Headed to NYC for the 1St time...any Great Suggestions?

The Transit museum in Brooklyn. One stop from Manhattan, the kids can drive an nyc bus and they have real trolly cars from all time periods to sit in and look around. It is housed in a real (but no longer used) subway station.

Dylan's candy bar-- overpriced, but right across from Bloomingdales. It is like going into Willy Wonka's factory. This is a good companion to a stroll in southern Central park.

Take the Staten Island Ferry, then just turn around and go back. It is a free harbour cruise. Then you are near Battery park and the stock exchange etc.

Water Taxi-- Goes from Carl Shurz park in the East 90's around the tip of Manhattan and ends at the Chelsea Piers where there are lots of kid-friendly and family friendly activities. the Taxi has several stops along the way. Check on the web for times and locations. This is great fun, not too expensive, and brings you to cool places.

Don't bother with The Children's Museum-- it is not so great, but If you are on the West side of Central park, of course the natural history museum is always good-especially if it rains and your children need to run a bit.

The 10 year old (and adults) might enjoy the Lower East-Side Tenement Museum. Housed in a real tenement. tours only, but great.

And finally (but not exhaustively) the Museum of the City of New York if you want to find out more about how the city came about.

I hope this helps. Have a great time!

The bike tour of central park is really fun. Suggested play for that age is Mary Poppins. My neice went last Fall (10 years old) and loved it.

After hundreds of visits to NYC I finally went to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island a few months ago. My children 6, 4 & 1 loved it. Ellis Island was much more interesting than we expected & we spent a long time there. Here is the link to Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island: www.nps.gov/stli/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm We were unable to make reservations (therefore we could not go inside the Statue which was fine with us) so we had to get a flex pass & went when they opened in the morning. The line was long but went very fast and it was well worth it. I will go again soon - great & easy trip!

My kids like to go to central park & to take a ride on a horse and carriage. Central Park has a zoo, but we find it to be very small & usually crowded - but if you are near it you may want to check it out. We also enjoy the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the kids really enjoyed it too) and The Museum of Natural History.

Good luck & have fun!

If you are going out to eat w/ the kids, try and check out Mars 2112, I think it's in Manhattan. The kids will absolutely love it. You ride to the dining room in a space shuttle that simulates an actual flight, and there are martians and aliens walking around. The dining room looks like Mars, complete with red walls and everything. I went years ago and had a blast. Lately, I have noticed that celebrities are starting to go there (I saw a pic w/ Brad Pitt and Maddox) so hopefully the prices haven't skyrocketed. You can google it...all the info is there.
Good luck and have fun!
Peace & Blessings

I've heard the Bronx Zoo is pretty good.