First Timers' New York City

The Library Hotel

• 299 Madison Avenue, 41st Street
• At 41st Street
• tel:+1 212 983 4500 / +1 877 793 7323
• Visit website
• New York, 10017

The Library Hotel, built in 1900, was inspired by the New York Public Library, which sits one block away. Each of its 10 floors is dedicated to a major category of the Dewey Decimal System--Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion--and each room is stocked with books relating to the relevant topic. The 60 comfortable guest rooms come in three categories, including petite (single or full), deluxe queen, or junior suite king. All feature mahogany appointments, sizeable desks, and marble bathrooms. Wine and cheese and a complimentary daily breakfast are served in the hotel's reading room; other public spaces include a writer's den with a fireplace and flatscreen TV and a rooftop terrace.

Ellen's Stardust Diner

• 1650 Broadway 51st Street
• Corner of 51st Street
• tel:+1 212 956 5151
• Visit website
• New York, 10019

Tribute WTC Visitor Center

• 120 Liberty Street
• tel:+1 212 393 9160 x138 / +1 866 737 1184
• Visit website
• New York, 10006

Located within the Standard Oil Building, just south of the World Trade Center, the Tribute WTC Visitor Center was created in the wake of September 11, 2001. Tribute offers visitors to the World Trade Center site a place where they can connect with people from the September 11th community. Through walking tours, exhibits and programs, the Tribute WTC Visitor Center offers "Person to Person History," linking visitors who want to understand and appreciate these historic events with those who experienced them.

The space features interactive exhibits and five galleries that deal with different aspects of the 9/11 tragedy. All walking tours make five stops while traveling around the site. Most of the tour takes place indoors, traveling along the windows of the World Financial Center and looking out onto Ground Zero. Guides share key facts and reveal specific events of the day while weaving their personal experiences of survival, loss, and healing throughout the tour, giving visitors an unparalleled opportunity to connect with history first-hand. read more about Tribute WTC Visitor Center

St. Patrick's Cathedral

• 460 Madison Avenue
• Between 50th and 51st streets
• tel:+1 212 753 2261
• Visit website
• New York, 10022-6863

This massive cathedral, located at the corner of 50th Street and Fifth Avenue, is the largest decorated Neo-Gothic cathedral in North America, the seat of the Archdiocese of New York, and one of the city's most visited landmarks. Construction of the cathedral began in 1858, was halted for the duration of the American Civil War, and was finally completed in 1878. Its elaborate marble façade and 330-foot spires dwarfed the Midtown Manhattan of that time, and they still stand out today, even in a district packed with office buildings, shops, and tourist attractions, such as MoMA, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall.

Stand-out features of the cathedral's interior include the St. Michael and St. Louis altar, designed by Tiffany & Co., the St. Elizabeth altar, designed by Paolo Medici of Rome, and the stained glass windows. The spectacular rose window is acknowledged to be the finest work designed by Charles Connick, the 20th century genius in stained glass window design. The Archbishops of New York are buried in a crypt under the high altar, and their honorary hats, called galeros, hang from the ceiling over their tombs. St. Patrick's seats about 2,200 people, and every year more than three million visitors step inside its doors. read more about St. Patrick's Cathedral

Statue of Liberty

• Liberty Island
• On Liberty Island in New York Harbor
• tel:212-363-7620
• Visit website
• New York, 10004

This iconic copper statue was presented to the U.S. by France in 1886 as a commemoration of the U.S. centennial and a gesture of friendship between France and the U.S. Since then, it has stood at Liberty Island in New York Harbor as a welcome to all visitors, immigrants, and Americans returning from abroad. Construction of the statue, supervised by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and engineer Gustave Eiffel (mastermind of Paris's famous tower), began in France in 1875 and was completed in 1884, after which the statue was dismantled and transported across the Atlantic to be reassembled.

Lady Liberty stands approximately 151 feet tall and weighs 225 tons (450,000 pounds). Visitors used to be able to climb the 354 steps to peer at the view through the windows in her crown, but this option is no longer available. Currently, the museum and ten-story pedestal are open for visitation but are only accessible if visitors have a "Monument Access Pass" which is a reservation that visitors must make at least two days in advance of their visit and pick up before boarding the ferry. There are a maximum of 3000 passes available each day (with a total of 15,000 visitors to the island daily). read more about Statue of Liberty

Central Park

• 14 East 60th Street
• The Central Park Conservancy
• tel:+1 212 310 6600
• Visit website
• New York, 10022

The idea for Central Park was born in 1858, which a competition was held to choose a design for what would be the first public park built in America. The winners were Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, whose Greensward plan proposed an entirely man-made park that would be intended only for public use, as a refuge from the relentless rhythms of New York City's already overcrowded streets. It took more than 15 years and $14 million (the equivalent of about $200 million today) to build the Park, with its 843 acres and six-mile perimeter extending from Central Park West to Fifth Avenue and from 59th Street to 110th Street. Those 843 acres include 136 acres of woodlands, 250 acres of lawns, and 7 different bodies of water totaling some 150 acres.

