A day in NYC for a 17 year old -- reasonable? possible? please help!

<p>the best places to find cheap food are around colleges- college students never have much money, so great cheap little cafe's flock to these locations (i.e. upper west side, greenwich village)</p>

<p>Also a great place for sandwiches for around $5 - PAX Whole Foods. Good quality, not big bucks. There are a number of them around the Carnegie Hall/Times Square area (which we frequent), and may be in other parts of the city too.</p>

<p>stay away from times square, its a giant tourist trap and theres really nothing to see there. the parks are fun though, union sq and washington sq, and all of the village is quite a scene too. he could visit cathedrals (st patricks, and the one uptown by columbia whose name eludes me right now would be the obvious choices), if he does museums, id reccomend the neue on 86th and 5th, the whitney on ~74th and madison, the frick on 70th and 5th, and a museum whose name eludes me near 91st and 5th, with a wonderful garden. (can someone guess that i live on the upper east side?) if he's adventurous, harlem can be really fun, with markets to peruse and just an atmosphere to take in. i'd love to take your son for a day around the city (i'm 18). i'm not the most straight-edge kid, but i can definately behave for a day, and i havent gotten my dose of culture/nyc appreciation besides the nightlife in a good month, and could definately go for something new.</p>

<p>The Empire diner used to be a blast but is not cheap and not a place for students.</p>

<p>Fromthe Empire state Buidling he should walk south on Fifth Avenue to Washington Square Park ( 34th to 10th is just over a mile). That is the hub of NYU and a good spot to find something to eat for cheap. Fantastic people watching--and chess playing. My S2 nosed his way into a few games when he was 7 years old so your son whould give it a go if he has a bit of chess experience....chess players are over int he southwest corner of the park.</p>

<p>He can walk to his hostel from there or wander a bit east to Cooper Union and St Marks Place. More cheap eats. I love Cafe Orlin on 8th Street aka St Mark's Place just off 2nd Avenue --it is the penultimate aesthetic student hangout with great food. <a href="http://www.newyorkmetro.com/listings/restaurant/cafe-orlin/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newyorkmetro.com/listings/restaurant/cafe-orlin/&lt;/a>. St Marks is also great for 17 year old window shopping (cool cheap stuff) and people watching.</p>

<p>Another spot for dinner or lunch is Chinatown--also walkable from Bowery. Little Italy has been more or less swallowed by Chinatown, but there are some fantastic dessert spots there. <a href="http://www.littleitalynyc.com/ferrara/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.littleitalynyc.com/ferrara/&lt;/a>. My favorite restaurant in Chinatown is a tiny little Shanghaiese dim sum restaurant on Mott Street . I recommend their Shanghai dumplings and scallion pancakes. <a href="http://www.explorechinatown.com/Gui/Content.aspx?%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.explorechinatown.com/Gui/Content.aspx?&lt;/a>. Page=Locate&Type=R&Specialty=C&ID=9</p>

<p>Times Aquare is touristy but still a sight to see. More fun at night when the lights are on...</p>

<p>By the way, should he end up eating and hanging out in the East Village until past midnight...the cab fare to the Bowery Hostel from the East Village should be around $5.</p>

<p>As others have said your S's day one is good but it is very crowded in the Times Square area. It's good to walk through and get the flavor but he'll be among thousands of tourists snapping pictures of everything with their cell phones, so he'll be ready to get away from there. Most of 34th Street/Empire State Bldg area, and near Penn Station/Madison Sq Garden is another area very crowded.</p>

<p>The museums are great but make sure he spends time just walking..I might walk 6-8 miles in a typical day (son lives upper East side and works financial district). Downtown, personally I like Union Square the best (weekend food market) and he could walk from USquare down to Wash Square and NYU...I'd head west from there into the Village or South into Soho (walk down Broadway) which make for good interesting walks.</p>

<p>Number one...make sure he has REALLY comfortable shoes. Sore feet can kill the mood. </p>

<p>I'm happy for him he can extend his stay....can't do any justice to NY in just a day. </p>

<p>btw others may find it gross but I love the hot dogs and at 1.50 to 2.00 you can't beat it.</p>

