New York, NY

The highlights for me were seeing the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, NBC Studios, Broadway, and 5th Avenue shopping.

Quick Tips:

Start off with a tour of Manhattan, to get a good overview. We choose the Double Decker Hop-on Hop-off tour. The various lines of this tour covered, from Battery Park in the south to Harlem in the north. You are free to get off at any of the stops and stay for as long as you wish. The guides on these tours will usually give you some great tips - where to go/areas to stay away from, how to use the subway and transit, good restaurants and ones to avoid.

Best Way To Get Around:

For transportation from the airport, I found the shared shuttle vans to be convenient. They pick up right outside of the baggage claim and drop off right at the hotel, usually with only a couple of other stops.

For getting around Manhattan, walking was the quickest and easiest, for longer distances the subway was highly reliable.

I chose this hotel because of the location, within walking distance to Times Square, Central Park, the Theatre District and 5th Avenue shopping.

I had requested a lower floor when making the reservation, so I was suprised at check-in that the room was on the 26th floor. When I mentioned to the desk clerk, he kind of laughed and said "that is a lower floor, we do have 50 floors". There are seperate banks of elevators for certain blocks of floors, and the elevators were very fast, so the 26th floor was not bat at all.

I was very surprised by the size of room as I was expecting something not much larger than a shoebox. The room was quite large with two double beds, small table and two chairs, coffee maker (with complimentary coffee). The room also had a hair dryer, iron and ironing board.

In the lobby of the hotel there is a restaurant,lounge, and sports bar and grill.

On the lower level, with windows overlooking 7th Avenue is a health club with weights, circuit machines, exercise bicycles and treadmills.

We did not drive, but did notice the parking charge was $37 per day. We took a shared van service from the airport, which was about $16. A taxi would probobly cost $30-50 depending on traffic/time of day.

Ellen's Stardust Diner is a 50's themed diner with singing waiters and waitresses, located on Broadway right near Times Square. The atmospehere here is definitly fun, with the servers breaking out into singing numbers throughout your meal.

The menu has soups, salads, sandwiches and a variety of fish, beef and chicken entrees, and milkshakes and malts. We had the Stardust Chicken Fingers with waffle chips and veggies, and Monte Cristo sandwich with waffle chips. Both were very large portions and tasty for just under $10. We did not have room for dessert, but the dessert items looked fabulous - next time we will try to save room.

Overall the restaurant seemed a good value considering you get entertainment with your meal.

This is a very loud restaurant and the table are very squished and close together, but the fun atmosphere makes up for it.

Stage Deli, which has been around since the 1930's, is located in midtown Manhattan close to Carnegie Hall, and various theatre.

The menu features a variety of triple decker sandwiches named after celebrities, in addition to regular sandwiches and entrees such as stuffed cabbage dinners, cutlets, goulash and various chicken dishes. There are also breakfasts, salads and burgers.

The sandwiches are highly over-priced with an average cost of $12-15. Regular sandwiches are under $10.

The restaurant is quite crowded and the tables are very close together and there is always a line up. The best thing about the Stage Deli is the location.

The Gray Line Hop on/Hop off double decker bus tour is a great alternative to a regular bus tour. It is very flexible in that you can get off at any of the stops and stay as long as you want. The day pass cover 5 different routes including a Brooklyn loop that operates seasonaly, and a night loop that hits the restaurants and evening entertainment venues.

The downtown loops, start at the Empire State Building on 34th Street and has stops at Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown, Tribeca, and Battery Park, for excursions to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The midtown loop makes stops at Central Park, Rockefellar Centre, Times Square, the New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal. If you are staying in midtown Manhattan, you can save this loop until last if you have time, as most of these stops are within walking distance to the midtown hotels.

The uptown loop starts at Central Park and goes completely around Central Park, as far north as 125th street in Harlem. The highlights of this loops are the many museums that New York has.

This tour gives an excellent overview of Manhattan, and the guides provided us with wonderful tips on everything from how to use the subway, to popular restarants and nightsclubs, and those which should be avoided.

I would not do the tour again, as I now have a better concept of how to get around on my own, but it was definitly worthwhile for a first time visitor.

The New York City Pass is a great value at $32. The pass includes one admission each to the Empire State Building Observatory, the Guggenheim Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Modern Art, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

The pass can be purchased at any of these attractions and is valid for 9 days from the first day you use it, so you don't have to visit everything in one day. You just present your booklet of tickets at the attraction and the ticket for that attraction is pulled out. It is a real time saver, as you won't have to lineup for tickets at each place. If you visit all of the attractions, you save about half the cost of individual admissions.

A great deal at $4.50, the New York Metro Card provides a one day Fun Pass (until 3AM the next morning), offering unlimited use of the New York City subways and buses (some express buses are excluded). Make sure you do not get off at the wrong stop, as the pass is not good on the same bus route or subway, until 18 minutes have passed.

With the normal fare being $1.50, the Metro Fun pass is a great deal if you are planning a couple of trips during the day.