New York / New Jersey Itinerary recommendations

[kprm77]

I'll be going to the US over Easter with the family. Mrs kprm77 and I have been before in 2005 so have an idea of what to see, but I'd be interested to hear if there are any other less obvious places worth seeing.

We are there for 8 nights, so plenty of time to do Manhattan and some other bits. Our trip will encompass Manhattan and New Jersey as we will be staying in Secaucus. (30 minute bus ride from the hotel to the Port Authority Terminal which is very close to Times Sqaure). Here are some of the things already on the itinerary:

Top of the Rock
Central Park
Empire State Building (if there first thing)
Helicopter ride - ruled this out as way too expensive
Cruise round Manhattan
Visit Hoboken
Liberty Park & Ellis Island from Jersey side
Battery Park
Staten Island Ferry
WTC memorial
Intrepid
Walk over Brooklyn Bridge
Natural History Museum

I will be hiring a car at some point so we can explore the less touristy bits of New York state and New Jersey. Anyone know anywhere worth a visit?

There is a disused railway in Manhattan that you can walk down - have seen this on TV a few months ago - anyone know where this is and where to get access to it?

Edited by kprm77 on Tuesday 12th March 10:15

[kprm77]

chazola said:

The disused railway line park is the high-line: http://www.thehighline.org/

The ESB is good at night too- when I've gone there later in the evening there's been hardly any queue and the view of the city at night is great.

New Jersey isn't a very interesting state. My ex in-laws lived there and it was just suburbs in the way before you got to New York.
New York state has some nice bits like the Catskills and if you drive south Philadelphia is about 1 & 1/2 hours away with all it's 1776 links and Art Museum etc. Further out west you have Lancaster county with the Amish communities.

Thanks for the link chazola

I'll look into the Catskills and Philadelphia.

[kprm77]

furtive said:

Liberty Park & Ellis Island are still closed following Hurricane Sandy (at least they were when I was there a couple of weeks ago)

Poo - thanks for the heads up. I'll check before we go. Shame if they're still closed - get a great view from Liberty Park from what I can see, and apparently the queues for Ellis Island are a lot shorter on the New Jersey side. I know Staten Island got heavily battered - hope they're getting the help they need to get back on their feet.

[kprm77]

Thanks for all the replies. Following up on the leads

Just found out through Autocar that the New York Motor Show is on whilst we are there - we should just be able to catch the first public day.

Last motor show I went to I sat in a newly released Scimitar SS1 - so it was a couple of years or so since I last graced a motor show