Talking about New York isn't exactly simple, nor can one presume to give a complete, exhaustive account with all the information needed to help other visitors. It's hard to give advice; you can only offer suggestions, impressions, and try to rule out certain places in case you have enough time for a full tour (it would take weeks!).
Visa and entry formalities
On the plane they'll give you the famous green card for applying for temporary entry for tourism. You'll fill it in easily and must hand it to the officer in the airport's immigration hall. The formalities are fairly quick; they take your fingerprints with a computer and take a photo. Don't be silly and don't refuse. The officer has absolute authority and could refuse you entry. Once past this stage there's baggage reclaim and then customs, in case you have goods to declare (in any case you'll have to hand the completed white card — one per family — that they give you on the plane to the customs officer). The green card will be stapled to your passport and taken from you when you leave the USA, so don't lose it, otherwise you'll have serious problems…
Public transport
Getting around New York is fairly simple: taxis (fairly cheap for short rides) and the underground (subway) will basically take you anywhere. Really. My advice is to buy a weekly pass (7 days) for 27$. You'll get around without problems and without having to queue (kilometres long, especially in the central Manhattan stations) at the ticket machines to buy a ticket each time. The pass is also valid on all city buses. The metro is open 24 hours (these Americans are too much) though some services are reduced or some outlying stations "skipped" by the trains. Always be careful when you go into the stations, because getting your bearings at first isn't easy at all, since they don't indicate the terminus but generically the direction (e.g. downtown & Brooklyn, or in the opposite direction "uptown & Queens").
After a few days, though, things run more smoothly, and you'll notice that New Yorkers themselves often consult the map to work out which train to take. The metro seemed very safe to me, and I must say that even at night it doesn't have the squalor of some European cities.
Weather
Well, NYC in December isn't the Maldives; it's genuinely cold, though not extreme. We arrived with 4°C and snow on the ground. Over 7 days we had one day of driving rain, one sunny day at 11°C (almost warm, I'd say) and the rest with freezing temperatures of -2°C/-3°C during the day, down to -9°C on a very windy sunny day. We also had a day of heavy snowfall. In any case, you just need to wrap up (of course on the windy day after an hour it was hard to stay outside), maybe grab a hot coffee now and then, and you cope easily.
Shopping
As everyone knows, many Europeans, thanks to the favourable exchange rate with the dollar (1€=1.43$), go to NYC with the intention of shopping wildly. Two things you must always keep in mind: 1) Taxes in the USA aren't shown on the price tag and are only added at the till (about 9% in NY State). 2) The queues at shops, the queues at the fitting rooms, the queues at the tills…in some cases they're truly nerve-wracking, not to mention the crush (yes, a real crush, complete with hysterics!) inside some shopping centres, which will make your shopping less fun. The most interesting areas are of course 5th Avenue, full of luxury shops and international brands (Armani, Abercrombie, Prada, Louis Vuitton etc.); Lexington Avenue and Madison Avenue are the areas where most Europeans congregate.
But of course there are also single-brand shops scattered around the city, like Adidas, Nike, North Face, Timberland, etc. You won't be able to resist a visit to the Apple Store on 5th Avenue: its cube with the famous apple glows all night, since the store is open 24/7, that is…it never closes!! But I went there at midnight too and there was quite a crowd…maniacs!! Another shopping centre worth mentioning in my view is Century 21, very close to Ground Zero. An outlet in the city centre where New Yorkers themselves go hunting for bargains..you'll find many brands at very low prices, as in our outlets. To finish, there are also many shops selling electronic and photographic gear, but unless you come across seasonal sales there isn't a huge saving (except for products like Apple, whose prices are the same in Europe and the USA, apart from being expressed in a different currency!).
Hotel
We stayed in a wonderful place for location and centrality. It's the Holiday Inn Express, on 39th West, a stone's throw from Times Square (which is on 42nd Street). It takes 3 minutes on foot to reach the "42 Street & Port Auth" metro stop, where many subway lines pass and will take you wherever you want. The hotel was rather cramped, i.e. with not very large rooms, a questionable outlook and only two lifts for 39 floors (8 rooms per floor!). In the morning, coming down, we'd sometimes spend a full 10 minutes just getting to the lobby…also the breakfast, included in the price, was truly pitiful, with bread, jelly (only one flavour for 7 days….grape!), butter…cheese eggs and hamburgers (but made hours earlier) and yoghurt.
