New Year's Eve in New York

We have booked up and have a hotel on times Square. Only there for 4 days. What would people put at the top of the "must do" list.
Plus any recommendations of how to celebrate New year? Roof top bar? Be on the street? Go somewhere else to see fireworks?

Assuming everything will be open by Xmas but no where is taking booking yet for any parties.

Cheers
Did this a few years back. Booked Premier Meats near Central Park. Meal and drinks. Left at 11.45 and went to Park to watch Fireworks then back to restaurant. Was very good and not too crazy price wise.
 


We have booked up and have a hotel on times Square. Only there for 4 days. What would people put at the top of the "must do" list.
Plus any recommendations of how to celebrate New year? Roof top bar? Be on the street? Go somewhere else to see fireworks?

Assuming everything will be open by Xmas but no where is taking booking yet for any parties.

Cheers
As someone living in New York I'd give Times Square a wide berth for New Year. It's nice to see once just for the kitch value, but it's nothing special in the grand scheme of things.

As for what I'd suggest doing that depends on your interests. Happy to advise based on that.
 
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Times Sq has to be one of the most overrated NY experiences in the history of human celebrations.

Don’t do it.
NYC is fantastic but I don't see the attraction of being in Times Square on NYE. There are many better areas of the city to spend time. It would be like going to London and stopping in Leicester Square.
It would be like Leicester Sq if you were locked there for 12 hours with no booze, no access to loos and it was minus fifteen.
 
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We have booked up and have a hotel on times Square. Only there for 4 days. What would people put at the top of the "must do" list.
Plus any recommendations of how to celebrate New year? Roof top bar? Be on the street? Go somewhere else to see fireworks?

Assuming everything will be open by Xmas but no where is taking booking yet for any parties.

Cheers

When we went for NYE we booked a party at Planet Hollywood. They let you go out just before midnight to watch the ba drop. I just watched it on the big screen in there though.

It was great value. About £100 including food and an open bar. This was back in the mid 2000s though.
 
When we went for NYE we booked a party at Planet Hollywood. They let you go out just before midnight to watch the ba drop. I just watched it on the big screen in there though.

It was great value. About £100 including food and an open bar. This was back in the mid 2000s though.
That's a good point actually, the cross streets across Broadway are kept free all evening but then at 11.55 the restaurants all empty and the people who've just turned up end up mingling around the cross streets with a better view than those who've waited hours.
 
We have booked up and have a hotel on times Square. Only there for 4 days. What would people put at the top of the "must do" list.
Plus any recommendations of how to celebrate New year? Roof top bar? Be on the street? Go somewhere else to see fireworks?

Assuming everything will be open by Xmas but no where is taking booking yet for any parties.

Cheers

I was greatly amused by "hashtag balldrop"
 
If there is an SAFC game on while you're there go to Champions and look for the MLF's. Include a meal in an old-fashioned diner like the one on Leonard street, Wander Central Park, Natural History Museum is impressive, take a ferry past the other SOL to Staten Island (Go to a bar for a drink and then get a ferry back!!). Ride the subway of course, and take a look at Grand Central Station. I enjoyed the aircraft carrier museum USS Intrepid, just beyond Broadway, used as a air and space museum with a space shuttle and nuclear sub. If it's not heaving the Empire State rooftop for the pictures looking 'down' on the skyscrapers. Loads to do, but NY is damned cold in winter!!

Did most of that lot last time we were there with the exception of the aircraft museum.
The subway is an experience like you say.
On a couple of nights we went to Hells Kitchen to eat, it was brilliant over there.
 
NYC is a fantastic place but Times Square is crowded in even the quietest times never mind at New Year. Id do what others have already said and just use the time that you would be standing freezing to explore the city and find a good bar to celebrate the New Year, all the bars we went to had fantastic atmospheres anyway.
Booked up to go in October so fingers crossed, is it worth doing the Statue of Liberty up close or should I just take the staton island ferry and sail past it?
We did a open top boat cruise around the island and then under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges at night, that was excellent.
 
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NYC is a fantastic place but Times Square is crowded in even the quietest times never mind at New Year. Id do what others have already said and just use the time that you would be standing freezing to explore the city and find a good bar to celebrate the New Year, all the bars we went to had fantastic atmospheres anyway.

We did a open top boat cruise around the island and then under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges at night, that was excellent.
Class, we are planning doing the Staten Island ferry at night with some booze one night so that may do the job.
 
Booked up to go in October so fingers crossed, is it worth doing the Statue of Liberty up close or should I just take the staton island ferry and sail past it?

To be honest, I found the Statue of Liberty to be one of the most underwhelming attractions in the world and surrounded by tourist tackiness. It's also not as big as you expect it to be.

Also the Top of the Rock is better than the Empire State Building. May not be as high but the views are better and it's not so busy.

I would avoid trying to do too much touristy things as you'll spend all day in queues. NYC is just a great city to wander around and see what you stumble on.
 
