New York.  People either love it or hate it. 

 Either way, it is one place that everyone should visit at least once in their lives.  It’s a non-stop party.  The light is amazing.  Everywhere you look is familiar because you have seen it in a film or a picture – so you feel at home immediately.

The noise is incessant – car horns blaring, NYPD blue car sirens, people shouting.  Smells pervade the air – street vendors selling bagels and coffee.  Depending on what time of year you visit, the heat is phenomenal or the cold is painful.  In Sex and the City, Miranda once asked Carrie “Why do I think living in Manhattan is so fantastic?”  Carrie’s reply “Because it is.”  Let’s see why.

The Top Ten New York Tourist Attractions

1. Empire State Building

Get a breathtaking view of Manhattan from this world famous skyscraper, located at 350 Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Streets, in midtown Manhattan.
High speed elevators take you up 1,050 feet to the 86^th floor.  This observatory has an area which in glass-enclosed.  You can also walk out in the open air around all four sides of the building for a 360° birds eye view and binoculars are for hire up there too.  This observatory is accessible for handicapped people.

For an extra $15 you can buy a ticket on arrival, to go up to the 102^nd floor.

The Empire State Building is open every day of the year, from 8am to 2am, with the last elevator going up at 1.15am.

What about the queues?

The waiting lines do put a lot of people off.  There are three different lines, the first for security check, the second to buy a ticket and the third, for the elevators.  However, you can buy an Express Pass ticket online that gets you moved to the front of each queue.

2. Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty celebrated her 100th birthday on October 28, 1986. She was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States in recognition of their friendship established during the American Revolution. Liberty is a worldwide symbol for freedom and democracy.

Liberty is clad in copper and it is the verdigris on this copper which gives her distinctive green color.

Visitors arrive by ferry and climb 146 steps of an internal spiral staircase to reach the top of Liberty.  There are 25 windows inside her crown, giving a view of New York Harbor.  Because Liberty faces Brooklyn, you don’t get a view of Manhattan, except through some small windows on the left of her crown.

The lines for tickets can exceed three hours but you can skip these by buying online in advance here.

3. Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, on 42nd Street and Park Avenue.

It has now been restored back to how it was in 1913.  Grand Central is not just a transportation hub.  There are five wonderful restaurants and cocktail lounges as well as 20 places to eat in the lower level, celebrating all forms of international dining.  You can buy gourmet items from Grand Central Market and enjoy the fifty specialty shops that are featured on all levels.

4. Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is between 48th and 51st streets between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It’s a complex of 19 buildings over 22 acres and was built by the Rockefeller family.  It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

It’s most famous for its’ outdoor ice rink, Christmas tree, Top of the Rock Observation Deck, Radio City Music Hall, NBC outside broadcasts as well as numerous places to shop and dine.  This variety makes it a great destination for any type of visitor at any time of year.

5. Ellis Island Immigration Museum

This fascinating museum tells the story of the thousands of immigrants who flocked to a new life in America and passed through the gateway of Ellis Island.  To find out if your ancestors were among them, you can perform a free search here. To have your ancestors name inscribed on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor at Ellis Island, go here.

 6. Staten Island Ferry

The Staten Island Ferry carries a staggering 20 million people a year (60,000 passengers a day not including weekend days) between St. George on Staten Island and Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.  That’s 60,000 passengers every day and that doesn’t even include weekends.  Forget pricey tourist ferries, this is the way to see the Statue of Liberty and to get a great view of Manhattan – and a true taste of a New Yorker’s lifestyle.

For sailing schedules, look here. 

7. American Museum of Natural History

Located at 79^th Street, Central Park West, (Upper West Side), the Museum has been open to the public since 1869.  It includes 25 interconnected buildings that house 46 permanent exhibition halls, research laboratories, and a world renowned library.

The collections contain over 32 million specimens, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time.  Check here for details of current events.

You can buy tickets online here.

8. Central Park

It is located between 59th Street (Central Park South) and 110th Street (Central Park North), and is 0.5 miles wide between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West.

Central Park is the world-famous green retreat for New Yorkers and tourists, occupying around 1.2 square miles (843 acres) of prime Manhattan land.  between 59th Street (Central Park South) and 110th Street (Central Park North), and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. It was opened in 1859 and made a National Historic Landmark in 1963.

25 million visitors flock there every year to escape the buzz of the city, enjoy open-air theatre and concerts, visit the zoo, go skating, partake in sports or enjoy a carriage ride.  Many also make a pilgrimage to the ‘Strawberry Fields’ John Lennon memorial as he was tragically shot outside the Dakota Building (located on the northwestern corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West)

9.    Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known affectionately as The Met, is an art museum located on Museum Mile.  It has a permanent collection of over two million works of art, in 19 departments.  The main building houses one of the world’s largest art galleries.

