New York, on a budget

@Thomas,

PS: The city of New York frequently measures the water quality on its beaches. You can check out up-to-date information here:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/beach/beach.shtml

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@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

Im not about to spend a few days in NY just looking at expensive clothing. I mean, for entertainment purposes.. yeah.. I might take a glance at a pair of jeans for a couple hundred dollars, laugh at the very idea of owning a pair and then move on.

some of the best clothing deals are in Manhattan. It's not all about expensive clothes. You know how I shop - I'm telling you - there are freaking amazing inexpensive clothes there. Skip Bloomie's and stuff like that.

shewolfnm wrote:

I want to walk around China town and eat new things.

New York's Chinatown's all right. Nothing special. Not really worth the effort I find, but I'm spoiled with what we have here.

shewolfnm wrote:

I want to listen to the language in Little Italy ( If that is close enough???)

it's close to Chinatown. The doormen are amusing. The best Italian food isn't in Little Italy. Get the details on Yelp.

shewolfnm wrote:

Learned yesterday the beach water is.. well.. this side of toilet water so Im truly bummed about not getting to stroll the beach either.

How many days will you have? If you take a full day, the Brighton Beach trip is worth it I think. Not for swimming - but a great cultural adventure.

shewolfnm wrote:

Then.. I want to find the patch of nature called central park.

Always interesting. I need a day to walk around and through - and then think I still need more time for Central Park. Lots of very good, interesting, camera-worthy smaller parks strewn through the city.

shewolfnm wrote:

I want NEW YORK style pizza.

Definitely Yelp this one. I don't "get" New York pizza, even when you eat it the "New York way".

shewolfnm wrote:

I want photos of naked guitarists

He's not so nekkid.

shewolfnm wrote:

Dragqueens

dancing homeless people

too many taxis

Everywhere south of mmmm 10th. The taxi swarms going north on Lexington are entertaining.

~~~
~~~

Go to Kee's. Go early. Wander around the neighbourhood. When she opens, go in, buy 3 chocolates and a macaroon. Eat one chocolate. Savour the moment. Consider the other 2 chocolates. Savour the moment.

Do not consider buying chocolate anywhere else in Manhattan. The rest is dreck. Ignore the advertising.

(advisory: I do not like sweets or chocolates - Kee's is an entirely different sensual experience that happens to involve perfect chocolate)

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@Thomas,

Oh yeah, Coney Island is a great idea!

Don't forget to take the Staten Island Ferry (early mornings are best - JoeNation taught me that).

If you're there on a day that you can get out to Governor's Island, do that. Make sure you're ready to take more photos than you could have imagined.

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@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Shewolf, if you just want to walk along the beach, and you're fine not going into the water, you might want to consider Coney Island. I'm not sure about the water, but the beach looked clean there.

Coney Island is in Brooklyn, so Roberta isn't familiar with it.

Bronx cheer, Thomas. I've been to beaches in Brooklyn (Coney Island), Queens (Rockaway), and the Bronx (Orchard Beach). Just haven't been in a long time.

Back in the days when I was a tourist, I'd consider travel time when I was trying to decide whether something was worth going to. The beaches take a while to get to. The city beaches you can get to by subway (maybe an hour--give or take--by subway). Jones Beach has bus service. But you have to schlep to the outer edges of the boroughs to get to them.

If I was from out of town, I'd got to Coney Island. There's more there than just a beach and the Atlantic Ocean. There's a boardwalk (and Nathans).

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Go to Kee's. Go early. Wander around the neighbourhood. When she opens, go in, buy 3 chocolates and a macaroon. Eat one chocolate. Savour the moment. Consider the other 2 chocolates. Savour the moment.

Do not consider buying chocolate anywhere else in Manhattan. The rest is dreck. Ignore the advertising.

Disagreeing BIG TIME. The champagne truffles at Teuscher's are to die for. Positive bliss. Heaven on oith. There's a shop in Rockefeller Center. You can buy the truffles one at a time. Worth savoring. Oy, my mouth is watering.

Absolutely agree about the Staten Island ferry.

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Are the rides at Coney all gone now? Always wanted to go there when I lived in NJ, but never got there.

I'd definitely recommend the Staten Island ferry--lovely ride. I I was don't know if you're interested in this, but the SI Botanical Garden at Sailors' Rest (which used to be a large retirement community for aged sailors--Popeye spent several decades there) has a very credible Chinese Scholar's Garden (garden craftsmen from China came over to construct it). (they also have arts programs and a nautical museum). I was there in January a couple years ago when the temps had been in the 70s F, not C in January, and it had tricked the camellias into blooming VERY early, and it was pretty spectacular, if you like exotic gardens.

And it kinda surprised me how intense my reaction to seeing Lady Liberty standing there was--"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". Great views of her from the ferry. I understand they've reopened her crown (and maybe her torch, tho I'm not sure about that) to visitors. Boats to her leave from Battery Square Park, which is where the SI ferry leaves too, but the lines for the Statue of L are HUGE, so get there very early. Also a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian is at Battery Square, and you get great views of the water. I tend to live on the 6 Train in NYC. It seems to go everywhere I want to (Battery Square may be on the 4, which you get from the 6, or on the 6 itself--it's been a couple years and I don't remember for sure)/

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I only go to Coney Island for The Mermaid Parade and I think it's already over.