The breakfast room was so small that jams worthy of the GRA (the Rome ring road) on a rainy day formed…after a couple of days we opted for breakfast at the Starbucks opposite the hotel, so as not to lose an hour queuing…for the rest, the hotel was clean, with a TV in the room and excellent heating. Big bathroom (maybe bigger than the room) but small sink with no shelves, no safe, and the wardrobe had two hangers. A truly positive point: free wi-fi throughout the hotel, rooms included, and two PC stations available to guests (but always occupied until 11pm…). There's also a small gym, but with few machines and rather cramped. The staff is friendly and helpful anyway; in the end all we had to do was sleep, and we can't complain. The price was SUPER, paying about 100 € a night, taxes and breakfast included, for a double (considering it was Christmas…)
Day 125 Dec 2009
Food
It's the second most beautiful thing about New York. The first is the people! You can eat anything, at any time in any place. A little smattering of English is necessary and then you'll go like a train. Mexican, Texan, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Irish, fast food, French, American..luxury, trendy, for young people, refined, noisy…you'll really find all types and for all budgets. If you don't go to truly luxurious places you'll spend to sit, eat and drink (to satiety) no more than $15-20 per person. Obviously you can also go down to $10, it depends a lot on what you're looking for and what you want to eat. We don't stand on ceremony and always eat the local food and we've always been very happy.
Giant hamburgers, pharaonic portions of meat and fries, soft drinks with free refill (that is, you pay only for the first then the following ones are free) or Chinese, Korean…or simply a hot dog bought for $2 at one of the millions of kiosks scattered everywhere in the city. Eating is not a problem also because you can really have dinner at midnight…or even later if you don't have adjustment problems. It's a great freedom because in some places after 9 pm it becomes a challenge to munch on something.
Blocks –Neighborhoods
NYC is divided into 5 macro areas (called blocks, that is, neighborhoods): Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Except for the last one we've been to all the others, obviously favoring Manhattan (if only for points of interest), then Brooklyn, Queens and lastly the Bronx. All the other areas you've heard of on TV (Harlem, Greenwich, SoHo, Little Italy, Coney Island, etc.) are specific areas within these "blocks". Often it's a street, a couple of blocks that have a specific name (very often an acronym). Manhattan It's the area where the most important attractions are: Ground Zero, Wall Street, Central Park, the Museum area, Little Italy, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
You will probably stay in Manhattan itself and if I can give you a tip, try to stay near Times Square because you'll find yourself right in the heart of the city that never sleeps, all the lights, signs, maxi advertising screens…at night it's a spectacle, you'll stay for hours watching this fascinating promotional show. Brooklyn A wonderful neighborhood not only for the bridge but for the sophistication of the red brick houses along the Hudson or the charming area of Brooklyn's 5th street, the so-called Park Slope with the low, red houses, with the fire escapes placed outside the buildings, like in the most classic police dramas. Brooklyn is the area that struck me most favorably. To see the wonderful Manhattan skyline (also in the evening) take the subway and get off at York Street (F line) or Clark Street (lines 2 and 3).
There's a small park open until 9 pm right under the Brooklyn Bridge where you can also admire the Manhattan Bridge. Behind you wonderful lofts of artists and newly rich Americans. Then move towards the west right in front of Manhattan (where there's a bar/restaurant on the bay - expensive I'd say-) but with a wonderful view. This area never closes even though in the evening it gets very cold due to the wind that funnels along the Hudson. Queens The area of different ethnicities extends just east of Manhattan up to Flushing Meadows (right where the ATP Tennis tournament, the US Open, is held). Among other things, Flushing is an immense Chinese neighborhood (quite different from the touristy Chinatown in Manhattan) just a few blocks from the domestic La Guardia airport.
Along the subway line (line 7) that runs outside on elevated tracks, you'll travel long stretches dominated by signs in Spanish, Mexican, Gaelic and Italian as well as Puerto Rican. Queens I think is a modern tower of Babel where English is not spoken on the street and where many don't know English (try stopping someone to ask for information!). get off the subway and take a walk to be more at ease, do it during the day so you can always have your bearings at hand and don't be afraid…you'll see the low houses with snow-covered gardens and high fences, churches crowded with Mexican families at 10 in the morning on a weekday or you'll have a beer in a pub where Gaelic is spoken or eat in a Transylvanian inn: I love NYC! Bronx It's the area we explored the least, partly out of apprehension but mostly for lack of time.
