completely overwhelmed!!

Hi all!

I seem to be posting quite a bit on these forums - they are such a BIG help to me! I feel like i have a bazillion questions to ask now that our trip is almost here!

Here is my newest concern: with so much to do in New York, so much to see, so many restaurants to go to, i feel completely overwhelmed about where to even begin!! please help!

My family and i will be in NYC april 6 to 9. (mum dad, myself and bro (we are 20 and 19 respectively). we are staying at the wyndham on w 35th st. what attractions are close to our hotel? what is within walking distance? i would love a day where we went out on our own and explored heaps of different places. where should we go? if you had to pick one restaurant that was a %26#39;must-eat-at%26#39;, which one would it be? what tours would you recommend? (we are big tour fans) We would like maybe a hop on hop off tour for half a day.

we have half of sunday (we arrive at approx 1:30pm), all of monday, all of tuesday, then all of wednesday until about 5pm because thats when we leave to head off to orlando.

if you were to put a night tour, two half day tours, 2 restaurants to eat at and the rest of your time to explore, into these times (sun to wed), how would you do it? and what would you pick? (we%26#39;d love to see everything! ground-zero, top of the rock, central park, radio city hall, nbc, everything!)

(i know this is a big ask! but i%26#39;m completely baffled when i read %26#39;such-and-such is on 5th ave but such-and-such is in times square, so you have to take bus #.. to get there.... :) Help!)

Thankyou!!!!!

(i%26#39;m so excited by the way!)

completely overwhelmed!!

First of all, even though you are big tour fans, I wouldn%26#39;t spend one night plus 2 half days on a tour bus in New York. Half the fun is walking around and negotiating the subway! (which isn%26#39;t difficult.)

The tour most often recommended on this forum is the NY Party Shuttle - www.newyorkpartyshuttle.com. You can do a 5.5 hour tour that gives you a good overview of the city including Central Park and the World Trade Center site.

Don%26#39;t worry about the NBC tour unless you have a particular interest in TV. There are much better ways to spend your time in New York.

Try not to plan your lunches and just fit them in depending where you are at the time.

For dinners, it depends on what you like to eat and what sort of budget you have. For a meal with a view, your best bet is the River Cafe in Brooklyn. But this is over $100 per head.

completely overwhelmed!!

Relax. Take a deep breath. You%26#39;re young and will likely come back. Acknowledge it%26#39;s impossible to see it all in 3 days. I strongly recommend you take some sort of highlights bus tour. Nypartyshuttle.com is very good and has good guides. They do a nighttime one, an all day (5 hrs.) one and a half day (3 hr) one. Pick the one that suits your schedule the best. Try to do it at the beginning of the stay so you have a sense of what you might like to come back to %26amp; what%26#39;s near what.

Everyone%26#39;s must eat restaurant is unimportant. What does YOUR family like?

If you do the Party Shuttle night tour you will see pretty much all the most famous things.

newyorkpartyshuttle.com/night-lights-tour-it鈥?/a>

Then think about what your family would like. If you%26#39;d like to do a tour of Radio City, do it. It%26#39;s very near top of the rock so you can do that too.

Your hotel is near the Empire STate building, not far from Macy%26#39;s and it%26#39;s near ';little Korea'; on 32 st. Artisanal (French brasserie known for their cheese) and Keen%26#39;s (historic steak place) are both nearby.

I would suggest you see at least 1 Broadway show and maybe consider buying the tickets now. There are discounts on many on broadwaybox.com

Tues. night would be a good time. Many of the shows have an earlier (7 or 7:30) curtain that night.

Hi McKendryFamily,

We%26#39;d agreed with the previous posts.

Our first trip to NY (coming up to our 3rd this year) was only for three days like you. I want to reassure you that we fitted in A LOT in that time with out taking heaps of tours. I%26#39;d definitely recommend a night time tour; even though we didn%26#39;t take the Party Shuttle one everybody on tripadvisor seems to agree it%26#39;s good as mentioned by the previous poster. Perhaps it would be good to take on the Sunday night so that you can get your bearings around NYC, then the next few days you%26#39;ll be able to make your own way around on the subway. You could make your own way to Brooklyn, Downtown, UWS, Central Park.

Also, I%26#39;ll admit that at first we found the huge subway system in NY daunting but really you shouldn%26#39;t feel afraid to use it. Buy a pass at a subway station from the machine and ask the locals if you are not sure, they even ask you if you need help if your looking lost. Have a look at this website mta.nyc.ny.us/metrocard/tourism/index.html it will be a big help

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about our three day trip. You%26#39;ll love New York.

(Oh, and even though it%26#39;s touristy I%26#39;d go to Hard Rock in Times Square one night, it%26#39;s huge compared to the one that used to be here in Melbourne and much nicer)

For us, the must-do tour is the circle line boat tour. You circle the island of Manhattan. It gives you a viewpoint you can%26#39;t get anywhere else.

