Recently I was asked if exploring NYC could be done for up to 30 days. “Yeah, that could work,” I replied.
You see, not everyone has the stamina to spend 8 to 10 hours sightseeing, then go to a Broadway show. Some of my customers are retired people who have plenty of free time though they tire more easily. So I work out week-or-two-week itineraries of 4-to-5-hour days for them.
Really, to see one of the bigger museums, at least half a day of standing is required. Figure at least 4 hours for each of the biggest museums. So: a full-museum tour of The Metropolitan, followed by the same at AMNH [American Museum of Natural History and The Rose Center], is two days.
Fort Tryon Park, Inwood Hill Park and the Cloisters Museum can take a short day.
The Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island take a minimum of 4 hours. Realistically, it’s more like 5. And then there’s travel to and from.
SoHo was the birthplace of the giant department store, in decorative cast-iron buildings that were made for the stores, in the 1850s. Those beautiful buildings are still used today. SoHo leads to the Basilica of St Patrick’s Church [where a colleague does tours of the crypts and all the ‘encrypted’ people], and then to Little Italy.
People want to see the World Trade Center and the National September 11th Memorial. In addition to those, Wall Street, Trinity Church — and Alexander Hamilton’s grave — are a walkable distance away, as are City Hall Park, the African Burial Ground, the Irish Hunger Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s a day.
Grand Central Terminal tour, followed by Saint Patrick’s, followed by all of Rockefeller Center, that’s a day.
Central Park
Greenwich Village
Park Slope
Prospect Park
Four Freedoms Plaza & Roosevelt Island
Long Island City
Rockaway Beach and Coney Island, with dinner at a Russian restaurant
City Island
Snug Harbor on Staten Island
Harlem and Washington Heights
Street art in the customer’s choice of Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, Long Island City, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Crown Heights or the East Village
DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights
Houses of worship
Walk across High Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge, all in the same day (mass transit or a bus or van is required)
Chinatown and the Lower East Side
Flatbush, from Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond to Edwige Danticant
Superhero tour: This is a job for Superman! DC and Marvel both started in NYC
Book tour, from Charlotte Temple (1791) to today’s books
TV & film tours
Speakeasies: not the illegal bars from a time when Americans couldn’t drink, but new bars hidden behind fronts of other businesses!
My favorite: rooftop bars with skyscraper views! (Oh, the research I have to conduct to get them right!)
There are many other possibilities for short-day touring in and around New York City. So, yeah, a 30-day trip to NYC is clearly doable!
Please contact me to create your week, two-week, three-week or monthlong trip to New York City.
