CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: GopherRock on April 09, 2018, 10:54:37 PM
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So the lady and I are going to be spending this upcoming weekend in Manhattan. She's there for a work conference, and I'm tagging along. We've got a rough itinerary planned out, but we're both open to suggestions. I'd love to hear any of your must-dos
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How about must don'ts? :)
You should have beautiful weather. Mets are only team in town for the weekend. Where are you staying? That can influence matters significantly. I like the City in measured doses.
I'd never send anybody to Times Square, or the Empire State Building. I just don't think either are worth the hassle/cost/enjoyment. Times Square? It's mildly more interesting than Rockefeller Center and the boobs who stand by the window at 7 am of the Today Show. See the Statue? sure, there are ways to do it, via a Boat tour perhaps if that interests you. I prefer more discrete, less obvious NYC experiences. My lone exception is probably the Met, and if time allows Central Park. (conveniently the Met sits on the East perimeter of the Park). Don't eat at Peter Lugar's unless you want your steak sliced for you like you're seven years old. Katz' (East Houston St.) would be OK, if you really have to do a signature tourist trappy restaurant, if you must have pastrami on rye for $20 or whatever. Hard to give restaurant tips, as reservations may be tough to manage, based on your time/schedule etc.
Most of my trips to NYC are business, so I've got a lot of miles on my feet walking around downtown/financial district. It used to be a ghost town at night and weekends, but I think it is picking up interest. If nothing else, visiting the WTC site. I usually stay at one of the hotels next door to WTC (on Church St on the east) or Albany St. to the south, so I've seen that whole site at every stage since about '04. It is quite a visual, and I still have yet to visit the official Memorial. It's also fun to walk around SoHo and Greenwich Village and visit shops and what not. It's a much more laid back spot in Manhattan relative to Midtown. Further north of the Village is the Highline and Hudson Yards project, which that project is HUGE. I haven't been up there in a couple years, but people love boasting about the Highline.
I still try to hit a spot in Chinatown every visit, which isn't far, (from downtown) and of course has taken over Little Italy (pro tip: there really isn't a Little Italy anymore in NYC, the Italians have long since moved all over the place). Some damn good meals to be had in Chinatown, I only know the places by sight and led in by locals.
As you no doubt know, Brooklyn is where all the cool kids live. It truly is the Wal-Mart of counterculture. It can be fun too, though as with Manhattan, there's a helluva lot of different neighborhoods. I have a limited rolodex of ideas.
Midtown is busy, crowded with tourists, think a busier, more expensive Michigan Ave. (Chicago). East Village is also full of people who are cool for a living (many it turns out are from Ohio). I jest a bit, but the point really is there are a lot of different experiences you can have in NYC on a weekend. Just know that $20 will fly out of your pocket about every 30 minutes or so.
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Where are you staying? I enjoyed walking across the Brooklyn Bridge when the weather was nice last February believe it or not. When we are there we mostly just walk around and see interesting things. My step daughter lives in Brooklyn and my daughter used to live there, so we've been a fair bit to Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The wife said Ellis Island was interesting but I was not on that trip with her.
Times Square to me is hardly anything to see.
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Upstate NY is really scenic and nice.
Lawn Guy-land probably is too.
NYC has way too many eye-soles per square foot for my liking, but they do have funny accents.
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It's a good idea to learn what SOHO and TRIBECA and DUMBO mean.
Part of our reason for moving to midtown ATL is that the area is somewhat similar to Manhattan/lower Brooklyn without being as jammed with folks.
https://www.nycgo.com/itineraries/one-day-dumbo-brooklyn
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I've only been once for a couple days. We stayed in Brooklyn near Sunset Park and my favorite part was just walking around Sunset Park (a heavily Hispanic neighborhood). We also hit Times Square and Coney Island. Of course, my kids were 1 and 3 - nothing like pushing the double stroller around the subway and all through New York.
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The amount of people that they can cram pack into Coney Island is just unbelievable.
(https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/coney-island-1024.jpg?w=1024)
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We're staying near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, W 40th St.
