* think it would be funny...)

Erm....ok, first off: ';Charles Street'; subway station? Hmmm, better check that. Sounds like an error.

Re trip to Queens Center:

BTW, if it is raining, or in case you don%26#39;t want to walk west to east on 59th St. (which is not a bad idea in itself anyway), you can take the 1,2,3 further down to 42nd St.-Times Square and walk through the station to transfer to the R going Uptown/Queens. Not that pleseant, but very ';NY';.

Re Cortlandt Street stations:

They are both closed. The R,W Cortlandt Steet is now being renovated, and the other one (1 line) is still under the WTC site.

Re subway to SOL:

When you take the 1 to South Ferry, STAY IN THE FIRST FIVE CARS of the train. The station is very old and was built as a part of a turn-around. Plus it was built for shorter trains. The platform is shorter than other stations. (There will be signs in the cars and announcements) If you%26#39;re in the back, you%26#39;ll spend 10 minutes wondering why aren%26#39;t the doors opening, panic, end upon the uptown side again, slap your forehead, and try it again, while we all look on and feel bad.

Ha ha ha ha!! Well I do enjoy the odd pretzel so you never know!

I think I meant Church St not Charles St, sorry I%26#39;m a bit stupid.

Nice tips for the subway though, thanks for that. The idea of the subways scare me a little, I am so familiar with the London Underground and the NYC subway seems so different. I%26#39;m sure it will be ok though!

Queensboulevard,

I am having a chuckle at you saying the well-planned itinery could be thrown aside. It%26#39;s exactly the sort of thing I can imagine me doing.

I%26#39;m currently picking the brains of all the other itineries and attempting one of my own but whether it%26#39;ll actually be used each day is debatable. I think even to know what%26#39;s in each area so as not to miss out on somewhere special is what I%26#39;m aiming for. If I can gather a list of must-do things in Brooklyn, Lower east and west etc I%26#39;ll be happy.

Dont worry about the subway, if you can do the underground then you can handle this. Mind you we got lost a couple of time, but that was part of the fun (hubby uses underground here daily, and he still managed to lose his way there) but people were very helpful. We werent in the 1st 5 carriages for SOL stop, and had to run through the 2 carriages to get out but we managed it. ALmost wet ourselves laughing afterwards, we must have look real tourists. Virgils will take a booking for 2 but if you are not in that much of a rush, you dont need to book, you will only wait about 15-25 mins for a table in the bar downstairs - which also does really good barfood by the way.

Enjoy.

TB, If I have not given you these already, here are my recommendations for restaurnats near your hotel. BTW, you seem to be doing very well with the subway.

Sipan 702 Amsterdam 94 Street 212-665-9929-Peruvian-very good food, nice atmosphere, quite during the week, a little noisier on weekends.

Gennaro 665 Amsterdam 92/93 Streets - very good food-Italian-very hectic does not take reservations or credit cards-get there early for seating.

Docks 2427 Broadway 89/90 Streets 212-986-8080 good fish excellent oysters, lively but not hectic.

Saigon Grill 620 Amsterdam 90 Street good Vietnamese a bit hectic and noisy

Pampa 768 Amsterdam 97/98 Streets 212-865-2929 good grilled Argentinean steak. Crowded. No credit cards.

Alouette 2588 Broadway 97/98 Streets 212-222-6808 decent neighborhood French. Small. Make reservations.

Roth’s Westside Steak 680 Columbus 93 STreet 212-280-4103 good steak, expensive.

Yuki Sushi 656 Amsterdam 92 Street 212-787-8200 Excellent quality of fish in sushi and sashimi. Moderate price for quality Japanese. Sushi lunch with salad or soup is less than $11.

Miyako 642 Amsterdam 91 Street 212-724-3448 About as good as Yuki Sushi and everything is $1-$1.50 less

Acqua 718 Amsterdam 94/95 Streets 212-222-2752 reasonably priced good Italian (Sicilian and Sardinian) in nice setting.

Pizzabolla 654 Amsterdam 92 Street 212-579-4500 Old style “checkered tablecloth” Italian with very reasonably priced good food. Good antipasti, entrees, brick-oven pizza and good selection of reasonable priced wine by the bottle and glass.

I would do the mall and the met on Friday instead of Saturday. It%26#39;s less crowded at both and the museum stays open late on Friday nights.

Have fun!

I forgot to add that the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack NY is a big (and typical) American mall-- but it is a good 1 1/2 hour bus ride from NYC. (not bad if you want to see what the suburbs look like)

I think you take the red and tan lines to get there.