Yeah our first time there. I will have access to a rental car as well.
I figure we will hit the Jersey Shore one day. We will also do some museums and explore the city for the best pizzeria and Italian deli. I am looking for any suggestions running the gamet of filling a few hours to an entire day. We will Be there for 5 days.
Oh ok! I'm happy you want to be mobile! So many people come and only want to stay within a 5 block radius!
First of all, I suggest using hopstop.com for subway and walking directions.
Pizza (these are all whole pie places, if you want to order by the slice I can suggest other places)
My pick for the best pizzeria is in staten island, a place called
Denino's. I will warn you ahead of time, you have to drive there.. but you can go there on your way to or back from the jersey shore as you can go through staten island and then along the water in brooklyn back into manhattan. The plain pie is amazing but my personal favorite is the MOR pie (Meatball, Onion and ricotta)
If you don't want to go to staten island, you can go to
Lombardi's in downtown manhattan. It's in Soho so it's kind of pricy and a bit of a tourist trap but it is supposedly the first pizzeria ever in NYC. I would definitely check out Soho and walk around there and the village. Expensive stores but it's just nice to check out the area, tons of people this time of year.
There is also
Patsy's if you want to venture up to harlem. They are wonderful.
Italian deli
Di Palo's
Museums and other things to check out
Museum of Natural history
Tenement Museum (kind of depressing but crazy to see how immigrants lived back in the early days!)
Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty (if it's nice out these are worth checking out. The ferries are in downtown manhattan )
The highline is really cool if you have time. It's a long stretch of above ground railroad tracks that was converted into a large park, beautiful views of the river and new jersey.
Museum of modern art and
the whitney are good but not sure if you or your kid is into art.
Walking tours are fun to do. They have cupcake store walking tours, ice cream walking tours, historical and informative walking tours, beer walking tours (leave the kid at the hotel! lol)
Definitely check out central park during the day, I would avoid at night currently. Some teens causing problems at night.
I would also check out china town if you are into seeing absolute chaos and insanity (Oand want to get fake hand bags and other counterfeit goods). You can check out
Golden Unicorn or
Jin Fong's if you want to try something different and have Dim Sum served by push cart. This is usually with communal tables so you will get to mingle with the locals that may or may not speak english
Brooklyn
I know people will kill me for saying this but I personally hate brooklyn. I grew up around there and see what it's turned into, complete yuppyville and I don't like it personally. Don't let my personal bias stop you from going there though, williamsburg is a really trendy neighborhood right now. With very popular restaurants.
Driving
Where are you from? If you have never driven in NYC, I must tell you, it is an experience. First, you cannot make a right on red in NYC. Second, People will start honking at you before the light turns green and will generally be aggressive drivers. This is just how it is. Drivers here have zero patience. Also, don't get stuck at an intersection because of traffic and cause gridlock. That's called "blocking the box",
cops can give you a ticket and you can get two points if you are blocking the box.
