Save in the City: New York!

New! We’ve teamed up with Lonely Planet to bring you a mini-guide to New York. Browse New York overview, Need to know and See and Do to learn more about what you can experience in the city that never sleeps. This is on top of our time-limited hotel offers, city tours and more. Booking your New York getaway could not be easier at aircanada.com.

New York, New York
The Capital of the World? Take a bite and see. They don't come any bigger than the Big Apple - king of the hill, top of the heap, New York, New York. It's got its fair share of the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses, but it also has world-class museums, big statues, even bigger buildings, outrageous excess, and a whole lot of whooo-wheee!

New York draws the crowds
New York is a densely packed mass of humanity and all this living on top of one another makes the New Yorker a special kind of person. It's hard to put a finger on what makes the place buzz so hard, but the city's hyperactive rush keeps drawing more and more people to it.

Feel yourself there yet?

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Location
Most of Manhattan is extremely easy to navigate, thanks to a grid system of named or numbered avenues running the north-south length of the island, cut across by numbered streets that run from east to west. Above Washington Square, Fifth Ave and Central Park serve as the dividing line between the East Side and the West Side. Cross-street numbers begin at Fifth Ave and grow higher toward each river, generally (but not exclusively) in 100-digit increments per block. Broadway, the only avenue to cut diagonally across the island, was originally a woodland path; it runs in some form from the southern tip of the island all the way to the state capital of Albany, 240km (150mi) away.

Craning your neck amongst the skyscrapers of Manhattan, it's easy to forget that islands make up most of New York City's land mass. Manhattan and Staten Island stand alone; Queens and Brooklyn comprise the western end of Long Island. Only the Bronx is connected to the continental mainland. The water gap between Brooklyn and Staten Island - the 'narrows' through which the first Europeans entered the area - serves as the entrance to New York Harbor, which is also accessible to ships from the north via Long Island Sound. Manhattan is bordered on the west by the Hudson River and on the east by the East River, both technically estuaries subject to tidal fluctuations.

Expectation
Many, many out-of-towners still expect to visit here and find the New York of the 70s - all graffiti-stained subway cars and menacing muggers - but ex-mayor Giuliani's radical cleanup of the city has had startling effects. The murder rate has come down 69% since the early 90s. Times Square and the famous 42nd Street thoroughfare continues to evolve into a brightly-lit, family-friendly circus. Even the least savvy, most wide-eyed tourists ride the subways at night, encouraged by primped signage and immaculate new subway cars, and it's nearly impossible to find a Manhattan neighbourhood that's off-limits after dark these days. In general, New York City is a pretty safe place for women travellers. If you are unsure which areas are considered dicey, ask at your hotel or telephone the tourist office for advice.

When to Go
Generally the nicest and most temperate time to visit New York is from mid-September to mid-November, along with all of May and early June. Unfortunately, as these months are popular with tourists, hotel prices are scaled accordingly. Long periods of wet weather are common in November and April, with freezing rain and often snow from December to February. In summer, humidity reigns supreme to make a unique, quintessentially New York kind of soupy heat that drives everyone to despair. This is perhaps the time to explore further afield and leave the city to its temper.

If it's first-class international events and gallery openings you're after, the question is when not to go. Despite the fantastic atmosphere around Christmas/Hanukkah and the New Year, the weather can be gaspingly chilly. In summer the prices rise and the tourist numbers soar. It can also be oppressively hot. Aim for spring (March-June) and fall (September-November).

Where to Stay
Book ahead for a bed in the Big Apple. Need a place to rest your head? Your options include some of the grandest hotels in the world, hip boutique hotels, anonymous but bustling mid-price places, cozy private guesthouses and cheaper lodges, some of which can only be described as fleapits.

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Accessibility
Federal laws guarantee that all government offices and facilities are available to the disabled. Most restaurant listings also note whether the location is accessible by wheelchair. Though things are improving slowly but surely, New York is still hard to navigate: streets are congested, street corners with curb cuts are often overcrowded with pedestrians and the general hustle and bustle is a drawback to anyone not operating at a breakneck pace. What's worse, subways are either on elevated tracks or deep below the ground and there are few elevators to access them; buses, which all have wheelchair elevation systems and ride space, are definitely the way to go. All movie and Broadway theatres have areas reserved for wheelchairs, and sometimes the newer movie theatres even have those seats near the front, rather than stuck in the back.