I%26#39;ve just recently returned home from my first trip to NYC and can share some things with you that made my trip planning MUCH easier:

If you have not already done so, buying a guidebook will help you immensely. I purchased three, any of which you can order online through amazon.com or similar if you cannot find in a local bookstore: New York City for Dummies (great info but no pictures); the Michelin New York City guide (green book) is excellent and has great maps; and my favorite, the DK Eyewitness Travel guide ';New York'; which is loaded with information, history and lots of photos, as well as a great map section. It also includes a subway map on the back inside cover, as does the Michelin book.

Second, pick up a larger subway map as soon as you arrive at any subway station, or do what I did, which helped immensely in planning, including WHERE we would stay, I purchased a Hagstrom ';New York City Subway'; map online also at amazon, for $3.95 (USD). One of the best purchases I ever made! We took it everywhere, and it helped alot when we could sometimes not hear the station announcements while riding the subway. I noticed several others had the same map, and in my opinion, it was priceless for the trip. Rather large when opened, but you can fold it down to just the section you need.

As far as meals, I don%26#39;t know what others do, but we found that we only needed to eat 2 meals a day and a snack or 2 (there are so many awesome bakeries and delis around), because the food portions were so huge! If you find yourself in the vicinity of Broadway and 51st, be sure to stop in at Ellen%26#39;s Stardust Diner for some great singing by the waitstaff, in addition to delicious food. Hubby and I shared a sandwich and fries and still could not eat it all. Even eating just 2 meals a day we were never hungry! And you can always grab a hotdog or pretzel at any of the many streetcorner stands. Happy vacation! You%26#39;ve come to the right place to ask questions...I asked tons and received lots of friendly helpful advice!

I am going to give you the same advice that I give everybody when asking about NYC.

The island (yes, it is an Island) is HIGH, not long!

The best way to see New York Attractions is to walk out on the W. 35th lobby of your hotel and make a left. The next day, make a right. There is nothing to be afraid of if you follow basic common sense. if you ever need it, just go to any avenue and you can grab a taxi to get you back home.

New York City has so many things to see, you cannot expect to see it all. People who live there for years find new things constantly.

My 1 suggestions, if feasible pack a lap top or use a hotel computer. This will get you to a spot. For example; Say you want to go see the empire state building (5th ave @ W.34) - you now have your end point. take the long way to it (meaning walk around the streets and aveneues).

There is not better way to see NYC then foot. Just start at 9:30.

Dear McKendryFmaily, don%26#39;t be overwhelmed by all the possiblities! You will always find things to see, do and places to eat in NYC no matter what... However, if you do want to plan, plan, plan, then I agree with the previous poster about getting a good tour book (or three!) I personally enjoyed Pauline Fommer%26#39;s guide to NYC, even after having been there many times.

One way to go about planning is to familiarize yourself with the neighborhood geography and make lists of things you would like to do in each neighborhood. That way you can maximize your time by hitting groups of things by %26#39;hood. Here is a link to such a map:

www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm鈥?/a>

I also agree about getting a NYC subway map - but you don%26#39;t have to pay for one! They give them away for free at any good tourist or MTA transportation center. I like to tear out just the subway portion and keep it handy - it%26#39;s more managable that way. If you use the subway a lot, it makes sense to get a Metro Card with unlimited rides. Here%26#39;s the info:

www.mta.info/metrocard/mcgtreng.htm#unlimited

Before you bring the laptop etc....you really need to get a GUIDEBOOK and MAP of Manhattan!

As mentioned, take a deep breath and relax - it really is easy to get around. Don%26#39;t panic you%26#39;ll be fine.

Poppa

another great website is http://www.hopstop.com.

You just plug in the address where you are/where you want to go and it calculates walking, which subways, or taxi fare.

Having a computer is great, but if your hotel has a business center with free access that is great too. Just depends on how busy it is/how many PC%26#39;s they have. If you do bring a PC I%26#39;d store it in the hotel safe while you%26#39;re out. We almost brought ours, but in the end decided it was just one more thing to lug around and we knew there were 4 PC%26#39;s for use at our hotel so we left it behind. We looked up attractions (and hopstop!) and checked email, nothing else, so using the hotel%26#39;s business center worked perfectly for us.

One other word of advice: try to leave some room in your daily schedule for just being spontaneous. We had a big list of all we wanted to see and do, and in the end, there were lots of things we just couldn%26#39;t do this trip because it would have been too overwhelming. I%26#39;d suggest everyone choose their favorites/must-see%26#39;s, do them first and then see what you have time for. Being somewhat spontaneous helped us to find some great discoveries!

WOW,

To Kateoz, Nywhiz, Nyherewecome_2005, Shell_Net, Spuddgirl, TakesthePlunge, Lady_Dee, and Poppa, thankyou so much for taking the time to write such great replies! I really appreciate all your advice, and will definately look into buying some good guide books and maps, and check out those websites you suggested!

(I don%26#39;t feel as overwhelmed now!)

Thanks again for all your help!!

Lauren