A bite of the Big Apple (New York City)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	New York City
Date:	01/04/01 (1086 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads to do, Loads going on, Great museums, Great art galleries, Excellent restaurants, Easy to travel around

Disadvantages: Intimidating to the first time visitor

I've been to New York City twice, and I love it. It is, by far, one of my favourite cities in the world. There are loads of things to do in here, and it seems there's always something going on. Tourists are well catered for by an enormous number of museums, galleries and buildings to visit. For those who've been to the city before, there's an incredible array of shops, bars and restaurants to visit - plus the exhibitions in many of the galleries change regularly!

CONTENTS

- GETTING THERE
- GETTING AROUND
- HOTELS
- SHOPPING
- TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
- SPORTS
- DINING OUT
- NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES
- TEMPERATURE AND CLIMATE
- CONCLUSIONS

GETTING THERE

When you fly into New York, there are three airports you can choose from; JFK, Newark and La Guardia. Most intercontinental flights come into JFK, and this is the airport that most tourists choose to fly to when visiting the city. Almost as many flights go into Newark, which is just over the Hudson River, in New Jersey, and flights to Newark might be slightly cheaper on some carriers. La Guardia airport only serves domestic flights within the US, and therefore is only of use if you're visiting the city from elsewhere in the States, or flying on.

Many of the cheaper priced flights to New York are stopovers in the UK from elsewhere in the world. Air India's cheap flight for example, has already done the Delhi - London leg of the journey, and is continuing on to New York. Likewise, Kuwait Airways' regular flight has already come to London from Kuwait City. This does mean that availability on these flights can be quite limited, so you're best advised to book early. It also means that the aeroplanes have already acquired that "lived in" smell of a plane that has already carried passengers on a several-hour flight!

Nonetheless, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways both operate surprisingly competitive
ly priced services to New York, on flights that start in the UK.

I've flown to New York with Kuwait Airways and with Virgin Atlantic (though the latter flight was actually operated by Continental Airways). This is an odd one actually - if you're a Virgin ticket holder, and you're on a Continental plane, they have to give you a seat when you check-in, whereas Continental passengers don't get assigned a seat until they reach the gate.

The Kuwait Airways flight was to JFK airport. JFK is a fair way out of the city of New York, in the borough of Brooklyn. The easiest way to get into Manhattan from there is to take a taxi. The taxi fare from JFK to anywhere on Manhattan Island is $30, regardless of how many passengers there are, how many bags you've got, or how long the journey takes. The return journey, however, is metered, and extra charges are imposed, as for any other cab fare in New York City. You can get from JFK into Manhattan via bus and subway, but it's a lot more hassle. Cheaper, admittedly, but a lot more hassle.

JFK airport is, as you might expect for the main tourist airport, well served by tourist shops and duty free gift shops, so there's plenty of opportunity for picking up last minute gifts.

The Virgin/Continental flight was to Newark airport. Newark is to the west of Manhattan Island, in New Jersey, just over the Hudson River. It is, however, closer to Manhattan than JFK, as the crow flies. This means that when you're in the queue at immigration, you get a nice view from the big window of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. Also, the approach to Newark airport from the air is much better for those anxious to take photographs from the windows of New York City.

Newark airport is a lot shinier and newer than JFK, and frankly, I prefer it. Taxi fare from Newark to Manhattan will work out more than from JFK, mainly because of the volume of traffic between New Jersey an
d New York - typically about $45. However, the bus journey from the airport to Newark Bus Station, followed by the PATH subway system over to Manhattan, works out very cheaply indeed (about $8). Alternatively, the Olympia Trails bus service runs directly from Newark airport to Penn Station in Manhattan.

GETTING AROUND

Getting around the city of New York is incredibly easy. The first, and probably best known mode of transportation are the traditional yellow taxi cabs. They're a lot cheaper than London's black cabs, at least in my experience, and in my experience, the drivers' reputation for being unpleasant, uncommunicative and unable to speak English, is generally ill founded. Sure, occasionally, communication was a problem - mainly through my pronunciation of the word "thirty" as "thirty", rather than "toidy", though! I don't doubt that there are some less pleasant cab drivers in New York City, but I failed to hire any of them... and knowing what my luck's like, that's pretty surprising! I expected to get stuck with Travis Bickle think-a-likes...

