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LOVE Lombardi's. If you ever come to Chicago, make sure to try Coal Fire.
I’m more familiar with the deep dish options in Chicago. Can enthusiastically vouch for Gino’s East, Lou Malnati’s, and Giordano’s. The original Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due are also suppposed to excellent, but haven’t tried them.
Avoiding the characters in Times Square is VERY good advice, especially if your son is very friendly and trusting. Also, do not let anyone put a CD in your/his hands (they will loudly harass you for money/accuse you of theft). You'll also have people left and right trying to give you leaflets for things but they are usually harmless.
I'd avoid Times Square altogether--it's kind of a nightmare--but I know it's on some first-timers bucket list. Does your son have any sensory issues with crowds/noise?
Good advice by and large, and given the austisric family member issue, likely an excellent idea.
I’m ambivalent about avoiding Times Square entirely, though, generally speaking. It’s kind of fun to at least stroll through the area once for an hour or so, preferably in the evening when the lighted signs have more effect. But I wouldn’t spend an inordinate amount of time there.
Agreed fully. New York is one of the few real food destinations for tourists in the US. This is emphatically not the place to be eating at a chain. If you’re concerned about high food prices, you can always hit a great deli (Katz’s, Second Avenue, Barney Greengrass, Sarge’s, Stage), pizza place (John’s, Grimaldi’s, Lombardi’s), bagel place (Murray’s, Ess-a-Bagel), or for ultra cheap eats there’s always Gray’s Papaya. Not to mention loads of great ethnic eateries. It’s well worth doing your homework to scope out the best options.
So true, but so many tourists do go straight for the TS chains, though, ugh.
It admittedly makes more sense for large school trips, but if I were going, if I could, I'd pull my kid and find another restaurant elsewhere, lol. I love lower Manhattan, I'd go down there and find a little place.
On TS, it's a one and done place, imo. No need to see it more than once, and many probably wouldn't want to anyway. NYC has so many amazing places and things to see.
Agreed fully. New York is one of the few real food destinations for tourists in the US. This is emphatically not the place to be eating at a chain. If you’re concerned about high food prices, you can always hit a great deli (Katz’s, Second Avenue, Barney Greengrass, Sarge’s, Stage), pizza place (John’s, Grimaldi’s, Lombardi’s), bagel place (Murray’s, Ess-a-Bagel), or for ultra cheap eats there’s always Gray’s Papaya. Not to mention loads of great ethnic eateries. It’s well worth doing your homework to scope out the best options.
Kat'z deli will probably be more expensive than a low to mid end restaurant.
If you have a chance or get an invitation, go dine at one of those exclusive social clubs in NYC. All Ivy League schools have their Club buildings in midtown Manhattan.
Good for you! Trinity Church and its graveyard are are a good place to visit. Unfortunately right now Trinity is having some work done and only the All Saints Chapel, in itself an interesting place stop, is open.
The bolded above reminded me of something. I've been on a lot of webcams lately for the area we will be in (Times Square, Carnegie, WTC, etc ...) & I see a lot of construction going on. Not so much the roadways but the actual buildings.
It's occurring to me (yet again) ... How vastly different NYC is from what I'm used to. Of course, the buildings will need updating! I read that the first settlement to be established in what is now Manhattan, was started in 1625?
I think Colorado Springs started out as a mining camp in the 1850s, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Puts that into perspective.
The bolded above reminded me of something. I've been on a lot of webcams lately for the area we will be in (Times Square, Carnegie, WTC, etc ...) & I see a lot of construction going on. Not so much the roadways but the actual buildings.
It's occurring to me (yet again) ... How vastly different NYC is from what I'm used to. Of course, the buildings will need updating! I read that the first settlement to be established in what is now Manhattan, was started in 1625?
I think Colorado Springs started out as a mining camp in the 1850s, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Puts that into perspective.
In many cases not so much construction as maintenance. NYC has a law where the brick facade of every 4 story or greater building must be inspected every 5 years, and repaired if necessary. This requires scaffolding. Essentially,you will see scaffolding everywhere, all the time. It can be annoying, but it stops bricks from falling on your head.
If you have a credit or debit card issued by Bank of America, you will have free admission to dozens of museum in major cities on the first weekend of every month. Metropolitan is on the list.
I do not but it is still very useful information!
Due to Luke's disability, he does have a Lifetime Access Pass to National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands. It covers all occupants of a non-commercial vehicle who travel with him or up to three adult admissions at the locations where they charge per person.
The bolded above reminded me of something. I've been on a lot of webcams lately for the area we will be in (Times Square, Carnegie, WTC, etc ...) & I see a lot of construction going on. Not so much the roadways but the actual buildings.
It's occurring to me (yet again) ... How vastly different NYC is from what I'm used to. Of course, the buildings will need updating! I read that the first settlement to be established in what is now Manhattan, was started in 1625?
I think Colorado Springs started out as a mining camp in the 1850s, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Puts that into perspective.
New York is always under construction! That's just a fact of the city. Not only updating, but old buildings are taken down and new ones put up.
An advantage to this is that the city is full of "sidewalk sheds", or wooden constructs built in conjunction with scaffolding to protect the public. It's very nice on a rainy day to be able to duck under some shelter while walking.
Yes, Nieuw Amsterdam, a Dutch West India Company settlement, was the first European settlement on the very southernmost tip of the island of Manhattan. Unlike other east coast settlements, this one was begun for commerce, not religious reasons. As a matter of fact, in 1654, a group of Jews fleeing the Inquisition in Recife, Brazil, came to Nieuw Amsterdam and requested to be allowed to live there and establish a synagogue. After some back-and-forth between the colony and the Dutch West India Company, they were allowed to stay. The congregation they began still exists in the city.
Wall Street, known as the center of the financial world, was where a wooden wall was actually built at the northernmost border of Nieuw Amsterdam. The governor had every able-bodied man, woman and child work to sink wooden posts from river to river to form the wall. The local native people came at night and took some of the wall for easy firewood, so it constantly had to be repaired.
Don't know if you're a reader, but this book tells the story.
Lower Manhattan is the oldest part of the city, and you'll find a lot of historical stuff down there. As a matter of fact, as you walk along Wall Street, you can see markers where they located some of those original posts.
Other bits of history are in the street names, which are not part of the numbered grid in the newer, more northern parts of Manhattan. Beaver Street was where pelt/fur trading took place. Maiden Lane was once the site of a brook where young women washed clothing and linens.
There was once a fresh-water pond where City Hall now stands. The only trace left are the sump pumps that run 24/7 beneath the facility.
A little further up, you'll find Washington Square Park in the vicinity of NYU. A lovely place to walk through and maybe hear street musicians on a nice day, but beneath the park are buried more than 20,000 people because it was once the site of a potter's field where the city's poor were buried. It was also the site of the city gallows.
The last hanging occurred in 1820 when Rose Butler was hanged for arson. 10,000 people showed up to see the execution. I guess before Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln Center, that was entertainment in the city.
We stayed in Manhattan and loved the energy there. We got up early and walked about six blocks as the city was going to work. People walking everywhere. We walked in cadence with everyone and for like 30 minutes, we felt like New Yorkers! Strange, but that was the best part of the vacation for me...
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Trinity Church and its graveyard are are a good place to visit. Unfortunately right now Trinity is having some work done and only the All Saints Chapel, in itself an interesting place stop, is open.
