Beginning the day at Madison Square Park, on Madison and 23rd is just about the most peaceful start possible in this beehive of a city. Tree-lined, two centuries old, and surrounded by a quiet neighborhood, the five-acre park makes for the perfect place to have an outdoor brunch.

Just six blocks up is the architectural wonder, The Carlton. A perfect blend of new and old, the hotel’s lobby offers breathtaking scenery all its own. Rich brass and leather, and Art Deco galore. Then stand outside and enjoy the lovely facade of this New York landmark.

Continue your leisurely walk up to 36th Street and take in the Morgan Library. Closed for three years for renovations, the re-opened library of the ‘banker who saved the country’ is small but well worth a tour. During J.P. Morgan’s lifetime it housed his book collection and served as an office away from his mansion uptown. Walking through, it’s difficult to absorb that this was once a private residence, so perfectly does it serve as a museum.

Stop off, if you’re inclined, at the New York Public Library – Science and Industry, at 34th Street. The collection is extensive and the surroundings continue the peaceful tour up Madison.

Now that you’re fully awake, get ready for the shopping and dining part of the route.

Slide into Brooks Brothers at 42nd and Grand Central Station for a suit. Worn by Abraham Lincoln, the tailors are ready to make the perfect accoutrement even for those without political ambitions. Ladies can occupy their time equally well at any of the nearby boutiques, but save some balance on that credit card for further uptown.

Now that you’re dressed for the occasion prepare (if you made reservations far in advance) to have lunch at one of New York’s finest: the Gilt, at 50th Street. Located in the former location of Le Cirque in the Villard Mansion dining room, now part of the New York Palace Hotel, the food and atmosphere are unmatched. You’re sure to see some celebrities at a nearby table.

Well fed, if a little less well-off (Gilt is pricey), get ready for some serious shopping. Looking for that leather bag you couldn’t find elsewhere? Conch is certain to have something that appeals. But save some of that plastic to visit Prada, nearby.

Assuming you didn’t max out your credit cards already, Barney’s at 61st Street is waiting to do that for you. Both men and women will find the service here tailored to their tastes. Calvin Klein is just down at 60th, if you don’t care for the décor.

Get someone to take the bags back to the hotel, though, because you’ll need at least one arm to carry a stellar vintage away from Sherry-Lehman’s Wine and Spirits. If you don’t find what you want here, you just don’t drink.

If you’re not exhausted or broke by now, you can continue on uptown to the Upper East Side to shop at Prada on 70th or Bang and Olufsen at 75th.

But sooner or later you’re going to run out of money and energy. Head back down to the Little Church at 29th and say a prayer that you still have enough to get back home.

Manhattan, ‘Capital’ of New York City

On a slender island crammed with taxis, buses, people and buildings a long string of innovators has managed to create both a major business center and a tourist paradise. All within easy reach by subway, bus or taxi.

Close to the southern tip of the island is the famed Wall Street area. Showing its Dutch origins and its geography, the streets run along at various angles and for short distances. But within those confines is housed many of the world’s financial powerhouses.

To see them in action, visit the New York Stock Exchange and listen to the traders engage in the two-centuries-old ‘outcry’ system, where orders are literally shouted out.

Though destroyed now, the World Trade Center is scheduled to rise again in the form of The Freedom Tower. At 1,776 feet it will be one of the world’s tallest and the famous Windows of the World restaurant and 360 degree viewing platform will be part of the building.

Ten minutes north on the subway is SoHo, (SOuth of HOuston) the renowned art gallery nexus of New York’s artist colony. Here you can find everything from Old Dutch Masters to the latest experiments with paint, metal, stone and who-knows-what-next.

Just a short walk north from SoHo is Greenwich Village, home to jazz, comedy clubs and small theaters, restaurants and the most interesting assortment of eccentrics the city can display. Don’t miss the breakfast as MacDougal’s (at the corner of MacDougal and Bleeker)!

At the top of Greenwich Village is New York University and Washington Square Park, with a famous miniature ‘Arch d’Triomphe’ and should-be-famous chess players. Enjoy a cup of coffee and watch a lightening-fast game.