New York: child-friendly town
Contrary to popular belief, New York can be a pretty child-friendly town - it just takes a bit of guidance to find all the little creature comforts that you're accustomed to having back home. While visiting during warm weather tends to make things easier, as you can always resort to the many parks, playgrounds and zoos to let your kids expel some pent-up energy, there are plenty of indoor activities as well. Particular museums (especially those for kids), theatres, movie theatres, book and toy stores, an aquarium and even a slew of restaurants are perfect places for families. Sticking to neighbourhoods known for their high stroller factor - the Upper West Side and Park Slope, Brooklyn, in particular - will make it easier to find places where a screaming, tired kid will provoke sympathetic smiles rather than horrified glares. There are some pitfalls, of course, mainly going up and down subway stairs while lugging a stroller, and being left out in the cold when it comes to fine dining and chi-chi accommodations.

Getting Around
Served by three major airports, two train terminals and a massive bus depot, New York City is the most important transportation hub in the northeastern USA. Of the airports, Newark or La Guardia are more convenient to the city than JFK. Getting into the city by car is easy enough until you hit the tunnels and bridges, which are often clogged to bursting point

Fly to/from the big apple
John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK), 24km (15 mi) from Midtown Manhattan in southeastern Queens, is where most international flights land. La Guardia Airport in northern Queens is 13km (8 mi) from Manhattan and services mostly domestic flights. If you're arriving or departing in the middle of the day, La Guardia is a more convenient choice than JFK. Newark Airport is in New Jersey, directly 16km (10 mi) west of Manhattan. Flights to and from Newark airport are sometimes a bit cheaper because of the erroneous perception that the airport is less accessible than JFK or La Guardia. In fact, Newark has a large and spanking-new international arrivals terminal, and its four terminals are linked by a monorail system.

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Bus
Buses run every 30 minutes between the city and JFK International Airport; the trip takes at least an hour. You can also take a subway to the Howard Beach-JFK station then transfer. You can also take a subway to the Howard Beach-JFK station then transfer to the Air Train, a monorail-like train that stops at all the terminals. Transfer at either the Howard Beach stop on the A train or the Sutphin Blvd stop on the E train (5.00 one way). Buses run every 15-20 minutes between the city and La Guardia; a water shuttle also runs along the East River, or you can catch the subway. Take the N or W train to Astoria Blvd, then it's only a ten to fifteen minute ride on the M60 bus to La Guardia. To get from Newark Airport, you can get a private or public bus from the city. Buses into the city run every fifteen minutes. Taxis from all three airports into the city are expensive.

All suburban and long-haul buses leave and depart from the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 41st St and Eighth Ave in Midtown Manhattan. Bus lines available there include Greyhound, which links New York with major cities across the country; Peter Pan Trailways, which runs buses to the nearest major cities; Short Line, offering numerous departures to towns in northern New Jersey and upstate New York; and New Jersey Transit buses, with direct service to Atlantic City and the entire Garden State.

City buses run 24 hours a day. Bus maps are available at subway and train stations, and well-marked bus stops have 'Guide-a-Ride' maps showing the stops and nearby landmarks. Between 22:00 and 05:00 you can ask to be let off anywhere along your route, even if it's not a designated stop.

Brooklyn Double-Decker Bus Tour
Hop-on Hop-off Uptown Treasures & Harlem Tour
Night Double-Decker Bus Tour

Don't be afraid of the subway
It's pretty safe these days and is still the speediest way of taking Manhattan, although the buses are also efficient. They do take much longer than trains but sometimes you need to take one if want to get crosstown. If you're going to be taking several trains during the day or week, it's best to buy a Metrocard so you're not scrambling to buy a ticket when the train pulls in.

The Metrocard allows you to ride the system and is also an acceptable currency on New York's blue-and-white city buses. New Jersey's Port Authority Trans-Hudson trains are a separate-fare system running from Manhattan to Newark and northern New Jersey.

Taxi
New York taxi drivers must be the most maligned group of workers in the world. Sure, they'll try to make a few extra bucks; but let's face it, they're bound to have a better idea where they're going than you do. Tip around 10% to 15%. If you think you're being ripped off, either let the driver know or get a receipt and note the license number - the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission wields some serious clout, and cabbies are justifiably nervous of being reported to them. (Ph: 311.) If the taxi number on the top of the car is lit up then the taxi is available.

Train
Pennsylvania Station, on 33rd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves, is the departure point for all Amtrak trains, including the Acela Express, Amtrak's new fast train, and the Metroliner. The station is a little cramped and dreary, but plans to replace it nearly on the same site are in the works. Both trains run services to Washington via Princeton and Philadelphia and the Acela's route also extends north to New Haven and Boston. The Long Island Rail Road serves several hundred thousand commuters each day from a newly renovated platform area to points in Brooklyn, Queens and the suburbs of Long Island, including the resort areas. New Jersey Transit operates trains from Penn Station to the suburbs and the Jersey Shore. One commuter company departs from Grand Central Terminal, at Park Ave and 42nd St: the Metro North Railroad, which serves the northern suburbs and Connecticut.

