Manhattan





by Female Abroad



The majority of people will head into Manhattan and stay here as this is the part of the city that is most well known as being "New York". This is where you will find Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park, MET, Wall Street, Broadway, etc. With the major draws being here this is where most people will want to stay so they can "see" everything that you are expected to see when in New York.


This is also the smallest and most densely populated of the five boroughs so expect to see lots of people, tall sky scrappers close together, and lots of traffic. Within 30 minutes of being in the city I had my first truly New York experience; I was almost hit by a cab while crossing with the light as he was trying to cut through a crowd so he didn't miss the light. I just happened to be the first person in said crowd that he tried to get through.


Manhattan itself in broken down into three main sections that are then broken down even further:

  1. Upper / Uptown Manhattan: area around Central Park where you can find smaller tourist sites and lots of high society types. This is the place to be seen (and to spend money).
  2. Upper East Side: east side of central park
  3. Upper West Side: west side of central park
  4. Harlem: Top part of Central Park
  5. East / Spanish Harlem
  6. Marble Hill: sometimes considered part of the Bronx due to the newer Harlem River Ship Canal which cuts it off from Manhattan
  7. Inwood
  8. Washington Height


Lower / Downtown Manhattan: Southern part of Manhattan where you will find Wall Street, Ground Zero, Battery park, and the Brooklyn St Bridge.

  1. SoHo: South of the Hudson
  2. Meatpacking District
  3. West Village
  4. Greenwich Village
  5. Little Italy
  6. Nolita: North of Little Italy
  7. East Village
  8. Flatiron District
  9. Gramercy
  10. Peter Cooper Village / Stuyvesant Town
  11. Chelsea
  12. Union Square
  13. Tribeca
  14. Chinatown


Midtown: The middle part where you can find the well known tourist sites like NBC, Empire State building, etc.

  1. Central Business District
  2. Fifth Avenue: most expensive real estate in Manhattan
  3. Broadway Theatre District
  4. Sixth Avenue: headquarters for multiple US TV networks
  5. Hell's Kitchen
  6. some of Chelsea
  7. Murray hill
  8. Kips Bay
  9. Turtle Bay
  10. some of Gramercy Park


Now I could go into every little nook and cranny of New York and list what everything has to offer but this would be an extremely long post and you wouldn't read half of it. Instead I'll just focus on the general highlights of each area and if demand calls for it then in the future I will break this down into things to do in each area.



Uptown - Art & History



Apollo Theater: known for it's R&B as well as soul performances

The Cloisters: home to the MET's medieval art and architecture collections

Beacon Theater: classic vaudeville theater that hosts various concerts

American Museum of Natural History: largest collection of natural exhibits in the world (great for kids)

Park Avenue Armory: showcases various art and performances

Graffiti Hall of Fame

MOMA: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guggenheim Museum



Midtown - Tourist Central and Vaudeville Evolutions



Times Square

Empire State Building

Rockefeller Center (home to NBC) and Top of the Rock

United Nations

Grand Central Termina

l Madison Square Garden

s New York Public Library

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Broadway

TV show tapings - Jimmy Fallon, Today's Show, SNL, the Doctors, etc

Radio City Music Hall

Chrysler Building

Bryant Park

The Plaza, Waldorf Astoria, The Morgan

Pennsylvania Station

Flatiron Building

Carnegie Hall



Downtown / Lower Manhattan - All work with a bit of play



Wall Street

9/11 Memorial & Ground Zero

One World

Battery: a park that used to be were the city's artillery batteries were located

Woolworths Building: one of the first skyscrapers ever built

Washington Square Park: second most well known park after Central Park

Museum at Eldridge St: restored synagogue with history on the Jewish in New York

views of the Statue of Liberty