Metro New York Voyage Tips and guide

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Metro New York or Greater New York, also called the Tri-State Area (though it's not the only area so-called in the U.S.), is the massive metropolitan area around New York City in the states of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is the biggest and wealthiest metro area in the United States.

40°29′35″N 73°30′0″W

Map of Metro New York

• 40.712778-74.0061111 New York City - Possibly the most well known and celebrated city in the world, New York is a city of towering skyscrapers, ethnic diversity, international corporations, and incomparable culture.
• 41.183333-73.22 Bridgeport - The largest city in Connecticut.
• 40.745-74.03253 Hoboken - An old city on the Hudson with great views of the Midtown and Downtown Manhattan skylines.
• 40.71-74.064 Jersey City - Just across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan, home to Liberty State Park, where ferries leave for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
• 41.308333-72.9255 New Haven - Best known as the home of Yale University but a fair-sized city and in no way just a college town.
• 40.735556-74.1722226 Newark - New Jersey's largest city, home to Newark Liberty International Airport, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Symphony Hall, Newark Arena, and the Newark Museum.
• 41.093889-73.4197227 Norwalk - home to trendy SoNo and the Maritime Aquarium.
• 41.0325-73.7666678 White Plains - The seat of government for Westchester County, its downtown has been redeveloped with upscale housing and retail.
• 40.941389-73.8644449 Yonkers - Undergoing major development along Hudson River, but Getty Square, its traditional center only a few blocks to the east of the Hudson River, is down-scale.

New York City

• 40.454-73.9971 Gateway National Recreation Area - With portions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Sandy Hook, this collection of parkland is home to wondrous views of nature and many family activities.
• 40.575-73.98252 Coney Island
• 40.756589-73.9862613 Times Square

Long Island

• 40.6475-73.1466674 Fire Island - An all-pedestrian summer resort island off the coast of Long Island with Fire Island National Seashore
• 40.884931-72.5010615 The Hamptons
• 41.038333-71.9505566 Montauk
• 41.078056-72.3508337 Shelter Island

Gateway

• 40.9645-73.90868 The Palisades - Majestic cliffs rising sharply on the western bank of the Hudson River with numerous viewpoints, trails and camp sites.

Hudson Valley

• 40.9811-73.68399 Rye Playland, the country's only government-owned amusement park.

Metro New York is served by two large airports in New York City and one in Newark, New Jersey (NYC ^IATA for all airports) which is well connected by air with flights from almost every corner of the world. John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport are large international airports while LaGuardia Airport is a busy domestic airport. All three airports are run by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There are also several small airports in the region.

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK ^IATA) is in the borough of Queens in the eastern part of New York City. Many international airlines fly into JFK and it is a major international hub for Delta Air Lines (Terminals 2 and 3) and American Airlines (Terminal 8). Air France and Lufthansa (Terminal 1), British Airways (Terminal 7), and Virgin Atlantic (Terminal 4) each provide several flights daily into JFK. JetBlue, a large low-cost carrier, occupies Terminal 5. A free AirTrain connects the terminals. Always make sure you know which terminal your flight arrives at or departs from.

Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR ^IATA) ☏ +1-800-EWR-INFO (397-4636) is in Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The airport has three terminals labeled A, B, C. Terminal C is the home of a major United Airlines hub. Most other international airlines use Terminal B while domestic flights are from Terminal A but there are exceptions, so check your terminal before you head for the airport.

LaGuardia Airport (LGA ^IATA) is a smaller, older airport in Queens, providing many of the domestic services for the area including the frequent shuttles to Boston and Washington, D.C.. Direct flights are available to all large and most small airports east of the Mississippi, with a few international flights to Toronto and Montreal. The Marine Air Terminal, the terminal used by Delta Air Lines for shuttle services to Washington D.C. and Boston, is one of the oldest, still-in-use, airport terminals in the world.

Long Island MacArthur Airport^{[dead link]} (Islip Airport) (ISP ^IATA), in Ronkonkoma (Town of Islip) on Long Island, is served by Southwest Airlines, a major discount carrier in the US. American Airlines has a minor presence at the airport. The Long Island Railroad offers a discount package for MacArthur Airport travelers on its website.^{[dead link]}

Westchester County Airport (HPN ^IATA), near White Plains, NY, is served by several airlines. It is most convenient to Westchester County and adjacent areas of Connecticut.

Metro New York is also served by Teterboro Airport (TEB ^IATA), in Teterboro, NJ, though this airport is used primarily for general aviation and receives no commercial flights.

Amtrak, ☏ +1-800-USA-RAIL (872-7245), operates from New York Penn Station, directly under Madison Square Garden, on 34th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues. Popular trains leaving during rush hours can fill up quickly; it is a good idea to make reservations online ^{[dead link]}, or via phone, and pick up your ticket using a credit card or your confirmation number at one of the electronic kiosks located throughout the station. On some of the non-business routes, for example New York to Montreal, Amtrak takes more time and costs more money than taking the bus or renting a car. Check and compare schedules and prices before booking.

Amtrak's Acela express train provides regular fast commuter service between major points along the east coast such as Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Haven, and Providence. Amtrak services are also available to points along the East Coast down to Florida, to points between New York and Chicago, including Pittsburgh and Cleveland), to New York State including Albany, Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and to Toronto and Montreal in Canada. Service to California takes 3 days and requires a change of train in Chicago.