Museum Mile…

…covers a section of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, from 82^nd to 104^th Streets along the Upper East Side.  The mile is actually two blocks longer than a mile and houses eleven museums:

•   89th St. National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
•   88th St. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (The Guggenheim)
•   86th St. Neue Galerie New York
•   83rd St. Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center
•   82nd St. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)
•   91st St. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution
•   92nd St. The Jewish Museum
•   94th St. International Center of Photography
• 104th St. El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd St. Museum of the City of New York
• 110^th St.  The Museum for African Art (under construction)

10. The Museum of Modern Art

Located in Midtown Manhattan on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, this museum was the first dedicated to show only contemporary art.  It was founded in 1929 is said to be the most influential museum of modern art in the world.  The collection is huge and covers architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and prints as well as illustrated books and artist’s books, film, and electronic media.

 Other things to see…

The list is endless but here are a few of the other most popular attractions in New York:

•   Broadway theatre – see what’s on here.
•   Times Square
•   Shopping on Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue
•   Macy’s Department Store at 151 West 34th Street (featured in the film Miracle on 34^th Street and famous for its’ Thanksgiving Parade and Christmas window displays)
•   Bloomingdales at 59th Street & Lexington Avenue, (home of the ‘brown bag’)
•  Greenwich Village
•  Canal Steet (great for markets and bargains)
•   Wall Street
•  Chinatown
•  United Nations Building
•  Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.  Amazing jewelry and where many iconic photos of Audrey Hepburn were taken for the film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’
• Madison Square Garden – Take a tour of  the World’s Most Famous Arena which is located in Manhattan on Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, catch a concert or watch a sporting event.
• Yankee Stadium – situated in the Bronx, home of the New York Yankees
• The Wine Regions on Long Island
• Chelsea Market – 75 9th Ave (between 15th & 16th) great eating  and entertainment
• Coney Island – situated in Brooklyn

Get your tickets to New York Events.

 What’s the best way to get around?

You can save a lot of time and money with a New York Pass that you buy before you travel.  These passes allow you to skip lines and to save money on entry fees to over 40 of New Yorks best attractions.  New York is easy to navigate as it is on a grid system with Avenues running one way and Streets running across them.  Buses either run along streets or along Avenues so hop on and off until you reach your destination.  Yellow cabs are everywhere and the subway is also quick and easy to navigate.

Will I see any celebrities?

It’s possible!  You can check out which films and TV programs are being made in New York here.

Celebrity haunts to help you maximize your chances

• Angels & Kings 500 East 11th Street Ashlee Simpson, Tommy Hilfiger, Kate Bosworth and Josh Hartnett
• Barney’s 660 Madison Avenue Victoria Beckham, Halle Berry, and Chloe Sevigny
• Butter 415 Lafayette Street Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Beyonce, Hilary Duff and Hayden Panettiere.
• Hotel Chelsea 222 West 23rd Street Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson.
• Hotel Gansevoort 18 9th Avenue Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Leonardo diCaprio, Jessica Simpson, Jay-z, Lindsay Lohan, Kelly Ripa, Nicky Hilton.
• J. Sisters 35 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyra Banks, Fergie.
• Nobu 105 Hudson Street Robert De Niro, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet.
• Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon 825 Washington Street Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Julianne Moore, Renee Zellweger.
• Susan Ciminelli Day Spa 754 Fifth Avenue Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Dita Von Teese.

Food and drink

For the best round up of what’s available in New York – and there is a lot – take a look at Time Out’s constantly updated lists of best places to eat, best ‘all you can eat’ places and best places for coffee

New York, New York…

If you’re planning a trip to New York, do some research before you go and try to plan what to go and see.  One trip is only enough to scratch the surface of this vibrant and unique city beloved by so many – so it’s a great excuse to go back again…and again…and again.  Enjoy!

You can book your trip and New York City Hotels from $75! from Priceline.

This morning we slept in as long as possible and then headed down to the breakfast area as we had free vouchers with our accommodation. We both ordered eggs benedict which came with tea and orange juice and we also ordered a fruit smoothie as well at $8 each!! Still it was worth it.
I have to say that the fruit was really tasty everywhere we went and the fruit smoothies are so full of flavor and it’s the one thing that the Americans don’t seem to add extra sweetness to.

