Aug. 18th - Yankees VS Tigers

[REKER 9]

Ill be attending this game and I have some questions for all you Yankee regulars.

1. Im making a weekend of this to spend in New York. What are the MUST see's and to-do's?
2. Do they let fans in early to watch BP and snag some balls from the stands?
3. Good restaurants and hotels?
4. Is New York really as bad as everyone says it is?
5. Im not a Yankees fan. :p

[DoubleX]

Hi Reker, we occasionally get some questions like these, so it might be helpful to search for past threads in here about visting New York as well. In answer to your questions:

1) These are just suggestions, and I'm certainly missing a lot of things, but here are some things a visitor to the city might want to do:

- Walk around Times Square and perhaps see a Broadway show, or go to Maddame Tussauds or something
- Walk around Central Park, this pretty much a must as far as I'm concerned
- Lots of great museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, Brooklyn Museum, NY Historical Society, Teddy Roosevelt's birthplace, and tons more. On the Upper East Side there is Museum Mile and there are a lot of museums there. The Cloisters are nice in the summer.
- Walk around downtown including the WTC Site, Battery Park, Wall Street and the Stock Exchange, City Hall, and South Street Seaport, and you could across the Brooklyn Bridge, and if you do, get some pizza in Grimaldis which is just under the bridge in Brooklyn (though you'll probably have to wait in a line at Grimaldis)
- From Battery Park you can get a ferry to the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island (though expect long lines in the summer)
- Up a little bit from there is Chinatown and Little Italy. I recommend trying Little Italy for dinner one night
- You'll find good (though expensive) shopping in Soho and along 5th and Madison Avenues in midtown
- Take a tour of Yankee Stadium
- Take a ferry or helicopter tour of the city
- Bronx Zoo and Central Park Zoo
- Lincoln Center has the opera, philharmonic, and ballet
- Go to the observation deck on the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center
- NBC Studio Tours at Rockefeller Center
- Coney Island (though I'd probably stay away)

I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot.

2) They do not usually allow fans to watch the Yankees BP which occurs before the gates open. However, if you get there early enough, you'll probably be able to watch the visting team take BP.

3) There are far too many good restaurants in New York to list. If you're staying in Manhattan, you could really just pick a direction and I'm sure you'll find soemthing good. If you want good food that might be a little cheaper (though still not cheap), head downtown and you can probably find something good in Tribeca, or Soho/Noho, and the Villages (East Village and Greenwich Village). It also all depends on your budget as food, particularly in midtown, can get pretty pricey. Same with hotels. If your tourist, the best area to stay is around midtown, probably near Times Square, but again that can be pricey. For the restaurants, your best bet is probably to get a Zagats or go to citysearch or menupages online or something and find out about the restaurants.

4) New York bad? In what way? I think it's been found to be the safest big city in the country for each of the last few years. There are certainly neighborhoods you probably don't want to go into, but those aren't really the tourist areas anyway. If you're in Manhattan, you'll be able to find something to do at pretty much any time of the day or night and you'll be pretty safe doing it. There are areas of the city where it can be 2 am, and it's like it's dinner time with the number of people out and doing stuff and eating and drinking. The city can get and feel real crowded though, and in the summer with the humidty, it can feel pretty disgusting, especially on subway platforms.

5) I guess you'll have to get over that :p

[REKER 9]

Well we are going to stay from Friday til Sunday. I definitely want to see the Zoo's, WTC site, Natural History Museum, and hopefully the Empire State bldg and Lady Liberty.

Im looking around for hotels right now, but the hard thing is, I dont know which ones are close to the Stadium. Guess ill just have to call and see. Im noticing there are alot of "hostel" type places that have shared bathrooms. Not sure how I feel about that one... lol

Thanks Double X, ill do a search in a few minutes.

[DoubleX]

You shouldn't stay around the stadium. There really isn't anything there other than the stadium and it's not a particularly good neighborhood. The stadium is easy enough to get to from Manhattan via subway or even ferry.

Also, because you expressed interest in the Zoos, the Bronx Zoo is much better than the Central Park Zoo (which is conveniently in Central Park), but the Bronx Zoo is a pretty good trip way up into the Bronx. So if you're pressed for time and want to do a zoo, you might just want to go to Central Park Zoo because it's much closer to everything else.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

[REKER 9]

Ok. Since you said I should look in to staying around the "mid town" area, where exactly is this area? I guess what im looking for are street names or even hotel names (if you know any off hand).