Car
It's a nightmare to have a car in Manhattan, but getting there is easy. Approaches from the east include the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95); the Long Island Expressway, which enters Manhattan through the Queens Midtown Tunnel (often choked by traffic); and the Grand Central Parkway (right off the Triborough Bridge), which cuts through Queens on its way from Long Island. From New Jersey, I-95 crosses the George Washington Bridge; I-95 also continues south as the New Jersey Turnpike, entering Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel (at Midtown) and the Holland Tunnel (near Soho). Via I-95, it's 315km (195 mi) south from Boston, 170km (105 mi) north from Philadelphia, and 380km (235 mi) north from Washington, DC.

The biggest hassle of having a car in the city is finding parking; street parking rules are so complex that it's just easier to put it in a paid garage in the middle of the day; it is marginally easier to find parking at night.

Ferry
If it's a scenic journey you're after, a ferry is your best bet. NY Waterway ferries make runs up the Hudson River Valley and from Midtown out to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. A popular commuter route goes from the New Jersey Transit train station in Hoboken to a Lower Manhattan pier at the World Financial Center. Departing from the South Ferry Terminal, the popular, free Staten Island ferry is worth catching just for the magnificent views of Lower Manhattan.

Book the Three-hour Full Island Cruise
Book Two-hour Semi-Circle Cruise

A taste of history
The area now known as New York City had been occupied by Native Americans for more than 11,000 years before Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine hired by the French to explore the northeastern coast, arrived at New York Bay in 1524. The area lay unmolested until English explorer Henry Hudson stumbled on it while searching for the Northwest Passage in 1609. 'It is as beautiful a land as one can hope to tread upon,' reported Hudson, who claimed the place for the Dutch East India Company.

New York boomed in the early 19th century. Its population swelled from 65,000 in 1800 to 250,000 in 1820. During the Civil War, the city provided many volunteers for the Union cause. But as the war dragged on, many of the city's poorest citizens turned against the effort, especially after mandatory conscription was introduced. In the summer of 1863, Irish immigrants launched the 'draft riots' protesting the provision that allowed wealthy men to pay 300.00 in order to avoid fighting. Within days the rioters turned their anger on black citizens, as they were considered the real reason for the war and their main competition for work. More than 11 men were lynched in the streets and a black orphans' home was burned to the ground.

The remainder of the century in New York was a boom time for the city's population, which grew thanks to European immigration, and for businessmen, who took advantage of lax oversight of industry and stock trading during the so-called 'Gilded Age'. These men built grand mansions along 'millionaires row' on lower Fifth Ave. Along Broadway from City Hall to Union Square, multi-storey buildings - the first 'skyscrapers' - were built to house corporate headquarters.

As the city's population more than doubled from 500,000 in 1850 to over 1.1 million in 1880, a tenement culture developed. The burgeoning of New York's population beyond the city limits led to the consolidation movement, as the city and its neighbouring districts struggled to service the growing numbers. Residents of the independent districts of Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and financially-strapped Brooklyn voted to become 'boroughs' of New York City in 1898.

Between 1900 and 1930 the new metropolis absorbed a huge wave of European immigrants who arrived at New York's Ellis Island and its population exploded, from just over 3 million in 1900 to 7 million in 1930. During this period, horse-drawn trolleys disappeared as a major network of underground subways and elevated trains ('Els') expanded into the city's outer reaches.

As the immigrant population gathered political strength, demands for change became overwhelming and during the Depression a crusader named Fiorello La Guardia (previously an Ellis Island interpreter) was elected mayor. In three terms in office the popular 'Little Flower' fought municipal corruption and expanded the social service network. Meanwhile civic planner Robert Moses used a series of appointed positions to remake the city's landscape through public works projects, highways and big events like the World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964. Unfortunately, his projects (which include the Triborough Bridge, Lincoln Center, several highways and massive housing projects) often destroyed entire neighbourhoods and rousted huge numbers of residents.

New York emerged from WWII proud and ready for business. As one of the few world-class cities untouched by war, New York seemed the place to be. But prosperity wasn't limited to the city. In the 1950s, highways made access to the suburbs easy and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers moved away permanently. It wasn't just an understandable desire for upward mobility that drew them away: many white residents left neighbourhoods they felt had 'gone bad', which was a racist way of saying that African Americans and Puerto Ricans had taken their rightful place there too.

While the politicos dithered and played to various entrenched constituencies, the city began to slide. TV production, manufacturing jobs and even the fabled Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team moved to the West Coast, along with the Dodgers' cross-town rivals the New York Giants. Like most of the US, New York looked to the West for cultural direction, and eventually corporations began abandoning the city as innovation in communications technology made it possible to do business anywhere. The city's economic slide led to the threat of bankruptcy in the 1970s, which was staved off only by massive infusions of federal cash.