My favorite NYC places: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, Brooklyn Botanical Garden (The Brooklyn Museum of Art is next door), The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Frick, The Museum of Natural History, Greenwich Village (for window shopping and eating), Chinatown (Wu Fats for Dim Sum, The Pearl Department Store, if it's still there), The Fulton St. Seaport for seafood and the view, East Village for clubs, and The Central Park Zoo to see the puffins. I tend to avoid Mid-town and I think Times Square is a big over rated snooze. If you want to shop for cool, cheap stuff check out the street vendors in Harlem on weekends.

Long Island has the best beaches, but to see them you actually have to visit Long Island, and I have no idea why anyone would want to do that.

1 Reply

@Green Witch,

Green Witch wrote:

I only go to Coney Island for The Mermaid Parade and I think it's already over.

My favorite NYC places: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, Brooklyn Botanical Garden (The Brooklyn Museum of Art is next door), The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Frick, The Museum of Natural History, Greenwich Village (for window shopping and eating), Chinatown (Wu Fats for Dim Sum, The Pearl Department Store, if it's still there), The Fulton St. Seaport for seafood and the view, East Village for clubs, and The Central Park Zoo to see the puffins. I tend to avoid Mid-town and I think Times Square is a big over rated snooze. If you want to shop for cool, cheap stuff check out the street vendors in Harlem on weekends.

Long Island has the best beaches, but to see them you actually have to visit Long Island, and I have no idea why anyone would want to do that.

Sea Witch, You and I have very similar taste. I'd add the Bronx Zoo, and from there a short hop to City Island for some lobster. Hey, I'm a Bronx kid. That's where I hung out. (Also, I like the snow monkeys in the Central Park Zoo. Fact is, friends have had to drag me away.)

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snow monkeys are wonderful.

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@chai2,

I'm gloriously happy for Shewolf.

My first concern, this is your trip, don't let it be waylaid by companions. That's not a chuck at Diane, whom I met in New York where we got to become pals,

but re others on a couple of other trips.

Your and my favorite places will differ, that's the plus of New York, but I get you re street life. Taxi phalanxes. Striding in Central Park. I liked street sellers in SoHo.

I'd skip the beach, beaches are available in many places, but how often do you get to New York (took me around 50 years after I'd lived there at eight). Meet the Kick and with luck Joe Nation and Thomas at the Frying Pan, which is
'docked' on the Hudson. My childhood memories, however short time, have to do with fabulous ships at rest - New York is a port, among other things. Also with the toy department at Macy's - that was 1949 at christmastime.

More recent mems have to do with unending walking.

Bring really good shoes.

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A beach is a beach.
I am forgetting just how big this island is and that it really IS a trip in itself to see a beach.
unless i am staying in a beach front hostel, I do not know that i would make the trip there unless it is midnight, Im awake and nothing else to do.

my head is spinning Smile

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@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

A beach is a beach.

the New York area "beaches" aren't just beaches in the sun and sand sense - some of them have really really interesting communities. For example, the Russians. The Russians and Brighton Beach. It's a different world there.

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@ehBeth,

I'd glom on to brighton beach. But - is that your first recommendation to someone with a few days in the city, in her life, with Shewolf's smart eyes?

I had a moment of adoration when I came out of the drug store, Duane Reade, near Lincoln Center and my hotel, the Y, with my new umbrella, and tried to hail a taxi. My vision was crusted with taxis and none of them had intention of stopping. My brand new umbrella did a fuckeroo to the sky.
Finally one stopped and we whooped across the park.

I can see catching the spirit of new york by just standing in one place.

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@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

A beach is a beach.
I am forgetting just how big this island is and that it really IS a trip in itself to see a beach.
unless i am staying in a beach front hostel, I do not know that i would make the trip there unless it is midnight, Im awake and nothing else to do.

my head is spinning

I think you're absolutely right. Not enough time and too much of a schlep.

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@Roberta,

Nods, but I'm biased.

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@ossobuco,

I'm not sure if I have a first recommendation, other than "don't try to do too much".

I'm not a fan of the "if this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium" approach to visiting places.

I'd suggest picking a small area in New York, and getting to know it, to feel the city. Whether that small area is Brighton Beach, Delancey Street, the Village, 20 blocks of the UES, Harlem, it wouldn't much matter. It's a walking city, best experienced by foot I think.

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@ehBeth,

Okay, we agree on that, seeing the city on foot. My walking crossed a lot of boundaries, including those I'd no real apprehension of. A hundred blocks, or more? well, a lot of walking.

And I'll disagree - if this is your first and maybe only time in New York, don't just cuddle up to one neighborhood. Walk the city.

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Odd ball question ............ let me see if I can word this correctly.

What would be a reasonable amount of money for one person doing pretty much just sight seeing for three days?
I may want to go to a museum or too, especially if it is hot..
Walking? yes . As much as I can . Transportation only when I am done and dead tired.. then back to the hotel.
Coney island is a must do.

100?
remember, no clothes shopping, or any real 'silly' shopping.
Food.. which I hope to be able to eat from vendors, stopping at a restaurant because " you are in NY this is a place you have to eat" .. but for the most part just sampling and eating what I can find at the moment..

Im wondering how much extra work I need to do between now and then. This trip is closer then I realize!

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@shewolfnm,

You mean $100 in addition to the hotel cost? It's possible I guess, but you'd be cutting it very close. You'd be more comfortable with $150, or better yet $200.

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@Thomas,

for reference, thomas, i told her minimum $2oo, optimal three fiddy.

(that's a quote)

she damn well better have fun, and i want a photo of her and the kickster. (both clothed...)

1 Reply

New York, on a budget

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