Originally Posted by
newyorkgeorge
Unless the OP is still in her college party days stay away from the Times Square area.Other than a show there is nothing there but noise and crowds.
I disagree. For most first-time visitors to NYC, Midtown is the most convenient place to be. Yes, it's primarily a tourist and business district and not a residential district. But if I was visiting NYC as a tourist for the first time, it's where I'd want to stay.
That said, if you want to experience NYC like a New Yorker, you'll want to stay somewhere else. I'd probably push for Chelsea or the Lower East Side, as I think they're more fun to explore than a lot of other areas. But the Upper West and Upper East sides are interesting, too, the Village has its charms, and even the Financial District is somewhat interesting these days.
Originally Posted by
M60_to_LGA
Unfortunately, in my experience, virtually everything in that area is a tourist trap. I honestly can't think of a single place between 23rd/50th Sts and east of 8th Ave that I would ever want to go. Maybe Becco on 46th St for Italian - my friend had his bachelor party there, and it was decent - but there are other cheaper/better places to go outside of the Midtown tourist zone.
It's true that the vast majority of NYC's restaurants that are
both good
and reasonably priced are not in Midtown. Midtown has tons and tons of tourist traps, including almost everything surrounding Times Square. But Midtown also has some of the best restaurants in the city (Le Bernardin, The Modern, Per Se if you stretch the boundaries a tad)--they're just incredibly expensive. And like you say, 9th Avenue is a short walk from most Midtown hotels and has plenty of decent, reasonably priced fare (note: Becco is west of 8th Ave). And it's only a short subway ride to other neighborhoods that have a much more diverse selection of unique and reasonably priced fare.