New York City

History
New York City was once accompanied by Native Americans of the Algonquian language group.  In 1624 the first Englishman settled in what is now called Lower Manhattan.

New York City did come under the United States rule until after the American Revolution, in which time it briefly served as the capital. In the late nineteenth century New York experienced particular growth in city’s size, commerce and culture, due the influx of poor European immigrants.
Neighbourhoods
New York City is truly a diverse city, which consists of five different boroughs- Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island- each possessing it very own unique character.

Cruise Ports in New York
Cape Liberty Cruise Port (previously known as Bayonne)
7 miles from the city
3 miles from Newark airport 
Residential area of New Jersey with great views of the Manhatten skyline
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity sail from this port
For more information visit www.cruiseliberty.com

Brooklyn Port
Cunard, Princess, NCL, Holland America and many of the luxury cruise lines sail from this port
16 miles from Newark airport
20 miles from JFK airport
For more information click here

TRANSPORTATION
Arriving & Departing
New York City is easily reached by a variety of reliable means of transportation. While its highways experience daily heavy traffic they do allow easy access to the heart of Manhattan.

Airports
There are three major airports in the NYC area:  La Guardia (airport code "LGA"), Kennedy ("JFK"), both in NYC, and Newark ("EWR"), in NJ. 

La Guardia ("LGA") is the closest to Midtown and Upper Manhattan. However it is the least convenient connections which makes it less popular, but taxis are readily available. The taxi fare will be on the meter (plus tips and tolls) so will be affected by the amount of traffic.  Upper Manhattan $21-25
Mid Manhattan $20-24
Lower Manhattan $26-30
JFK $25-29
Newark airport $78-82

If you are travelling alone then there is the Airport Express bus service that goes to several locations in Manhattan for $12 per person each way.

John F Kennedy ("JFK") has become more accessible since the opening of the Airtrain a few years ago. This connects the terminals to subways and the Long Island Railroad
There are two AirTrain branches: Howard Beach and Jamaica. The Howard Beach branch is a good line to use if your destination is in Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan. The Jamaica branch is good if you're headed to Queens, Midtown or Upper Manhattan.


Taxis:  A taxi between JFK and anywhere in Manhattan is a fixed $45 plus $4.50 tolls and tip

Newark ("EWR")  is the closest airport to lower Manhattan.  
Taxis to New York work on a fixed fare (plus toll & tip) starting at $40, depending on the destination. 

Recommended activities:
 Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Tour 
 
• To get inside the base of the Statue of Liberty, you must buy a Monument pass in advance as they sell out fast
• Prepaying your tickets, spares you the ticket line at Battery Park where boats leave from
• Monument line can run anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes once you are on Liberty Island
• Cannot climb the stairs to the crown observation deck anymore due to 9/11
• Ferry to both Ellis Island and Liberty Island is included in the admission price
• Full tour could take 5 ½ hours

Central Park (Free)  with several  Museums inside the park
• 843 acres  
• Central Park is situated in Manhattan between 59th and 110th street and between Fifth and Eight Ave.  
• The park has several lakes, theaters, ice rinks, fountains, tennis courts, baseball fields, many playgrounds and other facilities. 
• Many museums are pay-what-you-wish. 

Late Show with David Letterman (Free)
• Audience members must be 18 and older.
• Can only request 2 tickets and you do that online at  cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/show_info/
• If they pick your form out of the requests, they will call you by telephone and ask you a trivia question before giving you tickets -     Sample trivia questions: What color hair does the announcer have on the show (RED),   What is the name of the announcer (ALAN KALTER),   Who is Rupert?   (HE IS THE OWNER OF HELLO DELI),   What is your favorite segment in the show? (STUPID PET TRICKS)
• They call only a couple weeks before the date of the show if you get selected for tickets
• They tape two shows on Monday and once per day Tues, Wednesday, Thursday.  There are no Friday show tapings 

Times Square:
• The world’s busiest intersection has enough shops, restaurants, and theaters to keep you entertained for your entire stay. There’s Planet Hollywood, the WWF restaurant, a Toys R Us big enough for an indoor Ferris wheel, the largest music store in New York, MTV Studios, Good Morning America, many street performers and vendors, and much more.

NBC studio tour
• $18.50 each for a  1 hour 10 minute tour, seniors and children under 13 are $15.50
• Open 7 days a week   8:30am – 5:30pm    Sunday 9:30am to 4:30pm
• Need to buy your tickets in advance due to large tour groups that prepay tickets 
• You will get to visit  NBC studios, including the sets for Saturday Night Live, Late Show with Conan O'Brien, NBC Sports, and Nightly News with Brian Williams, depending on whether they are in use at the time of the tour.
• All tours begin inside the NBC Experience Store which is located in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Corner of 49th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue) across from the TODAY Show studio.
• Today Show at NBC in the morning (Free)
• Show starts at 7am but they form a line much earlier (6am) 1 block away
• Need to get there early for best view  

Broadway shows  
• The more popular shows sell out months in advance so buy them before your trip.  
• Some of the older shows you can get half price tickets from the TKTS location at 46th and Broadway next to the Marriott Marquis Hotel the day of the shows.
• If you get to New York often, buy them directly at the Theatres and save ticket/handling charges which can run up to $20 or more per ticket  
• Tickets prices run from $60 to $120 for most shows. 
• But try to dress nicely for the theater. 

