TO ALL THE NYC HEADS: first trip to NYC tips and suggestions?

don't come, it will eat you alive.

+1

How old are you? Where are you staying? Who is traveling with you? Jay Leno is not funny. He caters to the lowest common denominator. Do not waste your time.

Here's an abbreviated list of stuff I give to mates who are visiting NYC. Not necessarily my choices of restaurants and stuff to do, but there's some good stuff in there for visitors. Haven't updated it in a while...

GENERAL:
Circle Line
Pier 83, West 42nd Street
Web: http://www.circleline42.com

Central Park Boat House
Central Park, East 72nd Street
Web: http://www.thecentralparkboathouse.com

NY Yankees
161st Street & River Avenue
Web: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com

Summer in the Square
Union Square, 14th Street and University Place
Web: http://www.unionsquarenyc.org

Bryant Park Summer Film Festival
Bryant Park, 500 5th Avenue
Web: http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/film-festival.php

RESTAURANTS & BARS:
Antique Garage
41 Mercer Street
Phone: (212) 219-1019

Matsuri
363 West 16th Street
Phone: (212) 242-4300

Pravda
281 Lafayette Street
Phone: (212) 226-4944

Spice Market
29 9th Avenue
Phone: (212) 675-2322

Morimoto
88 10th Avenue
Phone: (212) 989-8883

MUSEUMS:
MoMA
11 West 53rd Street
Architect: Philip Goodwin & Edward Stone Architects

Metropolitan Museum
1000 Fifth Avenue
Architect: Richard Morris Hunt

Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright

Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street

Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Place
Architect: SOM

New Museum
235 Bowery Street
Architect: SANAA

Frick Collection
1 East 70th Street
Architect: Thomas Hastings

BUILDINGS:
Grand Central Terminal
47 East 42nd Street
Architect: Warren & Wetmore

Chrysler Building
405 Lexington Avenue
Architect: William van Alen

Seagram Building
375 Park Avenue
Architect: Mies van der Rohe

United Nations Headquarters
2 United Nations Plaza
Architect: Le Corbusier

IAC Building
555 West 18th Street
Architect: Gehry Partners

LVMH Building
19 East 57th Street
Architect: Christian de Portzamparc

Perry Street Towers
173 Perry Street
Architect: Richard Meier & Partners

Morgan Library
225 Madison Avenue
Architect: Renzo Piano

Bank of America Tower
One Bryant Park
Architect: Cook & Fox

Hearst Magazine Building
300 West 57th Street
Architect: Foster & Partners

New York Times Headquarters
620 Eighth Avenue
Architect: Renzo Piano & FXFOWLE

40 Bond
40 Bond Street
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron

1) At World Trade Center - Make sure you seek out and visit the Tribute Center. South side of site.
2) The "Big" skating rink by the big tree. The tree is indeed big. The rink is *tiny*. The famous one in Central Park is bigger.

Leno is going to be in NYC?

It'll definitely be sweater and coat weather, so plan accordingly.

Good list above, but definitely plan your sites by area so you're not running all over manhattan. It may be a small island, but it can take forever just to get crosstown.

I'd just add the Brooklyn Brewery and/or Radegast Hall & Biergarten to the list of places to grab a beer in Williamsburg after going to Peter Lugers. If you want a second steak option, I'd choose Strip House in the West Village.

Also, use the search on here and you'll find a bunch of old threads that will give you enough suggestions to fill up a few weeks worth of sightseeing.

Very good advice. You can see a lot of NYC in a day or two, but you have to compartmentalize. A good example would be to do 42nd Street in one day - from east to west you have the UN, Chrysler, Grand Central, Public Library, Bryant Park, Bank of America, Times Square, etc. So instead of trying to see ground zero, Central Park and Grand Central all in one day, take a look at a map and see what things are clustered together.

I recommend visiting some of the quainter off-the-beaten path areas. For example:

- East New York (Brooklyn)
- Brownsville (Brooklyn)
- Bedford-Stuyvesant aka Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn)
- Crown Heights (Brooklyn)
- South Bronx
- Jamaica (Queens)

Preferably at around 4am, trashed, and belligerent. It will be a good time.

Definitely see the statue of liberty, but unless your really dead set on it, don't bother going up to the top. The view isn't that great and when I was there years ago it was a long wait. Your time is better spent on other things (IMO)

Also, get some bagels.

Ok, what's with this idea that New Yorkers love bagels? I am convinced the tourist traffic is the only thing keeping these bagel places in business. I haven't had a bagel since I was a senior in college.

Everyone I know who grew up in long island raves about them and a lot of places outside of NYC have really crappy bagels (chicago included)

A bagel isn't really an art...it's some bread shaped like a circle. I mean, how long can it possible take cities other than NY to "figure out how to make some bread that does not taste like ass"?

I think part of the problem is that in most places the bagels you can get are from crappy chain places, versus the wide variety of non-chain places in NY that make their own bagels. Either way, I'd say it's a food item NYC is known for, so it might be worth the OP's time to have at least one while he is there.