We will be kind of "pressed" for time and keeping everything within reasonable distance from each other would probably be our best bet. If we manage our time like we plan to, then we might be able to get in the trip to the Bronx Zoo.

Im sure ill have more questions as soon as the date gets closer. Thanks!

[TonyStarks]

This is usually where I plug NJ (E.Rutherford) area as a great place to stay. :)


Also, DX...what are you talking about? Fans are allowed to watch BP sessions? Granted, I'm usually late getting to the game before Monument park closes...but I did make it to Chase's 1st game and I made it in time to watch Cleveland take BP.

[REKER 9]

Details!! :) How far away is E.Rutherford(NJ) from the Stadium?

Also, how far away is Cooperstown?

Edit: Nevermind, its 4 hours away.

[DoubleX]

This is usually where I plug NJ (E.Rutherford) area as a great place to stay. :)


Also, DX...what are you talking about? Fans are allowed to watch BP sessions? Granted, I'm usually late getting to the game before Monument park closes...but I did make it to Chase's 1st game and I made it in time to watch Cleveland take BP.

What do you mean what I'm talking about? I don't believe fans are allowed to watch the Yankees take BP as the Yankees take BP before the gates open. Perhaps if you get there right when the gates open, you might get the tailend of Yankees BP. But the visiting team's BP is usually open to the fans.

[DoubleX]

Details!! :) How far away is E.Rutherford(NJ) from the Stadium?

Also, how far away is Cooperstown?

Edit: Nevermind, its 4 hours away.

And this is when I try to steer people away from staying in Jersey. Don't get me wrong, I grew up in Jersey so I'm all for Jersey, it's just not where a visitor should stay. It will be cheaper and you won't be far from the city, but you'll be outside of the city, pretty much surrounded by highways, industry, and strip malls, and have to commute in to the city to do anything. The best part about staying in Manhattan is that there's likely something to do within walking distance, and if not, it's just a subway ride away. If Manhattan is looking too expensive, perhaps somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens might be more affordable (Brooklyn Heights is a great neighborhood), but if you can find someplace in Manhattan within your budget, you should go for it.

Midtown is roughly between 14th street and 59th street (which is where Central Park begins). That's probably the best area to stay, but also most expensive. The southern most part of that area (14th street) is probably the cheapest, as well as things more east and west of center.

But pretty much any neighorhood in Manhattan below maybe 115th street on the west side and 96th street on the east side is fine to stay in. If you find a hotel you think you want to stay in and have any questions about its location, feel free to ask.

[mikeymussina35]

Well we are going to stay from Friday til Sunday. I definitely want to see the Zoo's, WTC site, Natural History Museum, and hopefully the Empire State bldg and Lady Liberty.

Im looking around for hotels right now, but the hard thing is, I dont know which ones are close to the Stadium. Guess ill just have to call and see. Im noticing there are alot of "hostel" type places that have shared bathrooms. Not sure how I feel about that one... lol

Thanks Double X, ill do a search in a few minutes.

The Metropolitan Museum of art, Statue of liberty, and defenitely Times Square.
Why the hell are you going to a Yankee game if you aren't a Yankee fan???

[Mariano_Rivera]

The Metropolitan Museum of art, Statue of liberty, and defenitely Times Square.
Why the hell are you going to a Yankee game if you aren't a Yankee fan???

1. The city is a great place to go anyway
2. He could be a Tigers fan
3. He could just want to go to Yankee Stadium before it gets knocked down

[Westlake]

Why the hell are you going to a Yankee game if you aren't a Yankee fan???

Excuse me? I've gone to over 30 Astros games over the last 2 years, and I don't like the Astros one bit. Ballgames are fun to go to, period.

Also, I agree with WWK, I haven't been to Yankee Stadium yet, and I;d love to go catch a game there before the stadium gets torn down, and that's because I detest the Yankees.

[REKER 9]

The Metropolitan Museum of art, Statue of liberty, and defenitely Times Square.
Why the hell are you going to a Yankee game if you aren't a Yankee fan???

We plan on doing all three of those. The gf is VERY excited, as am I.
Why the hell am I going to this Yankee game, since Im not a fan of the Yankees?
Easy:

1. Im a HUGE Tigers fan.


2. He could be a Tigers fan
3. He could just want to go to Yankee Stadium before it gets knocked down

4. Im a huge Tigers fan.

5.

