New York is an amazing city full of exciting things to do and see. A trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are musts for anyone visiting the city as is a stroll through Central Park but while you are in the Big Apple why don’t you:
1. Go to the Top of the Rock
Enjoy a spectacular view of the New York skyline from the observation decks on the 69th and 70th floors of the Rockefeller Center. The view is better than from the Empire State Building and the wait to get to the top is shorter but the best part is you can see the Empire State building dominating the city skyline. Admission $17.50 US per person.
2. See the City with a real New Yorker
Take a tour of a New York City neighborhood with the Big Apple Greeters, a non profit organization founded in 1992 as a visitor welcome program. A volunteer greeter will take you on an insider’s tour of the City. The greeters are all NYC residents who volunteer their time to show their city to visitors. Besides seeing a part of New York that you might have missed otherwise, the service is free and includes a one day metro pass.
3. Attend the taping of a TV show
Be part of the audience of a live TV show. There are several TV programs filmed in NYC including the David Letterman Show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Saturday Night Live. You need to get tickets ahead of time and the Letterman show is filmed late in the evening. The best part is the tickets are free.
For a complete listing for NYC TV Shows: http://nytix.com/TVShows/Current/
4. Visit a museum and see North America’s largest collection of meteorites.
See the largest collection of meteorites in North America at the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites in the Museum of Natural History. Get up close and personal with pieces of rock that have come from space. See the Peekskill meteorite that landed on a car in New Jersey. Touch a huge piece of space rock that takes up half the room. Learn all about meteorites and how to tell the difference between a fall and a find. While you are at the Museum you might want to take in some of the other exhibits as well. Museum admission $15 US per person.
For an overview of the collection:
http://research.amnh.org/~debel/eduSource1/HoM/MetHall1.HTML
5. Enjoy some live music in the village.
Greenwich Village has always been the hip, bohemian center of NewYork. So why don’t you spend the evening in the Village. Listen to live music in one of the areas many bars and clubs. Enjoy a meal at a trendy restaurant, have a coffee in one of the villages famous coffee houses. Greenwich Village is where the music scene happens in New York in the evening.
No matter what you choose to do with your time in NYC, you will never be bored. Take a walk in Central Park, visit Tiffany’s to see the Kimberley diamond or just window shop your way up 5th avenue, the Big Apple really is as exciting as the make it seem on television.