Apartments dominate the scene until you reach 31st street where on the West Side (7th Ave) you have Madison Square Garden, which is neither square, gardened nor on Madison. (Two of the three were true a hundred years ago.) Concerts, boxing and a major train station form only three of the attractions here.

A few blocks east to Fifth Avenue and you come upon the eighth wonder of the world: The Empire State Building. The Art Deco tower was built in record time and remains one of the largest office buildings in the world, seventy years later.

A short walk north and east you’ll find Broadway and 42nd Street and Times Square, the center of American theater. Only eight blocks east and two north of there is the Art Deco Rockefeller Center with an outdoor skating rink, Radio City Music Hall and a very stylish restaurant: The Rainbow Room.

Scattered throughout the mid-town business district are some of the other justly famous buildings: The Pan Am (now the MetLife – underneath is Grand Central Station), Lever Bros, Seagram’s, Citicorp and – on the East River – the United Nations.

It’s been a long walk, but just a few blocks more and you reach Central Park. 843 acres of grass, hillocks and sidewalks where during the day you can enjoy the scenery and watch the skaters or visit the Zoo. At night, during the summer, there’s Shakespeare in the Park.

Even on a whirlwind tour, there’s far more than one could take in during a single visit. You haven’t even made it yet to Lincoln Center or the world-class Metropolitan Art Museum! Plan to stay a while, or make several trips. You’ll need to just to sample some of the stellar restaurants.

Nearly 40 million tourists from around the world visit New York City every year. What they find is a bustling metropolis, dense with museums, parks, theaters, shops, famous buildings and inhabitants as diverse as themselves.

Far from its sometimes mythical image, New York is one of the safest large cities for tourists anywhere on the globe. It has the lowest crime rate of any major American city. For a city with over 8 million inhabitants and a population density over 26,000 per square mile (Manhattan is nearly 67,000 per square mile), that’s remarkable.

Divided, more or less by geographical boundaries, the city is composed of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. Each has its distinct identity and is chock full of things to see and do.

Weather year-round ranges from envigorating to mildly uncomfortable. Winters can be cold, but there’s rarely snow. Spring and Fall bring pleasant temperatures and moderate rain, but the rainfall rarely lasts more than a couple of hours at a time. Summers are typically humid and can reach the high 80s or more. (Fahrenheit, high 20s Celsius.)

The Bronx, Staten Island and Queens generally contain fewer attractions for tourists, though there are exceptions.

Staten Island is primarily suburban, but the Ferry ride to and from Manhattan is a treat for those who like the Atlantic Ocean breezes. Both baseball and tennis can be found in spring and summer in Queens.

Brooklyn is home to several justly world-famous parks and museums and is only an hour away via the modest-cost, easy-to-navigate subway. The art museum alone is worth the trip and don’t forget to visit historical, but still popular, Coney Island.

Most of the major attractions are in Manhattan, a cigar-shaped island about three miles wide by 22 miles long. Easy to navigate even for the newcomer, almost all the streets run either North-South or East-West.

From the East River (FDR Drive) there’s 1st Avenue, through Fifth along the mid-section to 12th Avenue running North-South along the Hudson River. From about 12th Street (not 12th Avenue!), the streets increase in number as you travel north.

So, if you’re at 42nd Street, walk 17 short blocks north and you’ll hit Columbus Circle at 59th Street. A little farther and you’ll find Lincoln Center, a large center for music and theater and dance performances. Easy!

Travel prices, as they are with most destinations, tend to be higher in the prime season of mid-spring to early fall, but the great thing about New York is it’s terrific year round.

Skiing trips in winter are available by traveling a few hours upstate by train, and late Fall is still mild enough to enjoy the leaves in Central Park as you stroll through the Zoo.

There are far more things to do and see than anyone could in just one trip, so plan several visits. Just be ready to move fast, because New York is one big beehive of fun!

Park Avenue through the 1930s was known as ‘the street where the rich people lived’. To have an apartment there was ‘to have arrived’. When you arrive you’ll see fewer apartments and a new kind of ‘rich people’ – multi-national corporate headquarters.

