How easy is New York

[sunnysandra]

NY has been on my list for a long time hubby agrees then changes his mind he is worried we won't be able to find our way around . How do you find New York is it easy to plan your days and then find the attractions

[neilhd]

Very easy. NYC is very straightforward to get around due to the roads mostly being a grid. Most things are walkable, and those that aren't are an easy subway or cab ride away.

If you work out where things are then you can group them together. E.g. visit ground zero and Statue of Liberty on the same day, as they are both at the bottom end of Manhattan.

[grant_w]

The first time we went we found it very easy.
We stayed a few blocks from Times Square, near Macy's
We had an attractions pass that enabled us to get into most attractions, and use of the Big Bus Tours buses so we didn't even need to use the subway.

We did A LOT of walking though

[novocastrian]

New york is largely a massive grid

the north south avenues and the east west streets

its simple to navigate to say 5th/42 to 7th 52 think of it like battleships

most attractions you cant miss as they loom over the city

its a doddle go for it

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by sunnysandra

NY has been on my list for a long time hubby agrees then changes his mind he is worried we won't be able to find our way around . How do you find New York is it easy to plan your days and then find the attractions

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New York is incredibly easy to get around and we are usually hopeless ! The streets/ avenues are numbered in a grid system and so easy to navigate. There are also several apps that you can use for directions. Ulmon is the best one and you can use offline. You input the places you want to visit and it will group them all together. You could use an open top bus on your first day to get your bearings.

We didn’t plan to the same degree as Orlando but we grouped the attractions together and tried to stay in the same areas. We didn’t pre book the observatories just in case the weather wasn’t good.

We loved our trip to New York and will certainly go again.

[mick]

We've only been once but we bought tickets for the Grey's Ho-ho bus tours in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Tended to stay on them for the whole circuit first time then on a second ride got off at places that we wanted to explore more.

One minor tip. We bought tickets for the Empire State Building and the SoL/Ellis Island Boat from the hotel concierge. Paid face value and were extremely useful when we arrived at the ESB. Straight to the front of the queue and at the top inside 5 minutes. The standby line was a good hour long.

Mick

[Smilesonfaces]

I think we must have been lucky as we didn’t pre book anything and went straight in with no queues anywhere. Top of the Rock charge extra for sunset but we arrived just a few minutes before the extra charges kicked in and we went straight up.

Edited to say that we did prebook the Statue of Liberty and the crown about 6 months in advance as soon as booking was open.

[MrsArcher2b]

We found it really easy. As others have said, the roads are in a grid pattern and half of them are numbered, 7th, 8th, etc.

We bought a week's (i think) metro card for the subway and got a littke map to find our way on it.

Tip: if you want to go right to the top of the statue of liberty you have to book it well in advance as they only let a certain amount up each day x

[klr15]

We also found it really easy. We didn’t really plan before hand but we did buy an attraction ticket that would get us access to a few different attractions.

We used the subway quite a lot and that was really easy, especially with google maps to help.

As others have said, do certain attractions together, so plan for downtown attractions on the same day, rather than going back and forth. So for example we visited the 9/11 museum and then Brooklyn bridge in the same day.

New York City was one of the most incredible holidays we’ve had!

[dozy]

what passes did you all buy?

we are going for 5 nights