New York CIty in 3 days. See the top attractions in Manhattan!

New York City

At the end of our summer adventures in the USA we had to eventually fly back to Europe. With the Camp America programme our flights home were booked from NYC by default.

This turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to see The City. After all it is a ‘must see’ place for everyone visiting the States.

After a month of traveling we were pretty much out of funds so we had to mailny focus on top attractions and due to limited time we had to narrow down our plan pretty much just to Manhattan. A good thing is that when you are once in the city it is quite easy to move around using underground/subway and it is not hard to navigate around because the island is chequered with streets and avenues.

We decided to break it down to 3 major parts and we are going to describe them briefly below.

Statue of Liberty

NYC, Broadway

Manhattan

The most touristic, most vibrant and probably most crowded part is midtown and juicy yellow NYC cabs are everywhere. This is where you can find such landmarks as Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Empire State Building. Times Square is extremely busy both during the day and night. It is nice to go there at least twice to see how much it changes when the sun goes down. Thousands of neons and adverts light up the entire area.

NYC

Times Square on a daylight

Times Square by night

Walk around the midtown

During your walk around midtown you will come across such landmarks as St. Patricks Cathedral , Grand Central Terminal and Chrysler building. As it goes for Rockeffeler Center and Empire State Building, they are both great view points. As we could afford only one, we chose Empire State Building as it is well known all around the world.

It is famous for being the tallest structure on the planet for almost 40 years and it is an architectional pearl. You had probably seen it blown up in dozens of movies.

By the enterance there were a lot of guys trying to sell fast line tickets, saying that we are about to spent 3 hours in the line and our time upstairs will be limited. It was all lies. We were up on 86th floor in lass than 20 minutes with unlimited time and we payed only for a basic ticket. Anyway the view is as legandary as the building itself. We couldn’t stop taking pictures in every direction. For an extra fee you can go even higher to 102nd floor. Personally we were fully satisfied with 86th.

Grand Central Terminal

Chrysler building

St. Patricks Cathedral

Manhattan

Empire State Building

NYC panorama from 86th floor

Downtown

The second area is downtown. This is where you can find Wall Street, a business heart of the America. This is where you can find a scar of the city – the 9/11 Memorial. When we were there the new WTC was still under construction but I can tell downtown definitely has a lot to offer. One of the great landmarks in the neighbourhood is the Brooklyn Bridge. Walking across it was a truly fantastic experince but the constant flow of people make photographing a bit challenging.

Staten Island Ferry

We also took the free ferry to Staten Island. It departures quite often and we went there and back again after 5 minutes. As it was 09/10 we were provided with millitary boat escort. During the ride you experience an exceptional view of the famous New York Skyline. You can also catch a glimps of Statue of Liberty. I must say I was led to belive by the Hollywood productions that The Statue is HUGE. In fact it is not and it could had been my only disappointment in NYC. Well since we are on the downsides I did get quite tired with cars honking their horns ALL the time.

9/11 memorial

Brooklyn Bridge

Downtown seen from Brooklyn Bridge

Statue of Liberty seen from Staten island ferry

Statue of Liberty

Downtown seen from Staten island Ferry

Central Park

And last but not least – the green lungs of the city – Central Park. Most likely my personal best, especially on a warm, sunny day. Seems like people from the entire city are seeking for a moment of peace in this green sanctuary. If you are into sports you can enjoy variety of games in one of the specious meadows. The park is packed up with attractions, a zoo, the hackney rides, the venetian gondolas, you name it. Or maybe just a simple walk will do, too.

Natural History Museum

An extra sidekick to this area is the Natural History Museum which is just outside the park. Bottom floor is probable the least spectacular as you can find there mostly modern reconstructions but it gets a lot better further up with the compleate T-Rex skeleton as a crown jewel. Me from the past always wanted to be a paleontologist so it was kind of a big deal for me.