Some of the world’s most deservedly well-known architecture is sited along this wide boulevard that, for tourism purposes begins at Grand Central Station.

Approaching the terminal from downtown you’re greeted by an ordinary Greek facade at 42nd Street and Park. But the interior is a sight to behold. Recently restored to its early 20th century glory, mammoth in size and gleaming with marble and brass, the busy concourse is still used by thousands daily.

Inside its catacombs is the famous Oyster Bar where just outside a tourist can find the ‘whispering gallery’. Stand in one corner of the arched walkway facing the stone. Speak softly and someone in the opposite corner 20 feet away can hear every word clearly – an ‘accident’ owing to the way the sound travels up and around the arch. Then go have some oysters and beer.

Up the escalator and across the huge lobby you come out onto Park Avenue in mid-town. The sight is an amazing, wide corridor of famous buildings and zooming cars. Walk across the street and look back at the MetLife (originally the Pan Am Building for whom it was constructed). Still one of the largest office buildings on the planet, its distinctive octagonal floor plan and wide facade are breathtaking.

You won’t be able to see the lower half of the building, though, since it’s blocked by the still impressive Helmsley with its golden top. The view is particularly spectacular driving down Park from the north at night when the dome is lit.

A short walk to 53rd Street brings you to the Lever House, still occupied by the original tenant, the international cleaning products company. An architectural original, the green-glass-facade tower rises above a similar one-story horizontal slab set on tall pillars.

The building is kept sparkling clean out of pride and as an advertisement for its owners’ products and the plaza underneath is a wonderful place to stand in the shade and watch the busy street.

While standing there, across the street you’ll see the famous Seagram Building, built only a few years later in 1957. This whiskey-colored marvel reflects the tastes of its original developer, the liquor king Samuel Bronfman. Sparing no expense on materials, when completed the building was the most costly skyscraper erected in New York.

And now that you’re tired and hungry, step into the Seagram and head to The Four Seasons restaurant where (if you planned ahead several months) you can dine in one of the greatest establishments ever created. Admire the food, but don’t forget to look around at the sculpture and French walnut décor.

Stay out of the pool in the middle, though. The maitre’d gets angry when you try to cool off there.

Welcome to the ‘city within a city’ – Rockefeller Center. Begun in the 1930s, partially as an antidote to the effects of the Depression, the 19 building complex sits on 11 acres between 48th and 52nd Streets and between 5th and 6th Avenues.

But those mundane facts give no hint of the excitement to be found within those boundaries. Built atop a set of underground corridors, known as ‘the catacombs’, the area is home to restaurants, shops, NBC Studios, a skating rink and much more.

Take a stroll around the plaza and watch the ice skaters, or join in! From the plaza level (the rink is sunken), above the skaters you can see the giant, prone Prometheus sculpture.

Above the gilded Prometheus, bringing fire to mankind, is the massive 70-story RCA (now General Electric) tower, housing the Rainbow Room and the observation deck. The Rainbow Room is on the 65th floor and makes for a memorable meal to accompany unforgettable Art Deco décor.

The observation deck, Top of the Rock, has re-opened after a 20-year closure and the view is spectacular. The spires of the steel-gargoyled Chrysler Tower and the Art Deco Empire State Building are clearly visible, as is much of the rest of Manhattan.

The deck sits atop the famous Raymond Hood designed RCA Building. Home to the well-known, and still going strong, Radio Corporation of America, the tower is an architectural landmark.

And, if you visit during the Christmas holiday period, you can watch the lighting of the 50 foot (or more) Christmas tree here. Don’t forget to walk around and spend some time taking in the sights, including the huge Atlas statue, bearing a ringed world on his shoulders.

The Channel Gardens make for a peaceful retreat from the beehive below. Sited between La Maison Francaise and the British Empire Building, they’re an oasis on a concrete island.

Several days could be spent taking tours alone. NBC offers a tour of the studio, and the glass-walled area outside makes for interesting viewing. Radio City Music Hall, the famous theater that still “lines ‘em up around the block” has one as well. Home to The Rockettes, the theater offers musical performances in the evenings.

