Hey, it took me two months, but better late than never.
Best way out of the airport is a cab. A yellow one. ($45 + tolls, which I believe are $4, I have ez-pass, I no longer look, just pay a couple hundred each month and tip, approx $10) You'll be tired, and putting up with the air train, subway, and or LIRR with luggage will be an incredible pain in the ass. The second least annoying method is one of a few busses straight into manhattan which can be found
here. Buy an unlimited ride
Metrocard when you get to Manhattan.
Why you would want to go to many of the tourists traps is beyond me, but hey, to each his own. You can't climb the statue of liberty anymore anyway. You left no indication of what you wanted to see tourist wise, so I'll throw out a few suggestion if you insist on going that route.
I will buzz by tomorrow night to see if the Pelham Parkway christmas house is done yet. This is the 30th year this family has put up this insane display, so this should be good. On your average year, it easily rivals what most of the larger stores and companies do, definitely something you won't see anywhere else and worth the trip. (Take the Bronx bound 5 train toward Eastchester Dyre Av. Get off at Gun Hill Rd. Off the platform, turn right onto Westervelt or Kingsland Avenue, either one. Walk about a half a mile down either of these streets until you come to series of grassy medians and roads. Look for the blinding lights and the crowd.) If you do decide to do this and are feeling particularly ambitious that evening, you can go to City Island for dinner (sorta like a small New England fishing village, only in the Bronx) to my favorite restaurant,
The Black Whale. Ask someone which way is Eastchester Rd (about 4 blocks north) cross Pelham Parkway and catch the Bx12 bus. Transfer at Pelham Bay station to the Bx29. Get off at Fordham St. Walk about a block or so up in the same direction the bus is going. It'll be on the corner of Hawkins St and City Island Ave with a tree growing out of it's side. Getting back to Manhattan is much easier, Just take the bus back to Pelham Bay Station and get on the 6 train. Busses only run until like 11:30 or midnight depending on the day unfortunately.
Other more conventional reccomendations:
The Intrepid. The met. The Bronx Zoo. The Guggenheim. Some people suggest going to see macy's on 34th. Personally I think this is a crap idea, as the only remotely cool thing in the store is the old wooden escalators you can sometimes find. The merchanside is crap that is a) available cheaper elswhere in a more pleasant environment to boot, and b) exported to the UK anyway.
Eating: avoid the many TGIFriday's. The food sucks, and there's 1000's of cheaper places with better food. My second favorite restaurant is 7A (corner of 7th and Avenue A in the east village across the street from Tompkins Square Park). Plenty of nightlife in that area, just avoid Coyote Ugly (so lame, they even made a crappy movie about it).
Speaking of nightlife, currently the club scene blows goats, and many people are hoping Michael Alig goes back into promoting when he gets out of jail. The closest thing to a decent club is currently
Crobar . Junior Vasquez will be there for one night Thursday the 11th, so I will prolly go to take one last grab at my squandered youth, which I spent at the former Limelight, now
Avalon. Popular, but only god knows why, because they're lame enough to have a sign up for the guest list on their home page (or have I lost it and this is SOP now?). I personally think this place is so crappy it makes the baby jesus cry, but everyone's different. The renovations do look nice, but I preferrred the down home, cracky, decorated by people on Ecstasy look of the Limelight. It really doesn't look like an old church inside, which was most of the charm of the old place.
I would not worry about the need to find things near the hotel, public transport is easy (but there are no subway schedules, they just come when they do, usually every 10 minutes or so on the main lines in Manhattan from 8AM to 7PM). If you're too drunk or tired to navigate the subway, just hail a yellow cab.
Digital camera:
I prefer mail order through
Adorama , but I don't do digital (I'll leave the snobbery out of this), but many other people like
B&H. . I dislike them because I've been spoken to like I must be a moron one too many times by their staff. If you're interested in any other electronics, I'd stick to
J and R or one of the many big box stores that are starting to litter Manhattan. Several of the smaller privately owned electronics stores in Manhattan are known for scamming tourists.
You didn't mention what else you may be shopping for, if anything. I'm better at stuff like clothes and jewelry shopping.
Eh, that's about what I can think of right now. Tired. Want vodka.
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