Local tips: 9 things you should not do in New York

If you are going to New York, you should definitely take into account the advice of knowledgeable people. The list of entertainment and attractions of the city is simply huge, especially if you include restaurants in it, but the list of things that should not be done in any case is also rather big. Without a doubt, you should avoid places with a crazy crowd of tourists, undeservedly popular eateries and skillfully imposed dubious pleasures - especially if you are in New York for a while, writes GQ.

On the other hand, even local residents often agree that there are several tourist places in the city that you must get to without fail, spit on money, crowds and lack of time. Among them - among many others - the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

1. Do not get on a bicycle taxi

In Times Square or Herald Square, taxi drivers stand on every corner - waiting for passengers to shake out the entire contents of their wallet (a trip of 20 quarters will cost $ 25).

Since no self-respecting New Yorker will ever overpay, the very fact of your landing in a bicycle taxi will immediately give you a tourist - and faster and more reliable than having a waist bag or a Red Sox baseball cap. Taxis, by the way, are also best avoided: very expensive, often unsafe and also harmful to the environment.

Use the metro instead

Every weekday, more than five million people descend into the New York subway. And here's why: the metro is fast, reliable, cheap and environmentally friendly; the subway is easy to navigate, plus trains run 24 hours 7 days a week. In addition, experienced travelers know that the metro is the best place to look at people.

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You will not find such social and national diversity either at Greenwich Village or at the UN headquarters: in New York, everyone travels from the artists and bankers to immigrants who have just arrived. In addition, do not forget that New York is an ideal city for walking. From Times Square to Central Park, you can take a quick step in less than 20 minutes.

2. Do not buy hot dogs on the street

Street carts with multi-colored umbrellas selling hot dogs are the same symbol of New York as yellow taxis and the Empire State Building. Business thrives thanks to tourists who, hungry, grab the first available high-calorie food. But let's face it: a sluggish sausage, God knows how much time has lain in a metal unit, which is put in cardboard bread and sprinkled with stale vegetables - this is not food. Of course, street food in New York (including meat) is quite successful - you just need to know the places. If you want to eat a hot dog, buy it in a decent place, instead of giving away two dollars for an obscure product poured with mustard from a seized bottle.

Вplace of this go to checked places

For a real classic hot dog with beef sausage ($ 3,10) you have to go to Katz's Delicatessen. However, not only there: in New York, the gastronomic capital of America, there are a lot of places where delicious hot dogs make it. Saltie Bakery (378 Metropolitan Avenue, 718-387-4777) has wonderful brioches, rolls, pastries and puddings. At Crif Dogs in East Village (113 St. Marks Place, 212-614-2728), homemade smoked sausages are fried to the right bursting crust and add non-standard toppings: avocado, slaw and cream cheese. You can make it even cooler and book a table in the cult PDT "adult" bar, you can get into it by going through a telephone booth at Crif Dogs. Order a Good Morning hot dog wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with melted cheese and fried egg ($ 5) and drink it with the perfect Manhattan cocktail.

3. Do not climb the Empire State Building

There are such amusement parks where you have to stand in line for two hours, methodically moving through four souvenir crowds and a restaurant under a continuous children's play - all this in order to ride for four minutes. So getting to the top of the Empire State Building is about the same. Not even approximately, but absolutely the same. No doubt, the view of the city from the Empire State Building opens up beautiful - only by the time you finally get there, you don’t want anything at all.

Because you have to defend at least five lines: on the street, in the lobby at the entrance to the elevator, at the ticket office, then into the second elevator and at the exit of the elevator - to get to the observation deck. The expectation will be overshadowed by annoyingly insistent offers “buy an express ticket”, “ride around the city in 3D mode” and a public demonstration of your own unhappy physiognomy on a large screen with green backlight. On the way back down, you will need to stand in three lines, squeezing along with a crowd of people through the inevitable gift shop. In general, this is the worst of what tourists experience.

Instead, head up to The Rainbow Room Restaurant.

A true New Yorker knows that any event is best experienced with a cocktail in hand. So the $ 20 you would have to pay to go up to the Empire State Building would be better spent on Manhattan cocktails and great views of Manhattan in The Rainbow Room, located on the 65th floor of the famous GE Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor, 212-632-5000). The local bartenders are professional and courteous, as in the legendary New York bars; The colorful interior in the Art Deco style will delight. Yes, this is also an attraction for tourists, but one that the locals can envy. Climb to the 70th floor to the observation deck of The Top of the Rock (212-698-2000), which rises above the Rockefeller Center: here you will find free alcohol and amazing views of the city, including the Empire State Building with its unfortunate visitors. The review is magical, you won’t have to wait long - in general, this experiment will be much more pleasant.

