Attractions in Manhattan | NYC Attractions - Activities | Top 12 New York City Attractions

Posted: November 16th, 2010

New York City.  It’s a city built on excitement with a pulse and energy all its own.   From the beauty that is Central Park to the energy of Times Square and the rush of people coming from one place to go to another.

New York City is alive with something for every one’s taste, budget or mood.

Regardless of the season or how long you will be visiting – New York City Attractions abound.

See below for just a few of the Top Things to Do in NYC.  We’ll be putting together a comprehensive list of NYC Attractions and Manhattan Activities you’ll be able to use to plan your next trip to New York City.

1. Rockefeller Center - Top of the Rock
   30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019
   Rockefeller Center was envisioned by John D. Rockefeller to be the grandest plaza in all New York- a place where business was transacted and communities congregated. Conceived on the verge of the Great Depression, Rockefeller financed the Center personally. Upon its completion, it was the largest private building project in modern history and a collection of buildings unrivaled in their artistry and Art Deco nobility.
   
   Today, Rockefeller Center is one of the world’s great crossroads, filled with boutiques, NYC Restaurants,  and home to the most famous ice rink and Christmas tree on earth. Architecturally profound, culturally diverse, and commercially vital, Rockefeller Center is the true plaza of the people.  There are many New York City Hotels to choose from when planning your stay in NYC.
2. Lincoln Center
   Broadway at 64th Street, New York, NY 10023
   Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is the world's largest cultural complex. The 12 world-renowned independent resident companies that make up the Lincoln Center represent the very best in the performing arts today. This site guides you through the superb offerings of the resident companies as well as the excellent programs of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., titled "Lincoln Center Presents."
3. Times Square
   Broadway & 7th Avenue / 42nd-47th Street - New York, NY 10036
   The Times Square Alliance was founded in 1992 with a focus to improve and promote NYC’s Times Square - cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made this area of New York City an icon of Entertainment, Culture and Urban Life of Manhattan for over a century.
   
   In addition to providing core neighborhood services this group co-coordinates numerous major events in Times Square (including the annual New Year's Eve and Broadway on Broadway celebrations); manages the Times Square Information Center; and advocates on behalf of its constituents with respect to a host of public policy, planning and quality-of-life issues. The Alliance's district covers most of the territory from 40th Street to 53rd Street between 6th and 8th Avenues, as well as Restaurant Row (46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue).
   
   Time Square is alive with lights, people, New York City Restaurants, huge billboards for Music Artists, Entertainers, Manhattan Stores, NYC Attractions and Broadway Shows.
4. Empire State Building
   350 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10001
   The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until the construction of the World Trade Center North Tower in 1972, and is now once again the tallest building in New York after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.   
   
   The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.
5. NY Vietnam Veterans Memorial
   55 Water Street, New York, NY 10004
   The excerpts etched into the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial were chosen from letters, diary entries, and poems written by Americans during the Vietnam Era, which were submitted to the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission. These quotes are supplemented by news dispatches and public statements about the war. It is fitting that the Memorial is located one block east of Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington bade farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War.  Come and enjoy this moving and deserving monument.
6. Madison Square Garden
   4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10018
   Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden.  It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there. There have been four incarnations of the arena. The first two were located at Madison Square, thus the name. Subsequently a new 17,000-seat Garden (opened December 15, 1925) was built at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and the current Garden (opened February 14, 1968) is at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station. The present arena is informally known to some by the advertising slogan "The World's Most Famous Arena".
   
   The arena lends its name to the Madison Square Garden Network, a cable television network that broadcasts most sporting events that are held in the Garden, as well as concerts and entertainment events that have taken place at the venue.

Find an ideal New York City Hotel located in the heart of Manhattan here:  Milford Plaza Hotel

1. Flat Iron Building
   175 Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, New York, NY 10016
   The Fuller Building or as it is better known, the Flatiron Building, is located in the borough of Manhattan, and was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902. The building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham with John Wellborn Root in the Beaux-Arts style on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, facing Madison Square.
2. Battery Park
   Battery Park (South of Broadway), New York, NY 10004 
   The Battery is one of New York City's oldest public open spaces. Dutch settlers landed here in 1623 and  established New Amsterdam. Now The Battery is truly the cradle of New York history, the front lawn of the Downtown district, and a hub of harbor access and cultural tourism. Over four million people, including residents, office workers, school groups, and tourists from around the world annually visit the park and its major landmark, Castle Clinton National Monument.
3. Union Square Park
   Between 14th and 18th Streets, New York, NY 10011
   Union Square (also known as Union Square Park) is an important and historic intersection in New York City, located where Broadway and the Bowery came together in the early 19th century. Today it is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square East, 17th Street, and Union Square West. It is run and operated jointly by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
   
   In 1976, the Council on the Environment of New York City established the Greenmarket program, which provided regional small family farmers with opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products at open-air markets in the city. The most famous is the Union Square Greenmarket, held Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. year round. 250,000 customers a week purchase 1,000 varieties of fruits and vegetables at the market. The variety of produce available is broader by perhaps a factor of ten than what is found in a conventional supermarket.
4. Metropolitan Museum of Art
   1000 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10028
   Home of blockbuster after blockbuster, the Metropolitan Museum of Art attracts some five million people a year, more than any other spot in New York City. And it's no wonder -- this place is magnificent. At 1.6 million square feet, this is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly all the world's cultures are on display through the ages -- from Egyptian mummies to ancient Greek statuary to Islamic carvings to Renaissance paintings to Native American masks to 20th-century decorative arts -- and masterpieces are the rule. You could go once a week for a lifetime and still find something new on each visit.
5. Apollo Theater
   253 West 125th Street, 7th and 8th Ave, New York, NY 10027
   Yesterday…A place where thousands of young artists have stepped out into the spotlight and launched their careers. A place "where stars are born and legends are made." The legendary Apollo Theater is so much more than an historic landmark - it is a source of pride and a symbol of the brilliance of American artistic achievement. From 1934 when the Apollo first introduced its world-famous Amateur Night which launched the careers of legendary artists like Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Michael Jackson, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill, the Apollo has maintained its position as the nation's most popular arena for emerging and established black and Latino performers.
6. Chinatown
   With one of the densest populations of Chinese immigrants in the Western Hemisphere, Manhattan's Chinatown is a true New York story, the American dream in action. The thriving immigrant population gives visitors access to the most far-flung wares and culinary delights, and to walk these streets is to walk through history (it's where much of the action in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York took place). A great starting point is Chatham Square, which lies at the intersection of seven major streets (including Bowery and Mott Street)—a metaphor, perhaps, for the neighborhood's confluence of cultures.

About Milford Plaza Hotel – A New York City Hotel:
The Milford Plaza Hotel – New York is in the heart of NYC’s Theater District, 1 block from NYC’s Times Square and just blocks from NYC’s Neighborhoods’ SOHO, Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, NOLITA, Tribeca, and the East Village, Chinatown and Little Italy.

Our Manhattan Hotel is also close to all the most popular NYC Attractions and Things to Do in Manhattan; Times Square, the Empire State Building, Garment District, Diamond District, Central Park, Jacob Javit’s Convention Center and many other New York City Attractions that make New York City – ‘The Most Exciting City in the World!’

This Manhattan Hotel provides Guests with a perfect mix of comfortable Guest Rooms, ideal New York City location and gracious Guest Services all at a very affordable rate that will surprise you.