The subway system in New York is, thanks to Rudy Guiliani's crack down on crime in the city, now a very safe place. If you're hoping to get one of the old New York City subway tokens - the little coins with a pentagonal hole in the centre - I'm afraid they're rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Every subway station in New York has now introduced the 'MetroCard' system. This was being introduced the first time I visited the city, in September 1999, and is now the main way that subway users pay for their travel.

Automated machines in the foyer of each station sell MetroCards charged with an amount of money of your choice. Each journey costs an extremely reasonable $1.50 no matter how far you travel on the subway system, which runs a long way out into the boroughs of the city. If you ask nicely at the ticket des
k, they might give you a map of the subway system - yes, the staff at the ticket booths on the subway system are generally that unfriendly.

Probably the easiest thing to do when travelling on the New York subway is to plan out your journey in advance. It's looking at the New York subway map that really makes you glad that Harry Beck redesigned the London Underground map, to save us from a spaghetti-like mess like the one that New Yorkers have to put up with. When you get to a subway station, look for the line that you want, and then decide if you want to go Uptown (North) or Downtown (South). Then look at the map, and see whether or not your destination station is served by 'Local services only' (on most maps this is represented by a filled, rather than an open, dot). If the station is a 'Local services only' one, then make sure you get on a 'Local', not an 'Express' subway train, or you'll sail straight through the station you wanted!

This leads me on to another one of the great things about New York. Unlike London, New York deserves its reputation as a 24-hour city. The subway runs through the night, albeit on a much reduced service. I've made much use of this, on my visits to the city, with few worries about personal safety, even at ridiculous hours in the morning. However, I have only made journeys in Midtown and Downtown Manhattan at that sort of time of night - I might have had more reservations about continuing my journey into Harlem or the Bronx.

I've never used the bus network in Manhattan, though I have used buses from New Jersey over to New York, which run over to the 42nd Street Port Authority, through the Lincoln Tunnel. These are extremely well priced, and run regularly, so if they're anything to judge from, the bus services in New York should be very well run indeed. Actually, mentioning trips to and from New Jersey, PATH trains from Manhattan (either from 34th Street, or t
he World Trade Center) go over to Hoboken and Newark in New Jersey for just $1 each way. The trip to Hoboken is worth doing, as the waterfront there offers outstanding views out over Manhattan Island. Hoboken is also a nice town - it offers cheap (at least, relative to Manhattan!) rents for people working in New York, and has an excellent collection of bars, which attract a young and enthusiastic clientele.

The bus system in New York City is relatively easy to understand. The initial letter of the bus numbers indicates its destination borough - M for Manhattan, B for Brooklyn, Bx for Bronx, Q for Queens, and S for Staten Island. Any bus journey in New York City, regardless of the length of your journey, costs just $1.50. You will either need the exact change, or a Metrocard carrying enough funds to cover the journey. Buses run 24 hours a day, though I would expect that the service is much reduced late at night.

Mentioning Staten Island, should you want to go there, the free Staten Island Ferry runs from the tip of Manhattan Island to St. George in Staten Island every half an hour, 24 hours per day. The only reasons that most tourists would choose to go there, however, is so that a) they can see the Statue of Liberty a bit closer to, and b) so that they can set foot in all five boroughs of the city. If you leave the ferry at Staten Island, the return fare costs 50 cents. If you stay on the ferry, the journey is free.

Of course, the final way of getting about the city of New York, and the one which Americans overlook all too easily, is to walk. Manhattan Island really isn't that big, and walking about the city, unless you're in a hurry to rack up those all important "must-see tourist destinations" is a great way to spend your time there. Manhattan has the typically American grid street design, with streets running West-East across the Island, and avenues running from North-South. This system is disrupted in the downtown are
a of Manhattan, where it degenerates into a sprawl of streets crossing each other at different angles.

Nonetheless, the grid design makes it easier to find your way around the city, and orientation is always very easy. Street numbers increase the further North you go in Manhattan, Avenue numbers increase the further West you go. All of the streets and avenues are one-way, oddly-numbered avenues run downtown, even-numbered avenues run uptown. Between these bits of information, you should be able to work out which way is north at pretty much any street corner in Manhattan!

I'm a pretty fast walker, but I reckon I could get from downtown Manhattan to 42nd Street in about an hour. That's a pretty leisurely hour, too, stopping to take photographs en route. Obviously, this is a lot slower than the time that the journey takes by subway, or indeed, on a good day, by taxi. However, the walk is an interesting one, and far more enjoyable than the subway ride!