I found the sweet taste of things a bit cloying after a while. Not being overly fond of sweet tasting everything I was hanging out for something savoury in the end. Paula, doesn’t mind the sweet taste in fact she eats just about anything and never puts on any weight. I think I put the weight on just watching her munch through sweet pastries and tarts.

After breakfast we headed back to Times Square. We had brought relatively small suitcases with us as we were trying to travel light enough to take our cases on board so we wouldn’t have to wait for our luggage when we arrived. This didn’t work out quite how we had planned as we ended up letting the bags go in cargo hold after all. So the small cases were filled to overflowing and I had discared shoes, jeans and a top in Disney World as I couldn’t fit them into my bag.

This meant we needed another suitcase to put in all of the extra stuff we had purchased along the way. We found a small little overnight bag in a souvenir shop for $30 and after buying the obligatory souvenir t-shirts with New York emblazoned over them we headed back to the hotel to pack.

With the new suitcase we had a better experience packing than the day before. Everything managed to fit in nicely and before long it was time for us to leave.

The hotel had been kind enough to let us stay an extra two hours before checking out at 2pm we headed out dragging all three suitcases between us, down to Lexington and 42nd st to catch the shuttle bus to JFK. What a great service, the buses run regularly and it only costs $15 per person.

After making it to the airport early we waited in the queue for about 50 minutes for the Qantas staff to arrive to start the check-in for our flight. Lots of grumpy, grumbling going on around us as people fidgeted and couldn’t go anywhere in case they lost their spot in the queue. Really poor service on the part of Qantas.

At long last we were on our flight and heading back to Australia.

The trip home was a lot better than the trip over. We had the usual stop in LA where we were actually allowed to take a break in the airport and so we sat down at Starbucks to have a cup of tea. Once we got on the plane again we had a meal and then everyone settled down to sleep. We seemed to sleep for most of it which made things a lot easier and we arrived back in Sydney feeling quite good.

We still had to take another plane to get us back to Canberra and because customs was a disorganised mad-house we missed our connecting flight – in fact it seems most people missed their flights as we had to join a long queue of people whingeing about how badly organised everything was.

Finally we were on our plane and heading home all the time wishing we were still back in the States. It’s not that we don’t like being home, it’s just that we love the experiences that travelling gives.

This morning we got up early for our flight to New York which was leaving Miami International Airport at 7.45am. We decided to set the clock for 4.30am. This might sound early but we had to drive to the airport and we knew that it would be easy for us to get lost. As it turned out we did the right thing.

Crawling out of bed after spending a late night at Disney World wasn’t the most fun thing to do but we got ready and headed out to the car to head off to the airport. We drove around to the front of the hotel in order to go to reception to check-out. We could have used the express checkout but I always like to check the invoice to ensure we haven’t been charged for anything extra, as we all know that hotels are notorious for getting it wrong.

Then we set off to the airport. Thinking this should be fairly simple we took off confidently but as we have found, things aren’t always what they seem. Signage might be okay if you live in the place but for anyone else it’s terrible. Of course we got lost but not in a bad way as we were still headed in the general direction. Although we somehow ended up at Animal Kingdom and had to ask a security guard how to get to the airport.

After going through three different toll booths we knew we were heading in the right direction. They love toll booths in the States – just make sure you have lots of small change for this as sometimes the booths are unmanned and you need the exact amount of money to get through.

When we got to the airport we had to find the Avis drop-off point. Fortunately the signs were pretty good and we made it into the right car park. Even at that early hour of the morning they had plenty of Avis staff available to take the car and do the check straight away.

Once inside the airport we knew what to do this time and were able to check in with the self service machines quite easily to get onto our Delta flight.

Finally we sat down and relaxed with breakfast and waited for our plane.

While we were waiting, a woman came past us with a little dog in tow. We were quite astounded by this and even more so when she got on the plane behind us still holding onto the pup. In Australia, the only way you can get an animal on board is if it goes into the cargo hold. They aren’t allowed in the cabin.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful and we arrived in New York pretty much on time.

Since we were becoming old hands at this we quickly went out to get a shuttle bus to our hotel. Within a few minutes we were on a mini bus with a few other people. This was fine at the start but after hitting the next two terminals we were jam packed with people. The poor guys in the back were just squashed together like sardines. There were 12 people in a mini-van that could really only seat 10 comfortably.

We have to say though that the driver was excellent. Even though the passengers were covering their eyes in horror for most of the trip, we found the opposite. He managed to squeeze through the tightest places and zip in and out of traffic getting us to our hotels in half the time that others would have. We gave him a little extra tip for his efforts.

