How To Prepare Your NYC Visit
Sightseeing in NY is difficult since the city has simply too many „must-sees”. That’s why I would like to introduce you to it gradually, so that your trip to NY becomes not only a cherished memory for you but also won’t become accompanied by a sentence: „Had we only known, we would have planned it differently”.
1. Don’t make a too detailed visiting plan. This is perhaps the most important advice I can give you. I know you are ambitious, but you simply won’t be able to see everything. I have been living here for over a year now (and I came here a couple of times before that) and I still didn’t set my foot in many districts. Getting to each takes time, and getting to know them takes up even more. A too detailed visit plan will cause you to run around NYC in a fever, instead of simply enjoying the city.
2. It’s best to visit the city by the district. This is a really big city and it may overwhelm you at first. Even with a good plan, you will quickly discover that things you have planned to see are in fact much farther from one another than you assumed they were. First of all, you should look at the map (preferably a subway map) and circle all the places you need to see (like Times Square or World Trade Center, of which I will write more in my upcoming posts). In order not to lose too much time for moving around the city, you should visit it by the district – preferably one or two districts a day.
3. Do your NYC sightseeing on foot. The best way to get to know NYC is to choose 2-3 things to see in a particular part of town, get there on the subway, and then simply wander around the district. In order to feel the true soul of the city, you should walk as much as possible, look at your map as rarely as you can, and simply observe what’s going on in the street, since it’s there that the real New York life is taking place (I wrote about it some time ago). Of course, you will remember many places you have seen in the movies – that’s why you come to NYC in the first place. But believe me, what will really stay in your hearts, are the scenes from NYC streets. The street, not Times Square, is real NYC for me.
4. Get a pair of really comfortable shoes. That’s the absolutely essential thing you should get prior to arriving here (you will recall these words). Don’t ignore this advice. And when you’re packing for the trip, remember that layers work best in this city – it is located next to the Ocean and temperature can change drastically day by day. Added to that is the difference of outside temperature and temperature on the subway. You better dress in layers and remove/add one every once in a while, instead of cooking yourself or freezing in biting cold.