Empire State Building Tour     
8am – 2am   7 days a week
• Adults 18 years and older is $19, Seniors and Ages 17 and under is $17 for the 86 th floor observatory 
• Buy advance ticket to skip ticket line. Total wait could be 1 hour.  
• Best to come at 8:00pm to see both day and night.
• $15 extra per person to go to the 102nd floor observatory
• Fifth Avenue at 34 th Street
• The first line you will encounter is the ticket line. If you are there at a busy time, this could take 20 – 30 minutes. The second line is security and this will probably be 10 minutes or less. The third line is the first elevator which could take 20 – 30 minutes.   The last line is the final elevator which goes up the last 6 floors to the 86 th floor. This can also be 20 minutes but you also have the option to walk it.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BOOKING ANY OF THE ABOVE ACTIVITIES BUT NOT SURE HOW TO BOOK THEM, GIVE US A CALL AND WE WILL TRY AND ARRANGE THEM FOR YOU.

MUST SEE AND DO's FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Below is a guide of what you should not miss on your visit to New York.

1. Empire State Building or Top of the Rock Observation Decks.  See Manhattan from all sides. If you do Top of the Rock, get there early and watch the Today Show being filmed.
2. One major museum- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Natural HIstory or the Guggenheim
3. Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - plan a visit to both islands, or just view Lady LIberty at a decent distance from the free Staten Island Ferry
4. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge - Well worth a walk across this famous bridge. Walk from Brooklyn towards Manhattan for best views.
5. Battery Park- Wall Street- WTC-St. Paul's Chapel - is well worth a walk through. Please note that, at this time, there is no official memorial for Sept 11, 2001. The actual site is currently under construction. You can visit the Tribute Center on Liberty Street for tours and St. Paul's Chapel for memorials and history of the events.
6. Central Park ( 59th to 110th Street ) - Plenty of space to explore in this famous green oasis.
7. Circle Line Cruise-  The 90 minute, 2 hour and 3 hour tours provide an excellent comprehensive tour of Manhattan.
8. A Broadway show- With so many choices and ways to get discount tickets, don't miss it! There's nothing like live theatre. 9. Times Square- Worth a visit at any time of the day or night, although night  accentuates the neon effect.
10. One "smaller" museum -  Many of the less famous cultural institutions are the best kept secrets. Examples: The Frick Collection, The Morgan Library, The Cooper-Hewitt, The New-York Historical Society, The Museum of The City of New York, International Center for Photography. Try a museum that focuses on a particular nationality, ethnic group or art movement (Asia Society, Jewish Museum, Studio Museum of Harlem), or explore small private contemporary galleries in West Chelsea. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is an interesting introduction to the life of early immigrants.
11. Shopping - Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue for bling / SoHo, Union Square or 34th Street for pop / Noho, Lower East Side and Williamsburg for indy boutiques.
12. Eating! - Eat at any of the hundreds of great mid-range restaurants in the city, and have at least one blow-out top-notch dinner.
13. Grand Central Terminal - Visit this famous & restored station complex. Go at rush-hour and people watch. Penn Station is also a great place to people watch although it lacks the grandeur of GCT.
14. New York Public Library 42nd Street branch - The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Library - Take a quick walk through this famous building. Don't miss the two lions and the Reading Room.
15. St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral - Explore this famous building on Fifth Avenue.
16. United Nations building on the East River.  Guided tours are provided on a regular basis. 
17. Explore a "real" neighbourhood like Greenwich Village (East or West), Chelsea, or Chinatown.
18. People watching in one of the smaller parks: Washington Square, Union Square or Bryant Park.
19. Visit another borough- See The Panorama in Queens, or Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, or Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
20. The Subway- The people ride in a hole in the ground! The best deal in town. Even if you take it for only one stop, ride it! 21. See a sporting event- Baseball, basketball, ice hockey and more! In Yankee Stadium, sit with the "Bleacher Creatures" for a slice of baseball fan insight. Stub Hub works well for last minute tix.\
22. Take in some music - The 'best of the best" play the Big Apple on a very regular basis; rock, jazz, classical, rap, indie, you-name-it.. On-line versions or print editions of the Village Voice or the Post are  your best bet for the latest gigs. Be prepared to stay up late, though, because the opening acts usually don't start until 11:30 PM.

Some helpful hints for your visit:
• Make sure you research the cross streets for all addresses that you think you might visit via taxi. Taxi drivers are not required to have a deep knowledge of NYC. They serve you best when you tell them the cross streets.
• Group your sightseeing and shopping locations by area, by circling things on a map.
• Take jet-lag into account when planning, especially for kids. You might fall asleep when seeing that Broadway show during your first night here.
• Don't buy electronics from small stores in Times Square.
• Shop at the end of the day, because you don't want to carry your stuff around with you all day, esp to sights with "no package" rules.
• Don't accept rides from limo drivers soliciting at the airports. They are scams.
• Wear comfortable walking shoes.