We finally made it to our hotel after dropping off all the other passengers and checked-in quickly and easily. We had booked the Sofitel for our last night in New York as it was recommended as the no.1 hotel in New York in TripAdvisor.com. We weren’t disappointed. This is one nice hotel and very convenient to Broadway and Times Square. Even so, we were just as happy with the Grand Hyatt which is a much cheaper hotel.

After settling in to our room we immediately headed out to do a bit of shopping. We were looking for a particular brand of walking sandal that we had purchased in Florence, Italy when we were there last. We loved these shoes but they were seeing better days so we each wanted a new pair. The brand was ARA and the style was Korfu. We tried a couple of shoe stores but neither had them in stock so we gave up on this idea and headed down to Times Square for some lunch.

We ended up at the Red Lobster. This is a very nice restaurant with lovely meals that are fairly reasonably priced. You get plenty of food and the service is great. We ordered two platters as well as an appetizer to share. This was way too much but we managed to get through most of it because it was just so tasty.

We get off the bus to go and have a look at ground zero. A memorial plaque has been put in place but the area is still just rubble with cranes and graders working the area.

The bus takes us past the UN building.

The New York Stock Exchange was under police guard and closed to the general public. We heard on the news later that night that employees in the Wall St area had received death threats.

It is the richest area in the richest city in the world, which makes it an interesting stroll. From Wall St we head towards Battery Park to take the ferry over to The Statue of Liberty.

Well the queues to get tickets and to board the ferry were horrendous. Fortunately our wonderful New York Pass meant that we didn’t have to join the queue to buy tickets, and as the tickets are valid for 6 months we decided to leave the trip to the statue until we return next Saturday.

So we now had a few hours to kill so we tossed up whether to go over to Brooklyn or to see the Bodies exhibition. Well the loop around Brooklyn takes around 2 hours and as we didn’t feel like sitting that long in the sun, we opted to go to the museum.

For some reason the air conditioning on the buses is turned to maximum, so you have the choice of sitting upstairs in the sweltering sun, or rain as the case may be, or freezing to death on the lower level.

So we decide to head to the South Street Seaport exhibition centre to take in ‘Bodies’ The Exhibition.

‘Bodies The Exhibition’ is excellent. It is amazing how they have separated the arterial lines from within the body structures, and the various dissected body parts give you a total insight into the workings of the body.It was amusing to see the discarded cigarette packets in the container at the end of the room showing the disgusting state of lungs diseased by cigarette smoking.

This exhibition is insightful, informative and very interesting.

After strolling through the exhibition and marveling at displays it’s time to get back on the bus to go to Central Park to photograph the John Lennon memorial “Strawberry Field” for my granddaughter Ishta,who is a Beatles fan and in particular a John Lennon fan.

We find that the commentator on this bus is very knowledgeable and he points out the many interesting facts about New York, such as how various churches have changed from synagogues to Chinese temples, depending on who inhabits a district at a given time.

Donald Trump’s residence is pointed out, along with the apartments of Betty Davis and Katherine Hepburn, which unlike Trump Tower, are modest looking fron the exterior.

We get off the bus at Central Park and as we enter the park near the zoo, we decide to go in and have a look around. Entry is free with the NY pass.

The first stop is the exotic bird sanctuary. There are birds of all sizes in an amazing range of vivid colors.

These birds were quite happy to sit and pose, showing no fear at all when I approached them.

Next it’s onto the reptile cages where there are an assortment of snakes, lizards and gecko’s.

I especially want to see the polar bear but it isn’t in it’s cage, and in fact a number of cages were empty and we were reminded of the line in the movie Jurassic Park “Are there any animals on this tour?”. The zoo is well laid out and it was closing time so the animals had probably been bedded down for the night.

So onto Strawberry Fields, only we have absolutely no idea where it is. One suggestion for the park authorities would be to add a few more maps with directions on where things are, especially when you consider that the park is 843 acres, approx 2.5 miles North to South, 6 miles around and .5miles East to west.

After walking for a while we decided to ask another couple if they knew the way.

We finally reached a sign “Strawberry Fields” and continuing up a winding path we found a plaque honouring John Lennon, a little further on was the circular ‘Peace’ plaque where some aging hippy dropout has placed a pile of junk that he belligerently, and aggressively states is his art. So, photos taken, duty done, we head back to Planet Hollywood for dinner, passing skaters on roller blades, horse drawn carriages and bicycle riders.

The park is a great place to either just sit and relax or undertake all manner of strenuous activity. New Yorkers are so lucky to have such a haven in the midst of their city.