New York
From sunset panoramas to midnight cocktails, Sarah Riches explores the city that never sleeps
Native Americans settled in the area now known as New York City 13,000 years ago, long before the first European – Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – arrived in 1524.
The Dutch came next, establishing New Amsterdam in 1624, which the British seized 40 years later. Renaming it New York City, the land became one of 13 British colonies along the north-east coast.
Discontent with British rule prompted the American Revolution, resulting in the colonies gaining independence and George Washington becoming the first US president in 1789.
New York became the city we know today in 1898, when Manhattan joined forces with Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx. Immigration rocketed and today 8.3 million descendants from around the world live in the city’s five boroughs, making New York a multicultural metropolis.
Glide on the ice at the Rockefeller Center’s rink
Glide on the ice at the Rockefeller Center’s rink
Day 1
If this is your first time in the city, you may want to get your bearings and where better than the Empire State Building? Completed in 1931, the 443m skyscraper looms over Midtown Manhattan. Its 360° viewing platform on the 102nd floor offers a panorama stretching over Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and six states.
Been before? Visit the 70-storey Rockefeller Center and take in the views from the Top of the Rock before gliding on its outdoor ice rink at ground level. Alternatively, follow New Yorkers and head to the ice skating rink at the north end of Central Park.
Avoid the tourist crush at Times Square and go for sushi at Masa, a three-Michelin-star Japanese restaurant in Central Park’s south-western corner. If you have time to linger, reserve the Hinoki Counter Experience.
On chilly afternoons, stay cosy under blankets in a horse and carriage as you circle the park or explore on foot for the chance to spot raccoons among a dusting of snow. As the sun dips, look out for red-tailed hawks soaring in the marshmallow pink sky.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
Two of the city’s must-see art galleries, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, are close to the park.
Modern art fans can head south to the Whitney Museum of American Art,
a contemporary gallery designed by Renzo Piano in the once-gritty Meatpacking District.
The Whitney is at the southern end of the High Line, an elevated railway line that was transformed into a park in 2009. Modelled on Paris’s Promenade Plantée, native plants and contemporary works line the 2.3km walkway.
The High Line runs through Chelsea, which bursts with bars and restaurants. Order bulging tacos, Jamaican jerk chicken and doughnuts at Chelsea Market, a bustling food and music venue in a renovated biscuit factory, or listen to live music at Al Coro, a two-Michelin-star Italian restaurant. Dine on Sardinian dumplings and lemon verbena meringue. End your night over cocktails at Bathtub Gin, a 1920s-style speakeasy.
"The High Line runs
through Chelsea,
which bursts with
bars and restaurants"
Day 2
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum in the Financial District is a sobering start to the day, as it honours the 2,977 people who died on 11 September 2001 and those who risked their lives to help others. Pre-book to learn about the lead-up to the terrorist attacks, what happened on the day, how the site of the World Trade Centre was rebuilt and the event’s global repercussions.
Sit with your thoughts for a while in City Hall Park before continuing on foot to Chinatown where you can take a Manhattan Walking Tour. Discover the neighbourhood’s immigration history as you sample dumplings and honey-glazed barbecue pork, and visit a Chinese ice cream factory. The tour ends close to the Tenement Museum, a historic apartment block that offers a fascinating insight into working-class life for immigrants and migrants living in New York between the 1860s and 1930s.
Meander north through Sara D Roosevelt Park to The Bowery Hotel, where you can warm up in leather armchairs by a log fire before unwinding over Italian wine and black truffle gnocchi in Gemma on the ground floor.
If you still have energy, get tickets to enjoy Hamilton or Some Like it Hot on Broadway, or see the Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sarah Paulson star in Appropriate, a dark comedy about a family dealing with the secrets of their late father’s estate.
Still buzzing? Go for drinks in Hell’s Kitchen. Named after the commercial kitchens that supplied cargo ships in the 1800s, the up-and-coming neighbourhood is now known for its nightlife.
You may be in the city that never sleeps, but a whiskey nightcap at
On the Rocks is sure to induce a deep slumber.
Need to know
Visas: British citizens must apply for a visa or an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA)
in advance via www.esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta
Time zone: -5 hours GMT
Currency: £1 = US$1.20.
A subway trip costs $2.75, a cup
of coffee $5 and five-star hotel main course $35-$40.
What’s on: Listen to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet by the New York Philharmonic in David Geffen Hall (6–9 December) or watch the New York City Ballet perform The Nutcracker (1–31 December) in David H Koch Theatre.
What’s on the menu: You’ll find dishes from every corner of the globe here. For bagels try Russ
& Daughters, it has to be Katz’s Delicatessen for pastrami sandwiches, and for pizza it’s hard to beat Joe’s.
There’s fine dining in converted warehouses in Brooklyn, Michelin-starred menus in Midtown and stylish eateries
in Greenwich Village.
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