HOTELS

Hotels in Manhattan are unbelievably expensive. Nowhere else in the world could people get away with the sort of horrific rooms, at the sort of prices that are commanded by Manhattan's hotels. The first time I visited New York, I stayed at the Hotel Wolcott, in a three-bed room with a couple of friends. The total bill between the three of us, for ten nights accommodation, was about $1,500. Quite apart from the grim cockroach-infested stairwell, and our dank room, I suspect that two of us contracted scabies from the bedding. I am strangely reminded of the phrase "you get what you pay for".

The Hotel Wolcott is unquestionably the bargain basement of the hotels in Manhattan, which is to say that you're going to be looking at well over $50 per person per night for a decent room.

The second time I visited New York, I circumvented the whole "search for a decent hotel" problem by sleeping on a friend's sofa over the Hudson in Ten
afly, New Jersey, and taking a bus into Manhattan each day to shop and do tourist things.

SHOPPING

There are loads of places to shop in Manhattan, and you can get some real bargains relative to UK prices. Since New York is unquestionably the cheapest place in the United States to get to from Britain, this is easily the best place to go to, especially since the city has elected to abandon sales tax on clothing! However, everything else carries a sales tax, which isn't included in the price on display in the stores, of 8.25%.

Where you should go for clothing in New York depends on the size of your bank balance. If it's enormous, then you should make like the late Kirsty MacColl and walk down Madison. North of 42nd Street, Madison is lined with exclusive and unbelievably expensive boutiques - Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Yves St Laurent, Prada, Gianni Versace, Giorgio Armani, and Calvin Klein are all represented between 60th and 76th Streets.

Moving a little, but not much, downmarket, Midtown Fifth Avenue, is home to Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel, all keen to sell you designer clothing. Further south along Fifth Avenue from these, can be found a large branch of Banana Republic, which is vastly more affordable.

Heading further south still, into Soho, you find your urban streetwear stores, selling hip clothes, at far more affordable prices. Sixth Avenue, in the area around Washington Place, offers some great trendy clothes shops, and there are some great shoe shops on 8th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.

New York's most famous department stores is Macy's, between 34th and 35th Street and between Broadway and 7th Avenue (nearest Metro station is 34th Street). Macy's is the largest department store in the world, and is a sprawling disorganised mess inside. It's unlikely that you'll want to spend more time here than it takes to buy a bag, bearing a Macy's logo, and
leave. The other famous department store, Bloomingdale's, at 59th and Lexington, is even more crowded than Macy's, and even less conducive to casual browsing, however, it's well worth a look, for its elegant art deco design.

Another well known New York store is Tiffany & Co (commonly referred to as Tiffany's), on 57th and Fifth. Buying something to fill one of their exclusive pale blue carrier bags will set you back a fair amount, and as you'll notice from the display cabinets, no prices are on display - as they say, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it!" Although Tiffany's looks pretty intimidating, they don't actually do anything to discourage you from browsing, so make sure you go in and have a good look round.

Videos, DVDs and CDs are all much better priced in the United States than they are over here (surprise surprise). Though bear in mind that DVDs and videos in the United States will have NTSC encoded pictures, which might not be compatible with your UK equipment - check before you leave! Also, American DVDs are encoded in region 1, so unless you have a multi-region player, you won't be able to play them. CDs, however, are fine. There are several branches of HMV in Manhattan, one of the largest ones is located in Herald Square (34th Street and Broadway), which are probably the cheapest of the big record stores. The big Virgin Megastores in Times Square and Union Square are probably comparable in price for DVDs and CDs. Tower Records, located in the basement of Trump Tower, and on the corner of 4th Street and Broadway, are a good deal cheaper - odd, considering that the exact opposite is true in the UK!

Nonetheless, there are some smaller retailers all over Manhattan, which offer far better prices for DVDs, CDs and videos than the major retailers. My favourite sources for DVDs and videos when staying in New York are 'Blowout Video' in Times Square (opposite Virgin
Megastore, and a good deal cheaper!) and 'J&R Music and Computer World' on Park Row in downtown Manhattan (near City Hall).

If you want electrical goods, there are numerous well-priced electrical stores in the area just to the North of Times Square, and if you don't like the price one store quotes you, ask in the next one!

If you're in New York for any great period of time, however, it might be worth making a quick trip down the coast to nearby Delaware. Just over the state border are several enormous malls, which do a roaring trade, because unlike New York, the state has no sales tax on any purchases!

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

New York is literally brimming with tourist attractions, far more than a tourist could hope to visit in a single visit to the city. I'll just confine myself to listing a few of my favourites.

Central Park is well worth a visit, especially in the Summer. Here you can visit Strawberry Fields (dedicated to the memory of John Lennon), the Bethesda Fountain, the Wildlife Centre (a small zoo), as well as running round the central reservoir (a track run by numerous celebrities, including Jackie Onassis, and featured in more films than I care to remember!).

Along the East side of Central Park can be found the Museum Mile, with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (probably the best known modern art museum in the world), the Frick Collection, the gargantuan Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum.

On the West side of Central Park is the Lincoln Center, home of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York State Theatre and the New York City Opera. A little to the north of there is the American Museum of Natural History, and along the stretch between them is the building Dana Barrett lived in in 'Ghostbusters'.

The Times Square area has a lot of great shops and is an essential area for tourists to visit. The place is covered with colourful advertising billboards
, and is now the home of several American television networks, including MTV. Looking up, you can see the flagpole where the ball drops every New Year to the south side of the "square".

Walking down Fifth Avenue from Central Park takes you past FAO Schwartz (massive toy shop), Rockefeller Center, Tiffany's, Trump Tower, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Also, a short distance off Fifth Avenue is Grand Central Station, which is well worth a visit, for its beautiful, zodiac-themed ceiling - and to escape the oppressive heat in the city in Summer!

In the Midtown region, you should, of course, visit the Empire State building - "the most famous building in the world" announces the admission ticket. Tradition has it that tourists should go up the Empire State Building by night, and the World Trade Center by day, and these are probably the best times to visit each of these tourist attractions.

Walking down Broadway from the Empire State Building, takes you down toward Greenwich Village, past the Flatiron Building. Greenwich Village and the East Village are both attractive areas to look round, retaining quite a Bohemian feel. Washington Square Park will no doubt seem familiar from numerous films and American television series, and is worth a visit... however, it's not a particularly safe area to visit at night, and is a notorious drug-dealing area.

South of Greenwich Village are Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown, all of which are worth a walk round. South of these is Lower Manhattan, with City Hall, the World Trade Center, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

From the Battery Park, at the tip of Manhattan, you can take the Liberty Ferry out to Liberty and Ellis Islands, as well as the Staten Island Ferry out to Staten Island.

As if all that weren't enough to keep you busy, there are numerous attractions further afield in the city. In the Harlem region of North Manhattan, for example, can be found the Ap
ollo Theater. The Bronx has a world famous zoo, as well as being home to the Yankee Stadium. Brooklyn boasts Coney Island and Brighton Beach (as featured in the film 'Requiem for a Dream'). Queens is home to the American Museum of the Moving Image, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the 1964 Worlds Fair, and featuring the Unisphere featured in (among other films) 'Men In Black'.

If you're a movie fan, there are innumerable sites in the city of New York familiar from the big screen. The Ghostbusters firehouse, for example, is on North Moore Street in the Tribeca region of Manhattan, and was an essential pilgrimage for me! Another essential part of my first trip to New York was going on a tour led by Kenny Kramer. Kramer is the real life inspiration for the character of Kramer in television's 'Seinfeld', who shared an apartment with Larry David, one of the show's writers, and actually did many of the things he's credited with in the series.

Kramer has been running the tour for several years now. You take a coach from the Pulse Theater on 42nd Street, with Kramer giving a running commentary as you head North, pointing out locations used in the show 'Seinfeld' en route. Although 'Seinfeld' was actually filmed in Los Angeles, on the other side of the US, many of the external locations were actual locations on the West Side of Manhattan. You have to reserve your place in advance, and it costs just $37.50. The tour takes in a brief stop at Tom's Diner, on the corner of 112th Street and Broadway - which appears in almost every episode of the show, and was also the inspiration for the Suzanne Vega song of the same name! Kramer's website is at www.kennykramer.com.

SPORTS

If you're a sports lover in New York, there are several venues that you could go to see sports at. Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan is the New York City venue for basketball and ice hockey,
and home to the Knicks and the Raiders respectively. I've not been to see either, so can't comment on the ease of getting tickets. However, I would guess you'd have to book in advance, long before your visit to the city.

