New York, New York...

Doctor Damage suggested the "East Village," but let me suggest Greenwich Village, which has Washington Square Park and NYU. The part touching the East Village is sometimes referred to as the West Village. When I was there many years ago, that is where it was happening. Imagine it still is. Don't miss it. That's where Fillmore East was located. Think the great Allman Brothers' album, Live At the Fillmore East.

Definitely agree about Greenwich Village. We've stayed there a few times, including last month, and just love the area. It's a million miles from Times Square and Midtown.

There are countless bars, restaurants, cafes, small shops and music joints, and Washington Square is always great to just hang out.

This time in the park almost every day we saw jugglers, acrobats, ballroom dancers, breakdancers, three or four bands each day (usually at the same time), a guy playing a grand piano, a tarot card reader, chess players, and more besides. And that was the quiet time when NYU next door is on holiday.

Doctor Damage said:

On that note, if you go into the Met Museum of Art keep in mind that there is no entrance fee. They have booths where you can pay a fee with signs above which list prices, but there is no fee. They work hard to make it look like you have to pay a fee and the security guards will hassle you if you haven't paid to get a lapel pin, but it's b.s. However, I don't think anybody should be a free rider, so I suggest you go up to a booth and pay some amount, say $10 a head (not the $24 or whatever they 'suggest' on their sign) - they'll glower at you, but they have to accept whatever you offer and give you a pin which will get the security guards off your back. I'm sure this griping probably makes me sound like a d-bag, but I resent organizations who bamboozle people like this and who are not transparent. Either have zero fees / free entry like they do in museums in Londoninium, or charge a fee. Don't make it look like you have to pay a fee when you don't. That's just a scam aimed at tourists who don't know better. It's deceitful and cheap and shameless and gives the Met organization a bad name.

One caveat: I was last there in May 2014 so perhaps this policy has changed. If so, someone please correct me and I will delete this post.

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EXACTAMUNDO!!! I always hate going to the Met and having to deal with the grumpy looks I get when I give them less than the $20-whatever-hefty-amount per head they suggest and ask for x number of badges. Either keep it free or set a reasonable fee or if it's "contribute whatever" then don't show black face when the amount is lower than expected ... alrighty, getting off soapbox now ...

Doctor Strange said:

Schott does have a NYC store, somewhere downtown (Elizabeth Street, maybe?)

I've been meaning to check it out, but I live far enough out of the city now that it's a production number to visit, and I rarely make the effort.

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Yup, the Schott Flagship store is in Elizabeth Street, between Prince and Warren. Definitely worth a visit! Walking distance from Self Edge NY, and the streets around there have tons of stores that will interest us like-minded folks. RRL store is round the corner from there. A few shops up the street there's the Wolverine boots store that also stocks Left Field NYC denim, Filson bags ... the other side is bookended by a vintage store with lots of jackets, a bit pricey but fun to look thru.
https://www.schottnyc.com/flagship-store.cfm

Sloan1874 said:

Great tip on the Brooklyn denim place, 2Wheel, as it's relatively close to where we're staying - the fact that NY has a population twice the size of Scotland is slightly mind-bending, so 'close' is a relative term.
The Staten Island ferry trip is now firmly on our itinerary, but your trip suggestions and food recommendations are all being loaded into my big list of New York things to do.
Out of interest, is there anywhere/anything we should avoid? For whatever reason - tourist traps/dangerous/crap?

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Sloan man, you're gonna be staying at quite the happening neighbourhood then! Don't mind the hipsters there, Williamsburg is hipster-central for NYC!!! If you like vintage motorcycles, there's always old bikes around at Works Engineering, across the street is Genuine Motorworks - biker clothing, gear leaning on the chopper/americana side of two-wheels. Hipster biker scene is fully covered by Jan Motorcycles, which also stocks one or two variety of Lewis Leathers jackets. Then there is Moto Grrl and Brooklyn Moto (where my old BMW R100 still resides for when I visit NYC). For a great selection of classic 70s Italian and BMW bikes to ogle at Moto Borgotaro further away in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn is the place to go. Next door is my buddy's store, Union Garage NYC, which stocks a few models of Lost Worlds leather jackets amongst a host of other proper, decent riding gear.

Haha! Great stuff. Not a biker, but love the chopper/Americana side of it. I'll also be interested to see if Bushwick can out-hipster Shoreditch in London - a place where ridiculously-bearded individuals pilot drones down high streets...@MikeKardec, those are a set of titanic suggestions - consider them copied and pasted!

Sloan1874 said:

Great tip on the Brooklyn denim place, 2Wheel, as it's relatively close to where we're staying - the fact that NY has a population twice the size of Scotland is slightly mind-bending, so 'close' is a relative term.
The Staten Island ferry trip is now firmly on our itinerary, but your trip suggestions and food recommendations are all being loaded into my big list of New York things to do.
Out of interest, is there anywhere/anything we should avoid? For whatever reason - tourist traps/dangerous/crap?

