New York - 1st time with teens

[Brewers]

I guess the other thing to say is that we were surprised how "small" NYC is... obviously, it is huge but if you're staying around Times Sq, lots of attractions are close by. Our hotel was between 34th & 35th street & it was within reach of lots of things.

Another tip for cheap food for teens, the 7/11 shops sell really tasty chicken wings.

[KScosmos]

I've seen a few mentions of the explorer passes - I would recommend looking through what attractions on their list you are interested in, and then pricing each one individually to see if you would save money using the pass or not.

It's also worth noting that the passes normally only give you the "base" ticket, so if you wanted any of the more "premium" levels of excursion I don't know if you're able to pay to upgrade.

[tracy99]

Originally Posted by sunshines

We have never done this. It is now on my list!

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We’ve had a great crowd on the bus both times and everyone enjoyed it.
Whenever I saw one going past,I always made a point of giving them a wave.
Tracy x

[FloridaFairy]

We went Nov 2021.
The Edge is utterly amazing ( or we thought so) as is Hudson Yards.
Summit One is another, with plenty of rooms and mirrored floors…quite the trippy experience, plus it has a glass elevator on the outside of the building.

I note that you say on day 1, you plan to cycle Central Park and do the sea glass carousel. These are at either end of Manhattan so I assume you’ll visit it when you do the bus tour. Our friends did the cycling and they were totally shattered - mind you they’re not the fittest.
Are you there over Halloween? If so Greenwich Village does a fantastic parade.
Have a wonderful time

[sunshines]

Originally Posted by FloridaFairy

I note that you say on day 1, you plan to cycle Central Park and do the sea glass carousel. These are at either end of Manhattan so I assume you’ll visit it when you do the bus tour. Our friends did the cycling and they were totally shattered - mind you they’re not the fittest.

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The Sea Glass carousel is at Battery Park, which is at the southern tip of Manhattan. BUT Central Park is *hardly* at the other end of Manhattan! Central Park is right in the center of Manhattan. It's about 6 miles between the two locations, which takes about 20-25 minutes on the subway (number 1 train). One could spend the day at Central Park and then jump on the subway to head over to the carousel. Or start the day at the carousel and then take the subway to Columbus Circle (Central Park) for the rest of the day.

Babbymint,
Hope you all have a great time in NY!

[RM2016]

Myself and my two teen daughters visited in the Easter Holidays. They really enjoyed, zip lining at Bronx Zoo, The Edge, Summit One, Staten Island Ferry, walking the Brooklyn Bridge and the boats in Central Park along with the RIDE. 9/11 Museum we all found very moving and spent quite some time there.

[sunshines]

Originally Posted by RM2016

Myself and my two teen daughters visited in the Easter Holidays. They really enjoyed, zip lining at Bronx Zoo, The Edge, Summit One, Staten Island Ferry, walking the Brooklyn Bridge and the boats in Central Park along with the RIDE. 9/11 Museum we all found very moving and spent quite some time there.

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Sounds like a great time.

Our next visit the RIDE is on my list and now I'll have to add the ziplining adventure at the Bronx Zoo (love that zoo!).

[Loopsngeorge]

Taking two teens in a couple of weeks time, so I'm taking note of all these ideas! One thing that we have booked is a tour of the UN as ot looked interesting and will tie it in with some time around Wall Street area.

[NewtoOrlando]

We're due to go in November for Thanksgiving with our teens, 16 & 14... BA cancelled our outbound flight to Newark yesterday so have to sort that out first!

We went without them in 2018 and brought the New York Explorer Pass, and visited the 9/11 museum, Top of the Rock, Empire State Building at night & the ferry over to SOL. They love films, and want to go looking at film location, so Central Park, original Ghostbuster building, Friends House, Tavern on the Green from Mr Poppers Penguins etc! As we're there for Thanksgiving, I might get tickets to go to the Rockettes Christmas Show, and generally just take in the atmosphere. There will be one visit to Times Sq at night so they can see it al lit up, but it will be a walk through, as I cannot stand it, it's just too crammed in for us! Oh, and the Macys parade!

[Mandsjh]

Sorry late to the party.

We did nyc in oct half term 2018. Kids were 12 and 14 but I don’t think she matters.

We were there for 7 days and had the pass that lets you do as much as you want for as many days as you book it for. It was brilliant as we absolutely hammered it and did tons. Everything we did was included with the pass.
Highlights were the Ride and the Rib which was a speedboat on the Hudson. Both were amazing.
There is another bus tour like the Ride but we wore 3d goggles. It was more about history but again was very good.
Everything was good. So We did:
Ride
The other Ride type thing - name escapes me
Rib
One world
Empire State
Top of the rock
The airplane carrier
Statue of Liberty and tour of the island
9/11
Cycling in Central Park
Hop on hop off
Ripleys believe it or not
Woodbury common shopping centre
Natural history museum

Free things :
High line
Chelsea market
Roof top bar
Brooklyn bridge
Grand central station
Time square

And we did actually pay for ice skating at rockafeller and see school of rock on broadway now I come to think of it.

We are going back in Feb as we loved it so much. 7 days again but as we did all the big hitters and ran around like loons (brilliant but exhausting) we are doing a few things we’ve not done (edge, summit, circle line cruise) hopefully a basket ball game. Then just taking it steady, searching out street food, exploring neighbourhoods.

It was our favourite holiday ever.