Overview

Manhattan may be the heart of the Big Apple, but this island in the Hudson River is really not very big - just about 12 miles top to bottom and less than 3 miles wide.

Which makes it possible to explore Manhattan the way a New Yorker would, by taxi, subway, and on foot, from neighborhood to neighborhood. Get your bearings at the heart of the island, Central Park. If you go to the east side of the park, you can sample the good life of the sophisticated Upper East Side: fine restaurants, stylish shopping (Bloomingdale's or Tiffany's), extraordinary museums (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum). Keep heading north, or "Uptown," to Harlem, where lovers of jazz should pay homage at the Apollo Theatre (Billie Holliday once won an amateur contest here).

Continue down the west side of Central Park, through the Upper West Side, a preferred address for actors, performers, and musicians (John Lennon at the Dakota, among them).Stick around for an evening at the Lincoln Center, which is home to (count 'em) the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

And that, of course, is just a start. True city lovers will savor the art galleries and bistros of SoHo, the coffee shops, jazz clubs, boutiques, and avant-garde theaters of Greenwich Village, the fantastic flavors of Chinatown and nearby Little Italy, and the landmarks of Midtown, from the ice rink at Rockefeller Center to the Empire State Building. (Late in the day, watch the city lights come alive from the 88th-floor observatory.) And that's still a just few slices from the island of the Big Apple...

 Plan Your Trip

SIGHTSEEING

Don't look for many freebies in New York, but one of the city's best sightseeing tours won't cost you a penny. Board the Staten Island Ferry at Battery Park (sailings every half-hour) near the southern tip of the island, and take a cruise with unforgettable views of the Statue of Liberty and the post 9-11 Manhattan skyline. When the ferry reaches the terminal on Staten Island (one of New York's bedroom communities), in about 30 minutes, you can take a harborside stroll and catch a later ferry for the return voyage.

CULTURE

More than perhaps any other city in the world, New York's culture is a reflection of the world around it - and Manhattan's Museum Mile, a stretch of Fifth Avenue from 72nd Street to 104th Street, is a vibrant window to that world. Start at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the vast collection includes Arts of Oceania - objects from daily life and rituals from dozens of Pacific islands.

And don't miss the modern art collection at the Guggenheim Museum just a few blocks away. More? Well, you've just scratched the surface, because there are more than 100 other world-class museums in Manhattan.

NIGHTLIFE

Hard to imagine going to New York without going to a Broadway show, isn't it? Take your pick from the nearly 40 theaters near Times Square, where decades of lavish musicals - Oklahoma, West Side Story, Cats - have shaped the America's cultural landscape. Broadway also has its serious side, and it extends beyond Times Square to some 50 "Off-Broadway" theaters throughout Manhattan. And while getting a ticket for a smaller production usually isn't a problem, plan well in advance (maybe months) for a Broadway smash.

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