Scotland

Being a twenty four hour city, a visitor may find that seven days in New York just isn’t enough time to take in everything it has to offer. One of the most important places to see is the Empire State Building; it has a facade that is famous around the world. Of course, many people prefer the view form the Rockefeller Center which is a little higher, but it can be difficult to see anything when there is bad weather. Another famous landmark, the Statue of Liberty cannot be seen properly unless it is from the river; however delays can be long here so if you are on a tight schedule, stop off at Ellis Island and view the statue from there.

As an alternative why not go to Staten Island via the free ferry and look at the Statue of Liberty from there; it is also worth walking around the terminal as well as there are many excellent street performers there. Without going to the site of where the World Trade Center Towers used to be no seven day visit to New York would feel right. It’s strangely moving location and the terrorist struck World Trade Centre site covers a huge area but it is a peculiarly unfriendly subject for the photographer. An emotionally lighter attraction is to visit some of the famous stores like Tiffany’s or the Lower East side area where there are numerous bargain warehouses to look around.

Whereas there are stores like Macey’s who are happy to take your tourist discount card and give you an eleven percent discount to the very exclusive Bloomingdales who probably won’t. An excellent tourist location is the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum which is likely to be closed until the end of 2008; once the refurbishment is complete it will be worth visiting when it re-opens. Many special (and large) craft are located here including a number from World War II, namely the aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid. Although it is actually free to enter, the NY City Police Museum is funded by donations from visitors (five dollars is the recommended amount); because it’s about New York’s finest (and some not so fine), it has some really excellent NYPD souvenirs.

Side Tenement Museum which captures the lives of immigrants to New York back in 1864 If you visit Central Park (and why wouldn’t you?) you can call into the Museum of New York City which has some excellent exhibitions about the past, present and future of the city. The museum is in a beautiful building which is free to enter but a nine dollar donation is normally given with plenty of souvenirs available.

It is all housed in a beautiful building and entrance is free but a nine dollar donation is recommended. Most visitors seem to be on a flying visit so end up missing some of the most beautiful areas and that’s why seven days in New York should really be the minimum stay.