Tourists in New York should manage time to maximise visits to key attractions like Central Park and the Statue of Liberty. Photo / Supplied
It may be called The Big Apple, but if you’re short on time, these are the best things to see and do in New York in 72 hours, writes Ronan O’Connell.
New York City has such an extraordinary wealth of attractions that tourists must manage time effectively to maximise their trip. Tourists flock to its world-class museums, and sports and theatre events at its renowned venues. Also on most bucket lists are wandering Central Park, ascending the Empire State Building, admiring the Statue of Liberty, treading the High Line, and eating your way through Chinatown. Here’s how I spent 72 hours in the Big Apple.
Standing at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, Battery Park, I peered across New York Harbour as soft, early morning light illuminated the Statue of Liberty. Nearby, giant queues of tourists waited for the ferries to see this iconic monument. I’d intended to join them. But the views from here satisfied me enough that I decided to avoid the crowds and save the (NZ$43) ferry price.
This earned me an extra two hours to explore the Financial District. Walking north through the park, I soon entered a commanding fortress. Built in 1812, Castle Clinton was designed to protect New York against a British invasion. I continued north along the famed Wall Street stock exchange district, past its famed bull statue, to the hallowed Ground Zero.
New York has done a fine job of turning this into not just a site of mourning, but also one of inspiration, education and hope. I paused to pay homage at the 9/11 Memorial, where water cascades into two huge pools which occupy the spots of the South and North Towers that were erased by the 2001 terrorist attack. To deepen my knowledge of this tragedy, I joined a 90-minute guided tour ($140) of the adjacent 9/11 Memorial Museum, which tells personal tales of those affected.
My mood was then lifted by visiting Ground Zero’s newest attraction, the $1 billion Perelman Performing Arts Centre. Covered in thousands of shimmering marble tiles, I found this facility photogenic inside and out, and had an early dinner at its chic Metropolis by Marcus Samuelsson restaurant. Finally, given history was the theme of my day, I had a few frosty beers at one of this city’s oldest pubs, the charmingly timeworn Fraunces Tavern.
New York has been so greatly influenced by its Chinese community that this city has no less than nine Chinatowns. Including perhaps the world’s most famous one, here in lower Manhattan. Although this area is gradually reducing in size, due to property developers gobbling up its ultra-valuable land, it remains energetic, interesting and laden with addictive food.
For lunch, I feasted on salt and pepper chicken wings at Hop Kee, a basic restaurant with brilliant dishes. By that time, I’d already spent hours navigating Chinatown on foot, pausing for a rest in the shade at busy Confucius Plaza park, before becoming absorbed by the Museum of Chinese in America. This slick facility exhibits fascinating vignettes of the lives of extraordinary Chinese Americans. They include America’s first Chinese female dentist, an activist who fought anti-Chinese racism, an early-1900s farmer who bucked the odds, and a Chinese women’s rights pioneer.
After lunch, I headed north in search of greenery. Because, amid all its skyscrapers, New York has a trove of majestic parks. Long, slender and filled with sports facilities, Sara D. Roosevelt Park led me towards the quieter Tompkins Square Park.
This latter green lung is in the heart of the East Village, a charming neighbourhood long famed as a hub for artists and bohemian types, which feels ever-so-different from the Financial District. Heading west from there, I soon heard busker music drifting from Washington Square Park, filled with young people far hipper than me, socialising in the sun.
Then I took a peek into the adjacent, hallowed grounds of New York University and started to circle back south. On the agenda was seeing some of the world’s most expensive homes in the ultra-exclusive neighbourhoods of SoHo and Tribeca. Which brought me back down near Chinatown to the adjoining food mecca of Little Italy. I had to waddle home like an obese duck after a feast of veal chop and chicken gnocchi at this neighbourhood’s classic Il Cortile restaurant.
I pride myself on not sticking to tourist trails, but sometimes you’ve just got to follow the crowds. How could I visit midtown Manhattan for the first time and skip Central Park, Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the High Line?
So I began my third day in this megalopolis at the southern section of Central Park. This green space is so colossal – four times bigger than Auckland Domain – that it demands being explored in manageable chunks. Its vastness also means that, even in a city of more than 10 million people, you can find pleasing space and solitude here. I paused twice to sit in silence beneath lofty trees, in between visiting the park’s fine zoo, its iconic carousel, and its picturesque pond.
Strolling south from there, I marvelled at the varied creativity on display in the Museum of Modern Art before taking copious photos of the iconic Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Centre, with its pretty ice rink. From there it was a short walk to the neon signage and swarming crowds of Times Square, which, truth be told, is an unimpressive tourist trap.
What was not overrated, however, were my next three stops: Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building. That giant rail complex is just as cavernous and magnificent as it looks in countless movies. Meanwhile, the Chrysler Building may just be my favourite skyscraper on the planet. This classical piece of architecture outshone even the Empire State Building, which I decided not to ascend, because of the waiting time of up to an hour to access its 86th and 102nd floor observation decks.
Soon after, I was wandering the distinctive High Line. Sitting about 9m above street level, this narrow, elevated park stretches for 2.3km, piercing the fashionable neighbourhoods of Chelsea, Hudson Yards, and the Meatpacking District. In the spirit of NYC’s unrivalled multiculturalism, I had a memorable dinner at a Palestinian restaurant in Chelsea called Qanoon. Topped off with a cocktail – a Manhattan, what else? – at nearby Twist Bar.
The writer travelled independently.