The Basics
New York is big and fast and overwhelming until you realize it's on a grid, very logical and that most people are nice and willing to help as long as you're quick about it.
Rule No.1 -- walk to the right. If you need to meander or stop, step to the side. Don't walk three or four abreast unless the sidewalk's huge and no one's around. You must share.
Rule No. 2 -- speed it up. This goes for everything, including having your MetroCard out before you reach the turnstile, knowing what show you want to see when you get to the TKTS window, and just moving out of the way when you get off the elevator or to the top of the stairs. Got a question? Be concise. People are a) busy, b) don't want to get sucked into a scam, and c) irritated with slow tourists.
If you go to the Statue of Liberty, reserve a pass in advance. If you go up the Empire State Building, spend the extra $15 to get to the 102nd floor (in addition to the 86th like everyone else.)
A cab is for hire only if his numbered/lettered lights are lit on his roof. Let people exit the subway car before you push your way on. Be careful with your umbrellas, don't stand in the doorway letting cold air in while you decide whether you're coming or going, and fight the urge to eat and shop at the same dull chain restaurants and stores you've got at home. Spend your money at the interesting places so Manhattan doesn't turn into a generic Disneyfied strip mall. Thank you.
Price check: what the basics cost in NYC
Whether you see New York from a hotel penthouse or blow-up mattress, many of the basic costs apply to one and all. NewYorkology has updated the list of what some of the most popular shows, snacks and sights currently cost.
The list below covers basic full adult prices, excluding the extras and deals that can raise or lower the cost. There are always deals to be found (such as museum free hours and theater rush tickets,) but this list should give you an idea of the basic, walk-up prices:
The price of New York:
Subway or bus ride paid with a MetroCard - $2.25
Taxi flat fare between JFK Airport and Manhattan - $45 plus bridge/tunnel tolls and tip
Staten Island Ferry - free
Met Museum - $25
Museum of Modern Art - $25
Guggenheim Museum - $18
American Museum of Natural History - $19
Whitney Museum - $18
Bronx Zoo - $16
Empire State Building - $20.21
Top of the Rock - $25
“Lion King” on Broadway, orchestra seat - $159.75
“Madama Butterfly” at the Met Opera, prime orchestra - $222.50
Radio City Christmas Spectacular, orchestra seats - $110
New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, prime parquet - $76
NY Knicks, mezzanine level - $69.70
Jane’s Carousel at Brooklyn Bridge Park - $2
9/11 Memorial plaza - free
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December 9, 2011 12:35 PM Comments (1)
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NYC's (mostly free) summer concerts and film series
Here are links to the official sites for New York City's summer concerts, free outdoor film series and music and theater festivals. Most are free.
(This list will be updated. Please send along any missing ones.)
Central Park Summerstage
Shakespeare in the Park
Broadway Under the Stars
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Movies with a View at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
Harlem Meer Performance Festival
NY Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks
Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Free for All at Town Hall
JVC Jazz Festival
Washington Square Music Festival
River to River
East River Music Project
Seaport Music Festival
SpiegelWorld
Governors Island Concert Series
Folks on the Island
Governors Island
Celebrate Brooklyn
Met Opera Summer Concert
McCarren Park Pool
Siren Festival
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May 22, 2008 9:40 AM Comments (3)
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New York City tours and tour guides (official links)
(Updated October 2011)
Here are some of the outfits offering walking, bus and bike tours of New York. Free stuff's at the end. (The subject grouping isn't an exact science, as some who focus on architecture, may also do food walks and whatnot.) See the New York calendar page for some of the upcoming tours, or go directly to the following sights for complete offerings:
Art/architecture/history
Municipal Art Society
MoMA’s before- and after-hours tours
Open House New York
New York Transit Museum
Justin Ferate
Jack Eichenbaum’s Public Walks
Forgotten New York
Joyce Gold
Afoot Walking Tours
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
South Street Seaport Museum
Brooklyn Historical Society
Plymouth Church
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Tribute Center - WTC perimeter
Urban Oyster
Gotham Sidewalks
Food and drink
Institute of Culinary Education
Nosh Walks
City Food Tours
Chocolate Zoom
Literary pub crawl
Brooklyn Brewery
Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour
Scott’s Pizza Tours
Enthusiastic Gourmet
Food on Foot Tours
Music, movies and TV
On Location Tours
NBC Studio Tour
"Wicked" - behind the Emerald Curtain
Hip-Hop Hush Tours
Harlem Hip-Hop Tours
Big Apple Jazz Tours
Harlem Spirituals
Apollo Theater
Rocks Off Rock n Roll History walking tours
Carnegie Hall
Met Opera
Lincoln Center
Radio City Music Hall
General/multiple topics
Big Onion Walking Tours
92nd Street Y
NY Like a Native
Gray Line
City Sights NY
OnBoard Tours (formerly NY Party Shuttle)
Levys’ Unique NY
Walkin’ NY
A1 NYC Sightseeing
All City NY
Gotham Walking Tours
Uncle Sam's NY
Mike’s NYC Tours
Inside Out Tours
SideTour
Specialized
Ghosts of NY
PhotoTrek Tours
Photo Walk-abouts
Jewish Tours of New York
Hassidic walking tours
Made in Brooklyn Tours
Mafia Tour
NYC Mob Tour
Museum of Chinese in America
Audubon Society
"Wildman" Steve Brill
Algonquin Round Table Walking Tours
Mark Twain’s New York
Surveillance Camera Outdoor Walking Tours
A Tour Grows in Brooklyn
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July 22, 2007 9:31 AM
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Emergency resources travel links for NYC
(Updated October 2011)
Should something go boom in the night, here's a list of web links and Twitter accounts you may want handy:
Notify NYC - official info from the Office of Emergency Management
NYC.gov - NYC's official website
NY1 - stripped-down local headlines
MTA service alerts - disruptions to subway, bus, LIRR Metro-North
NJ Transit alerts
Amtrak alerts
New York airports - links to all airports, general updates
All airlines at JFK - Official links, phones, terminal locations
All airlines at LaGuardia - Official links, phones, terminal info
All airlines at Newark - Official links, phones, terminal locations
TSA - main site of the U.S. Transportation Security Admin.