We've got a rough idea of an itinerary for each day, but intentionally have it loose:
Friday: Battery, Ground Zero, NYSE, Staten Island ferry. We have tickets to a show tonight.
Saturday: Central Park, Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan Bridges
Sunday: Rockefeller Center
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That sounds fine.
I enjoy walking around especially if the weather is nice. Just walking is interesting, they may have street fairs on Broadway or somewhere that are really fun for me.
I resist "checking boxes" to see as much as I can on a trip.
I've never been to the Louvre for example.
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You'll get a great view of the Statue of Liberty from the Ferry. Marq may not like it, but I love Katz's. Yes it is like $20 for a Pastrami sandwich but the sandwich is like 6" tall or more so you get a LOT of food.
I like duck so I love getting a duck dinner in Chinatown but don't look at the fat content in duck, yikes!
The 9/11 memorial is moving.
Hang on to your wallet, and your coat, and your hat, and everything else. NYC is MUCH nicer/safer now than it was back in the early/mid 90's when I went for the first time but it is still an area with lots of people and lots of pickpockets.
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Katz's is good, I like it, but I also have an elite deli in my Indy hood here which is everybit as good as Katz's. Plus they don't have the really stupid ticket ordering system that Katz has. I just don't make it a habit to wait on line for things like a sandwich.
Agree, NYC is light years safer nowadays, Manhattan is Disneyland for grown ups, though it is undeniable, post Bloomberg, things are becoming unsavory again.
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When in a major city, I carry a wallet in back pocket that is old and filled with paper and a small wallet in my front pocket that has one credit card and some cash.
NYC is very safe in general these days. I've been accosted numerous times in Paris by pickpockets who try and distract you often with some fairly attractive young lady while another one picks your pocket.
If you spend a few hours in Paris, it will happen to you, guaranteed, unless you are way away from downtown. I've never been robbed but I've been "approached" many times.
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Katz's is good, I like it, but I also have an elite deli in my Indy hood here which is everybit as good as Katz's. Plus they don't have the really stupid ticket ordering system that Katz has. I just don't make it a habit to wait on line for things like a sandwich.
Agree, NYC is light years safer nowadays, Manhattan is Disneyland for grown ups, though it is undeniable, post Bloomberg, things are becoming unsavory again.
I'm not a fan of Katz's ridiculous ticket system either but as packed as they are I do understand it.
I was going to point out the Dinkins/Giuliani/Bloomberg/de Blasio change but I didn't want to get too political. That said, I agree 100% and I hope they get back on track before it goes back to 1990's level filth.
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So what exactly are the rewards that match or exceed the numerous drawbacks (long lines, crazy traffic, huge crowds, insanely high cost, dodging muggers, cold or humid weather, etc)?
Just curious. Never really understood the appeal.
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That sounds fine.
I enjoy walking around especially if the weather is nice. Just walking is interesting, they may have street fairs on Broadway or somewhere that are really fun for me.
I resist "checking boxes" to see as much as I can on a trip.
I've never been to the Louvre for example.
Yeah, generally when I go to a city I like to spend time walking, experiencing the food, and having a relatively light "real" schedule.
NYC is one of those where I think there are fewer "must see" things, relative to some of the older cities of Europe. I mean, there's skyscrapers in every city. It's nothing all that special to go up in the Empire State Building if you've been up in the Hancock building in Chicago, or the other tall buildings all over the world (although Taipei 101 is cool due to their sway damping ball). Beyond the Statue of Liberty and WTC, and Central Park, I'm not sure there'd be too many other "musts".
When we were in Paris, though, we had to do the Louvre.
When in a major city, I carry a wallet in back pocket that is old and filled with paper and a small wallet in my front pocket that has one credit card and some cash.
NYC is very safe in general these days. I've been accosted numerous times in Paris by pickpockets who try and distract you often with some fairly attractive young lady while another one picks your pocket.
If you spend a few hours in Paris, it will happen to you, guaranteed, unless you are way away from downtown. I've never been robbed but I've been "approached" many times.
I didn't have any problems in Europe, although it might be partly due to being 6'5"...