We limited ourselves to Yankee Stadium and a walk north in the area of public housing with fenced basketball courts and gang graffiti on the walls of the houses. It was getting dark and we took the subway and went back but I want to point out that no one caused us any problems. Staten Island We really didn't have time. In any case the "orange ferry" with "Staten Island Ferry" written on it leaves every 30 minutes from Whitehall Station to arrive after 8 miles of navigation at Staten Island. If you want you can do a round trip also because…it's free (you don't pay for the ferry because it's a right to mobility for the people who live on the island). These ferries are famous after the accident some time ago against the pier that cost the lives of several people. Other visits A visit to the Statue of Liberty is unmissable.
To get there you'll have to go to Lower Manhattan and precisely to Battery Park from where the ferries to the Statue and Ellis Island depart. There was a line already at 10 that you have no idea…the loudspeaker constantly warns visitors that from the purchase of the ticket to boarding 3 hours will pass…3 hours and ½..always worse…this tour allows you to get off and visit the Statue of Liberty museum (located in the base) but not to go up (you can't go up since the 2001 attack). Furthermore the ferry will take you to Ellis Island where you can visit the Museum where migrants were welcomed until the 1950s before being disembarked in the USA. Furthermore the permits to visit the base of the Statue of Liberty are limited and run out early in the morning.
So: either you go at 8 in the morning or you can opt for the tour (no-stop they call it) that is, the same tour but without the possibility of getting off. The ferry still stops for a long time in front of the attractions to allow you to take photos. We had to take this ferry in order not to lose the whole day. We paid $12 each for a one-hour tour that took us in front of Staten Island, Governor's Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the New Jersey coast and the Financial District of Manhattan to return to base. A beautiful tour, I recommend it in case the previous one couldn't be done.
Ground Zero
Impressive the void (literally) left by the collapse of the WTC. Today it's an active construction site, that is, they're building the Freedom Tower that will tower over the city at 532 meters high. Around it all the buildings have been rebuilt and fixed even though there's an air of sadness especially if you visit Saint Paul's Chapel, the church with the small cemetery located right in front of Ground Zero and that hosted for weeks the firefighters of NYC and ordinary people who went to pray for their loved ones. Today it's a place of prayer and meditation where there are thousands of photos of the people who lost their lives on that tragic day. It's truly touching, whatever your creed, orientation and opinion on the whole affair.
Cartier on 5th Avenue
Day 226 Dec 2009
Empire State Building
It was the tallest building in NYC before the Twin Towers and now it is again (temporarily). You can of course go up, but only after a queue of about 3 hours (which you can try to shorten by booking your ticket online). The building is open until 2 a.m. (I swear!) so go either very early or very late to admire a breathtaking view of the whole New York area.
Central Park
It is the wonder of NYC. Even though it was winter, with bare trees and frozen ponds, there is a lovely atmosphere even during a heavy snowfall. Many people jog, others stroll, employees wolf down a sandwich on the run, but everyone comes to enjoy a breath of fresh, pure air and to escape, even if only for 10 minutes, the never-ending noise of New York traffic. The park closes every night at 1 a.m. and, contrary to what you'd think from films and TV series, it seems to me to be quite safe and guarded not only by the police but also by rangers!
Traffic
It's crazy, you can never find any peace. Everyone honks their horn, everyone gets angry and turns without using their indicator, they don't stop at crosswalks and pedestrians cross wherever they want. In fact it's a long way from the stereotypes of precision and order you might expect, and much closer to the chaos of Mediterranean cities. There's a often deafening noise, lines of taxis crowding the streets… but all of this is NYC, the city that truly never sleeps.
How can you not appreciate NYC? Impossible, because it isn't one city but a hundred different cities. If you want, you can even get by without speaking English and it feels like you're not in America but in an Oriental souk. The architecture is beautiful and fascinating, but above all the people are wonderful, reminding you wherever you go just how big the world is. Take a bite out of the apple, do it with gusto!! Happy travels and for any question (I've really given very few details here) feel free to contact me. Bye.
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