photo credit: Diego Cupolo
A short vacation in New York City is just enough time to taste the best and still have plenty of energy left to play hard in the city that never sleeps. On everyone’s list of places to visit is the Empire State Building and while it may be busy, no trip would be the same without a trip to the 86th floor. Superior views are available from another famous landmark, the Rockefeller Centre when the weather is good. Most people’s first proper view of the Statue of Liberty is from a tour boat but increasing numbers of people often mean it is better to land at Ellis Island.
Fortunately, the Staten Island ferry is still free and can provide great views of the Statue of Liberty, the island is also worth a look and the terminal is a favorite spot for street performers, some are of a professional standard. If you are spending a short vacation in New York you’ve got to see the site where the World Trade Center Towers stood, something that changed all our lives. While there is a strange eeriness about the place that is larger than you expect at the same time it does not feel as if it needs to be photographed. If you want to see the famous stores, you can visit Tiffany’s and the 5th Ave style leaders or bargain hunt around Broadway and plunder the discount warehouses of the Lower East Side.
Bloomingdales is another famous store (for the wealthy) to look around but it is Maceys, who will give 11 percent discount on production of a tourist card where most people will head for. At the time of writing the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum was closed for refurbishment but should be open by the fall of 2008, well worth looking in if your around at that time of the grand re-opening. The center piece is the World War II aircraft carrier Intrepid, packed with historic aircraft including Concorde, a destroyer and a submarine but be prepared for a size test if you want to enter the sub Growler. The New York City Police Museum is worth an hour if you’re down that way; it’s free to enter but a five dollar donation is recommended to help with its upkeep, because it’s about New York’s finest (and some not so fine), it has some really excellent NYPD souvenirs.
Another museum is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum which focuses on the appalling conditions experienced by the immigrants back in 1864. On Central Park is the fascinating Museum of the City of New York with millions of objects for researchers but for tourists, an ever-changing program of exhibitions showing the past, present and future of the Big Apple. The museum is in a beautiful building which is free to enter but a nine dollar donation is normally given with plenty of souvenirs available. As I am sure you can imagine if you have been on a trip to any major capital city, there is far more to see and do than a short stay or even a a short vacation trip to New York can accomplish.
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