I did pick up one of these wallets and made the change from a back-pocket to a front-pocket wallet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07932JXQV/
I kept having problems with the back-pocket wallet wearing out my jeans anyway, so I'm thinking I'm just going to stick with this.
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I switched to a front pocket wallet because after a while I realized the back one was causing back pain.
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(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c0/4a/62/c04a6212887cf5acd2a2849d3593ab07.jpg)
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I don't know how many times I've been in Paris, nor how many days obviously. AS a general rule, we avoid it unless something is necessary. Last time we had a lunch with the "cousins". I tell folks it's my least favorite city in France, which they usually take the wrong way of course missing the point.
The things I enjoy while traveling in cities is not so much "checking boxes" to see the various tourist areas but more in walking about and experiencing the place more akin to how locals do. My rule of thumb in Paris is to walk until I don't see any tourists and then walk 15 minutes more.
There are obviously places I'd like to see of the "national park" type etc. I don't know of a specific thing in any city I'd like to see especially at the moment, there probably is something somewhere.
I'd like to visit the tank museum in Bovington but that's a bit different. I've been to every major city in the US, I'm not sure what the largest city I've never visited would be. Check that, never been to Detroit now that I think about it except the airport.
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I've always hated a rear pocket wallet. Creates discomfort when seated. The bulge is tacky when wearing dress pants, and like a purse, is an invitation to stuff and retain more crap than one truly needs. I use a front pocket thin money clip.
Sounds like MaximumSam had Costanza's wallet.
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When in a major city, I carry a wallet in back pocket that is old and filled with paper and a small wallet in my front pocket that has one credit card and some cash.
NYC is very safe in general these days. I've been accosted numerous times in Paris by pickpockets who try and distract you often with some fairly attractive young lady while another one picks your pocket.
If you spend a few hours in Paris, it will happen to you, guaranteed, unless you are way away from downtown. I've never been robbed but I've been "approached" many times.
as I started reading I wondered, why carry a "dummy" wallet in back. But since I don't mind being distracted by attractive young ladies I think it's a grand idear.
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If you are in Paris and some young semi-attractive lady approaches you, she almost certainly is trying to distract you and get you robbed. One stunt is to ask if you speak English. One of them showed me a gold looking ring and said I had dropped it and she wanted to return it. They have a thousand gimmicks to distract you.
I'm 6'4" so size is not a deterrent.
I had one guy thrust some newspaper in my arms as I was walking by and I walked away and was about to dump it in the trash and he ran after me saying "MUNY MUNY MUNY". I threw it back at him and walked off, looking backwards.
Parisians don't ask directions or for advice or talk to strangers.
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Man, you guys really know how to sell a vacation destination.
I can replicate the experience of guarding my wallet on the south end of Columbus.
Save quite a bit on travel and lodging.
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I don't have a fear of the pick pocket artist. My only fear (as a pedestrian) in US cities, are those with mental health problems doing something (physically) to me and/or my children. This is a real problem, particularly on the West Coast (SF, PDX and Seattle for sure). These folks already make for some very uncomfortable situations on the streets, which I can handle, but it was quite a sight for my then seven year old when she was directly being screamed at by a dude about 10 feet away from her in broad daylight on a relatively busy street in Seattle. Again, that's going to happen when you visit a large city with lots of people, particularly one on the west coast which attracts a lot of guys like this.
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me and the bride went to nyc a few years back for a 4/5 day trip. it was ok i guess, i'm not a city person. my favorite part was central park. should be beautiful this time of year with things blooming.
we hit some of the museums, my bride is an artist. they were pretty neat. not my thing, but nice to see at least once.
as for eats, we mostly hit small places whereever we were. can't remember any of them, but they were all pretty good.
night entertainment, we tried catching a late ticket to broadway and off braodway shows, didn't like our options. also were going to go to a comedy club, but it was crazy long line.
best thing we did for quick travel was buying a 1-week subway ticket and bought a subway app for about $10 that was really accurate on times, running late, etc. basically google maps for nyc/nj subway system. worth it if you want to move quickly. but we also took a couple days and just walked around, which was nice too.