First Time in New York: What Locals Actually Tell Their Friends
Where to stay, which landmarks are worth the line, how the subway works now that it is all tap to pay, what to tip, what to skip, and a three day plan.
Here is what New Yorkers actually tell friends visiting for the first time: stay downtown or just across the river instead of in Times Square, do two big sights a day at most, take the subway everywhere (it is $3 a ride and you just tap your card), and spend at least one afternoon in a neighborhood with no famous attraction at all. The landmarks are worth it if you do them at the right hour. The city, though, is in the blocks between them.
This guide covers where to stay, the handful of sights that earn their line and how to do each one well, subway and airport basics, tipping, what to skip, and a three day plan you can steal.
At a glance.
- 01The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe one museum to prioritize if you only do one
- 06Top of the RockThe view includes the Empire State Building and Central Park
- 05Brooklyn BridgeWalk from Manhattan to Brooklyn for the skyline view
- 09Katz's DelicatessenHand cut pastrami on rye, big enough for two
- Cost
- Subway rides are $3 and cap at $35 in any seven days
- Getting there
- From LaGuardia, the Q70 bus to the subway is free
Where to stay
Neighborhood matters more than hotel. You will come home tired every night, so pick somewhere you want to walk around at 10 p.m.
Lower East Side and East Village. Dense with bars, restaurants and late-night food, walkable to SoHo and Chinatown, and connected by the F, J, M and L trains. Noisy on weekends. Start with our Lower East Side guide.
West Village and Chelsea. The prettiest streets in Manhattan, the High Line and the Hudson River path at your door, and an easy ride to everything. Expensive, and hotels are fewer. See our West Village guide.
Midtown. The most convenient base for Broadway, Rockefeller Center and the Museum of Modern Art, and hotels are plentiful. The tradeoff is that the streets empty of anything local after dark. If you stay here, pick the east side (Murray Hill, near Grand Central) over the blocks around Times Square.
Upper West Side. Quiet, residential, next to Central Park and the Natural History Museum, and a straight shot downtown on the 1, 2 and 3. Good for families and slower trips.
Williamsburg and Long Island City. One or two subway stops from Manhattan, often cheaper, with better views of the skyline than you get from inside it. Williamsburg has the nightlife; Long Island City has the quickest ride to Midtown. Our Williamsburg guide has the details.
Getting around
The subway. The fare is $3. You do not need to buy anything: tap a contactless credit card or your phone on the OMNY reader at the turnstile. Use the same card or phone for every ride and the fare caps at $35 in any seven days, after which rides are free. Each person in your group needs their own card or phone to get the cap. MetroCards are being phased out.
A few rules locals follow without thinking. Check whether a train is local or express before you board. Let people off before you get on. Do not stop at the top of the stairs to look at your phone. Use Google Maps or the MTA's own app for directions; both handle transfers and service changes well. Trains run 24 hours, but late at night and on weekends, check for service changes before you go.
From the airports. From LaGuardia, the Q70 LaGuardia Link bus is free and runs to the subway at Jackson Heights and Woodside, so the whole trip into Manhattan costs one $3 subway fare. From JFK, the AirTrain to Jamaica or Howard Beach is $8.75 one way, then the subway or the Long Island Rail Road into the city. A yellow cab from JFK to Manhattan runs on a flat fare plus tolls and surcharges, so check the current total before you get in.
Walking. Manhattan above 14th Street is a grid: streets run east to west, avenues north to south, and about 20 street blocks make a mile. Downtown below 14th Street the grid breaks, and the West Village especially will get you lost. That is part of the point.
Tipping and money
Tip about 18 to 22 percent at sit-down restaurants, on the pre-tax total. At a bar, $1 to $2 per drink or 20 percent on a tab. Taxis and rideshares, 15 to 20 percent. Hotel porters, a few dollars per bag. Tip jars at counters are optional. Sales tax on restaurant bills and most purchases is 8.875 percent, so menu prices are never the final number. Almost everywhere takes cards, but carry a little cash for older bars, some pizza counters and street vendors.
The landmarks worth doing, and how to do them well
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The one museum to prioritize if you only do one. Go on a Friday or Saturday, when it is open until 9 p.m., and pick two or three galleries instead of trying to see everything. Adults from outside New York pay $30, and the ticket also gets you into the Met Cloisters the same day. Closed Wednesdays. Our Met survival guide has the routes.
Go for: the Temple of Dendur, then the rooftop garden in season. Know before you go: use the 81st Street entrance to skip the front-steps crowd.
Enter at the Met, walk west across the park to the Natural History Museum, and you will pass the best of it: the Great Lawn, Belvedere Castle and the Ramble. Bethesda Terrace and the Mall are south of that walk and worth the detour. Skip the horse carriages and the pedicab sales pitches at 59th Street.
Go for: a weekday morning walk from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West. Know before you go: the park is huge; wear real shoes.
Only one company, Statue City Cruises, is authorized to land on Liberty and Ellis Islands, and an adult ferry ticket is $26, with pedestal or crown access for 30 cents more. Crown tickets are limited and sell out weeks ahead. Anyone selling "Statue tours" on the sidewalk in Battery Park is selling something else. If you only want to see the statue, not visit it, ride the free Staten Island Ferry instead.
Go for: the first boat of the morning and Ellis Island's immigration museum. Know before you go: there is airport-style security before boarding; budget most of a day.
