Hey myvot,

If you want a great night out then head for Arthurs Tavern in Greenwich Village. It's great.

Don't think that Times Square is the be all and end all of entertainment, in my opinion it's not a great place to go out. Far too touristy and very expensive.

Cheers,

TC

Hi

The Big Apple Greeter is a great idea, unfortunately the demand is greater than the actual number of greeters so you may not get one. A walk around Brooklyn is very popular and they will show you how to buy tickets for and ride the subway as riding the subway makes some first time visitors nervous( which incidentally I found easy to use and very safe) I applied for a greeter on my first visit to NY last year but wasn't lucky.
I took a tour with New York Party Shuffle http://www.newyorkpartyshuffle.com it was on a small coach and took about six hours and we had a guide with us the whole time, I really got a feel for where everything was in the city and it even included a ride on the Staten Island ferry. Another option for getting around for first time visitors is the hop-on hop-off bus http://www.hopon-hopoff.com you can get a one day or two day ticket and this includes a nightime tour. I stayed in the Times Square area at the Radio City Apartments http://www.radiocityapartments.com and would highly recommend them. I wasn't particularly impressed with Times Square, for me it was too crowded and noisy but it was a great location for young people wanting to experience the craziness of the area.
I belong to a much older age group than you and your friend so can't be much help about night life but if I can help in any other way let me know.
There is loads of info. on the America and the City Breaks forums on HT which should help you.

Judith

I went to New York the week before Christmas for a combined tourist/hen night/wedding extravaganza (!) - quite a few of those I went with did the SATC bus tour and had a really great time. Obviously it helps if you're a fan of the show so you know what you're looking at I did a Foods Of New York walking tour around Greenwich Village, and saw "the Friends building" (used in exterior location shots), which got me much more excited!!

IME, Macy's (near 34th St subway station) was fantastic for shopping, I loved it and spent over 4 hours there (nothing to do with the horizontal sleet coming down that day, or the pre-Xmas 50% sale...). It was like Debenhams only with 9 floors, and a Ben & Jerry's counter!!

I went to the Rockefeller Center, didn't go ice-skating (no sense of balance) but did go to the Top Of The Rock and recommend it for the great views, I've had a lot of compliments on the photos I took :-)

Also visited Grand Central, don't remember a market but you may be referring to the food court downstairs?? Where the famous Oyster Bar is located. The food court was OK but didn't strike me as anything special, just lots of varieties of food served from counters like any food court in a shopping mall where you can choose, sit and eat.

One tip I would say is don't be apprehensive of using the subway - after the first time or two it's really easy, and so cheap!

I love NYC and 5 days wasn't enough so we would like to go back at some point. Like Judith, we stayed in RCA and the location was great for a first visit but I think next time we'd stay in a different area as there are so many districts it would be nice to experience another.

I too would recommend the Food Walking Tour (we did the Greenwich Village one) and you can book online before you go here - http://www.foodsofny.com
There isn't a market in Grand Central Station but it is a wonderful place to visit and have some cheesecake in their food court. (I think next time we'd go on the disused subway tour as it sounds really interesting)
The New York Public Library is beautiful building to see too.
Central Park is huge - we spent hours in there and only saw about a third of it.
I'd also recommend walking the Brooklyn Bridge.

Getting about town is easy. I would suggest that you invest in a decent map. We had the NY pop up map on Amazon recommended to us, it only cost £3 and it was great, it fits into your pocket and all the major sites are marked.

There are loads of reports on the NY thread in the city break to give more ideas.