TSA prohibited items - things not allowed on planes
Port Authority resources - bus lines at Port Authority on 42nd St. and 8th Ave.
NewYorkology has built two Twitter lists that can be helpful in finding information during emergencies:
NYC headlines
NYC official alerts on Twitter
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June 30, 2007 12:26 PM Comments (0)
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Met’s closed Mondays, MoMA’s out Tuesdays - and more
 (Updated January 2010)
Oh dear tourists, plan wisely.
Here is the current list of New York City's major museums and attractions closed on Mondays -- and other days. Holidays are the exception; some (like the Met and MoMA,) open extra days, others close.
Closed Monday
American Folk Art Museum
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Museum
Bronx Museum
Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Frick Collection
Hispanic Society of America
International Center of Photography
Louis Armstrong House
Met Museum of Art and Cloisters
Morgan Museum
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum (and all of August)
Museum of Biblical Art
Museum of the City of New York
National Academy
New York Botanical Garden
NYC Fire Museum
New-York Historical Society
New York Transit Museum
Noguchi Museum
Skyscraper Museum
Society of Illustrators
Studio Museum of Harlem
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
Ukrainian Museum
Wave Hill
Whitney Museum of American Art
Closed Tuesday
Museum of Modern Art
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Museum
Bronx Museum
Merchant’s House Museum
National Academy
Neue Galerie
Noguchi Museum
P.S. MoMA
Rubin Museum
Skyscraper Museum
Studio Museum of Harlem
Ukrainian Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art
Closed Wednesday
Bronx Museum
Merchant’s House Museum
Neue Galerie
P.S. MoMA
Jewish Museum
Closed Thursday
Guggenheim
Closed Friday
Closed Saturday
Museum of Jewish Heritage
Federal Hall
Closed Sunday
Fraunces Tavern Museum
NYC Police Museum
Federal Hall
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
Update: This post was updated to include the new hours at the Jewish Museum, the Bronx Museum, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Fraunces Tavern Museum and Museum of Chinese in America. The Museum of the Moving Image is closed for renovations except for its "Behind the Screen" exhibition; el Museo del Barrio is also closed for renovations. The Dahesh Museum is also closed.
Earlier: Free museum hours in New York City
April 22, 2007 12:04 PM Comments (0)
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10 ways to screw up your trip to New York City
(Please note this story is from 2006, but the basic principles are still valid.)
Last weekend the New York Times took a stab at a few of the obvious ways to mess up your vacation to NYC -- drive here and pay for parking, stay in Midtown, and pay full-price for theater tickets.
NewYorkology would like to add a few more:
1. Book your stay at a hotel that hasn't yet opened, such as the Hotel Mela. Sure media outlets such as The Scotsman, (No 1. on its list of "20 ...cool things to do in New York this Christmas,") and The Times of London ("Hotel Mela opened last month, ...") are raving about the new boutique hotel off Times Square, but it's not opening at least until January 2007. (A hotel rep is posting on a TripAdvisor forum explaining he's trying to reach people who booked for December.) Or you could have paid $700 a night to climb over ladders at the London NYC even after it was officially opened. (Update: Hotel Mela opened in Jan. 2007)
 2. An excellent way to ruin your trip to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island is to show up in the afternoon to discover a) the only way to get inside the statue or its museum is to book in advance or show up right at 8:30 a.m. and get the special (free) passes before they're gone; and, b) realize that that by showing up late in the day, it’s nearly impossible to do both Ellis and the Statue of Liberty. (Update: All interior sections of the Statue of Liberty will be closed from Oct. 29, 2011 to September 2012 for safety upgrades including work on the stairwell to the crown.)
3. Plan to save a lot of cash by taking all your family's heavy luggage with you on AirTrain from JFK to the subway and not worrying that you may have to transfer a couple times -- often up and down stairs. Update: To clarify: It's fine with some luggage, but unpleasant if you have excess baggage.
