6 things to do in New York City

By Mark Hodson, editor, 101 Holidays

I’m just back from New York on a trip organised by British Airways to promote their new business-only flights from London City. It’s a cracking service, which I’ll review in a future blog post. In the meantime, here are six great discoveries I made in New York City – some you may know, some you may not.

I’d been to New York many times over the years, but never paid much attention to the Rockefeller Centre, a series of 1930s buildings between 48th and 51st Streets bookmarked by Fifth and Sixth Avenues. At its heart is the 70-storey GE building which has an elegant rooftop renovated in 2005. Known as Top of the Rock, it offers thrilling 360-degree views of the city (see above, left), including the whole of Central Park. Less busy than the Empire State Building, it’s well worth the $21 entry fee. While you’re there, make sure you explore the surrounding buildings – an attractive parade of cafes, shops and an ice rink all richly adorned with Art Deco detail.

We all love an authentic 1950s-style diner, but I didn’t expect to find one in trendy Tribeca. The Square Diner at 33 Leonard Street (near Franklin Street Subway, just a few blocks south of Soho) is a proper throwback with aluminium walls, vinyl bench seats and a lengthy menu of American classics mixed up with a few Greek dishes (it’s run by a brusque but very sweet Greek lady). The interior is suitably atmospheric and there are plenty of tables outside where you can soak up the sun and people-watch. Go for a blow-out breakfast or the lunch special: a soup and sandwich for just $9.75, drink included.

I’ve always used Time Out guides when exploring cities, and now their iPhone apps are whipping the backsides of the opposition. Time Out’s New York iPhone app is aimed at locals, rather than tourists, and it’s packed with solid, up-to-the-minute recommendations of where to eat, drink and party. You can search by neighbourhood, cuisine or price – or a combination of all three. You can save entries to a list of favourites and see a list of critics’ picks. The maps are so good that you can use them instead of a paper map (so you don’t look like a tourist) and you can use all the info without incurring roaming charges. Best of all, it’s completely free. Indispensable.

What do you with an abandoned railway line raised on huge steel girders above the streets of West Manhattan? Why, turn it into New York’s newest and most innovative park, of course. The High Line (pictured above right) is an ingenious idea, turning an eyesore into a delightful leafy promenade that takes you from the trendy Meatpacking District up to West 20th Street. It’s still being built with a second section due to open shortly and eventually it will go all the way up to 34th Street. This is not New York’s prettiest neighbourhood, but the concrete walkway is beautifully maintained with stretches of the original track still visible, benches and chairs, art installations, well-tended gardens and viewpoints across the Hudson River. Climb the stairway at the western end of Gansevoort Street. The nearest Subway is 14th Street and Sixth Avenue.

What’s the perfect location to stay in New York? I’ve been all over but I prefer Downtown. This time I was a guest of the Soho Grand Hotel on West Broadway close to Canal Street. It’s handy for the shops, bars and cafes of Soho and has a Subway stop next door that will get you to points across the city. It’s a stylish renovation of a historic industrial building, the bar is abuzz with beautiful people and there’s always a chance you’ll bump into a celeb in the lobby. Room start at around $399. Not cheap, but not overpriced either.

With the help of my Time Out app, I managed to eat at some excellent-but-cheap breakfast and lunch spots. But you can’t slum it all the time. And if there’s one place to go for a blowout, it’s Buddakan in the Meatpacking District. Similar in style to London’s Hakkasan, it’s an ultra-hip bar and restaurant serving some of the best Chinese food in town. The interior is bold and colourful with a series of high-ceilinged rooms and the usual retinue of gorgeous waiting staff dressed head to foot in black. It’s the sort of place where the food can be disappointing, but it was anything but. Dim sum, noodles, rice dishes, pork and fish were all outstanding and – at around $12 to $24 for a main course – good value for money. Whatever you do, you must try the tuna tartare spring rolls.

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Tags: New York

This entry was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Insider tips, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.