How long for New York - any hints/tips/advice

[Isafari]

Next summer, we're thinking of either going to New York on the way to Orlando or taking a few days in the middle of our holiday and getting a return flight to Orlando.

What would you say is the minimum amount of days we would need to see the major attractions?

Any tips on flights?
Any suggestions for hotels?

Any info at all will be gratefully received as it's all totally new to me.

[arkvilla]

We stayed in July for 4 nights at the Affinia Manhattan, booked through Hotels.com

It was right opposite Madison square gardens and we walked everywhere - I absolutely loved Ny and can't wait to go back

We booked Virgin to JFK and then homebound from MCO toGatwick.

We booked our internal flight separately to Orlando and used JetBlue, the flight was $81... bargain

Sandra

[Slowhand]

We spent 5 days in New York a few years ago as a package trip to see Eric Clapton at Madison Square Gdns. [No surprise there then! ]
I reckon that you would be able to see most of the "touristy" parts in around 3 days at a fairly leisurely pace [Empire State Bldg., Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Macy`s etc.etc....maybe a show on Broadway?]

[Isafari]

Thank you so much guys
I think I'm going to need a lot of help with organising this little trip so I'll probably have lots of questions.
Sandra - great tip on using the internal flight from JFK to MCO

[Slowhand]

Remember that VA fly to NY Diane so maybe you could get a good deal on your FC miles.
I`m told that there are more reward seats to NY than to MCO so they should be easier to come by.

[Isafari]

Remember that VA fly to NY Diane so maybe you could get a good deal on your FC miles.
I`m told that there are more reward seats to NY than to MCO so they should be easier to come by.

Thanks - all tips greatly appreciated

[arkvilla]

We did Rockefellar Centre too and St Patricks Church which is right opposite it so I would add those to your list too.

Sandra

[lisaw]

It is a lot of walking - we stayed on West 35st - 1 street away from the Empire State Building about a 10 minute walk to Times Square. We had 9 days and had very long days with lots of walking and still there was a fair bit we didn't see.

An idea of timings - we spent a whole day in Central Park and we only got around just over half of it (including The Central Park zoo).
Statue of Liberty Day we were on the first ferry at 9am (you need to arrive quite a bit earlier than that to clear the airport style security) we did Liberty, Ellis Island and we were back 'on the mainland' at about 1pm. The queue for the ferry at that time was probably a couple of hours long!! So top tip get there early! Oh and if you want Crown access you need to book in advance.

Also I much preferred the Top of the Rock (rockerfeller centre) over the Empire State Building. We did the Top of the Rock again first thing as it opened and we had it pretty much to ourselves - the view of Central Park from there is amazing!! You also get to see The Empire State Building which obviously you don't from the ESB itself! The ESB we did late at night to get a different perspective and it was just one big push and shove to get a space to see! Nothing like the romantic image I had of it!

DD and I saw Wicked! DH and DS went to a Yankees game.

Other things we really enjoyed were the circle line boat trip around manhatten, we did tours of both Madison Square Gardens, Radio City Music Hall and NBC studios - all were excellent! Loved an evening bus tour we did over to Brooklyn to view the NY skyline at night too.

We bought a New York pass which gave us admission to all those places, they sell them for varying amounts of days.

[Isafari]

We did Rockefellar Centre too and St Patricks Church which is right opposite it so I would add those to your list too.

Sandra

Thanks Sandra

Lisa......
I have so many questions
Did the time you mentioned at CPZ include your visit to CPZoo?
What time of year did you go for the queues to be so long?
What is Crown access?
Any links for the tours?
More info on the New York pass please.

[lisaw]

We were there last August, it was extremely hot!!

Yes we got to the zoo as it was opening did that first and then hit the park - if you think how big you may think CP is then multiply it by 1000 you may just have some idea of the scale of the place. We did most of the sites in the park - Bethesda terrace (in the film Enchanted), Strawberry Fields, the boating Lake, Alice in Wonderland statue, the baseball/softball fields, and Belvedere Castle which is a bit further north in the park but definitely work a visit as its very pretty with some fantastic views.

Crown access allows you to go up into Liberty's crown, they only allow so many a day to go up and they were sold out before the day when we were there so if you want to do that you need to book in advance. Our tickets were monument tickets which allowed access to the top of the plinth on which she stands - you can look up inside the statue from the top of there and there again are great views from outside.

Not sure if I can put a link to the place I got my pass from so I'll PM you