What could be the best definition of New York? New York is "everything in a large scale". It is a place to visit at least once in life.
It is unbelievable that this city has been built from scratch... There is a huge amount of cement and concrete, creating astonishing heights.
During its construction, the designers realized there were no green areas in the city, then they decided to build Central Park, which is a big park. BIG is the American philosophy: coffees are big, pizzas are big, the buildings are big, big portions, big shops...
Some tips
DOLLAR EXCHANGE
My advice is to exchange some dollars in your country and once there, try to use the credit card as much as possible; it is the most worthwhile way of paying.
The NY currency exchange offices do not offer good deals.
The best option is to use the credit card. Indeed, you will introduce the pin just once and it will be registered in the systems. Later you can use it in any place without pin code.
METRO CARD
It is very useful to go from one place to the other. The distances in New York are huge, so you will be grateful for having a metro to go everywhere.
It lasts 7 days and it costs around 30 $.
It cannot be used to go from the airport to the city. For that route you have to take the "air train" pay a separate ticket.
By the way, do not be surprised if you see a sign like the one in the picture below.
I did not see rats, but they are there.
FROM AIRPORT TO CITY CENTER
Take the airtrain from the airport to Jamaica station (or Federal circle Station). Once there, buy the metrocard into one of the machines (do not worry as there are staff helping people to buy it).
If you rented a car or a shuttle bus is coming to pick you up, then the airtrain stop is Federal Circle Station.
All the info regarding the airtrain can be found here.
NEW YORK CITY PASS
If you go 5-6 days, it is not worthy to buy it. It is very expensive, it includes tickets to visit museums which have free admission, it does not always help to skip the queues and you cannot visit all what the card includes because there is not time...
New York is huge and there are a lot of things to visit. If you make your own calculations, you will see it is worthy to buy separate tickets for the attractions you really want to visit instead of buying a card full of attractions that you are not interested in and you even do not have the time to visit them.
On the other hand, if you plan a long stay and you are interested in visiting museums, then you should buy this card.
Usually you would pay tickets for the Empire State, Rockefeller Center, Statue of Liberty and American Museum of Natural History (payment by donation) or any other museum. The rest of the day you are on the street, visiting different places.
Anyway, you can read here more reviews regarding this card.
There is also the New York City pass which includes only 6 visits, but it is much cheaper.
MUSEUMS
Before visiting any museum, find out the entry method as in some of them the ticket is by donation. There is an admin fee around $25 but it is just a suggested price, it means you pay what you consider.
SHOPPING
The brands Levi´s, Nike, Rebook, Apple, Converse, CK... are much cheaper in the USA.
If you want to buy shoes, I recommend the shop DSW as they have great deals. In general, there are many sports shops and all of them have the same prices so do not go across all of them.
I recommend these shops for electronic devices: J&R, B&H and Best Buy
Take care if you buy electronic devices as sometimes there is some police control in the arrival airport and if they find out, you have to pay the taxes in the country. Make sure you bring all your new stuff without any labels or box.
WI-FI
One can get free Wi-Fi in every Starbucks and, luckily, NY is full of them. Therefore, do not worry about the connection.
GROUPON
Download groupon app or check all the offers on-line before going there. You can find discounts for a route in helicopter, for renting bikes in Central Park or any other attractions...
I found deals on the same day using the Starbucks Wi-Fi.
FREE TOUR
You can join one of these free daily tours. They take place every day at 11:00 for 2 hours. You pay what you want once the tour is finished. It is good to know about the history and the most important things about the city.
DONUTS
When visiting Brooklyn, do not miss this great donut place.
There are plenty of Dunkin Donuts through all over the city, but the taste of the donuts in this place is delicious... They have opened another shop in Manhattan, so you can also go there.
PLUG
The standard voltage in Europe is 220 V but in the USA is 110 V. Thus, if you want to use a European device in the USA, you will need a voltage transformer and also an adapter as the plug has flat pings instead of round.
Quick solution: it is not a problem to connect your device to 110V, it will just take longer to charge but it is fine. The only thing you need is an adaptor like the one in the picture which you can buy in any small snack shop in New York, then you can charge your phone if you have the USB cable.
Social analysis
New York is split into 5 areas: Manhattan, Brooklyn, El Bronx, Queens y Staten Islands.