<p>i have a friend who lives in near york right near union square.. i love that area. i also like to walk down to soho and check out all the quirky shops. :)</p>

<p>My son was pickpocketed near Macys a few years back but didn't lose much money.</p>

<p>Might make sense for your son to keep his passport and tickets in a safe at the hostel and keep his money/cash card in a clip stuffed deep in his front pocket.</p>

<p>Holy cow -- so many great suggestions. We go into the city a few times a year. Whatever sights/activities he chooses, he will save himself a LOT of time if he plans his own itinerary ahead of time. He can always improvise a bit along the way, but I find I'm a lot more sure of myself if I've done my homework first.<br>
Also, I didn't read every single post, but if he wants to take the subway, there is a website called Hopstop.com, where you type in your starting point and destination. and it will give you the EAXCT subway routes to take, number of stops, possible changes, etc. If he's trying to cover a lot of ground quickly, the subway may be his best bet during the day.
And tell him to allow himself PLENTY of extra time to get to the airport, to allow for traffic. Being stranded at LaGuardia or Kennedy is no fun at all.</p>

<p>This post is not meant to be a judgement on narf (Post #63) I'm sure he (she?) was making a genuinely friendly offer-- but speaking as a parent, I don't think any of us would be comfortable with our 17 year old arranging to meet "a stranger from the Internet" when alone in NYC for the first time.</p>

<p>thats all fine and good, it was indeed a genuine offer, but i can understand people's (especially parents!) uneasiness. and i'm a boy.</p>

<p>narf's teen identity could be easily established through pm and school verification. We old farts might be nervous about the internet, but these kids live in facebook times. Like it or not.</p>

<p>If narf is a genuine Upper East Side teen, he could provide a view of Manhattan that would be eye-opening. My son never meets up with folks I know in foreign cities-- figuring anyone I know is not worth his (now) 20 year old time. But if he'd never been to NYC and we didn't have friends there, I'd give him the info and let him decide for himself. He's 6'-2" after all. He's big enough to elude pedophiles.</p>

<p>But that's me. I lived on 9th and avenue A for a few years in the early eighties. Before I moved to NYC, I was pursued by a pervert following an stupid ad I placed in the NYT. My parents cried their eyes out when I got on the plane to Manhattan. having overheard all the lewd phone calls the guy made long distance, they were sure the guy was going to to track me down--as I had given him ALL my personal information (more brains than sense at that point in my life).</p>

<p>I never ran into him--though I did manage to run into another old pervert some months later at Lincoln Center. He pursued me too. Eventually, I wised up and figured out how to avoid perverts!</p>

<p>We arranged a private university tour with a student we met via CC--but that was with parents present on a campus. I have met several other Internet strangers in person but this was as an adult in well-defined safe environments-all were rewarding experiences. </p>

<p>I have a rich imagination when it comes to my kid's safety (daughter) --it's not only pedophiles that I would find undesirable--and just because I knew someone was "an Upper East Side teen" that wouldn't necessarily reassure me about her meeting him alone on some random street corner in NYC. Face it, Holden Caulfield was also a pretty messed up kid.</p>

<p>im new to this id reccomend only having cc-meets w/ parents thats what ive been told. I live Right near NYC and have been there 10000s of times i grew up on long Island in suburbia NY! my cousin goes to hs in Manhattan and lives in the bronx. NYC ur kid will love..I love it.. I of course have a different budget then u guys but theres always stuff to do...if u get down by NYU theres this place a couple blocks from cas and Washington Square that has cheap mini bagels(i didnt have them but my cousin did and he loved them) a couple of them range probably 3-4 dollars. I was just down there on Memorial day for a free to public outside art show.(my parents dragged me w/ my cousin and the rest of my gigantic extended family!) Theres plenty to do cheap in nyc ive never done it but IVe seen plenty of inexpensive things to do around. If u want i can ask my sister who lives in NYC and is always looking for cheap things to do!</p>

<p>no actually the mini bagels were 50 cents i remember my memory is slow 50 cents for a mini bagel u can have a meal there for around 2-3 dollars(1-3 bagels plus a drink=2 bagels=1 dollar+drink a little over a dollar plus tax! so its about 3 dollars)</p>