Awesome! I’ll be there for 2 weeks from mid September. What do you suggest?

Hey @chelseyprior! I must have missed this, I’m so sorry!! Good thing you’re not leaving for another month 🙂

You should check out the NY Guide page, there’s a food crawl video and a few blog posts about it and the best places to see and eat 🙂

My dad is from Brooklyn, so I’ve seen a slightly less touristy side of NY, so those blogs should be good to check out from a touristy point-of-view. I wholeheartedly recommend Central Park, it is great being able to people-watch and see locals enjoying their weekends there. However, they still have the horse carriages there, so that can be upsetting to see. The trees should be just turning color during mid-September, and that is quite a sight to see. The area around the boating pond/duck pond is especially nice, and the walk there from the South goes through all of the people roller skating, blowing giant bubbles for kids to play in, and performers.

The Village is definitely my favourite area of Manhattan, during the semester it’s full of students and has a much more laid-back atmosphere than other parts of the city. There is no specific location I’d recommend there, just walk around and enjoy the area.

I’ve actually never been to the Empire State Building, and I have no real desire to go, but it’s one of those ‘you’re in NY, so you have to go’ things. The Statue of Liberty is another one of those, and that was one I enjoyed because you have to take a boat there and get to see the city from a distance, but since the last time I was there was pre-9/11, I’m not sure how difficult and touristy it would be now.

New York is known for its shows, so I wouldn’t leave without seeing one. I love the Broadway Disney musicals, and really enjoyed the Book of Mormon and Spamalot, but the off-Broadway shows are also really nice and much cheaper. New York is definitely the place to experience culture, so you may want to consider catching a concert, orchestra, or ballet/dance while there, too. Museums are also great, I like MoMA and the Museum of Natural History.

That said, it is clearly not a cheap city to visit. Prepare accordingly. Hostels and hotels around Brooklyn are much cheaper, and transportation is so easy that it’s easy to get around. Definitely get an MTA card for subways, this city is not walkable, not without a fair amount of pain, anyway. I’m really used to walking around big cities, but everything is so all-over in NY that it’s just not worth walking everywhere.

Food-wise, I have all of the recommendations. Candle 79 is expensive, but it is so amazing, I will never go to NY and not stop by. The best things are the appetizers (although the Seitan Piccatta is so good too), so if you can only have one dish there, I’d recommend the Seitan Skewers. There’s also Candle Cafe , which has a more relaxed atmosphere, and the Seitan Chimichurri is to-die-for. Have I sold you enough on this? If there was only one place I could go to in New York, this would be it.

Champs Diner in Brooklyn is also very, very good. It is pretty typical diner food, just veganised, and the interior is so cool (okay, I may have been swayed by the black shiny/glittery seats).

Taïm has amazing falafels (3 different kinds!), and passed through the native New Yorker-test, since my dad (and all other New Yorkers I’ve met) has very strict standards of what is ‘good’ New Yorker food, and what’s an imitation.

I know I’m probably overwhelming you with choice, but I would recommend you don’t leave the city before experiencing the quintessential New York-experience: bagels! The ones at Ess-A-Bagel (Yiddish for ‘eat a bagel’) are better than any other I’ve tasted, and the lines outside the doors in the mornings prove it. They have several tofu cream cheese spreads to choose from too, my favourite is the chives.

byChloe. was a new find the last time I was in NY, they have a few locations around NY, and are a really nice place especially for a later-night meal.

If you can track them down, Cinnamon Snail is a food truck that has pretty amazing donuts and everything else is good, too.

Aaaanyway, I hope this was helpful and what you were looking for!! Sorry again that I got back to you so late!

I also recommend stopping by Mooshoes if you are in search of new vegan shoes, clothes, or accessories, or if you really love cats, because they are a great all-vegan store. And their cats are really friendly. There is also a super awesome bookstore on the way to Mooshoes called Bluestockings, that apparently we don’t have a listing on the site for yet, but that I’ll be sure to add next. It advertises itself as a radical bookshop, and has books on feminism, animal rights, lgbtqia+, race studies, politics, the environment, and just plain old fiction, poetry, comics, etc. It’s also got a fair-trade cafe attached, with vegan options and soy milk. I could have spent hours there, but the last time I went, I was with my extended family and didn’t want to keep them waiting.

Hi Kristin! 🙂
I’ve never been to Lebanon before but I’ll be staying with a friend and her family while I’m there. Fingers crossed for more than falafel!
I’d love your friends contact info if you don’t mind. It’s always good to know a local or have a contact just incase. I’ll send you a message.

Thanks so much for such comprehensive advice! I’m going through all the links thoroughly and gradually making an Orlando list 😀