The memorial pools are free and open to all, and they are the most affecting place in lower Manhattan. The museum below is powerful and heavy, and takes two to three hours. Adult admission is $36; on Mondays from 5:30 to 7 p.m. it is free with a ticket released that morning at 7 a.m.
Go for: the pools at dusk, even if you skip the museum. Know before you go: book museum tickets ahead in summer and around holidays.
Walk it from Manhattan to Brooklyn so the skyline is behind you when you turn around, then come down into DUMBO for the waterfront. Go early in the morning or around sunset; midday it is a slow shuffle. Stay in the pedestrian lane. Our DUMBO guide covers what is on the other side.
Go for: a 7 a.m. crossing. Know before you go: the walk is a little over a mile and takes 30 to 40 minutes with photo stops.
If you do one observation deck, do this one, because the view includes the Empire State Building and all of Central Park. Tickets are timed and priced by demand, and sunset slots sell out first. Book directly through Rockefeller Center. For free and cheaper vantage points, see our best views in NYC.
Go for: the slot about 30 minutes before sunset. Know before you go: stay after dark for the lights coming on.
A park on an old elevated freight line, running from the Meatpacking District to Hudson Yards. It is open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. from April through November. Walk it north, then come down at 14th Street for Chelsea Market or at 23rd Street for the Chelsea galleries.
Go for: the morning, before the crowds. Know before you go: it is narrow and one-way in places; weekend afternoons crawl.
Stand in the main concourse and look up at the constellation ceiling, then go downstairs to the tiled arches outside the Oyster Bar, where two people in opposite corners can hear each other whisper. The Oyster Bar itself is open weekdays for lunch and dinner and closed on weekends.
Go for: a dozen oysters at the counter. Know before you go: the terminal is open daily from 5:15 a.m.
Where to eat without thinking too hard
The rule for a first visit is to eat things New York does better than your hometown, at counters and old institutions, and to never eat in Times Square. A few places that deliver every time:
Pastrami on rye, hand-cut at the counter. You get a paper ticket at the door; do not lose it. The sandwich is about $29 on the current menu and big enough for two, so share one and add a hot dog.
Go for: pastrami on rye with a pickle. Know before you go: tip the cutter a dollar or two and you get a taste while he slices.
For the rest of the list, start with our best pizza slices, best bagels and cheap eats guides. A bagel for breakfast, a slice for lunch, and a real dinner somewhere you booked ahead is the correct rhythm.
What to skip
Times Square, beyond one look. Walk through once at night, then leave. Restaurants there are chains at a premium.
Costumed characters. They expect money for photos, sometimes aggressively.
Street ticket sellers. For the Statue, for comedy clubs, for bus tours. Buy directly.
Overpacking your days. Two big sights a day is plenty. The best moments on a first trip are almost always unplanned ones in a neighborhood.
Paying full price for Broadway without checking. Rush tickets, digital lotteries and the TKTS booth can cut the price hard. Our cheap Broadway tickets guide explains how.
A three day plan
Day one: downtown and the harbor. First boat to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from Battery Park. Back in Manhattan by early afternoon for the 9/11 Memorial pools. Late lunch at Katz's or in Chinatown (see our Chinatown guide). Walk the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset into DUMBO, dinner in Brooklyn, subway home.
Day two: uptown. The Met when it opens at 10 a.m., two or three galleries only. Walk west across Central Park. Lunch on the Upper West Side. Afternoon at the Natural History Museum or a nap. Evening in Midtown: Top of the Rock at sunset, then a Broadway show or a comedy set.
Day three: pick a neighborhood. The High Line in the morning, Chelsea Market for lunch, then an afternoon getting lost in the West Village. Dinner and a jazz set in the Village. If it is a weekend, swap in Williamsburg, or take the 7 train to Jackson Heights and Flushing for the best food in the city.
The Shout NY take
The landmarks are real, and seeing the Statue from the water or the city from 70 floors up is worth doing once. But the trip people remember is the one where they found their own bar, their own bagel and their own block. Do two big things a day, take the subway, eat at counters, and leave room to wander. For more ideas once you have the basics down, see our free things to do in NYC.
Questions, answered.
- How many days do you need in NYC for a first visit?
- Three full days covers the essentials without sprinting: one day downtown (harbor, 9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn Bridge), one day uptown (the Met and Central Park), and one day for a neighborhood you pick plus a show. Four or five days lets you add Brooklyn or Queens properly.
- How much is the subway in NYC in 2026?
- The fare is $3 a ride as of January 2026. Tap a contactless card or phone at the turnstile (OMNY). Use the same card all week and you will never pay more than $35 in seven days on subways and local buses. MetroCards are being phased out.
- What is the best area to stay in NYC for first-timers?
- Midtown is the most convenient for sightseeing but the least pleasant to come home to. For a better trip, stay downtown (Lower East Side, West Village, Chelsea) or in Williamsburg or Long Island City, which are one or two subway stops from Manhattan and usually cheaper.
- How much should you tip in New York?
- About 18 to 22 percent at sit-down restaurants, $1 to $2 per drink at a bar, 15 to 20 percent for taxis and rideshares, and a few dollars per bag for hotel porters. Counter service tip jars are optional.
- What should tourists skip in NYC?
- Eating in Times Square, paying costumed characters for photos, buying Statue of Liberty tickets from street sellers (only Statue City Cruises is authorized), and trying to cram more than two big sights into one day.
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