New York & florida- ideas / advice

[Trial_S15]

I'm heading to NYC at the end of the month for 3 nights and on to Clearwater in Florida for a week (honeymoon), I've not been to America since I was a kid an she has never been so I was looking for ideas of things to do (apart from the obvious )

So, what's worth seeing, what's a waste of time and what do we HAVE to see or do while we're there...

[Daniel H]

If you plan on going to the Statue of Liberty, and warn to go inside up into the crown, you will need to book online in advance.
And I preferred going up the Rockefeller centre rather than the Empire State Building. From the Rockefeller you get good veiws of Central Park, and the lower end of manhattan on the opposite side. If you go up about sunset you can see it in the day, then watch as everything starts to light up as it gets dark.
Grand central station is worth a look around too.

In Clearwater hulk hogan has got a beach shop! There's a statue of him outside! It was closed when I went there last time so I never got chance to look around it. Busch gardens isn't that far from clearwater either, and I really like it there. They have got a wooden roller coaster that is a proper bone shaker when you ride it, really feels raw and exiting, like it's about to fall apart!

[Yakko]

I used to spend 3 weeks a year in Florida over Christmas.

If you can, go air-boating somewhere, it's brill (the boats with the enormous fan on the back) they're fast and spend their whole time going sideways. Over alligators.

Also, we found a gun shop/range which would let us fire anything we liked (apart from full autos) as long as we bought the ammo, was a great way to spend the morning.

[MEL]

I'd also say do the rockafella, the empire state was rammed and you can't see it from it

We didn't walk up the statue of liberty as we had 2 tired and grumpy kids with us and there was quite a big queue.

We did the typical touristy type stuff - saks/fifth avenue generally, FAO Schwarz for the 'Big ' piano, grand central station, horse & carriage ride around central park (the locals said the bike rides were more knowledgeable which would have been nice), little Italy for dinner, the lion king on Broadway, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza times square so spent a fair bit of time in that area shopping. The metro is real easy to use and cheap so nothing is too far but 3 days isn't enough time really.

We spent a week and still didn't do half of what we wanted. Probably not much help.

[R3K1355]

There's plenty to see from the Empire state building, it's best to go up it at night as the view is amazing.
Don't cheap out like most people do, you have to go to the very top viewing deck.

The Rockerfella during the day is supposed to be pretty nice.

[Trial_S15]

Thanks for the replies, it is quite a short time in NYC which is why I'd rather not end up going somewhere or doing something which ends up not being worthwhile!!

I've been to Manhattan once before and went to the Empire State building so the Rockefeller centre sounds like a good plan We didn't go to the statue of liberty while I was there because my uncle (who lives in long Island) said it wasn't worth it - Daniel; did you go out and was it worth the trip?

We'll probably drop in to Grand Central Station and over to Ground Zero for a look because it had only just been cleared when I was there last - is any one of the numerous 9/11 museums / tours etc. better than the rest? The "Ground Zero Museum Workshop" looks like it stands out...

I was also thinking of going to the Met and Ellis Island - any thoughts?

Edit;
Is there any restaurants worth booking in advance or should we just go wherever the hotel recommends (Fitzpatrick)?

[frisbee]

I've always wanted to go here:

http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/

[R3K1355]

I wouldn't bother with ground zero personally.
It's a thing for American's really, unless you knew someone involved in it.

Don't forget you can see the Space Shuttle Enterprise and the fore-runner to the SR-71 BlackBird on display at the museum in west Manhattan.

[Daniel H]

The Statue of Liberty is okay. If you're going to do the full crown tour, it's a lot better I thought. I've been to it twice, but only up to the crown once. It's got a museum in the base you can have a look about, then go on to Ellis Island. There isn't a great deal there though. If you've only got a few days, I'd rather go to the natural history museum. It's massive.

Intrepid is good too. There were some volunteers doing tours on it the one time I went on it, and he was ace, added a lot to the experience telling us about everything. They charge to go on their Concorde now though. When I first went there you could go on it without paying extra.

The ground zero memorial was a bit meh. It's just 2 big water features with all the victims names around the outside. Back in January when I went, the museum section hadn't opened yet, so it might be a better trip with that. You could see part of it through a glass wall where they have preserved part of the original structure. I imagine the museum is full of things the pulled out of the rubble when they cleared up. I wouldn't get any high expectations of what's going to be there if you do go.

I liked shopping in the canal street / soho area, and would recommend a wander around there for a bit.
And Macy's will give you a 10% (I think) discount card if you show them some foreign ID at their customer service desk.

[Trial_S15]

We might go down to ground zero for a look but maybe the 2 hour tour / workshop would be a bit much...

Thanks Daniel, will head down to Soho / canal street so I saw that discount mentioned on tripadvisor alright, one or two of the other big stores are doing similar so might head in for a look. I presume they're all just big shops or are any of them worth going to just to see??

[Stick23]

We went to NYC for our honeymoon in July last year. We loved it and highlights were the helicopter ride over Statue of Liberty and up to the Yankee Stadium, Wicked theatre show and Central Park. If you've got the time just take a moment to relax in the park and feel the polar opposite of the frantic city. Food wise, we still speak about the filet mignon from the Capital Grill (we went to the one on 51st St).

I agree on the 9/11 memorial, it wasn't something we'd do again. It may be different with the museum now though and it is/was free.

The View is a nice place for a drink or to eat, it's a revolving restaurant/bar at the top of the Marriott hotel in Times Square. You need to get waffles from Waffle and Dingle, a burger from the Shake Shack and a cookie from the Levain Bakery.

[Daniel H]

There are a few different tour buses that go around. They are a great way to see the city, with loads of places you can get on and off. There are some blue buses, and some red ones that I went on. One is grayline, and the other is city sight NY. What they didn't really advertise was the fact they were both owned by the same company, and the people working on them let us on either bus with a ticket from the other. I think it was the red grayline ones I had a ticket for, but they let us on the blue city sights one too.
Some of the tour guides on them were ace, and gave some really helpful tips, and others sounded like they had chronic depression and were generally crap.

[Trial_S15]

I thought about a boat trip tour but never considered a helicopter, must look into that!! I do remember the pizza & cookies being amazing in NYC so will definitely head over to the levian bakery & that restaurant sounds great!!

For the bus tours, I presume middle of the day would be best time for that or will that be too hot?

[Stick23]

The Brooklyn Bridge is a great walk too, if you do it get the subway across to Brooklyn and walk back. That way you walk towards the Manhattan skyline.

We liked the High Line, too. That was a nice walk and cuts through some decent areas if you want to tag a few things together. The Chelsea Market is worth a look if you're going through that way.

We did the helicopter tour through heliny.com, we paid for the basic one and got a free upgrade to the Yankee Stadium tour. We were glad we did and if we did it again we'd pay for the upgrade as it was definitely worth it.

[Trial_S15]

I had also seen that walk on Tripadvisor, how long should we give ourselves for it?

[R3K1355]

It doesn't take that long to do, half hour or so.
IIRC you want the blue line subway to get to the Brooklyn side of the bridge.

There might be a really nice waffle van at the Manhattan side of the bridge as well, thats well worth a look if it's there.
Wafels and Dinges I think it's called.

[Trial_S15]

Excellent, thanks man. Really looking forward to it now!!