Starting in 1980, a public-private partnership between New York City and the Central Park Conservancy restored and preserved Central Park, and attendance has only been rising in recent years. Now, more than 25 million visitors per year stroll its 58 miles of pedestrian paths, go horseback riding on 4.5 miles of bridle paths, bike or jog on its 6.5 miles of winding roads, or simply relax on the grass or on the nearly 9,000 benches provided. The famous Tavern on the Green restaurant - the location of the finish line for the New York City Marathon - was originally a sheepfold, housing the shepherd and the flock that grazed Sheeps Meadow until 1934. In nice weather, the still lush meadow now welcomes hordes of sunbathers, picnickers, and people-watchers, all of whom enjoy lounging underneath some of the only sky in Manhattan unmarked by tall buildings. Other special features of the park include the Central Park Carousel, the Marionette Theater, the Central Park Wildlife Center, the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, the Delacorte Theater, the Great Lawn, the Central Park Zoo, the Henry Luce Nature Observatory, Wollman Rink, Lasker Rink, the Loeb Boathouse, and the North Meadow. read more about Central Park

Ellis Island

• Ellis Island
• (in Hudson River)
• tel:+1 212 561 4588
• Visit website
• New York, 10004

Empire State Building

• 350 5th Avenue, Suite # 3210
• between 33rd and 34th Streets
• tel:+1 212 736 3100
• Visit website
• New York, 10118

This 102-story Art Deco skyscraper, located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street, has been one of New York's most notable landmarks since its completion in 1931. Built as part of an intense competition to build the world's tallest building, the Empire State Building overtook its rivals - 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building - to gain the distinction, which it held for four decades, before the World Trade Center towers were completed in 1971. With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City. It was designed by Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon.

The building's façade is classic, with modernistic stainless steel canopies marking the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets and leading to corridors surrounding a core of 67 elevators. Though the Chrysler Building is undoubtedly the more attractive of New York's two Art Deco towers, the Empire State Building has earned its reputation as a top destination largely due to the popularity of its indoor and outdoor observation decks. The outdoor observatory on the 86th floor, with its sweeping 360-degree views of the city, is one of the most popular in the world, and has been visited by more than 110 million people. The second observation deck, on the 102nd floor, is completely enclosed and much smaller, and it may be closed on days with especially high traffic. In addition to the observation spaces, the building has 85 stories (2,158,000 square feet) of commercial and office space. In 1964, floodlights were added to illuminate the top of the building at night; special colors are chosen to match seasonal and other events, such as Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, or victory by any one of New York's sports teams. read more about Empire State Building

Boathouse Central Park (The)

• East 72nd Street and Park Drive North
• Central Park Lake
• tel:1 212 517 2233
• Visit website
• New York, 10023

Rockefeller Center

• 47th to 51st streets
• Btwn 48th and 50th sts., from Fifth to Sixth aves
• tel:+1 212 332 6868 / +1 212 632 3975
• Visit website
• New York, 10112

A major commercial center covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, Rockefeller Center is one of the city's foremost shopping and entertainment destinations. Oil billionaire and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. leased the site from Columbia University in 1929 with plans to build a new home for the Metropolitan Opera. After the stock market crash of that year, plans were changed. Now, 19 buildings constructed in the Art Deco style house shops, restaurants, and offices, along with Radio City Music Hall.

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the 70-floor, 872-foot GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (aka "30 Rock") - formerly known as the RCA Building - centered behind the complex's sunken plaza. The building is the headquarters of NBC and houses most of the network's New York studios, including the legendary Studio 8H, home of Saturday Night Live. The windows of the studio where NBC's Today Show is filmed are usually mobbed by crowd jostling for a look of the show's hosts and guests. Tours of the NBC studios are also available, and many visitors choose to wait in line for tickets to one of the many shows taped in the building. read more about Rockefeller Center

Mandoo Bar

• 2 W. 32nd St
• Just west of Fifth Ave
• tel:212/279-3075
• Visit website
• New York, 10003

Metropolitan Museum of Art

• 1000 Fifth Ave
• Fifth Ave. at 82nd St
• tel:+1 212 535 7710
• Visit website
• New York, 10028-0198

Don't expect to fully take in all that this enormous museum has to offer in one visit. With the finest collection of American art in the world, a collection of more than 3,000 European paintings, an expansive array of art from ancient Egypt, and recently renovated halls of Greek, Roman, Cypriot, and Asian art, there is a reason the Metropolitan Museum is considered the foremost symbol of arts and culture in a city chock-full of arts and culture. Often referred to simply as "The Met", the museum is located on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, on the eastern edge of Central Park and at the center of the so-called "Museum Mile".

First opened in 1872, the Met has been significantly expanded over the years, and its permanent collection now contains more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. In addition to its giant holdings of American, European, Egyptian, African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art, the museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of notable interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries. The Met also organizes and hosts a continually changing series of special exhibitions each year. read more about Metropolitan Museum of Art

Morrell Wine Bar & Cafe

• 1 Rockefeller Plaza
• tel:1 212 262 7700
• Visit website
• New York, 10020

Carmine's

• 200 West 44th Street
• (Between 7th & 8th Avenues)
• tel:1 212 221 3800
• Visit website
• New York, 10036

Phantom of the Opera On Broadway

• 200 West 44th Street
• (Between 7th & 8th Avenues)
• Visit website
• New York City

Times Square

• 1560 Broadway, Between 46th & 47th streets
• tel:+1 212 768 1560 (Times Square Alliance)
• Visit website
• New York, 10036

Located at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Street, its glittering lights and neon signs make Times Square one of the most iconic sights of New York City. Formerly the property of fur trading and real estate tycoon John Jacob Astor, the square got its name in the early 1900s when the New York Times moved into a new skyscraper on 42nd Street. After new subways brought thousands of commuters to 42nd Street, the city's theaters moved up from the Bowery and lower Broadway, and the area is now the center of New York's bustling theater district.

In the decades after the Great Depression, Times Square became known as a dangerous neighborhood and a symbol of the city's decline and corruption from the 1960s to the 1990s. After a long-term development plan and a comprehensive crackdown on crime by the city government, the infamous center of pickpockets and porno theaters has been thoroughly reinvented and filled with more upscale and tourist-friendly attractions, hotels, vendors, and street performers. read more about Times Square