70 floors above Rockefeller Center is the best observation deck in New York City. A 360' outdoor experience is possible from the 'Top of the Rock' terrace. Go to 50th Street entrance off 5th Avenue for ticket windows or buy online. Check out the great website: www.topoftherocknyc.com.

Rockefeller Center, 50th Street entrance off 5th Avenue

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It goes past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Nice and cool on deck in the summer.

Keep walking south all along Broadway until you come to the bull sculpture by Wall Street. Follow the street around to the left and you'll come to the ferry terminal.

Alternatively catch the subway to South Ferry.

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Now that you cannot go up the Statue of Liberty, we found the ferry tour to the island a bit of a waste of time. The line is very long (it took us over an hour).

To skip the queues go to the Staten Island ferry terminal and head to the back of the boat. You'll get exactly the same view of the Lady, without having to queue up. I think its a better view and quicker.

Check out my NYC guide here:
www.alib.co.uk/guides/index.htm

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Not as crowded as the Empire State. Travel to the top is more interesting and the balconies at the top are better and the views are just as enthralling.
Plus you get a good sighting of the Empire State.

Rockefeller Centre

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This is brilliant, only $59 and it gets you into loads and loads of attractions, costing you less than if you bought the tickets individually. The pass also allows you to skip the queue in most places.

www.citypass.com

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These hop-on, hop-off tours are a fantastic way to start your sightseeing. Running out of Times Square, Gray Line do tours of Downtown, Uptown, Brooklyn and a night tour. You can buy tickets from the many sellers in Times Square and your best buy is the All Tour pass, which is valid for two days for all the tours at about $46.

Each bus is open top and comes with a tour guide, who is usually true New Yorker and has plenty of information on the places you pass through, as well as plenty of recommendations for restaurants, shops, cafes etc.

The night tour is not to be missed as you go across to Brooklyn shore and get a beautiful view of Lower Manhattan. Be warned that it gets very chilly sitting up top at night, no matter how hot it has been during the day, so take a sweater.

The buses stop at all the major points of interest and run from 8am until 6pm, with the night tour starting around the same time until about 9pm.

Main point:Times Square or any stop

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Lasted three hours, costs about the same as the Statue of Liberty trip. We had the same views of the statue plus toured the rest of Manhattan. No x-ray/search as per Statue of Liberty and Empire State so much more enjoyable and relaxed.

It leaves from pier 83, which is right next to the air and space display and concorde so all in all great value plus you don't get the disappointment of finding out after the security etc to get to the Statue of Liberty that you can now only go up the base not the actual statue.

www.circleline42.com/

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