New York, I Don't Hate You!
"Love" might be pushing it, but I think you're swell!
It took a while for the charm of New York City to reveal itself to me. It didn’t inspire me so much as make me feel small, or unimportant, or heartbroken, or generally some combination of all three. I was always relieved to come back home to DC where I didn’t feel quite so unimpressed with myself.
Thankfully, now that I’m older I always have a fantastic time when I visit, even if it’s just for work meetings. The secret, I’ve found, is that New York is kind of like Vegas; you have to quit while you’re ahead. Leave when you’re still enjoying yourself and haven’t wasted all your money yet.
What follows isn’t a guide, exactly, which I would be very unqualified to write anyhow, but rather a few recommendations I have from visiting new New York over the years.
Getting There
My unpopular opinion is that the bus is a perfectly fine way to get to New York from DC, and more convenient than the train in a lot of ways—no price jumping if you book last minute, no dealing with luggage overhead bins, more pick up spots, often less crowded and of course vastly cheaper. (I’m not saying it’s the Orient Express or anything—it’s still the bus!—but the train saves me what, like an hour?) I generally like to take the bus there, and the train back home, ideally the Acela if I can get tickets for under $100.
Staying There
I’ve found that most of the hotels in New York—even some of the fancier ones—tend to do that thing where the bed takes up the entire room, which is annoying. A few hotels I liked that were actually spacious included The Bryant Park Hotel, Hotel Indigo on the Lower East Side, and M Social Hotel in Times Square.
The Classics
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met is a whopping $30 for out-of-towners, but you really do get your money’s worth. Remember to use the side entrance to save time. You can also be sneaky and borrow a New Yorker friend’s library card to get in for free.
Reread From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler from when you were a kid (it holds up!), and don’t forget to check out the Temple of Dendur. Also, the Met Cloisters in Washington Heights is absolutely stunning and well worth a field trip. It’s about as close as you will ever get to stepping into a pack of Tarot cards.
Bemelman’s Bar
Pricy, but oh how I love this place. You can walk there after visiting the Met, admire the murals by Ludwig Bemelman of Madeline fame, and enjoy an expertly made cocktail.
Bryant Park and the New York Public Library
Bryant Park is your reward for making it through midtown. Also, are you working on a writing project? Grab your laptop and spend a few hours at the New York Public Library where the beauty and grandeur of the reading room will inspire and/or shame you into at least finishing a paragraph or two.
Central Park
One leisurely run or walk or bike ride in Central Park on a nice day, preferably at 9:00 AM on a random Wednesday when everyone else is at work, and you’ll understand what all the fuss is about.
How do you guys visit New York? Or do you live there and have strong opinions on what to do there? Let me know in the comments!
Before You Go
Come draw with me! I’m leading a cartoon workshop this Friday, July 21st at 7:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Pacific as part of the Sequential Artist Workshop called Comics About Museums. Register here! This is a really superb and welcoming workshop series and will be recorded if you can’t make it.
If you missed my book talk with Tim Kreider in Baltimore in May, you are in luck because we’re doing another one at People’s Book in Takoma Park on August 19th, an absolute gem of a bookstore that just opened. Come say hi!
