MoMA has the finest and largest holding of 20th and 21st century modern art in the world.

To save $20 admission go after 4pm (up to 8pm) on Fridays when it's free - although it gets busy, it's a great way of seeing some of the best displays of modern art you can ever see.

11W 53rd Street; nearest subway : Fifth-53rd Street

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Brilliant place. Small and manageable, amazing collection, friendly guides, good special exhibitions. Make sure you see Alexander Calder's Circus. Beat the crowds at MoMA!

Museum Mile, Upper East Side
www.whitney.org/
Tel: (212) 570 3676

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Lovely 24-hour Art Deco rail car diner in Chelsea area. There's an old piano in one corner, and the place has a very charming feel. Food is great, all-day breakfasts, club sandwiches, omelettes and specials board. Cosy little booths too (candlelit at night!), an ideal place to spend an hour or so, sipping coffee after your breakfast, gazing on 10th Avenue, pretending you're a New Yorker.

22nd & 10th Avenue, Midtown west, NY 10011-4711

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I'm here to represent the proverbial little guy among the world-renowned parks and buildings of Manhattan. A 20-block walk from Grand Central is the Gershwin Hotel, a building that whip-lashes the eye on first alight. There's nothing pedestrian about this place, so prepare for an image-overload fest of artwork and photographic portraits, harking back to Studio 54 days. With its funky front - killer red with iluminated fibre-glass and metal protrusions - it's difficult to miss. Warhol is a bit of a deity here, and his work is definitely "home" within its walls. I stayed in a 6-bunk room with shared bathroom which set me back 30 happily-spent dollars for clean, basic accommodation and genuinely-friendly service. The price range does jump considerably for private and suite accommodation, but that's what makes the place even more unique to my mind. For couples on a budget, unisex bunks are also on offer.

East 27th/7th, off 5th Avenue

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Great novel set in and around the downtown art scene of the 70/80/90s.

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Step off Fifth Avenue into the Frick and you enter a completely different world. A fascinating house stuffed with the most beautiful paintings collected by industrialist Henry Frick in the early 20th Century - Vermeer, Goya, Holbein, Piero della Francesca. If you are touring the art galleries of NYC this is a must - and much easier on the feet than the Met or Moma.

www.frick.org/index.htm

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A sculpture garden on the roof of the museum, missed by the vast majority of visitors. Go not for the art but the view: a gorgeous panorama of Central Park and the sumptuous buildings that surround it, from just above the tree line.

1000 Fifth Ave at 82nd Street. Take the elevator at the back of the Museum. (Best ask a guard.) Open Spring, summer, and early fall.

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A good and most importantly, free view over Central Park is notoriously difficult to come accross, unless you live in an apartment overlooking it. However, on a recent trip, I was delighted to find that the excellent Metropolitan Museum of Art has just such a novelty. Notwithstanding the cornucopia of exhibits to look at there is also a staggering view accross the park towards midtown. Especially good if there's a lightning storm approaching - you can take shelter behind one of the dodgy pieces of 'Modern Art' that are sure to get struck before you do. And they serve Mojitos up there too...

1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. Take 4, 5, or 6 train to 86th Street and walk three blocks west to Fifth Avenue

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Despite the recent reopening of Moma in all its splendour, the Met still wins out. Like any huge museum of this kind - it is has seven major, permanent collections - you won't see it all. If you have the stamina put aside a day, go early, take a break and go back for more. If not then it makes sense to focus on what piece of candy in this particularly huge store you want and then try not to binge.

1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street; Tel: 212-535-7710; www.metmuseum.org/

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The younger, hipper sister gallery of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), PS1 showcases the best of cutting-edge contemporary art. Even if you don't "get it", you're bound to find something entertaining in this old school building. A recent exhibition included a video of a family kitted out in back-to-front Bernie Clifton-style ostrich outfits played backwards, & a mouse-eye view of a toy train ride through the bowels of houses & offices. Guaranteed to wind up Daily Mail readers & Jack Vettriano lovers, which is never a bad thing. Entry is free with a MoMA ticket.

It's on Long Island. Take the E or V train to 23 St/Ely Ave. Exit onto 44th to Jackson Ave. Walk two blocks south on Jackson to 46th Ave.

www.ps1.org

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A weird and wonderful collection (the Henry Darger collection is extensive), beautifully displayed in a great new museum just down the street from MOMA. Great temporary exhibits and friendly staff.

45 West 53rd Street

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The Municipal Art Society (MAS) is a non-profit organization which aims to make NYC more livable. It focuses on many aspects of NY life including planning and zoning but also runs exhibitions, programmes and tours on architecture, public art and the cultural development of NYC. The MAS has its own galleries with rolling exhibits on NY-based themes, many of which are unique to the organization. These run for 6-8 weeks at a time and info can be found on their website: www.mas.org The tours are especially great for tourists though, particularly if you've been to NYC before and have seen all the usual sights already. They take you to little-known districts where expert guides show you around and offer fascinating information on places you might not think of going otherwise, like Harlem, the Bronx, and various areas of Brooklyn and Queens. The Grand Central Station tour is the most popular and runs every Wednesday at 12.30 from inside the terminal. The schedule changes all the time so you'll need to check their website to see what's going on when you visit, but you can just show up at the street corner and join the tour without booking. Prices are very reasonable; make sure to get there early. Tours leave promptly and are often hard to track down once they're under way.

The Municipal Art Society of New York 457 Madison Ave (btw/ 50th & 51st) NY 10022 T: 212-935-3960 W: www.mas.org Subway: B, V, F, D to Rockefeller Center 6 to 51st & Lexington

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