A family affair to remember
Manhattan is full of sights and activities that intrigue children. And many are free.
By KATHERINE SNOW SMITH, Times Correspondent
Published October 26, 2003
Click for map of Manhattan's sights and activities for kids
AT RIGHT: Charlotte, 4, and Olivia, 6, spent more than an hour playing on the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.
[Photo: Katherine Snow Smith]
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[Photo: Katherine Snow Smith]
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| Bustling Times Square is a playground of sights and sounds for youngsters visiting New York. |
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 The staff at the Plaza is happy to take pictures of tourists in front of its portrait of the fictional Eloise, who, in her books, calls the hotel home.
[Photo: courtesy of the Plaza]
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New York: city of fine restaurants, superb shopping, rare art and live theater. The city that never sleeps. That's the metropolis everyone knows. But visit the city with your kids and it transforms itself into the city of candy stores, revolving doors, giant rocks, curbside hot dogs and a 9 p.m. curfew.
And Manhattan is still just as thrilling.
We took our daughters Olivia, 6, and Charlotte, 4, there for two days and a night this summer, while we were staying with relatives in Connecticut. The girls are a little young, but my husband, who grew up in the city, was eager to show them this vibrant place that they had glimpsed in the movies.
We did a lot of kid-friendly stuff in less than 48 hours, and even we foolish optimists were shocked at how smoothly the visit went.
We intentionally skipped most of the tourist landmarks that have long lines. Instead, our kids had a blast stepping into the real landscapes in Chinatown, Central Park and crowded streets.
We also visited places they had seen in movies or read about, such as the Plaza hotel, where Eloise made her home. They jumped on the giant floor piano at FAO Schwartz that they had seen in the Tom Hanks film Big. And except for the toys they bought with their allowance and a $25 lunch for four in Chinatown, all of that was free.
A visit to a posh, two-story candy shop owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter lasted one euphoric hour, but cost us less than $3. Cavemen, dinosaurs and a life-size blue whale headlined the American Museum of Natural History.
Two dueling toy stores, FAO Schwartz and Toys R Us, left the toy aisles in Target in the dust. The Empire State Building offered an amazing view, though 10 minutes was enough for our children to take it all in.
Between scheduled stops, New York is laced with things that intrigue kids - revolving doors, the subway, a "cowboy" wearing only underwear and boots and playing a guitar in the middle of Times Square, street vendors, and the hundreds of interesting people who brushed past us.
My husband and I quickly realized we had to allow time to take in those little pleasures we hadn't anticipated. The girls peered at the underground lights from the front of subway cars, and carefully looked at every watch spread out on a blanket on the sidewalk - though we weren't buying any.
An indoor Ferris wheel
Our trip began with my daughters' first train ride; it was a commuter from Connecticut. We emerged from Grand Central Station before 10 a.m. The girls had their faces pressed against the cab windows looking straight up at skyscrapers all the way to Times Square. We decided to first take the girls to the mammoth Toys R Us there, so they wouldn't be asking to go the entire trip.
My older daughter, Olivia, had heard in school about this amazing toy store with a Ferris wheel. Though my husband saw this chain store as an impostor among longstanding New York traditions, we decided it was worth visiting after checking it out on the Web.
The store has four floors, with the Ferris wheel rising through the middle of them. Riders can sit in Barbie's purse, a Mr. Potato Head car or other cars based on popular toys. Tickets cost $2.50 and can be bought in advance to avoid lines.
The store also features a giant dinosaur that roars and rotates every few minutes, a candy area designed like a life-size Candy Land board game, Lego replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, and many more moving, talking, surprising displays.
Back outside, the girls posed for photos with the near-naked cowboy, who earns his living this way on a little spit of sidewalk in the center of Broadway. Then we took a cab to the American Museum of Natural History. We waited in line about 20 minutes then spent an hour and a half looking at dioramas of people and animals from around the world and throughout time. Our 6-year-old could have stayed longer but the 4-year-old's attention meter was expiring.
From the museum we walked across Central Park to Manhattan's East Side. Along the way we climbed up and jumped off huge rocks, threw pebbles in a waterfall and ran across footbridges.
We ended up at the Alice in Wonderland statue along the Conservatory Water near 75th Avenue. The girls were like magnets perched at every possible spot on the oversized White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Dinah the kitten, mice and, of course, Alice.
After more than an hour of climbing and being the background for a wedding photo shoot, we walked a few feet to the pond and ate ice cream while we watched the remote control sailboats zip across the water, like the girls had seen in Stuart Little.
Around 5 p.m. we went to our hotel room for about an hour's rest. We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, cashing in frequent-traveler points my husband had collected from Hilton hotels.
