Visiting New York for New Years!

There are a million hotels in New York.  You'd be better off deciding on a neighborhood and finding a hotel there.

The Carlton Arms near Union Square is a funky little hotel with low rates.  It's also directly over a pizza place and there are good bagels across the street.

The Jane Hotel near Chelsea Piers has a Moroccan restaurant, lots of parking and free bicycle rentals.

Pod 51 between the UN and Park Ave. is a newer boutique hotel with a French restaurant.

The Belnord Hotel near Central Park and Zabar's is an old style hotel in an old style neighborhood.

If you want to spend less money, you might want to think about staying somewhere outside of Manhattan.  You'll spend more time getting into the city, but since you're going to be there over a week it might be worth it.

If it's your first trip to New York, I'd recommend not trying to see everything.  You're never going to see it all anyway.  If you hit all the usual tourist spots, you won't have time to truly feel the city.  Just pick one area – SoHo, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Midtown, whatever – and get to know as much of that as you can.

wow thanks a million for the animated assist Hailey; ur right, I do need to sit down and plan what to do there, as a first timer, what would u recommend as the most important things to do in New York? I dont think i'll be spending the full 9 days there, have friends in Michigan i plan on visiting.

many thanks once again

You're animatedly welcome.

The most important thing to do in New York – as far as I'm concerned – is to eat.  A lot of large cities say they have a lot of international options.  Hong Kong calls itself the food capital of the world, but it's nothing compared to New York.  New York has every type of restaurant known to man.  If you go to New York and don't eat a real New York pizza and bagel, you didn't go to New York.  Every New Yorker will disagree on which place has the best pizza, but they'll all agree that New York pizza is better than anywhere else.

Another important thing for me is to see a show.  It doesn't have to be on Broadway.  In fact, there are a lot of great shows off Broadway.  The Theater District also has a lot of great food – there's a great sandwich place on W 45th – but the hotels are more expensive.

The first time I went to New York, I tried to see all the usual sites – Empire State Building, Times Square, SOL, Central Park – and I went home without knowing anything about New York.  You only learn about a place when you do what the locals do.  Parisians don't go to the Eiffel Tower every day.

Still, some things are pretty impressive.  The Statue of Liberty probably means more to Americans than to foreigners, but it's worth seeing.  You'll never stay at a hotel near it anyway.  If you stay in Battery Park, you might as well take the ferry.

Ellis Island is less important if none of your relatives ever went through.  The Staten Island ferry is free and runs 24 hours.  It doesn't go to Liberty Island, but it passes by and gives you great views of the Statue, harbor and the city.

The Empire State Building has great views of the city, but it's not essential to see – unless you're at a hotel nearby.

Times Square can be skipped entirely – unless you're at a hotel nearby.  It's nothing but an overpriced tourist trap.  Unless you're going to see a show, but then you can just go directly to the theater without hanging out with the pickpockets.  However, if I were there now I'd go to M&Ms World, but that's only because I don't live in a place with M&Ms.

Central Park has a million things to see & do, but unless you stay at a hotel nearby, you might want to skip it.  It's an enormous park and you'll never see it all anyway.  Or maybe just pick a small piece of the park and explore that.  I would go to Strawberry Fields and just look around that area.  It's also pretty close to Fairway.

what i had planned in my head when booking this vacation was the following:

1) be @ Times Square 31 Dec at 11:59PM
2) Visit the Empire State building
3) Visit Lady Liberty herself
4) Go for a run in Central Park

based on everything you have just mentioned, which is surprisingly accurate and again i cant thank you enough for, cant believe all that info and ur not a native of New York!

now the following two have made it onto the list:

* off-broadway/ broadway show.
* PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA!

altho, would the new york pizza be able to compete against the culinary perfection of pizza from the land of its origin .. i.e. Italy?

Pizza is the single most important aspect of any trip to New York.  The one suggestion you can't ignore in everything I've said is the pizza.  I went to Rome 2 years ago and I never found anything that could compare with New York pizza.  New Yorkers don't brag about their pizza for the sake of bragging.  They have a million other things to brag about.  They call their pizza the best because it is.

Times Square on New Year's Eve is probably a very bad idea.  Imagine an intersection that can comfortably hold 100 people filled with 1 million people.  If you go, you have to go very early since the police only allow about a million people into the area and it fills up fast.  Once there, you are locked in a smaller area.  You can leave any time, but you can't go to another area and you can't get back in once you leave.  If you leave after the ball drops, you get to leave at the same time as a million other people.  It can get pretty cold in December/January and there are no public restrooms.

Your list of places aren't near each other, so the more time you spend going back and forth to see the sights, the less time you'll spend getting to know any part of the city.  The subway will take you everywhere, but riding the subway all day is like going to Paris and riding the Metro all day.  I would rather walk around Gramercy Park than sit on a train underground all day.