Shops line several of the ground level buildings, including the popular Nikon House which attracts photographers from all over the world. All around are ample opportunities to find things and people worth snapping, as well. This part of the complex is heavily traveled.

But the shops and restaurants don’t stop at ground level. In the Underground Concourse fast food and other dining, clothing boutiques, card stores and a blizzard of other stores can be found. For those who missed it uptown, the Metropolitan Museum has a store in the complex as well.

The ‘catacombs’ connect 14 of the complex’s main buildings, so take a little walking tour under Sixth Avenue. With nearby subway entrances running through the concourse, travel to and from the Center is easy from any part of the city.

Since it first opened its gates in 1899 the Bronx Zoo has been the world’s premier destination for viewing animals from the world over.

At that time, the zoo exhibited 843 animals – the Wildlife Conservation Society organization now houses over 4,500 on 265 acres. Those thousands, mostly in outdoor settings in re-created habitats, comprise more than 600 unique species.

And unique they are. Everything from the False Gharial (a kind of crocodile) to African wild dogs and Asian Small-Clawed Otters and Herbie the harbor seal are here.

The Congo Gorilla forest habitat is one of the more recent, but also one of the best, displays. Similar to the efforts of the justly world-famous San Diego Zoo, the caretakers have provided the primates with a setting almost indistinguishable from their native area.

Though there’s a small additional charge (currently $3), this 6.5 acre re-creation of an African mountain rain forest has treetop lookouts, lush greenery, and hundreds of animals. There are black and white Colobus monkeys, red-river hogs, and two troops of lowland gorillas.

The shady forest dotted with bamboo thickets and sunny meadows houses 400 species of plant in addition to the many animals. The exhibit trail is nearly 1/3 mile long and home to the first gorilla born in New York City.

The Jungle World forms an excellent adjunct, where an indoor rain forest has been exquisitely re-created with rare botanical species. The display offers Asian gibbons (similar to monkeys), hornbills, tapirs (a small pig-like species dating back millions of years) among unique trees and plants.

One section of the zoo contains dry riverbeds, the Baboon Reserve, featuring a simulated archaeological dig. Visitors can learn about how scientists investigate the history of mammals and find out about the evolution of Gelada baboons.

A realistic-looking field station provides a view of the baboons as well as Nubian ibex (a kind of wild mountain goat) on an African-style ‘mountain range’.

Nearby is the Journey to the Himalayas exhibit where the unusual red panda, the reclusive snow leopard, and other rare species of the area can be seen.

One of the newest sections is Tiger Mountain. The exhibit houses several tigers who can be found playing in the cooler weather or sleeping when it’s hot.

Many of the classic buildings are extant, though, near the Astor Court section of the zoo. Astor, one of the richest families in new York in the 19th century – almost unknown today – was a large contributor to the zoo.

Here is the old cat house, the monkey house, and elephants on display. The World of Birds is nearby with a catwalk which the birds are hoping to rename.

Open year-round, the zoo contains many of the world’s endangered species in the parklands. In addition to the animal displays there are many video displays, plaques, and – of course – a store where educational information is available.

Access is easy via an express bus from Manhattan, or via the subway. For details see their website at www.bronxzoo.com.

The heart of New York City in so many ways, this neon-lit district is the Las Vegas of Manhattan. For nearly twenty years, apart from Broadway shows, the area was almost unbearable owing to the seedy inhabitants and shops. No more.

Originally developed in the 1830s by the wealthy Astor family as a nose-in-the-air neighborhood, the current name came into being when the New York Times established itself there in 1906. When the subways made it to the 42nd Street, the city’s theater producers moved from lower Manhattan, filling 76 theaters by 1928.

During WWII families could visit a show, have a bite to eat and return home without worry. That’s true again, thanks to an extensive rejuvenation effort that began in the 1990s. The crowds are still there, thicker than even normally crowded Manhattan. But for both the natives and visitors there are theaters, restaurants, shops and much more.

Disney moved in, as did Toy “R” Us where kids can enjoy the indoor Ferris wheel ride. Virgin Megastore is nearby for the teens who get bored. There’s a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum (similar to the one in San Francisco or London), along with an eccentric Hershey Store.