A visit to THE candy store
We headed out for dinner at Serendipity 3, a restaurant on the Upper East Side. This is a two-story neighborhood place with fun decor including Victorian lights and street signs. The menu offers pastas, hot sandwiches, salads and burgers; entrees range from $8 to $18.
But the real attraction is Serendipity's famous frozen hot chocolate. It's like an icy-chocolate milk shake with the flavor of hot chocolate. It is served in a glass that's as big as a child's face.
Around the corner from Serendipity we stumbled upon the 10,000-square-foot Dylan's Candy Bar, the be-all and end-all of candy stores. The glass stairs encase a mosaic of Life Savers, lollipops, Tootsie Rolls, Red Hots and more. There is chocolate in every possible shape and form and candy-scented candles, soap and lip gloss. The girls were most impressed with the 12 colors of Hershey Kisses and 16 colors of Skittles, some available only at Dylan's.
A glass case displays celebrities' autographs and favorite candies: Jerry Seinfeld is partial to Bit-O-Honey while Mary-Kate Olsen likes Tootsie Rolls and her twin, Ashley, prefers gummy worms. Steve from Blues Clues loves peppermint gumdrops.
After Dylan's we made it to our hotel room by 9 p.m. and were asleep in less than 30 minutes.
The next morning we considered having a hotel breakfast but opted to save an hour - and about $40 - by grabbing donuts, bagels and bananas from a street vendor a block away.
By arriving at the Empire State Building at 9:15, we were able to go straight to the Observation Deck without waiting in line. (You may wait more than two hours later in the day.)
It was amazing to look down on hundreds of skyscrapers crammed next to each other in all four directions. But the awe inspired by the view was eclipsed by our pounding hearts and knotted stomachs each time our girls got anywhere near the edge of the viewing area.
My husband and I agreed if we had had to wait more than 30 minutes in line, the view from the top might not have been worth it for girls as young as ours. I told the girls the stories of An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle over lunch that day. When we got home, they were excited to see Sleepless in Seattle culminate at the Empire State Building (just fast-forward through the adult mushy stuff.)
Calling at some big names
After the Empire State it was on to the Plaza, home to the fictional and rambunctious Eloise. The staff was truly accommodating to us, offering to take pictures of us in front of the Eloise portrait and let us peek in the Oak Room, which was featured in the recent Eloise movie.
Outside the luxury hotel we patted the horses that pull carriage riders through Central Park. We debated paying $36 for a half-hour ride through the park but decided against it when we learned riders are taken to the park's carousel and past a new collection of carnival rides. We didn't want to spend the time or money on something we could do at home.
We left the carriages and walked across Fifth Avenue to FAO Schwartz. There's no Ferris wheel as at Toys R Us, but this longtime, over-the-top, toy store is brighter and more of an original.
An employee dressed as a "toy soldier" greets customers at the door. You ride to the second story in a glass elevator that's actually the belly of a giant robot. Plush stuffed animals of every color and breed reach from floor to ceiling.
My husband and the girls spent more than an hour there while I sneaked a few blocks down the street for some quick shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue.
From Midtown we took a subway to the Canal Street stop in Chinatown. We spent about two hours there perusing the offerings of the street vendors - everything from sequined Hello Kitty purses and plastic flying pigs to live turtles. Tubs with live lobsters and fish crowd the sidewalks in front of the fish markets.
We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant where we were seated at a large table with six other diners, all Chinese, who ate a feast of things I couldn't recognize. The girls' eyes got even wider with each new course of our tablemates' meal. We stuck to sauteed chicken and rice.
After the late lunch and more Chinatown browsing we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags.
We timed our departure right: As the train barreled up through the city, my older daughter began writing about our trip in a diary adorned with pictures of the city that she picked out at a souvenir stand. My younger girl pressed her face against the train window and asked when we could come back to New York City. Then she dropped her head in my lap and fell asleep.
If you go
Some tips for your trip:
Take a stroller if your kids are still even slightly using one. And be prepared to take cabs so you can see more and hear less whining about tired feet.
If you won't be back on your own you might like to have a parents' night out for dinner or a play. Many hotels have babysitting services or can put you in contact with one.
Make reservations for any restaurant, even casual ones, at least a month in advance.
Take sweaters even in the summer for frigid museum air conditioning. Use layering in winter to account for stuffy heating systems.
Movies and books to check out before the trip to get your kids excited about seeing the real thing in person: Eloise by Kay Thompson; The Cricket in Time Square by George Selden; the films Big, Sleepless in Seattle, Annie, Balto, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2, Alice in Wonderland.
For older kids or teens: An Affair to Remember, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Serendipity.
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