The Basics

NYC price check: what the basics cost right now

November 24, 2008 12:25 PM Comments (0)

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NYC's (mostly free) summer concerts and film series

May 22, 2008 9:40 AM Comments (2)

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Q: Is the NYC Explorer Pass a bargain? A: No

(Update: An NYC Explorer Pass representative e-mailed a full reply, printed below.)

NewYorkology has never been a fan of the NYC Explorer Pass, and even less so now that its advertising pitch is makes it seem like the card-holders can cut lines (asterisks included.)

And while the pass can save you money under certain circumstances, it's not a sure thing. The new Explorer Pass lets you choose any five activities for $109 (or $69 for children under 12;) or any three for $69, (or $39 for kids.) Here are the options - with regular prices listed:

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - True, the Explorer Pass lets you skip the ticket line for the ferry (which you could do anyway by purchasing online and printing out your tickets,) but you still have to stand in all the other lines. But the serious flaw here, is that they do not give you a free monument pass, which is the only way to get into the Statue of Liberty museum and onto its pedestal. In addition, they don't warn you anywhere about this, unless you pick up the phone and grill them (like NewYorkology just did.) Normal price: $11.50 adults; $4.50 kids.

Top of the Rock Observation Deck VIP Entry -- If you book your timed-entry tickets in advance, it's just like getting VIP access because Top of the Rock is so well run that you never notice that you're in line for the few minutes you actually are, because you're wandering through their mini-museum. Regular price: $17.50 adults; $11.25 for kids.

Metropolitan Museum of Art VIP Entry - At most times, the line you have to stand in for so-called "VIP entry" is nearly equal to the regular entry line. The regular $20 admission to the Met is by suggested donation, meaning that you can pay just a penny. (More free NY museum hours here.)

Museum of Modern Art VIP Entry - MoMA is normally $20 for adults, except Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. when it's free to everyone. However, the Explorer Pass thinks sending you to the information desk for entry counts as VIP. Hardly. (If you want real VIP MoMA, book a before-hours or after-hours private tour for $50 or $60.)

Gateway to America Water Taxi tour w/bonus 2-Day Hop-on/Hop-off pass -- Dollar-wise, this is a good deal since the one-hour tour normally costs $20 per adult and $12 for kids and the hop-on/hop-off pass is usually $25/$15. However, no one tells you the Water Taxi only runs one to two boats an hour and on weekends they're frequently too full to pick up all the passengers waiting, and the top outdoor deck fills up even faster. Also, their "schedules" are broken. But once you're on, they're great boats and a nice ride.

Hop-on/Hop-off Double Decker Tour - If you want to sit on a bus and listen to some possibly-factual narration, the Explorer Pass lets you choose one of these: CitySights NY Downtown (normally $37/27,) or Uptown ($37/$27,) or All Around Town ($49/$39,) or the Night Tour ($37/$27.)

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September 19, 2007 1:10 PM Comments (0)

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New York City tours and tour guides (official links)

(Updated April 2009)

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
ARTalks
Open House New York
New York Transit Museum
Justin Ferate
Francis Morrone
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

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

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
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
NY Party Shuttle Tours
Levys’ Unique NY
Walkin’ NY
A1 NYC Sightseeing
All City NY
Gotham Walking Tours

Specialized
Ghosts of NY
PhotoTrek Tours
Photo Walk-abouts
Captain Bob's Coney Island
East Village Walking Tours
Jewish Tours of New York
Hassidic walking tours
Museum of the Chinese in Americas
Audubon Society
"Wildman" Steve Brill
Algonquin Round Table Walking Tours
Shop N Strip lingerie tour
Surveillance Camera Outdoor Walking Tours
A Tour Grows in Brooklyn

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July 22, 2007 9:31 AM Comments (0)

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Emergency resources travel links for NYC

Security has been beefed up in New York City in response to the car bombs found in London (and now possibly the Glasgow airport.) Here's an updated list of in-case-of-emergency links to bookmark for NYC.

NYC.gov - NYC's official website
NY1 - stripped-down local headlines
MTA service alerts - sudden halts to subway, bus and LIRR
MTA diversions - planned rerouting for construction
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
NY bus list - lines at Port Authority on 42nd St. and 8th Ave.

June 30, 2007 12:26 PM Comments (0)

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Met’s closed Mondays, MoMA’s out Tuesdays - and more

(Updated July 2009)

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 Sex
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: Spring's 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

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.

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.

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.

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December 6, 2006 9:07 AM Comments (0)

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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 $2.50 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 March 2007)

There are more than 12,000 licensed yellow cab drivers 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.

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.

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.

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. Tip at least a dollar or two per ride and closer to $10 for an airport trip. Pay in cash, though credit card machines are coming. When you get out of the cab, be sure to look around on the seat and floor. Ask for your receipt at the end of the ride and you'll have the cab number, making it possible to retrieve items you forgot in the cab.

More taxi tips can be found at the official New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission passenger guide.

Elsewhere on NewYorkology:
Stuck-in-traffic taxi rates rise Nov. 30; and $45 to JFK
Pricing a cab ride from LaGuardia to Manhattan
NewYorkology Basics: From the airport to Manhattan

October 17, 2005 3:41 PM Comments (1)

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NewYorkology Basics: Walking

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.

Plan on doing a lot of walking when you are here, even start a daily walking routine at home before your visit. Also check out the very funny guide "How to Walk in New York" at The Morning News.

(Updated November 2006)

April 12, 2003 1:45 PM Comments (3)

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