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December 6, 2006 9:07 AM Comments (1)
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NewYorkology Basics: New York City subway
(Updated June 2009)
New York City’s subway is more than a century old and carries 4.5 million on an average weekday on its 26 lines. It operates 24 hours a day, though service is less frequent at night, on weekends and some holidays.
 Despite a few random exceptions, the subways are safe and remain the most efficient way to get around. The most important thing to know about taking the subway is whether your destination is uptown, (north) or downtown (south) from your starting point. Some lines run local and others run express (skipping some stations, and thus covering more ground quickly.)
The base subway fare is $2.25 no matter how far you want to go. You can transfer as many times as you like, as long as your don't exit through a turnstile. You'll need a MetroCard (also good for city buses,) which you can purchase in the subway stations and at some shops. You can pay per ride or buy daily, weekly or monthly transit passes. If you're only taking the subway a few times, you may only want to put just a few dollars on your subway card. But if you make three or more trips in a day, you’ll want some type of unlimited card.
Here is a link to the MTA's subway map, which are posted in all stations, and copies are often available for free. (An easy way to see if your map is current is to make sure there's no red 9 line on it as it was permanently put out of service in May 2005.)
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October 17, 2005 4:40 PM Comments (0)
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NewYorkology Basics: Taxi cabs
(Updated October 2011)
There are more than 13,000 licensed yellow cabs in New York City. Additionally, there are thousands of limo and car service company drivers, who are only allowed to pick up passengers who call for a pick-up, rather than wrangling them at the airport or stopping when hailed on the street.
With exceptions, cab drivers are basically honest and can be trusted to know the best routes in Manhattan and to the airports. But if your destination is in an outer borough, you'll most likely need directions for your driver. And if you're starting on an outer borough, you'll have a harder time finding a cab at all, let alone one that hasn't set his "not in service" light on in order to dash back to more lucrative Manhattan.
There is no additional charge for luggage, though there are automatic surcharges for night service, rush hours, bridge and tunnel tolls and any trips to Newark Airport across the Hudson in New Jersey.
To determine if a cab is available, look on top of the roof and you will see the cab's registration number and text that says "not in service." If only the cab's numbers are lit, that means he's available. If the lights are completely off it means he already has a passenger and cannot take you. If only the "not in service" lights are lit, it means he doesn't have to take you. However, some cabbies may still take you if they happen to be at the end of their shift and your destination is on the way to where they're headed.
How to hail a cab: stand at a corner, the edge of the curb, just out in the street or between parked cars – any spot that is safe but still a good spot for the cabbies to see you. Raise your hand immediately for a cab even if no cabs are coming. This marks your territory like a junkyard dog. If someone is already waiting for a cab there, at minimum you should cross to another corner or go at least half a block or a block away. Be courteous but competitive. Most of the time all you need to do is raise your hand and you'll get a cab.
Tipping is pretty much required. Depending on the time and distance covered, tip at least a couple dollars per ride and closer to $10 for an airport trip. Pay in cash or by credit card. You can override the suggested tip amount on the credit card machine. “Yes, offering a 20 percent, 25 percent or 30 option is like asking whether the service was awesome, super-awesome, or super-fantastic-platinum-with-kittens-awesome,” as the Wall Street Journal observed.
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October 17, 2005 3:41 PM Comments (1)
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NewYorkology Basics: Walking
(Updated October 2011)
You might think you know how to walk, but you don't.
You've maybe heard New York has a "rhythm." Part of it has to do with the walk. In general, it's fast, in a straight line and almost never more than two abreast. This actually has a lot to do with courtesy.
 Walking in New York is like driving a freeway. When walking, you don't have turn signals, but New Yorkers watch your eyes and body language to figure out if you're going right or left. You'll be surprised how quickly you pick it up if you pay attention.
Some other key tips: Stay to the right on stairs, escalators and sidewalks. When you exit the stairs or elevator, keep moving so the people behind you don't get stuck. Step to the side then figure out which direction you need to go. When you need to gawk at a building, check a map or stand and chat, try to move out of the traffic flow -- either to the side or next to a phone booth, trash can, etc.
For your amusement:
The Tourist Lane (Improv Everywhere)
Street art etiquette signs (pictured)
"How to Walk in New York" (The Morning News)
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April 12, 2003 1:45 PM Comments (3)
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NewYorkology Basics: Times Square
(Updated October 2011)
This is quintessential, stereotypical New York, one of the best places to stand and gawk and feel yourself amid a sea of humanity converging from every edge of the globe. Though you should know that most people who live in New York avoid this place whenever possible. That crush of people you feel is made up of other tourists - and locals rushing to the trains to get out as fast as possible. And while it's been "cleaned up," it's also been taken over by huge chain stores, losing some of its unique character.
For events and discounts at area businesses, see the Times Square Alliance website.
More resources:
New Year's Eve in Times Square.
Midtown Lunch’s map of cheap eats in the neighborhood.
TKTS booth with authorized discounted theater tickets
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February 10, 2003 5:35 PM Comments (0)
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