Each visitor finds a different experience on a New York vacation. Underneath a skyline of skyscrapers lies a jumble of cutting-edge restaurants, glittering Broadway shows and quiet brownstone townhouses. Book a New York City hotel and soak up this exhilarating city.
The island of Manhattan is the cultural center of New York City’s five boroughs. Its numbered grid makes it easy to get around – avenues run north-south, streets run east-west. Broadway shows buzz under the bright lights of Times Square. Skyscrapers, classy department stores and the Rockefeller Center form Midtown, a few blocks east. A stroll along Fifth Avenue takes a trip past palatial mansions, museums, designer shops and lush Central Park. Downtown, jazz clubs, sidewalk cafés, art galleries and ethnic eateries fill Greenwich Village. From Battery Park, on Manhattan Island’s southern tip, you can see the Statue of Liberty standing tall amid the busy waters of New York Harbor.
Shopping is part of the Big Apple lifestyle, and New Yorkers pursue it with gusto. Couture designer shops line Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side, while a few blocks south sit stylishly grand luxury department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. In Midtown there are bargains to be found in the tiny computer shops and family-run camera stores. Vintage clothing stores and fresh young accessory designers pepper the maze-like streets of both East Village and Greenwich Village. Behind the many cast-iron facades of Soho are high-fashion designers, cool housewares and handbag shops.
This city of immigrants can serve up a world of cuisines; grab a New York slice from hole-in-the-wall pizzerias, pick out your lobster from the tanks in front of Chinatown restaurants or splurge on sushi in minimalist surroundings in Midtown. Brunch is a New York specialty – be it pastries and iced tea in the stylish sidewalk cafés of the Upper East Side or the spice of huevos rancheros and syrupy Cuban coffee from an authentic East Village cantina.
Egyptian coffins and Roman frescoes lurk around every corner in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while Jackson Pollock and Roy Lichtenstein canvases drape the galleries of the Whitney Museum of Art. Smaller galleries in Chelsea showcase a colorful selection of new artists. Dinosaurs prowl the Museum of Natural History and wax replicas pose at Madame Tussauds. At night, glamorous theatres stage elaborate productions on Broadway. In Greenwich Village, classic jazz clubs keep the music going into the night.
New York is filled with free things to do. Take an afternoon stroll in Central Park (looking out for the free performances on the Central Park Stage) or catch the sunset skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge. Friday night is free entrance at some of the city’s best museums and galleries – the Guggenheim is ”pay-what-you-like” from 5:45pm and the Whitney Museum’s art collection costs nothing all evening. Catch the free Staten Island Ferry for one of the most iconic views of this great city – the Statue of Liberty framed by Manhattan’s towering skyscrapers.