Amtrak's ClubAcela , located near the big security desk in Penn Station, offers complimentary drinks, wi-fi access, newspapers and magazines, and clean bathrooms. Access to the club is granted to travelers with sleeper tickets, First Class Acela tickets, or Amtrak GuestRewards SelectPlus membership.

Metro New York is served by three commuter railroads.

• Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) operates between New York Penn Station and Long Island with New York City stops at Jamaica Station, Long Island City, Hunters Point in Queens, and Atlantic Terminal station in Brooklyn.
• Metro-North Rail Road (Metro North)^{[dead link]} operates between Grand Central Terminal and points north and east of the city all the way to Connecticut. Trains also stop at the Harlem station on 125th street and Park Avenue in Manhattan. The New Haven line serves cities along the coast with branch lines to Danbury and Waterbury. The Hudson Line serves points along the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie. The Harlem Line serves Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties to Pawling and Wassaic.
• New Jersey Transit operates between New York Penn Station and points in New Jersey. The Northeast corridor line goes to Princeton and Trenton. Services are also available for points along the Jersey Coast and, with a transfer in Secaucus, to points north of the city (in New Jersey and New York State west of the Hudson).

Many of the attractions of Metro New York are in New York City, the most populated metropolitan area in the United States.

Naturally, Manhattan possesses the lion's share of the landmarks that have saturated American popular culture. Starting in Financial District, perhaps the most famous of these landmarks is easy to spot - the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the nation standing atop a small island in the harbor, and perhaps also the most difficult attraction to access in terms of crowds and the long lines to see it. Nearby Ellis Island preserves the site where millions of immigrants completed their journey to America. Within Financial District itself, Wall Street acts as the heart of big business being the home of the New York Stock Exchange, although the narrow street also holds some historical attractions, namely Federal Hall, where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. Nearby, the World Trade Center Site is undergoing construction of a memorial to the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Connecting Financial District to Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge offers fantastic views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines.

Moving north to Midtown, Manhattan's other major business district, you'll find some of New York's most famous landmarks. The Empire State Building looms over it all as one of the tallest buildings in the city, with the nearby Chrysler Building also dominating the landscape. Nearby is the headquarters of United Nations overlooking the East River and Grand Central Terminal, one of the busiest train stations in the world. Also nearby is the main branch of the New York Public Library, a beautiful building famous for its magnificent reading rooms and the lion statues outside the front door; and Rockefeller Plaza, home to NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall, and (during the winter) the famous Christmas Tree and Skating Rink.

Still in the Midtown area but just to the west, in the Theater District, is the tourist center of New York: Times Square, filled with bright, flashing video screens and LED signs running 24 hours a day. Just to the north is Central Park, with its lawns, trees and lakes popular for recreation and concerts.

New York has some of the finest museums in the world. All the public museums (notably including the Metropolitan Museum), which are run by the city, accept donations for an entrance fee, but private museums (especially the Museum of Modern Art) can be very expensive. In addition to the major museums, hundreds of small galleries are spread throughout the city, notably in neighborhoods like Chelsea and Williamsburg. Many galleries and museums in New York close on Mondays, so be sure to check hours before visiting. The following is just a list of highlights; see district pages for more listings.

New York City is home to some of the finest art museums in the country, and in Manhattan, you'll find the grandest of them all. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park has vast holdings that represent a series of collections, each of which ranks in its category among the finest in the world. Within this single building you'll find perhaps the world's finest collection of American artwork, period rooms, thousands of European paintings including Rembrandts and Vermeers, the greatest collection of Egyptian art outside Cairo, one of the world's finest Islamic art collections, Asian art, European sculpture, medieval and Renaissance art, and antiquities from around the ancient world. As if all that wasn't enough, the Metropolitan also operates The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, houses a collection of medieval art and incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters and other monastic sites in southern France in its renowned gardens.

Near the Metropolitan, in the Upper East Side, is the Guggenheim Museum. Although more famed for its architecture than the collection it hosts, the spiraling galleries are ideal for exhibiting art works. Also nearby is the Whitney Museum of American Art, with a collection of contemporary American art. In Midtown, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) holds the most comprehensive collection of modern art in the world, and is so large as to require multiple visits to see all of the works on display, which include Van Gogh's Starry Night and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, as well as an extensive industrial design collection. Midtown is also home to the Paley Center for Media, a museum dedicated to television and radio, including a massive database of old shows.

In Brooklyn's Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is the city's second largest art museum with excellent collections of Egyptian art, Assyrian reliefs, 19th-century American art, and art from Africa and Oceania, among other things. Long Island City in Queens is home to a number of art museums, including the PS1 Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of the Moving Image, which showcases movies and the televisual arts.

In New York City, no museum holds a sway over children like the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Containing the Hayden Planetarium, incredible astronomy exhibits, animal dioramas, many rare and beautiful gems and mineral specimens, anthropology halls, and one of the largest collections of dinosaur skeletons in the world, this place offers plenty of stunning sights.

Near Times Square in the Theater District, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum takes up a pier on the Hudson River, with the aircraft carrier Intrepid docked here and holding some incredible air and space craft.

Over in the Flushing district of Queens, on the grounds of the former World's Fair, is the New York Hall of Science, which incorporates the Great Hall of the fair and now full of hands-on exhibits for kids to enjoy.

See the individual city or district articles.