Im Coming To NYC Next Week...need assistance

[rsmith6621]

Bring my wife to the BIG APPLE next week. we will be there overnight arriving at around noon and departing in the early afternoon the 2nd day....

Our goal is to see the following.....day one

.....The Dakota home of John Lennon and Yoko Ono

.......Strawberry Field Park

........Ground Zero and a View of Lady Liberty

........Wall Street if possible.

The second day.

The Today Show at RC..Time Square...then back to LGA to head home

Can anyone help me with using the Subway system to get around with route numbers and transfer points...we will be staying out on Northern BLVD near LGA..



Thank you so much.

[Renew Deal]

1. Here's some info

I don't know where The Dakota or Strawberry Field Park are. Ground Zero is easy to get to on the Subway. You need to get off at the World Trade Center stop or nearby. You can walk to Wall Street from there. You can keep walking down to the park with a view of the Statue of Liberty. If you're down there and you have time, you should take the Staten Island Ferry. It goes by the Statue of Liberty and it's free.

All you need to do to get to Rockefeller Center is get off at a nearby stop and walk. Then you walk from RC to Times Square. It's only a few blocks. Just walk west to 7th Ave and you'll realize you're there.

The subway maps are here: http://mta.info/nyct/maps/submap.htm

You can also use http://maps.google.com. Find your location and look for the nearby subway. This will help you find what you need in Queens.

[rsmith6621]

2. Thanks..The..

Dakotas and Strawberry Fields are on 72nd and Central Park.

Im thinking the Dakotas SF first then Ground Zero,WS and Lady Liberty then back to the hotel.

Any idea on cost???

Thanks again

[Renew Deal]

3. You can buy a 1 day fun pass each day

$7.50

http://www.mta.info/metrocard/mcgtreng.htm#oneday

The Metrocard website might have some stuff you find interesting. http://mta.info/metrocard

[HamdenRice]

4. Hope this isn't too late, but here goes

Fortunately, some of the things you want to see are near each other and on the same train lines. To be honest, as a New Yorker, I'm not sure these are the things I would prioritize, but to each his own.

"The Dakota" is just a big, old apartment building that has been converted to co-ops for the super rich. It's at Central Park West and 72nd Street. You can take the C train uptown (which runs under Central Park West) to 72nd and you should be right there. Strawberry fields is not a separate park; it's just the part of Central Park near the Dakota that was dedicated to Lennon. It should be across the street from the Dakota.

You can take the C in reverse back downtown to the World Trade Center stop and you will be right at "ground zero" -- a hole in the ground. Wall Street will be just a few blocks to the east.

Radio City is on the F/D/B/ line -- called variously the 6th Avenue line IND. Get off at the 47th-50th Rockefeller Center stop. If you want to see Times Square, it is begins just a few blocks to the west from Rockefeller Center, at 8th Avenue, and you can turn downtown toward 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, which is the center of Times Square.

[Sanity Claws]

5. I agree with the information

but wanted to add that you can also take the B train to W. 72nd Street and Central Park West. B and C are locals that run on the same tracks north of 59th Street (Columbus Circle).

Where are you having dinner that night? There are lots of nice restaurants in the Upper West Side. If you visited the Dakota and Strawberry Fields after doing the downtown sites, you could have dinner on the UWS.

[HamdenRice]

6. A few more things

I just realized how certain information we take for granted would not be known to visitors.

Like the way the D/F/B is called the "6th Avenue Line" even though there is no 6th Avenue!

OK, there used to be a 6th Avenue, but its name was changed to "Avenue of the Americas." The subway under it is still called the Sixth Avenue Line.

IND means almost nothing now. It used to mean "Independent Trains" ie when the subways were owned by three different companies -- the Independent (IND), the Brooklyn-Manhattan Trains (BMT) and Inter-Borough Rapid Transit (IRT). For some reasons, the subway still uses these initials although they mean nothing, except for the fact that there tends to be many more transfer points between trains that are part of the same division than between trains that are in separate divisions; yeah, except there are just as many transfer points between BMT and IND as within. The divisions mainly distinguish the IRT trains, which have numbers instead of letters, can't run on the same tracks, and don't have many transfer points to the BMT or IND lines.

That trivia aside, I should have mentioned that "Central Park West" is a street that runs along the western boundary of Central Park. That's why the Dakota is right across the street from the park.

Lastly, when I visit a city, in addition to seeing the sites, I like to see how people live. A large proportion of New Yorkers live in small apartment buildings, especially "brownstones." While the OPer is near the Dakota, I hope he walks around the Upper West Side, side streets, to get a feel for that lifestyle. It is, however, an uncharacteristically wealthy neighborhood.

I would strongly urge the OPer to make the very short trip to Brooklyn, maybe Park Slope or Fort Green/Clinton Hill just to see what typical upper-middle and middle-middle class neighborhoods are like. What really distinguishes New York from any other American city is that pervasive, very dense, urban, but urbane lifestyle.