Manhattan is the most touristic area with the main attractions. It is also the capitalist part of New York, full of executives in a hurry who ignore anyone on their way. Indeed, during my stay there I made a social analysis: one person was recording a video and the other one was walking through the famous Grand Central station at the rush hour dancing and singing. People were coming from everywhere: from the right, from the left side, towards us... people avoided that person and just kept going with their hectic lives without even take a look to that crazy person dancing...
It is unbelievable to see the human beings immersed in their stressful and worrying lives with a selfish touch, ignoring the homeless around who are asking food... I guess that people did not behave like that in the past, but when you see the same scenery every day, you become indifferent. Anyway, this is another story to talk another day. Let´s focus in your visit!
Manhattan is quite safe, there are policemen everywhere BUT when you leave Manhattan, the situation is a bit different.
If you visit The Bronx or Harlem, take care where you go. I would not take the risk to be there at night or go into pubs that you do not know. You do not see many policemen on those areas.
Events
Buy the tickets in advance to get good deals and good seats.
BROADWAY
You cannot miss a musical in Broadway as they are one of the best in the world. I saw Aladine, it is one of the latest ones; the stage and the wardrobe were amazing.
You can buy the tickets in advance or just there, there are staff selling the tickets on the streets of Times Square.
NBA
In my opinion, it is really worth to see a live NBA match, even if it is a friendly match.
It is the game, the amazing environment between every rest time, the event is very lively, there are gifts, the camera making jokes with the audience, music.... Buy the tickets in advance.
It was not my case, but you can also see an ICE HOCKEY match which is played in the same stadium (Madison Square Garden). It is incredible how the pitch changes from one day to another.
BASEBALL
You can buy tickets to see the Yankees in the Yankee stadium.
If this is not the case, you can see friends or families playing baseball in Central Park on Sundays.
The Yankee Stadium is in The Bronx. If you are not going to see a match there or you do not buy a guided tour, I would not go there. There are not many policemen like in Manhattan and if you check the guide, there are no many recommended places to visit.
What is worth
There are plenty of webs where you can check all you can visit in New York, so I am not going to repeat the same, I only will give some advice regarding where you should spend your money and your time.
EMPIRE STATE
It is a must visit the Empire State. The views are amazing. It is really worth to go there. You can buy the ticket online, although I got it in the same day. If you are there at 08:00 a.m., you save your time of any queues.
You can go to the main deck (floor 86) or (paying a bit more) go to the Top deck (floor 102). Honestly, once in NY, you can easily get into the consumerist role and start paying for everything. You should visit what you really want to see and pay for it, and the rest omits it. From floor 86 you will take the same essence than from the top, but a bit lower, even though you are at 320 meters height. But of course, it is up to you.
By the way, enjoy the lift because in 45 seconds you will be already in floor 80.
ROCKEFELLER CENTER
The views are very similar than the ones in the Empire State.
I went to both, one during the day, the other one during the night.
I do not recommend going to both unless you have the chance to go at night and see the city in a different way.
STATUE OF LIBERTY
It is a must to go there. Buy the tickets in advance in the website only for the pedestal; it is not worth to go to the crown. The really amazing thing is to see the statue from outside. Once inside, you have to take a lot of steps. You have great views from the pedestal.
The same ferry takes you to the Staten Islands. To be honest, there are no many things to visit there (Tibetan museum, Garibaldi´s house during his exile from Italy, a zoo... Most of people unload there for the simple reason that it is free, but you will lose too much time.
CHINA TOWN & LITTLE ITALY
China Town and Little Italy are small areas one close to the other. The visit is quite quick and you do not lose too much time, although they are like any China Town or Little Italy from other countries.
TIP: Buy the souvenirs in China Town; they are the same than in Manhattan center but much cheaper.
It depends how much you like, you can visit the bar from the famous series FRIENDS.
The queue is quite long, so it depends if you are interested in seeing the bar inside.
You will not get bored in NY but, as I said before, you have to filter the visits and select the ones you are really interested because it is not possible to see everything.
UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
You can visit the United Nations building, but there is not much to see from the outside, neither in the area around. Therefore, I would skip the visit there, unless you want to go inside with a guided tour.
There are plenty of places which are not mentioned here, but you will find them.
Enjoy New York and do not worry if you cannot see everything, just enjoy the moment and the experience. Have a good trip!