Christina, I hope the moderator takes your thread and puts it on top permanently. I need this info for my next trip to NYC.

I would like to add that one of my fav things was to take the tram to Roosevelt island at night for $2. Then I got on the local bus there and did the loop around the island for 25 cents. I had an old lady next to me that had lived on the island all her life. She was full of history.

Staten Island ferry and then I took the train across Staten island and ate at a good Indian rest.

I took the train from Penn Station to Newark to fly out. Very convenient and cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by Karin AK:
Christina, I hope the moderator takes your thread and puts it on top permanently. I need this info for my next trip to NYC.

Any thoughts o moderators? Is that too NYC-centric to keep this a permanent thread? I was trying to make it like a reference guide for browsers.

Food... I eat a lot, mostly crap during the weekday while at work, therefor we try finding the cheap stuff.

Breakfast:
Corner stalls, you get a coffe and roll/bagel w/butter or creame cheese for $1.50 to $2.00 the stalls are usually around till 10:30 or 11:00. Go to the busier corners OR which ever stall is closer to a Starbucks or something like that, it usually means their food is as good as.

Lunch:
More stalls !

First though, dont fall for the Deli's that have everythig shrink wrapped, it's been there for a few, it might look good, but a 1 week old muffin for $2 is not worth it.

Look for 'deluxe' or 'combos' you get the meal and a soda.

Pizzerias and other eateries close to public schools usually have lunch specials.

Some public schools offer cheap lunches in summer as well (you smelly hikers that are broke and need food, its the same food that they give the kids... it's good I use to do it during my vacations as a teen and young adult)

Back to those carts... 'Street meat', 'Pidgeon and rice', etc, etc call it what you will, Rice, meat, veggies, bread and drink for $5 is not bad (It also can feed two or be lunch now, and dinner later)... the carts are usually around until 2 PM though.

Chain deli's and eateries like Metro and Mangia or Pax have ok food, is not as cheap as the no-name deli's and anything not fresh is a not recommended.

Vegeterians can get soe yummy falafel in a bunch of corners around the city.

Dinner:

It's though getting cheap dinners... but.. try something like Subways (The sandwhich place) they have 1 foot sandwiches for the price of a 6 in, after 4 PM.

Grey's, King's and/or Mike's Papaya... a few places around the city.. big drink, some hot dogs with 'everything' on it.. yes everything, aka bang for the buck. 2 dogs 1 drink $2.50 - $3.00

Cheap weekend beer:

I know of one place so far... world financial center, yes, yes... go across Ground Zero, then downstairs.. there are some shops.. how about a bud with a view for $2.00 a bottle... and $3.00 wine, yes !

That's it for night... I will post anything else I find.. you wont be seeing many restaurant names from me though.

Accomodation:

Stay out of NYC...

I have seen loads of tourists stay in NJ, right across the tunnel, in Union City, Motel 8 and a few others are 15 minutes and a $2.00 bus ride away from the city. They busses run late and out of the 42nd street area.

If you are staying for a week... $10 to $20 for transportation, is better than a couple of hundred bucks for a hotel room.

Oh....

I guess my view on NYC.

'Friends' wasn't shot in NYC, don't look for places you see in the show.

The 'Soup Nazi' (From Seinfeld) soup is really expensive... but the lobster bisque IS worth it.

You see a lot of movies and TV shows being filmed at any given moment... police headquarters and the court houses down town are good for that... so are the smaller parks Union Square, Thompson, Madison Square.

Don't miss the 'bad' parts Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Alphabet City, Washington Heights, Inwood, etc, etc, etc have bad press... Don't let that ruin it for you.

You can see the first american saint in The Heights, The oldest bridge in Manhattan is around here as well. The last remaining bit of forest in Manhattan AND the oldest house in Manhattan, both in Inwood.

Jazz and afro-american culture cannot be better than Harlem.

For the morbid, take the 4 train to Woodlawn in the Bronx and check out famous dead people...

Take the tram to Rooseveldt Island, walk around, it's a unique view of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Walk over all the bridges... Brooklyn is not the only one, notch a state by taking the A train (Ellington is buried at Woodland) to 179th street, have a latin breakfast, then walk it off camera in hand on the George Washington bridge, (Gee Dubs) Walk to NJ on the North sidewalk, then walk 20 metres south on the jersey side, walk baclk to Manhattan on the South side.. there is a small rest area just before the bridge proper, lean right, take a pic of the 'little red lighthouse'

No.. not done yet...

Check out many of the other museums... MOMA and MET are great, but they have money already... Cooper-Hewitt, Museum of the City of New York, Dykeman house, etc, etc.

