A wise man once gave me a good piece of advice when first visiting New York.
On your first full day, go on a sightseeing bus tour of Manhattan, hopping off and on at stops that take your fancy.
It's a fantastic introduction to the Manhattan district (for many visitors Manhattan is New York!) and it will help you get your bearings. You'll get to see Times Square, Madison Square Garden, Macy's, the Empire State Building, SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy, Site of the World Trade Center, Wall Street, the Lower East Side, United Nations, the Rockefeller Center, the Carnegie Broadway and much more all in a day. And anything that really grabs your fancy can be pencilled in for a return visit later on.
Another must see is
the Statue of Liberty. A ferry from Battery Park will take you to both Liberty Island and Ellis Island. There is a museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty, but you must reserve a time slot to enter (visitors are no longer allowed in the crown or the torch in case you were wondering). The Immigration Museum at Ellis Island is also definitely worth a visit and it is free.
If you just want to see the Statue
of Liberty, take a free ride on the Staten Island ferry (yes it really is free!). It runs from the tip of Manhattan at Battery Park to Staten Island and gives a really good view of the Statue of Liberty and of New York Harbor.
When you've had your fill of skyscrapers and shopping, head for Central Park and its 843 acres of greenery in Upper Manhattan. Take in Central Park Zoo, visit Strawberry Fields, rent a boat and navigate The Lake or take a carriage ride through the park.
Then head back into the thick of things, grab a bite to eat and then catch a show on Broadway. The TKTS booths in Duffy Square (47th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue) and Lower Manhattan (199 Water Street — Corner of Front and John Streets) sell sameday tickets for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at a discount of between 25%-50%.
And if it's culture you're looking for, New York boasts some amazing museums and galleries ranging from New York's Madame Tussauds for waxheads to the impossibly large Museum of Modern Art, from Museum of Sex to the American Museum of Natural History.
If you've the time, go beyond the confines of Manhattan to New York's other boroughs - Brooklyn (step foot in it by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge), The Bronx (home of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Yankees baseball team), Queens (where you'll find the city's two international airports, the New York Mets baseball team and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park), and Staten Island (remember that free ferry ride I told you about?)..
