Going on holiday in the US, need advice from down state NY'ers!

Damn, La Guardia is no where near the things and places you want to see.  Its on the north end and everything is south and south west of you.  You will go broke in taxi fare.  They charge by the 1/8 of a mile or by time, which ever is greater.  And the traffic is a bitch.  Thats about all I can say as its been 25 years since I'e been to NYC.

Thanks WOM, we'll check airports again tonight and see if we can avoid La Guardia and stick with Newark.

According to my Holiday list, SD should be open July 5 - 6th.

Oh wow... NYC... I haven't been there in ages.  I used to be able to tell you a lot about it, but it's been at least 16 or 17 years since I've been there.  Subways may be faster/cheaper.

Walking is definitely faster than driving... where all the action is anyway.  I would recommend seeing a show on Broadway.  I don't know what's out there this year... but the last time I was there, it was Cats.  I'm not sure if Times Square will have anything special going on during the 4th or not.  Times Square is where the biggest New Year's Eve party is.

Here's a link to NYC visitor and convention bureau... http://www.nycvisit.com/home/index.cfm
Here's another link, but I never checked it out... but might be worth looking in to.  http://iloveny.state.ny.us/

Have fun!!
~Nickie

When i stopped in NYC en route to Atlanta, I grabbed a famous loaded NYC hot dog and promptly spilled it all over my pants.. I had a few hours so I decided I'll go outside the airport and look around.. I got about 5 feet outside the sliding doors and couldn't stand the fishy sorta harbor smell.. so I went back inside and just waited.

Not a thrilling visit to NYC....never been back.

Lasse, joetheblow is from NY and I know there are a lot more.  What ya need to do is start a thread saying something like...need help from down state NYers.  Then list the what & where ya want to visit and see.

Used to live in Brooklyn NY. Been 10 years since I've seen it last. Wom is right...La Guardia is a bit far and the taxis'll take you broke in a heartbeat. Once you get to NYC proper check out Times Square...totally redone...Afterwards you can check out Greenwich Village, South Street Seaport...take a ferry ride to Bear Mountain (a four hour trip).
Quite a few places. There's a tour bus that'll take you around town and show you the sites too. Have fun

Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas AMAZAZING!! Zion National and Bryce National Parks would be my best bets the scenery is amazing but I'm a bit of a nature type, not to mention a geology student. It might be a little warm coming with the temps dropping at night to fairly chilly (freezing and below. I'm not much of a city person though, sorry...

Don't come to Maine, most of us here at least
are stuck in our homes because of downed trees. Some don't even have power.. I guess I lucked out!

SLC? Check out all the stuff to do in the mountains!(Wasatch Front). Sundance(Film Festival dates?). Grand Canyon? You'd want to fly or drive, maybe to Flagstaff and back to SLC. Hotel/motels, etc, lots cheaper and more numerous in Flag. That way you'd get to see Oak Creek Canyon maybe... & town drunks at red lights
Check out Hopi Indians and three mesas. My old stomping grounds at one time. Old Oraibi village is the most primitive and holiest.... Canyon deChelley("de shay") and Anazazi cliffdwellings. Stand in four states at a time. Lemme know if you want info on currently active Mormon polygamist towns.
Be sure to bring knee-high tough leather boots! Huge rattlesnakes everywhere in July!   
Should be nice & warm by then. We're about a 5-hr-drive north of SLC & it's snowing right now   




Just kidding about the snakes; standard tourist line to keep 'em away, the heathens

La Guardia is in Queens....you don't want to stay there. Get a room in Midtown Manhattan (that cuts it to one cab ride to the airport....if the guy wants a c note, get his hack number and call a cop). The Statue of Liberty you can see from the Westside...it's not much more exciting up close. The ferry will get you over and back in an hour if you really want to go. Unless you've never seen a tree, there's nothing in Central Park (except at night). If you're into history, I strongly recommend the Museum of Natural History on 79th...it can takes days to go through it. If you want a good chuckle, you can go to the UN over on 1st and walk upstairs to a General Assembly session. Take in a couple of Broadway shows at night....usually the hotel you stay at can give you suggestions and get you tickets. Use nothing but buses and subways during the time your there....and no...you won't get killed. If you drink alcohol, drink all you can while you're in NY....Utah is dry..............

