Get your bearings
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.
Nonstop shopping
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.
Dining in all flavors
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.
New York for free
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 for free
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.