Also, I agree with WWK, I haven't been to Yankee Stadium yet, and I;d love to go catch a game there before the stadium gets torn down

6.
Ballgames are fun to go to, period.
We have the former NYM farm team, currently Orioles farm team, the Norfolk Tides. Its the closest thing we have to an MLB game and I go to alot of their games simply b/c of the atmosphere that a ball park provides. Just everything about a baseball field and baseball is... well... beautiful.

Last but not least:
7. Im a HUGE Tigers fan. :D

[tripledup22]

2) They do not usually allow fans to watch the Yankees BP which occurs before the gates open. However, if you get there early enough, you'll probably be able to watch the visting team take BP.




not true i saw the yankees take bp and almost got a ball from arod but a stupid fan knocked the ball out of my glove.

but that might have been a one time thing.

[ElHalo]

As a native New Yorker, I rarely have occasion to stay in a NYC hotel, but I have found a couple that I like to recommend to out of town friends... both around the corner from each other and amazingly well priced for decent hotels.

The Hotel Pennsylvania is well known to pretty much anybody who commutes to New York; it's directly across the street from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, about an eight block walk to Times Square, and near pretty much every subway line. It's clean and relatively decent accomodations, and it's unbelievably cheap (I rented a room there three years ago when I was taking my bar exam at the Javits Center down the street, and didn't want to have a far trip in the morning; I think it was about $110 a night for a single). The other is the New Yorker, on the other side of MSG, which is slightly more upscale (the only time I stayed there, it was in a corner balcony suite that ran about $1500 a night), but also centrally located and a fine place to stay.

There's literally thousands of restaurants and bars and all sorts of places to check out, way more than you could do in a weekend. It's hard to recommend restaurants without knowing your budget (I can recommend very good places that'll run you $60 for two people or outstanding places that'll run you $700 for two people), but a great place to start is nymag.com, New York Magazine (as somebody who tries out a different restaraunt in Manhattan pretty much every weekend, that's where I go for suggestions).

Don't stay in the Bronx; take the four train from midtown to the Stadium. There's not much to do in the Bronx other than the zoo and the stadium, and neither is in a particularly fun area. Manhattan's also very easy to get around; above 14th street, everything's a grid, with EW running streets increasing in number as you go north, and NS running avenues increasing in number as you go west (although Park Avenue is what actually should be called 4th Avenue, and Madison and Lexington are kind of thrown in at 3rd and 1/2 and 4th and 1/2). So it's very simple to get around midtown.

Again, it's really difficult to recommend things to somebody without knowing what they're into, since NYC has pretty much everything for everybody. Must do's are the Staten Island Ferry (it's beautiful, gives you fantastic views of New York Harbor, and is free, which I still don't understand) and Times Square (a place locals avoid at all costs because of all the tourists, but it's certainly something you need to see once in your life)... beyond that, depends on what you're into. The Met is the best museum in the US, bar none (I'm a museum junkie, and the only ones I've been to that can compare are the Hermitage in St. Petersberg (the one in Russia) and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam... haven't been to the Louvre or the Prada). It's on 5th Avenue, East side of Central Park, and... I want to say 82nd St? Somewhere in that vicinity.

Lincoln Center is the finest home for performing arts in the Western Hemisphere, and happens to be directly across the street from where I went to law school. If you're into opera, ballet, or classical music, that's the place to be (8th Ave (though it's called Columbus Avenue north of 59th St.) between 62nd and 66th). If you're into fascinating little shops and bohemian subculture, the Village is the place for you. If you're into shopping, Fifth Avenue has everything you could possibly want, generally between the Empire State Building and Central Park (call it 30th to 60th). Central Park is stunningly gorgeous. The best view in the city, to have a low key relaxing lunch, is at South Street Sea Port, with a tremendous view of the East River from right under the Brooklyn Bridge.

There's also tons of amazing things to do in the outer boroughs, but they're less for tourists.

[P1NSTR1PES]

Yea i agree with double X...go to the city and just pick a direction n walk. Food..theres Mickey Mantles on i think 59th between 5th and 6th street.

[REKER 9]

ElHalo: Ill check out that hotel. The $100 to $150 range is what we would like as far as hotels. As far as dining, $60 for two people would be ideal.
Thanks for all the info, im printing all the suggestions so I can put together a to-do list.

How is Mickey Mantles? Is it justa sports bar type place?

Keep the suggestions coming!!