Places to visit in New York

Times Square – Midtown Manhattan

This is the commercial and cultural hub in New York City. Here, you can find everything from street performances to Broadway performances, high end shopping places to mom and pop souvenir shops, upscale restaurants to street food and everything in between. This is the place where major events and celebrations happen, usually at community parks, and also where protestors gather. It is a popular tourist attraction and thus a very crowded part of New York City.

Weaving through Times Square to get to Broadway to watch Aladdin Musical, it was incredible ❤️! @ Broadway, NYC

It’s also a very popular place for Pokémon Goers, there are many Pokestops and Pokémon spawning everywhere!!!

Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island

We had a wonderful tour guide on our boat, taking us down the east river, and the Hudson river to visit the Statue of Liberty.

In addition to all the highlights provided by the tour guide, she gave us a bunch of tips on how to do New York, including how to save money in New York.

  1. get your traditional and authentic New York pizza in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, just across the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan, the Dumbo area is the down under Manhattan Bridge overpass area, lots of great pizza places there.
  2. Get your Broadway tickets at the TKTS ticket booth on Broadway at 47th St. on the same day, they offer discounted same-day tickets to all the Broadway shows. You can also show up at the ticket booth and see what discounted tickets they have on the same day and potentially enter a lottery for tickets that come available over the next few days. Don’t buy online and since the seats are generally pretty comparable throughout the theater, don’t waste your money on the most expensive seats in the theater.
  3. Definitely check out the Halal guys, they own a bunch of food trucks, specializing in Middle Eastern, food, falafel, gyros, chicken and beef sandwiches and platters, started by a few brothers, and now a franchise throughout New York, definitely not to miss, I have eaten there before, and they have great food, check out their location at E 14th St. and 2nd Avenue.
  4. Always be careful around Times Square, the merchandise peddlers are very aggressive, don’t give them your first name, they are likely to use it from an innocent enough conversation and start writing your name on products, and then tell you you have to buy them because you gave them your name-and now it’s on the merchandise and it’s yours. They get very aggressive, best just to ignore them.


When we were over an hour early before the scheduled tour boat departure time, and the receptionist said they can’t change the tickets in time prior to departure, we decided to to hang out at the T Cafe to find shelter from the rain. And we found this place called House of the Red Pearl and decided to lunch here. Food is okay but way overpriced, our tour guide later told us that that’s the place we should avoid as it has become a major tourist attraction. Great advice but just a little late!

T Cafe

Located right next to Pier 16, where we took our boat to Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty, this building has a number of restaurants and other attractions. Good place to wander around and waste some time while waiting for your boat to leave from the pier when it’s raining…

911 Ground Zero Memorial Site

American Natural Science Museum


We visited the American Natural Science Museum where “Night at the Museum” was filmed. The museum opens at 10am and we thought we would avoid the crowd by hitting the place first thing in the morning . Well, the line was so long it wrapped around half of the building, but as soon as they open, the line moves fairly quickly, but I would still recommend either arriving half an hour early to be at the front of the line or half an hour after opening when the line has dissipated. The visit was very informative including exploring different exhibitions and watching a planetarium video about the universe. Of course, Kevan was fixated at the food truck before we entered the museum and so we had to try that!!

Madame Tussauds

We had a great time hanging out with all of the wax figures at Madame Tussaud’s in New York. Lots of fun, the 4D movie was a blast and the 7D ride was also entertaining. Don’t think I would go back for a second time, but if you haven’t been, it’s definitely worth considering.

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a great place to hit in Midtown Manhattan, lots of art, galleries, good restaurants, and tons of shopping. You can spend a lot of time there.

The Rock

When you visit Rockefeller Center, you have to check out top of the rock, it’s an observation deck at the top of the center, and you can see views throughout New York City, great place to check out Central Park, Midtown, lots of landmarks and skyscrapers across Manhattan, from 70 floors up high.

Nintendo Shop

The shop is located at the Rockefeller shopping mall. Great place for those who like
Nintendo. A huge variety of Nintendo themed t-shirts, sweats, games, and accessories. A fun place to visit.

Flatiron Building

This building was called the flatiron building due to its triangular shape resembling cast iron. It was completed in 1902 and was once known as the Fuller building, designated as the headquarters of the Fuller construction company. Over the years, the building was owned by different entities and it was announced in 2023 to be converted to residential condominiums.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Carnegie Hall

Radio City Concert Hall

Trump Tower

I wonder if there was always a police car parked in front of the tower but there was one there when we passed by❣️

Chinatown

A Walk from Times Square to Chinatown

Concrete scenery along the way from Times Square to Chinatown in Manhattan, New York.

Places to Eat in New York City

Delmonico

This restaurant was opened in 1827 and is one of the oldest American restaurants.great steak! Definitely not a budget restaurant.

Urban Hawker

This place is a gem, at least it is for anyone who loves Malaysian/Singaporean food! The setup of this place is very much similar to the food courts in Singapore and Malaysia. There are many stalls at the food court, including the famous Hainanese chicken rice, Singaporean fried dinner, Mr. Fried Rice, Singaporean chili crab, satay, mee rebus, kuih muih etc…

It’s best to go before lunch and dinner time to avoid the crowd as the place fills up fairly quickly during meal time.

Pricing however is a bit on the high side but this is New York, everything is expensive 😊

Bill’s Bar & Burger

Kevan had the “Fat Cat” which CNN rated in top 10 best burgers nationally, and I had the “El Pollo Loco” sandwich, best sandwich ever😋

Buddha Bodai at Chinatown, Manhattan

Dinner at Buddha Bodai, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in New York Chinatown. We ordered sweet and sour fish, General Tsao’s chicken, and Mah Poh Tofu. The “meat” is prepared primarily with tofu. My favorite dish is the “fish”, so tasty…😋

Laut 海 – Malaysian Cuisine

The food was so authentic and delicious. The Char Kwai Teow is amazing!

Capital Grille

An upscale restaurant for those who love steak! They also offer fantastic seafood dishes and desserts!

Food Stands

Food stands are very popular in New York. Don’t miss The Halal ones although others are not bad as well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *