Top of the Rock is one of New Yorks HIGH lights (Top of The Rock (New York City))

Member Name: Ghumphrey

Product:	Top of The Rock (New York City)
Date:	16/06/09 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively cheap, no queues, not to busy and brilliant views.

Disadvantages: Got a bit nippy should have brought a jumper

Top of the Rock

I spent a week in New York last summer and did a lot of the usual tourist things but the top of the rock was right up there with my favourites. Like many people im sure, I thought long and hard over whether to go up the rock or the empire state building. I finally opted for the rock due to various sources of feedback informing that there was little or no queues and when time is short on holidays the absence of queuing won out.

History of the Rock

Top of the Rock actually refers to the top of the GE building which is the centre piece of the Rockefeller Center. It's located in Midtown Manhattan and is very accessible via all forms of public transport in NYC. Its 250m tall which makes it the 9th highest building in NYC. It was built in the 1930s and is an art deco building sometimes referred to as 30 Rock or the slab and features in numerous movies and TV shows. The top of the rock refers to the top three floors which offer unparalleled views of New York. The observation decks start on the 70th floor. Tickets are currently priced at 18$ if bought on the web.

My experience

I booked our tickets online about two weeks before I left. There is an option whereby you can pay a bit extra to go up the rock twice in one day. This gives you the added advantage of seeing the view in both day and night time. I didn't really fancy this option so I simply looked up the time of sunset for the day I wanted to go up and went up about thirty minutes prior to this. This proved to be a well thought out idea as the colours and views of the Empire State building and Manhattan in the distance where stunning. In fact my picture beside my username was one of the pictures I took as we watched the sun going down. Once the sun went down the lights were switched on and the city took on a whole new aspect which afforded us a whole new batch of photo opportunities.

I went in August and did not have to queue to get up the Rock. The ride up the lift was fun and fast. The ceiling becomes see through and the elevator shafts light up so that you really think your in for something special. The views from the top of great and offer full 360 degrees including lower Manhattan and Central Park. The top has three floors. Two of which are open air. Even in August it got a bit chilly at the top and I would advise anyone going up late evening to bring a jumper.

Overall I would highly recommend this. The views were great and to watch the sunset over New York from such a vantage point is a truly memorable experience.

More info

www.topoftherocknyc.com

Summary: A high light of any New York visit