4. Do not eat cupcakes in Magnolia Bakery

Ever since Magnolia Bakery flashed in one of the episodes of the series Sex and the City, endless crowds of Carrie Bradshaw fans have flocked here, to the corner of Bleecker and West 11, dragging bored boyfriends behind them. On weekends, a line is built a block from the patisserie, and all the asphalt in the vicinity of West Village is dotted with cupcake wrappers. But want to know the truth?

The cupcakes here are mealy and tasteless, the sugary glaze, the saleswomen are unfriendly, and the founding owners sold the business many years ago. The cupcakes in New York's Magnolia Bakery are essentially the same as the donuts at the Café du Monde in New Orleans: a mythologized cliché harmful to the teeth.

Instead, try canolly at Rocco's bakery

Walk a few blocks down to 243 Bleecker Street - this is the location of the truly historic Rocco's Pastry Shop (243 Bleecker Street, 212-242-6031), preserved from the long time ago when Italian immigrants inhabited this part of the Village. It sells delicious authentic canolles that can be washed with espresso.

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If you certainly want to try cupcakes, get in a taxi and head to Cupcake Café (545 Ninth Avenue, 212-465-1530), where cupcakes began to bake long before Magnolia was born. Over time, they did not get worse: cupcakes here make huge, juicy, with real cream cream. The location of the main cafe on Ninth Avenue near the Port Authority Bus Terminal bus fleet is not very good, but the second Rocco's Pastry Shop is at the cute children's bookstore Books of Wonder in Chelsea (18 W. 18th Street).

5. Do not ride a wagon in Central Park

You may recall a romantic scene from the movie Manhattan, in which the characters of Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway ride in Central Park in a horse-drawn cart, in complete solitude and silence, broken only by the rustling of leaves, and want to repeat the experiment.

So we hasten to disappoint you: nothing like this episode will happen to you. The horse will be tired, the chatter of the coachman - as dull as the memoirs of Mia Farrow; all the way, while you crawl along the main alleys of the park, the back of another wagon will loom before you, and the locals and animal lovers passing by will look at you with hatred.

Instead, get up early and go for a walk in Central Park

In the mornings, the Central Park is unusually good: there are still few people, the greenery breathes freshness, and walking around the main park along the main alleys (this is about three and a half kilometers) is an incomparable pleasure. Get up early, buy coffee and a bun on the street and have breakfast while strolling through the wooded, remote corners of the park.

It is best to enter the park from Fifth Avenue or Central Park West in the area of ​​seventy streets and head towards the center: this is the most convenient route for exploring the main places of the park. You can climb the Pilgrim Hill near the Conservatory Water pond, wander around the lake and visit the famous red-tailed hawks Pay-Mail and Lola, who nestled above the window of the apartment of one of the houses on Fifth Avenue.

6. Do not eat in restaurants on Times Square

Tourists' love for Times Square can be understood: multi-colored neon signs and advertisements burn around the clock, shops operate non-stop, and indeed this place is legendary. But coming here for food is a big mistake. Gorky’s former Mayor’s policies for securing residents and tourists in Times Square also had the opposite effect: faceless national networking venues like Red Lobster, Applebee's, and Chevy's Fresh Mex, which weren't here before, were flooded. And you know what? The food there is the same as in the suburbs, only more expensive.

Go to Hell's Kitchen instead

Hell's Kitchen is located two blocks west of Times Square - previously everything was rented here, but now aspiring actors, young writers and other creative and promising people live here. They all love to eat tasty and inexpensively, and Ninth Avenue is full of ethnic restaurants (Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, Greek, Italian) that meet this requirement.

Almost anywhere you can eat a decent lunch on the way from one attraction to another, before going to the theater or after. Here are some useful addresses: Pam Real Thai (404 W. 49th St., 212-333-7500) is served authentic Bangkok food; in Chimichurri Grill (606 9th Ave., 212-586-8655) you have to go for an excellent Argentinean steak; Meskerem (468 W 47th St., 212-664-0520) is known for savory Ethiopian dishes, and Esca (402 W. 43rd St., 212-564-7272) for first-class Italian seafood.

You can walk along the avenue round-trip and go to the institution, which seems the most attractive. As for Times Square - although it is called the crossroads of the world, a full set of international food is still two avenues from the square.

7. Do not go to Times Square comedy shows

If a person comes up to you on the street and asks: “Would you like to go on a comedy show?”, You should pass by with a stone face or (option for especially straightforward ones) answer: “I wish your spirit was not here”.

