Manhattan, New York

Central Park and the Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park. Carolines Comedy Store, Metropolitan Museum of Art, bus tour of Harlem including attendance at Baptist Church, the Guggenheim museum, Museum of Modern Art, checking out Macy's, top of the Empire State building, top of the Worlds Trade Fair building, tour the Cathedral of St. John Divine, shopping (or at least window shopping) on 5th Avenue, taking the ferry to Statue of Liberty, taking the ferry to Ellis Island and getting a guided tour there, seeing Smokey Joe's Cafe, Grease, and Defending the Caveman, American Museum of Natural History, shopping at F.A.O. Schwarz Toy store, walking through Trump Tower, touring the United Nations buildings. You can get good food at a reasonable price (for New York) on Restaurant Row on 46th street. 'Taste of Times Square' (see separate journal).

Quick Tips:

The best view by far is from the World Trade Center, not the Empire State Building. As far as we could tell, Manhatten is a VERY SAFE place to be at night as long as you stay near Times Square. We never felt threatened all the time we were there.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking is the best (you see more) if the distance is reasonable. Cabs are reasonably priced and always available. We probably took about 8 cab rides and never waited more than a minute to be able to get one.

The room was small: there was about three feet of walking space on each of the three sides of the double bed. There was a separate bathroom with a bathtub. The only way two people could be in the bathroom at the same time was if one was in the tub. The room was clean on arrival and kept clean during our stay. Downtown Manhattan is noisy 24 hours a day with sirens going at all times of the night. There was a restaurant in the hotel, but we were not impressed with it. Based on what we have heard about hotel prices in Manhattan, we were content with our room and its location.

Pricing: We had brunch, no alcohol and bill was about $40. Assume that dinner with wine will be over $40 per person.

The restaurant is set in the middle of Central Park. It is huge. There are two large rooms: the one we were in was heavy with brass and wood walls and the other room was filled with crystal and tiffany chandeliers. In between the two was a large garden area where meals were also being served. We ordered a shrimp appetizer, eggs on crabcakes, and an omelette. Everything including the service was excellent. We had been told we had to go there once even if it was out of our normal price range. We were both glad we went.

'Taste of Times Square' was an event held in July featuring food from almost all of the restaurants in the Times Square area. Restaurants each set up their own booth on the street and offered small samples of their specialties for tickets which you purchased from vendors for $1 each. We sampled food from 13 booths and thus had a very filling dinner for two for the cost of $13. Must be some kind of record for New York City!! There were entertainers playing, we listened to an elderly black gentleman singing the blues while we sat on steps enjoying our meal. We met several people and found that most of them were locals. They never miss this event, but most tourists seemed unaware of it. If you go to New York in July and the event is still on, don't miss it. Good food, low price, and a lot of fun.

I believe we were told that Central Park is about a half mile wide and about three miles long. There are horse-drawn carriages that will transport you along the lanes through the park, but we would recommend walking for two reasons, price, and walking you can set your own pace and stop when you wish. We were offered about a 20 minute ride for about $50. If we wanted to go through the whole park it would be about $200. We walked through most of the park and ended up at our destination, the Museum at the edge of the park in about three hours including a stop at the Tavern on the Green and several stops at points of interest including those listed above. We walked on a Sunday and I would suggest there were a thousand people or more in the park. There are paths for walking and wider paths for rollerblading, bike riding etc. The parks are patrolled by police and we never noted any problems.