For those who want to take in a Broadway show – but don’t want to pay the $100 or more (for some), there’s TKTS at 47th Street. This outdoor booth sells last minute seats to a dozen shows at discounts of 25-50%. Availability is varied and the line is long, but obviously many find it worth the wait.

The police patrol the area heavily and seeing their retro/futuristic station is one of the many worthwhile sights along with the speed chess players and street performers. Be prepared to hear a song whether you like it or not!

Dining opportunities are ample and run the gamut from Burger King to Planet Hollywood to an upscale Italian dinner at Cara Mia. There’s even Brazilian fare at Brazil Grill on 47th and 8th Avenue, where the steak is to die for. BB King, the R & B guitarist has gotten into the act with an eponymous eaterie of his own.

Even during the day there’s lots to see and do. Good Morning America broadcasts weekdays from the ABC Times Square Studios and the hosts often interview people on the street. They also host live bands and solo performers for segments on the show.

New York’s famous clothing designers make their living not far away and you’ll often see workers hauling racks of clothing to and fro. Not something you’ll see in every major city, it helps to create some of New York’s special ambiance.

Even the non-famous names make for an interesting visit, as there are dozens of jazz clubs, bars and other serving venues around. The street vendors, too, offer edible food and interesting gifts to take back home.

Not far away are Rockefeller Center, the CBS Building and a host of other architectural marvels that make for worthwhile daytime sightseeing.

Be sure to make time to just stand (someplace you won’t be crushed!) and take in the huge sign at One Times Square. That’s the location (now) from which the illuminated ball is dropped on New Year’s Eve. A tradition since the NY Times opened its building around the corner in 1906/1907, the air is brisk and the crowd lively.

New Yorkers are famous for many things, not least of which is a sense of irony. One more instance of that can be found in the fact that Wall Street, by which most people really mean the New York Stock Exchange, isn’t located on the street called Wall at all. It’s actually at 20 Broad Street.

But, it’s a minor quibble that most Manhattanites would rightly dismiss with a characteristic wave of the hand.

Though the stock exchange tour has been closed since 9/11, the building is still a sight to behold and the streets of the surrounding area could form a study in the history of architecture. George Washington was inaugurated in Federal Hall and important events have been occurring here ever since.

Whether viewing the stately, turn-of-the-century NYSE building or the ultra-modern American Express the area carved out by the Dutch in 1653 is full of amazing sights. The actual Wall Street did get its name from running alongside a wooden palisade erected then to protect the town from wild Indians. Now, along the short, random-angled streets is a cornucopia of people and buildings of all shapes and sizes.

And don’t forget to take a photo near the now-famous bull sculpture, placed in 1989. Near the Cunard Building just down from Wall Street, this bronze behemoth is larger than your average bear. Some contend it has eclipsed its chief rival, a large red metal sculpture that no one could identify, including its creator.

The area houses not only large financial institutions and other corporate giants, but an array of pubs and restaurants to rival any of its uptown competitors. Just be careful what you say about your company there. You never know who’ll be at the next table and the only thing that moves faster than trades here is the rumor mill.

Not far away (south) are the departure points for the Staten Island Ferry, or the tours of the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island.

But, if those don’t suit your fancy travel east a few blocks to the South Street Seaport along the East River at Fulton. There you’ll find a hundred shops, dozens of restaurants and several outdoor venues including a maritime museum. Ships docked there hark back to the days when wind in sails was the main power source. You’ll be surprised at how small the captain’s cabin is!

Take a few minutes to just stand and look at the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s first wire-suspension type and an artistic marvel. From time to time, you’ll even see private boats and yachts making their way up the river to docks connected to private apartments further uptown.

19th Century history combines with the most modern art and engineering here in one of New York’s most popular tourist areas. The newly developing World Trade Center site, where the Freedom Tower is under construction, deserves a few moments of quiet contemplation.

Just be prepared to bump elbows with the crowds in the morning, at lunch and in the evening when the thousands of busy, temporary inhabitants flood the streets.