Comedy clubs on Times Square are hired by aspiring actors to lure naive tourists to ridiculous stand-up shows where visitors are required to buy a few drinks. It’s also not funny to see crowds of people who, trembling from the cold, take their turn to the uttermost time to buy reserve tickets for Saturday Night Live recording - without any chance of getting onto the set.

Instead, watch The Upright Citizens Brigade

Save your nerves and money and head to downtown Chelsea for The Upright Citizens Brigade (307 W. 26th St., 212-366-9176). A ticket costs only $ 5–10, but megastars took part in the sketches of this improvisational troupe: Robin Williams, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey.

Popular actors generally appear from time to time in the UCB so as not to lose their grip and try out a new genre. In addition, it is on the stage of UCB that new stars are born, which then will certainly appear in the cult Saturday Night Live. It is also pleasant that the UCB show sells the cheapest beer in the city: at a price of $ 2 per bottle, the pleasure of the performance (not even the most successful) is guaranteed.

8. Do not go to Century 21

Century 21 is a store selling designer clothes at huge discounts, packed to capacity with tourists: aggression rolls over, karma spoils. If you come here, you will be pushed. They will shout at you. You will be given a lecture on the rules of the store. You will have to stand with a crowd of nervous evil people in long stupid lines that move so slowly that even a Franciscan monk will not have the patience.

You can succumb to universal hysteria and spend a lot of time in the store trying to find a cheap good thing, but the sad truth is that everything you buy is likely to be outdated or defective. You should only go to Century 21 if you sincerely like to squeeze through the furious crowds of persistent customers with a fight, or if you woke up one morning and realized that you really want to rummage through dirty clothes that haven't been sorted into one pile. Then yes, Century 21 is your “personal Idaho state."

Go to Lord & Taylor instead

Lord & Taylor's flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 38th Street is the civilized answer to the shopping frenzy of the big city. The interior is discreet and respectable, things are hung in perfect order, the staff is extremely tactful (no comparison with the impudent clerks from Bloomie's or Bergdorf), the cosmetics department is huge, and there are few people.

Well-looking old women buying gloves and hat pins are unlikely to be found here, but the decorous atmosphere of the old days is still felt. Lord & Taylor makes it possible to believe that cultural shopping in New York is still possible: every morning here begins with the US anthem, and chairs are taken out for the earliest customers. If a New Yorker is invited to a wedding, she will go to Lord & Taylor on the fifth floor for an evening dress. During the sales, Lord & Taylor beats the competition on all counts: not only can you buy Frye sandals here at a 40% discount, they will also be brought to you by a smiling, kind lady.

9. Do not go to Meatpacking District night clubs

The time has passed when the transvestites, famous throughout New York, flandered through the streets of the Meatpacking District, and real debauchery and tyranny reigned in numerous bars and clubs. Now here giggling girls and drunk guys in long button-down shirts roam with an unsteady gait at night, and the previous gloss disappeared from the establishments.

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In the afternoon, a completely different story. The Meatpacking District is a great place for shopping (lots of boutiques, including Diane von Fürstenberg) and for walks (for example, along High Line park). In addition, there are still traces of the meat processing industry: one careless step from the sidewalk - and you will plunge headlong into the "old" New York.

Instead, head to the Lower East Side and on.

A few years ago, the Lower East Side, in the south bordering Chinatown, in the north with the East Village and Soho in the west, had the same dubious reputation as the Meatpacking District. Most people from New Jersey, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens were hanging out here (the inhabitants of Manhattan scornfully call them bridge-and-tunnel crowd).

But now the Lower East Side has become terribly fashionable and pleasantly diverse: there are both luxurious restaurants like Chloe 81 (Chloe 81, 81 Ludlow St., 212-677-0067) and cheap restaurants like Home Sweet Home (131 Chrystie St. , 212-226-5708). If you get to the Lower East Side and don’t want to climb further, head straight to Brooklyn, Kings County Club.

Feel free to catch a taxi (remember: a taxi driver is obliged to take you to Brooklyn, even if he does not want to trudge that far), disembark on Smith Street in Boerum Hill or Bedford Avenue in the current Williamsburg - and who knows where you will find yourself in the morning. It is possible that at 4 a.m. you will find yourself in Brooklyn Ice House (318 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, 718-222-1865), with a piece of grilled meat and beer, or you will find yourself with local hipsters in a tiny K&M bar ( 225 N. 8th St., Williamsburg, 718-388-3088).