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I'm in the city, as well. Avoid Times Square and 5th Ave in midtown. They're so congested with tourists that one can barely walk, much of the time. If possible, avoid most if not all of the restaurants and eateries in the Times Square area.

- Ian

Cheers, Ian. Handy tip.

Sloan,

Check out Forlini's in lower Manhattan. It's just into Chinatown and borders Little Italy. It's an old-school Italian restaurant that's still owned and operated by the same family. It opened in 1943. Additionally, it's quite reasonable. You can have a lot of great food and wine, but not leave with an empty wallet...that's saying something in Manhattan.

http://forlinisnyc.com/






- Ian

Ehhhxcellent. Thanks, Ian. Great recommendation.

So many things to see and places to go, but so little time. I had the same problem when I visited London a year ago. I have only been to NYC once a few years back, and strangely enough my most vivid memory from my brief stay there was this:

I just returned from a three-day stay in NYC with my two teenagers.
I originally wanted to stay in the Greenwich Village area but couldn't find something reasonably priced that could accommodate 3 people, but then again I scheduled everything for this trip only 3 weeks in advance. ALSO, how are you planning to get about? Do you want to do one of the the hop-on hop-off bus tours? I purchased 48-hr tickets on the City Sightseeing HOHO buses. I ended up being very glad to be staying centrally otherwise time and money is spent getting to one of the stops. For instance, if you're staying downtown in Greenwich Village but want to ride the uptown loop on a particular day to see all the uptown sights, then you have the following choices: walk/regular bus/subway/taxi to one of the downtown loop stops, ride the HOHO bus for 30-45 min until it arrives at a stop that is shared with the uptown loop, and transfer to the uptown loop HOHO bus for it's two-hour round trip. (Sorry if I'm not being too clear with my explanation!)
Despite Manhattan not being that big of an island mileage-wise, travel takes forever because of all the traffic. I was glad of my HOHO purchase and it included a cruise around the southern tip of Manhattan with wonderful views of the Statue of Liberty (we paid a little extra for the Twilight cruise and it was well worth it).
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Madison Square Garden and I HIGHLY recommend it! Spotlessly clean, helpful staff, and an expansive "free" breakfast every morning. It's on W 29th between 7th and 8th Avenues, technically in the Garment District, I believe. It's an easy 5 minute walk from Penn Station which was very convenient since that's where the airport transit dropped us. And perhaps best of all, it has a nice large outdoor seating area in front of the hotel.
As for museum visits, don't forget the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We got to it via the HOHO uptown loop. I don't know what the admission price is because we went on a Friday evening, it's free on Fridays from 4-8pm. Teen #1 wanted to see VanGogh's "Starry Night" (beautiful!). It was quite a madhouse at that time, however. I don't know if the crowds were due to the free admission or if it's crazy there all the time.
Teen #2 wanted a New York Harley Davidson shirt and we were able to find an HD store right off the downtown HOHO loop in Chinatown.
Our most enjoyable tourist stop? The Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center (down at the southern tip of Manhattan). The view doesn't get any better and the presentation is great!
Enjoy your trip!

I was going to suggest taking a day out to head to Coney Island and ride the Wodner Wheel, but I imagine it's shut out of season in November? I've always wanted to go to Coney Island, and Rockaway Beach (it's not hard, not far to reach..).

ALERT -- the New York Marathon will be the end of the first week of Nov. Unless you are going for it you'll find that it will significantly shut down your transportation options on that day ... depending on where you are staying and what you want to do. Do your research and plan well, do stuff that is close in to your hotel.

Thankfully, Mike, we land the day after the race, but I appreciate the tip-off. @vintage.vendeuse thank you for your recommendations: MoMA is very much on our to-do list; we're staying at an Airbnb house in Brooklyn, which I'm reliably told is close to the underground, but you're tip about the bus is a good one.

Milano's Bar on East Houston. Peter McManus on 7th Ave and 19th used to have the best burger in NYC (my wife and I still argue about this). The Strand Bookstore is essential. Don't go anywhere near Midtown. The Guggenheim is also essential... I think my area of expertise is of a time and a place that no longer exists, alas.

Queens:
https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/

Manhattan:
http://www.thehighline.org/
Hayden Planetarium at night: https://i.gse.io/gse_media/114/6/1406711163-venue-hayden.jpg?p=1
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mcsorleys-old-ale-house-new-york
City Hall Subway Stop: http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/city-hall-subway-station/
https://www.tenement.org/

Brooklyn:
Vintage shopping (forget about stores): http://brooklynflea.com/

And about a million more places and things to do.

NIce one - the planetarium looks amazing.

Has someone already mentioned the USS Intrepid Museum? If you're into aviation, I think this one is a must!

pipvh said:

Milano's Bar on East Houston. Peter McManus on 7th Ave and 19th used to have the best burger in NYC (my wife and I still argue about this). The Strand Bookstore is essential. Don't go anywhere near Midtown. The Guggenheim is also essential... I think my area of expertise is of a time and a place that no longer exists, alas.

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I'm with you on all points. Last time I was there I felt like a ghost.