I have, however, been to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, out in the Bronx - and was lucky enough to see one of the biggest grudge matches in baseball; the Yankees taking on the Boston Red Sox. I sat in the bleachers - the cheap seats, in the area of the stadium furthest from the batter, but nonetheless, the experience was absolutely fantastic. I have never experienced such a great atmosphere among the audience of a sporting event as I did at Yankee Stadium, and enjoyed the game much more than I would ever have expected to - especially with all the little idiosyncrasies involved in the game; the 7th innings stretch, the organ music, the yells of "Charge!" and so on.

Getting tickets for a game at Yankee Stadium is, however, irritatingly difficult. You'll need a friend in the United States to buy the tickets for you, because of the antediluvian booking system of the American Ticketmaster. You'll also need to book well in advance, because the games are incredibly popular.

Of course, the other baseball stadium in New York, is Shea Stadium, home to the NY Mets. Shea is out in the borough of Queens, located near Flushing Meadow Park. Tickets for Mets games are almost as difficult to get hold of as Yankees games, as both teams attract loyal bands of loyal New York fans.

DINING OUT

No matter what nationality of food you want to eat, you can get it in Manhattan. Not only that, but most likely, you can get it delivered to your hotel, if you can't be bothered to leave your room. Food is, in general, a lot cheaper than in the United Kingdom (certainly a lot cheaper than London), and portions are vastly more generous.

Little Italy and Chinatown both have excellent Ital
ian and Chinese restaurants respectively, and are well worth a culinary visit. Several of the city's microbreweries offer good bar food too, and are well worth investigating. I was also a big fan of John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, which serves great pizzas at good prices.

Speaking of pizza, pizza slices seem to fill the role that kebabs do in the UK - a meal that seems like a good idea only when very drunk - and numerous pizza shops around Greenwich Village cheerfully dispatch unappetising looking slices of pizza to drunken patrons through the night.

If you're planning on drinking at all in New York City, (and why the hell wouldn't you?), then be sure and carry your passport with you. Yes, you may think that in your early Thirties you look you're in your early Thirties, but that won't stop the guy on the door asking to see some sort of ID, so that he can be sure you're over 21.

NEWSPAPERS

New York has two major newspapers. The New York Times is the more serious of the two - it's a broadsheet newspaper, which covers major news stories in a serious and in depth way. The Sunday edition of the New York Times, is notoriously weighty, coming with a stack of additional sections, of varying degrees of interest.

The New York Post, by contrast, is very tabloidy. Its presentation is very reminiscent of The Weekly World News, if you've ever had the misfortune to stumble across that publication, though the news stories are all genuine. The Post has a tendency to dwell on news stories involving celebrities and the famous, rather than on more meritorious stories.

If you want information on what's going on in New York while you're there, either buy a copy of 'Time Out' magazine, or (for a more independent opinion) pick up a free copy of the 'Village Voice' from street corner dispensers in Greenwich Village.

TEMPERATURE AND CLIMATE


New York is very hot in the Summer, and very cold in Winter. There's no happy medium. If you're there in the Summer, you get accustomed to four different temperatures - from hottest to coldest, these are: Subway platforms, External temperature, Air conditioned building, Subway trains. The Subway platforms are incredibly hot, owing to their proximity to the network of steam pipes running under the city, and the air-conditioning on the subway trains is implausibly efficient.

In the Winter, it regularly snows in New York. There is a very real possibility that this could affect flights into and out of the city at this time of year. If you're in the city during a snowstorm, you'll quickly notice mudslinging between the Mayor's office and Port Authority, both of which have had responsibility for running the airports at some point. At present, the Port Authority has responsibility for keeping the city's airports running, and it does a good job, most of the time. JFK and Newark are the priority airports, and minor snow flurries have little or no effect on their operation. La Guardia, however, will seemingly close at the drop of a hat, and can take a long time to reopen after a major snowstorm.

Roads are salted as soon as there is a chance of snow falling, and are impressively rapidly cleared following a snow fall, which means that the city manages to keep running pretty well, whatever the weather.

CONCLUSIONS

New York City is one of the three cities in the world that I have visited, in which I would like to live. The others are London and Hong Kong. It's a great city, with loads to do, an enormous number of tempting shops, some superb tourist attractions, more movie locations than I could ever hope to list here, and some fantastic restaurants. It won't be long before I go back to the Big Apple!

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