Take a stroll, take the 1 train to 235th street, get off (in the Bronx) walk over the bridge and keep going on Broady for 14 miles till you hit battery park... eat and drink on your way down, stop at book stores like Barnes and Noble for free water and bathrooms, if you get tired, there are tons of train stops on the way down.

Oh my.. since I am at work and waisint corporate time, I will stop for now...

Remember that once you set foot in NYC, you are a New Yorker!

If you like walking, one of the most interesting things you can do here in the city is walk the rim of Manhattan Island, trying to stick as close to the water as humanly (or legally?) possible. If you don't get lost en route, it's about 32 miles and will take you all day. Somebody has even written a book about how to do it:

Book

I did this back in June when a friend showed up from out of town with the above book -- actually we did an extended version of the hike, starting at my apartment in Queens. The only real difficulty is finding affordable food without straying too far off the path. To this end there is a supermarket (Fairway) on West 125th St, the only place on the whole west side of the island to stock up on provisions unless you want to pay $3 for a pretzel.

It is an amazing walk and you get to see all of the city's famous bridges from underneath, including one of the highlights -- the little red lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge.

Here's an album of our walk -- starting and finishing at East 60th Street, under the 59th Street Bridge.

Manhattan Circumperambulation

Oh, I forgot... Horseback riding in Central Park

Yes it's me again, listen up.

Animals.. A turkey in NYC? Was that a coyote? Turtles, how can they live here? Do I have to be told not to feed the Racoon? What's that swimming, a manatee?

Yes!

If you come to NYC to wath the wildlife... your in luck! Tell you why.

Central Park (Manhattan), Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Queens), Prospect Park (Brroklyn) and Van Cortlandt (Bronx) are some of the best metropolitan places in the USA to watch birds. Tick off 200-250 species in May add another 75 in Winter.. all by walking a couple of days in any of those places. CP has the world famous 'Pale Male and Lola' pair of Red-tailed Hawks (Don't ask me my personal opinion on them please)

Ummm.. Yes, I confess I am a birdwatcher. So, you gotta a problem with that?

Harbour seals can be spotted on JBWR sometimes.

Twice a Manatee has been spotted in the Hudson, the same one some think, a female that can't seem to know where Florida ends.

As mammals go... Central Park has ONE, yes one Red Squirrel, you should see it fight off 5 grey squirrels... and pigeons, it's a great sight.

There are also Easter cotton-tail rabbits, Racoons, Possums, Rats, Chipmunks in Central and Prospect parks. There was a Coyote in CP this year, it was darted with a tranquilizer... the poort bugger died though.

There are reptiles, amphibians and other critters around.
4 or 5 turtle species call the parks their home, frogs and toads as well, snakes (not the killer ones), lots of butterflies and dragonflies too.

a bit, just a bit farther a field...

Within walking distance of Manhatten (Read: Walk over the George Washinton bridge to NJ) you can maybe see White-tailed Deer, as well as skunks.

Any particular questions about Birds, drop me a note.

I hope you get a chance to sit and check some of our urban wildlife......

Can you spell architecture? I couldn't so I goggled it, that led me to this wee note.

New York is not just skyscrapers, here is a sampling of places that you can still see and admire, perhaps one of the best places, since it is geographically restricted and you can cover many styles and architects in a few hours.

First... Any brownstone row... donno, walk around the west 70's and take a good look at them, all have a different character.

Tenement buildings... I suggest the narrow, vertical, small, cramped world of 'The Village'.

Wrought Iron buildings... in SoHo...

Post war beauty, Grand Concourse in the Bronx...

Last I checked, there were some generic looking bungalow style homes up on Audubon avenue around 170th street, I am not sure if they are still there.

More specifically though:

Chrysler Building, by William Van Alen (Awesome lobby)

Citicorp Center, by Hugh Stubbins (Slanty top, good food in lobby, ex-meeting place for hackers that placed ads in the magazine 2600, the public phones were taken out because of this; Check out the church as well)

Empire State Building, by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon (It's not just tall, since it's construction no other building has used that much stone on it's facade, please skip the world record museum)

Flatiron Building, by Daniel Burnham (Oh, come on!; Kettle fried potato chips across the street, the original Madison Square Garden and Macy's were around here as well)

Guggenheim Museum, by Frank Lloyd Wright (Nice, nice, nice!)

