Help with itinerary please!

Hi, I%26#39;m planning a trip 3-8 Jan 2006 and have planned our itinerary. I%26#39;d really appreciate anyone%26#39;s comments (I know this is a regular topic but I%26#39;m stuck on what to cut out or whether I should add anything. I%26#39;ve been to NY once before but my husband has never visited)

Here goes:

Tuesday 3rd Jan arrive at JFK at 12.10pm

Check-in Upper West side Wyman House 2/3 ish

Freshen up, change etc

stroll across Central Park taking in the winteriness

Bit of shopping on Upper East side

Buggy ride early evening around Central Park

8pm dinner Tavern on The Green Central Park

Wednesday 4th:

Morning 鈥?walk down through Upper West Side towards Midtown breakfasting and exploring along way

Get to Greenwich for 11am 鈥?3 hour food tour

Afternoon - Midtown

NYC Official visitor Center

Chrysler Building

Times Square 鈥?get show tickets for this evening or book ahead (? Googlewhack / Drumstruck if still playing)

Top of the rock - Rockefeller Ctr

Dinner at Grand Central Terminal

Show Googlewhack / Drumstruck

Thursday:

Early Morning 鈥?nip out to pick up breakfast then

Battery Park 鈥?Circle Line to Statue of Liberty %26amp; Ellis Island - Ground Zero

Lunch at Balthazar

Empire State Building late afternoon 3.15pm ish

Early evening stroll through SoHo/Little Italy/Chinatown eating wherever we fancy

Friday:

Morning

Subway to French Roast 鈥?breakfast

Helicopter ride (not entirely sure about this - any recommendations?)

Subway to Brooklyn

Grimaldis Pizza for Lunch

Botanical Gardens or Zoo good places to visit in mid winter?

(will only have a couple of hours)

walk back over Brooklyn Bridge around 4.30

Dinner somewhere near Broadway

Lion King

Saturday:

Central Park 鈥?scout around a bit more and walk down to

Metropolitan Museum or Guggenheim in the morning

Late afternoon check out Lower East Side / East Village

Dinner 鈥?Cuba on Bleeker

Off Broadway - Slava鈥檚 Snowshow

Sunday 8th:

Another final stroll around Central Park (I love it)

Venture down to MoMA %26amp; back (subway or bus)

pick up luggage from Wyman House 5.30 / 6 pm leave for airport

flight 09.10pm

Many Thanks

Help with itinerary please!

Hi gezash. You%26#39;ll be visiting at a chilly time of year. Bring lots of layers!! It might be too cold for a ';buggy ride.'; Most people are very disappointed with the food at Tavern on the Green. The setting is pretty though. I%26#39;d suggest going for lunch or burnch which is cheaper. ;)

Greenwich Village is all the way downtown. You can certainly walk to mditown from your hotel (if it%26#39;s not freezing) but you%26#39;d still have quite a ways to go to get to the village for the food tour. You should probably just take a subway from the upper west side (where you%26#39;re staying). Some of the best breakfast places are on the Upper westside by the way. Zabar%26#39;s, Fairway (both food stores with cafes), Barney%26#39;s Greengreass., Sarabeth%26#39;s, the Popover Cafe....

As to the show issue, I would check broadwaybox.com closer to the trip date and see if they have a discount code for a show you want to see. Googlewhack is no longer playing in NYC and I don%26#39;t see Drumstick (?). Stomp is now available with a discount though if that%26#39;s the kind of show you%26#39;d like. Go to playbill.com for listings. If you register for free you can see the discounts they have too. You can then either buy the tickets online or by phone or print off the discount and take it straight to the theater. I%26#39;d try to avoid standing online if possible. And pay attention to where the theater is. Not all the off broadway theaters are midtown. (Stomp is downtown)

You%26#39;ve also got yourself going back and forth across town a few times on the Wed. afternoon. The visitor%26#39;s center is on the westside near Times Square, the Chrysler building is on the eastside across from Grand Central Station, Rock Ctr. is inbetween. ;)

On Thurs., the plan looks great except the ESB is midtown and everything else is downtown. Instead of ESB at 3ish, why not wait and head there before going back to the hotel?

The NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx is worth a visit since they should still have the train exhibit up from Xmas. Last year they also had a Ginger bread exhibit. Check their website for dates. The zoo in Central Park is fun with the polar bears.

Hope this helps.

Help with itinerary please!

The first week in January is great because the holiday decorations are mostly still up. Many are taken down by Friday, so be sure to do your browsing early in the week.

Keep your schedule flexible, as a winter storm will throw things out of whack. If you%26#39;re lucky enough to be here for a snow storm, go to Central Park to enjoy the winter wonderland.

French Roast is a chain of mediocre bistros. In fact, there%26#39;s one on the upper west side as well, on Broadway and 85th St. Whiz%26#39;s suggestions are much better. I also like EJ%26#39;s Luncheonette, which serves excellent diner style food and wonderful breakfasts. They%26#39;re on Amsterdam between 81st-82nd.

And keep in mind that it gets dark around 4:30 in the afternoon.

I%26#39;m getting confused (not difficult, I know). When gezash talks about botanical gardens and the zoo, surely she%26#39;s referring to Brooklyn not the Bronx? She also goes on to say that she only has a couple of hours. May I suggest that a walk to the Promenade on Brooklyn Heights would fit that time frame and give you a view of lower Manhattan that will take your breath away!

Since you love parks...

Re Friday: If you%26#39;re in Brooklyn and want to see the ';better'; park created by Vaux and Olmstead, take the 2,3 train to Grand Army Plaza to Propect Park. V%26amp;O said they improved (corrected?) many of their features in Central Park, and this is their crown jewel. Prospect Park has some of NYC%26#39;s last remaining wild forest. The Long Meadow is the longest uninterrupted lawn in an urban park in the US, and was designed so that you do not see the road circumventing it if you stand in its middle.

nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/vt_prospect_pa鈥?/a>

www.prospectpark.org/hist/main.cfm鈥?/a>

Two hours will give you a good taste. There are a few subway stops surrounding the park, so you don%26#39;t have to go all the way back to G.A.P. to catch a train back to Manhattan.

Hi

Thanks everyone for taking the trouble to reply.

nywhiz those tips are great, especially re The Tavern on the Green 鈥?maybe we鈥檒l just pop in there for a nightcap after dinner elsewhere. (Drumstruck is playing at Dodger Stages off Broadway.)

And Bettina I will bring plenty of layers, and although I had bargained for very, very cold weather I obviously hadn鈥檛 given too much thought to the possibility of snow-storms interrupting our plans. Contingency is a word that now springs to mind. We鈥檙e looking forward to seeing the Xmas decorations in all their glory though. And we will give French Roast a miss and try some of the suggestions from yourself and nywhiz.

MaidestoneNic you鈥檙e right I am referring to Brooklyn and weather permitting it鈥檚 very likely we may just take up your suggestion.

queensboulevard Prospect Park does sound really lovely 鈥?If it鈥檚 possible we鈥檒l try and squeeze it in (or see it on our next visit - Spring sounds good to me).

Thanks again - your input is really greatly appreciated. I鈥檝e only recently discovered TripAdvisor and plan to make good use of it in the future.