During the anything-goes Reagan years, the city regained much of its swagger as billions were made on Wall St. Ed Koch, the colourful three-term mayor, seemed to embody the New Yorker's ability to charm and irritate at the same time. But in 1989 Koch was defeated in a Democratic primary election by David Dinkins, who became the city's first African American mayor. Dinkins, a career Democratic-machine politician, was rightly criticised for merely presiding over a city government in need of reform, though his moves to put more police on the streets helped curb crime. He was narrowly defeated for a second term in 1993 by moderate Republican Rudolph Giuliani. Thanks to a big drop in crime and the weakness of his Democratic opponents, Giuliani triumphed in the 1997 mayoral election. The tech bubble usually associated with Silicon Valley in northern California also took root here (NYC even had their own 'Silicon Alley') - well at least for several years - and it seemed like every other downtown twentysomething was launching some obscure internet venture in the hopes of being bought out in a few months and retiring. For the first time in decades the city contemplated huge (and necessary) projects to augment its infrastructure, such as a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Meanwhile Times Square underwent transformation from a crime- and drug-ridden red-light district in the 1960s and 1970s to a Disneyfied tourist attraction in the late 1990s. The city became safer and more prosperous, but also more homogenised; the gap between rich and poor widened, and the colourful subcultures that used to give Manhattan its edge began a mass exodus to the suburbs.

New York's famous hustle and bustle
New York is as geared towards business as you would expect from such a metropolis. John F Kennedy International Airport terminals offer fax, computer, photocopying, courier and conference facilities. Data ports are located throughout most terminals and wireless internet access is available also. Conference facilities can be found at the on-site Ramada Plaza Hotel which, like most major hotels in New York, has meeting rooms and a business centre. The Javits Center in Midtown hosts many of the conventions held in New York.

Traditional business still centres around that famed site of elation and catastrophe, Wall Street, although since 9/11 many business have relocated to midtown or across the river in New Jersey.

Nailing New York

Three days can give you a healthy start on a New York state of mind. Get a small dose of all the major tourist spots, plus the lay of the land, by taking a double-decker bus ride around the city on your first morning. Go for a late-afternoon hot chocolate and snack at City Bakery, stroll through the Union Square Greenmarket and hit a gallery opening or two in nearby Chelsea. Get a late-night feast at Florent or Paradou followed by some sophisticated drinking at Rhône or another nearby watering hole.

On day two, splurge on breakfast at Balthazar, then pick one of the diverse neighbourhoods of downtown - the meandering streets of the West Village or the recently gentrified Lower East Side - and wander, checking out boutiques and parks and local characters. By mid-afternoon, head up to Central Park and watch New York jog by or - if the weather turns bad - check out the Guggenheim nearby. Follow up with a live-music venue of your favorite genre.

On your third day, venture out to one of the outer boroughs - relax in Prospect Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn, then visit the nearby Botanical Gardens and just-renovated Brooklyn Museum, followed by dinner at a (Park Slope) Fifth Avenue hotspot; or take the N, W or R train to Astoria, where art and film museums and Greek food galore await. For a dose of nostalgia, head down to Coney Island and stroll the boardwalk. Book the smash-hit show Avenue Q about a college grad in New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account.

Eating: foodie festival every day.
If you're hungry in New York, you're just not trying - it's a glutton's dream. With around 20,000 eateries, the possibilities are almost endless: you could have dinner at a different restaurant every night for 50 years, running the gourmet gamut from hot dog to Cordon Bleu.

Dine at '21' Club
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament New York

New York, New York: someone somewhere's gonna be singin' it.

New York's novella-length weekly entertainment listings tend to include a favourite performer you never dared dream you'd see live. The city also contains thousands of venues, ranging from poky East Village bars to pulsating mega-clubs or luxurious late-night lounges.

Book a 7 Day VIP NYC Nightlife Pass right here!

Look around (looking up makes you look like a tourist).

From the top of the Empire State Building to the bottom of a glass in a Manhattan nightclub, New York has it all. For a closer look at the city, wander through Times Square and the streets of Greenwich Village and Soho, check out the Wall Street super traders, or hop on a ferry to Staten Island.

Wants become needs, needs become lifestyles.

There isn't a craving that can't be satisfied in New York. Tibetan fur-trimmed hat? Worm-studded lollypops? Thought you'd never ask! The shopping is so good that you might find yourself buying something you thought you'd never need: extra luggage

Explore New York with a New York CityPass offering six famous New York attractions at one packaged low price.

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