Javits Convention Center, by I. M. Pei (Pei, pre-Louvre-DaVinci Code-glass pyramid)

Lever House, by Gordon Bunshaft/ SOM (One of my favorite buildings in the city, they added some columns booooo, but you can spot which are the newer ones)

Manufacturer's Trust Co., by Gordon Bunshaft/ SOM (I see this almost every day, I work close to it, aka the Glass House, check out the huge vault door)

Morgan Library, by McKim, Mead, and White (Not only is it a library, my favorite kind of place, BUT, but! There is a Guttenberg bible in here)

New York Public Library, by Carrere and Hastings (The lions... hmmm, hmmm, largest single building library in the world, they redid the main reading room as well)

Rockefeller Center, by Raymond Hood (Look at the art just above the entrances, Mercury, top of the rock... this is what a city should be like)

TWA at New York, by Eero Saarinen (Ok, so this is OUT at the airport... but, it's Saarinen... it's worth it)

United Nations Headquarters, by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Sir Howard Robertson, et al. with Harrison and Abramovitz (Le C... yum stuff... Nice sculpture garden as well)

I am sure... you can find many others (mmm Petrosian Building, Cloisters, Dykeman House, Brooklyn Bridge, old ferry terminal, City Hall)... just walk around... write down some notes... look it up online.
And... it's ALL FREE!

Wonderful post Christina.
Here's a tip...

CHEAP TRANSPORTATION
BOSTON TO NEW YORK CITY (or vise versa)

FUNGWAH BUS http://www.fungwahbus.com/ticket/
$15 One Way. (used to be 10, but then the word got out)
Runs everyday 7:00 - 11:30, every hour, on the hour.
Chinatown Boston to Chinatown NY
(And for anybody not familiar with one, or both, of the cities, both stops are in great locations and not a far walk to public transportation)
Comfortable, easy way to travel. Never had a problem, and I highly recommend.

I think there are other Chinatown buses with similar rates, but believe this one is the cheapest.

Actually, great posts by others too. Thanks guys.

Just discovered a little jewel of a musuem --The Frick Collection, located at 70th and Fifth Ave, right by Central Park. On Sundays between 11 am -1pm they have a pay as you will rate--it's usually $15. The museum is in a gorgeous stone building. This is not a museum you will spend all afternoon at: unless there is a special exhibit, there is only one floor of art. But, you will see masterpieces by Turner and de la Tour, stunning Rembrandts, and much more. I loved it!

Wow great tips everyone! Diane Marie, you know I've never been to the Frick in 10 years of living here... my art historian teacher used to rave about it in college as something pretty special.

quote:

Corner stalls, you get a coffe and roll/bagel w/butter or creame cheese for $1.50 to $2.00....Lunch:
More stalls !

LOL Right on Omie, the guy in a box, I call them, as in where did you get your egg sandwich? Oh, from the guy in a box. Where did you get your chicken pita? From the guy in a box. They do have cheap takeaway food, and some are pretty good, it really varies though.

I'm rather blown away by your architectural knowledge, BTW. You're a regular DIY walking-tour.

Heh Willis, yes, we call that the "chicken bus" at my office. Just because it's so cheap, not because there's actually any chickens....

quote:

Don't miss the 'bad' parts Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Alphabet City, Washington Heights, Inwood, etc, etc, etc have bad press... Don't let that ruin it for you...Jazz and afro-american culture cannot be better than Harlem.

I totally agree but must confess I just don't know what to recommend uptown -- got any tips for fun stuff Omie? Amateur night at the Apollo? Any good clubs & eats? I know some of the best straight up African food (as well as soul food of course) is in Harlem. I went to a Senegalese restaurant uptown that was delicious (I was so the shortest, lightest, chubbiest person there among tall, dark, model-esque-slim Senegalese customers, LOL), but I don't remember the name.

quote:

Originally posted by christina-in-brooklyn:
[QUOTE]Don't miss the 'bad' parts Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Alphabet City, Washington Heights, Inwood, etc, etc, etc have bad press... Don't let that ruin it for you...Jazz and afro-american culture cannot be better than Harlem.

quote:

I totally agree but must confess I just don't know what to recommend uptown -- got any tips for fun stuff Omie? Amateur night at the Apollo? Any good clubs & eats? I know some of the best straight up African food (as well as soul food of course) is in Harlem. I went to a Senegalese restaurant uptown that was delicious (I was so the shortest, lightest, chubbiest person there among tall, dark, model-esque-slim Senegalese customers, LOL), but I don't remember the name.

Dominican food is the norm in Washinton Heights and Inwood.

Try DR-K on Dykman (Take the 1 or A trains to 200th street)

I will post some more as I get reliable info from my local peoples.