Have a blast. We're crazy, but that's half the fun.......


WWW Link

Thanks for the tips so far guys! We'll make a list on paper and see how much we have time for.

Change of plans: We'll be in MI June 29th to July 2nd and visit Stardock that monday and fly to NY at night. Then on to SLC July 7th.

We'll only fly to and from Newark airport, so we can explore NY from that area.

We'll stay away from taxis, probably walk around a lot, I like that, but I suppose we should try the subway sometime too.

Yrag, what's a c note?

C-note = $100.00

Thanks Giz.

Would a Radisson Hotel on Lexington Avenue be a good choice for a hotel? Is it close to "all the good things" in the city?

Damn, guess I'll have to check the map out, I thought LaGuardia was in the Bornx and Kennedy was in or near Queens.

Just remembered: If you like mountain/all-terrain bicycling, check out Moab, Utah, 'near' SLC. Quaint little town, good restaurants, a cyclists playground!

Gasoline $ 2.75 and + here now

It's perfect. Any hotel between 50th and 42nd Street and 3rd and 6th Ave (Ave of the Americas) is good.

Don't drink the water

Bear-mace(large) is available at local sporting-goods' stores



That's why they sell bottled water, everywhere. Even the highest creeks and streams, above timberline, have giardia from small animals. Bring a filter if you're camping. Whiskey works, too...

Too much to do in NYC to name. If you're an art lover, there's a ton of museums. Around 10th avenue between 18 and 25th streets, there are small galleries with some neat stuff (and a lot of crap.) There's the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I think everyone should go to at least once. There's the Museum of Modern Art, which I also think everyone should go to at least once. The Guggenheim is pretty cool to see, even if you don't go in.

There's the typical tourist things like going up to the Empire State Building (I recommend going at night, but be prepared to wait in line.) Statue of Liberty, (again, lines.) Central Park has a nice little zoo. Broadway is good for musicals and big-name productions, but real theater is 'off-Broadway.' Walking around Chinatown and Little Italy is fun, plus there's a lot of good food. Someone mentioned the Natural History Museum, which is fantastic. Their Planetarium is really awesome, and they usually have a good IMAX movie playing. (some of this can get pricey, though)

Newark Airport is in New Jersey, but they have local trains running into Manhattan. Getting off at Penn Station gets you in a good area to explore.

Smaller boutique hotels are really great, but can get really expensive. ($300+ a night) There's a cheap hotel at 6th and 23rd my friends/family stays at to visit me, and they've never had problems with it, other than it being kind of bland. But at $100-150 a night, can't complain.

I also know a couple good restaurants around if you're curious.

Oh, and the water isn't that bad. It's not like it comes straight from the East River.

Excellent, we'll go with the Radisson Hotel then. We can get a shuttle to the hotel from the airport and one back again, when we're flying to SLC. That's a 1 hour drive according to the website, so that would be nice to have included. That'll cost us about $1.000 total including full breakfast.

I've been thinking about the Museum of Modern Arrrrrrt, that's probably a place we'll go, but yeah, there's so much to see over there. Guess we'll take it a day at a time and see how much we can squeeze in.

We got an email from Maria's cousin, he says: "Zions is a five-hour drive from SLC, and Grand Canyon is another three hours, more or less, from Zions." So that looks like we'll need to find a hotel out there one night if we want to see that, which we probably will.

Grand Canyon information. Informative links.  
More HERE!

We are not all drunks. Some like me are going to AAA.

Zions is a must see if you are into nature and have a car. Grand Canyon is just a big hole in the ground. I cannot believe what they charge people to see it. It can be stunning at times but the tourist thing just kills it. I lived there for a year and it cost me more to eat than what I made. I guess if you have lots of money its OK. If you stay at the Moqui Lodge and the plumbing backs up, Its not my fault.

...22 yrs here, April 1st, but...day's not over yet [maybe absinthe would be o. k.]   

And when I went to school in Flagstaff, one of the more amusing pastimes was to watch the bar patrons blinking myopically in the bright sunlight like moles as they emerged from a day's binge in one of the local watering-holes...




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