Was in NYC for NYE just gone. Booked a 10 pin bowling lane just off Times Square for the evening but we did have wee ‘un with us. Actual Times Square for the celebration is meant to be hideous though. No booze, no return if you leave. No toilets and bloody cold.
 
To be honest, I found the Statue of Liberty to be one of the most underwhelming attractions in the world and surrounded by tourist tackiness. It's also not as big as you expect it to be.

Also the Top of the Rock is better than the Empire State Building. May not be as high but the views are better and it's not so busy.

I would avoid trying to do too much touristy things as you'll spend all day in queues. NYC is just a great city to wander around and see what you stumble on.
Cheers mate, was planning on going to the top of the rock.
 
Booked up to go in October so fingers crossed, is it worth doing the Statue of Liberty up close or should I just take the staton island ferry and sail past it?
Absolutely worth it. The ferry does a circle from the SoL to the Ellis Island immigration inspection station where shiploads of immigrants poured into the US in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. The views are also great, it's surreal to stand at the foot of such an iconic monument, you can go inside the statue and pedestal and I found the museum really interesting. It's relatively inexpensive and worth half a day.
To be honest, I found the Statue of Liberty to be one of the most underwhelming attractions in the world and surrounded by tourist tackiness. It's also not as big as you expect it to be.

Also the Top of the Rock is better than the Empire State Building. May not be as high but the views are better and it's not so busy.

I would avoid trying to do too much touristy things as you'll spend all day in queues. NYC is just a great city to wander around and see what you stumble on.
Disagree

Agree

Sort-of agree

:D


I don't know, you're going to New York because it's the greatest city in the world, you can get a bit too much of an uber hipster if you go and refuse to see the locations that you probably booked your ticket for, just in case you might find a record store, restaurant, flash mob or whatever on a back street. There's time for both. Some of the days I spent just wandering different neighbourhoods were great and I saw all sorts of unique stuff, but I was there for four years not four days like most people are.
 
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To be honest, I found the Statue of Liberty to be one of the most underwhelming attractions in the world and surrounded by tourist tackiness. It's also not as big as you expect it to be.

Also the Top of the Rock is better than the Empire State Building. May not be as high but the views are better and it's not so busy.

I would avoid trying to do too much touristy things as you'll spend all day in queues. NYC is just a great city to wander around and see what you stumble on.

Agree with all of this. We have been twice now and havent been to Liberty Island once, its tiny compared to what you would think. Top of the Rock is excellent, especially at sunset. Empire State Building is decent but its not as spacious at the top as Top of the Rock is.
 
Agree with all of this. We have been twice now and havent been to Liberty Island once, its tiny compared to what you would think. Top of the Rock is excellent, especially at sunset. Empire State Building is decent but its not as spacious at the top as Top of the Rock is.
How can you agree that it's underwhelming then ;)

I actually liked the fact there was no razzle dazzle. It's run by the National Parks Service and staffed by people wearing green Ranger hats and everything.

I enjoyed lingering in the museums and having a picnic on the lawns, a photo opp with the Financial District in the background and taking in some of the history of the two islands, but not everyone wants the same experience of NY and that's fine.
 
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Times Sq has to be one of the most overrated NY experiences in the history of human celebrations.

Don’t do it.

It would be like Leicester Sq if you were locked there for 12 hours with no booze, no access to loos and it was minus fifteen.
This it’s horrific. By the time we got in a pen the ball was barely visible. Just a speck in the distance. As said no bogs booze or bags at the time we went. Locals arguing with police was f***ing awful. Sacked it off after about 45 minutes. Walked round the city taking in the sites then back to the hotel and saw in the new year watching the ball on telly :lol:
 
If there is an SAFC game on while you're there go to Champions and look for the MLF's. Include a meal in an old-fashioned diner like the one on Leonard street, Wander Central Park, Natural History Museum is impressive, take a ferry past the other SOL to Staten Island (Go to a bar for a drink and then get a ferry back!!). Ride the subway of course, and take a look at Grand Central Station. I enjoyed the aircraft carrier museum USS Intrepid, just beyond Broadway, used as a air and space museum with a space shuttle and nuclear sub. If it's not heaving the Empire State rooftop for the pictures looking 'down' on the skyscrapers. Loads to do, but NY is damned cold in winter!!
*Legends!

The only bar in the world I can walk into and the barman recognises me and gives me a free pint. I went in in 2019 for only the second time in four years since repatriating, Jack was working, saw me and sure enough "how are you mate, this one's on me".

Intrepid A&S Museum is incredible, and you can walk around and under a BA Concorde floating on the Hudson there as well.

One summer weekend at a loose end on my own when the wife was back in Blighty, I spent my entire Saturday at Intrepid and on the Sunday drove to Washington and spent the day at the main Smithsonian A&S museum in central DC and its bigger annex the Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles Airport. I am not kidding, it was one of the best weekends of my life :lol:
 

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