Unusual New York Vacation Ideas

A visit to New York can be predictable, visiting the famous sites that everyone knows about, but why not add a bit of spice to your visit, and do something everyone back home has never heard of.

The cheapest tour in town is the Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island ferry runs from Lower Manhattan in the South to St. George Ferry Terminal on the northern shore of Staten Island, all day and it's free! On the way over you'll see The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan and Wall Street skyline. When approaching Manhattan stand at the front of the ferry to get the best skyline view and to take in all the sights sit on a different side of the ferry in each direction. There is no need to book as the ferries leave every 15 minutes.

Once you've seen NY from the sea, get a bird's eye view. There's a cable car in New York from Roosevelt Island to Manhattan and runs for nearly a kilometer, taking almost 5 minutes. You can see Queensboro Bridge, and fly over the West Channel of the East River, FDR, York Avenue, and First Avenue. The cable car leaves every 15 minutes, and as it was intended for commuters it costs only $2 each way.

A New York restaurant overflowing with American memorabilia and kitsch, as we have all seen on T.V. The Trailer Park Lounge is a truly American experience; the décor includes record covers, those funny dolls that sit on the dashboard of cars, Elvis, cartoons, truck driver stuff, cocoa cola adverts, Hollywood film posters and old road signs. As you can probably guess the food is all classical American fare: Hamburgers, chips/French fries, grilled cheese and the highly recommended chili.

To round off your New York experiences take in a show. No, I don't mean one of the expensive Broadway productions; I mean a live or recorded T.V. show.

If you don't live in the US you probably know about American culture from Sitcoms and American talk shows, so join a live audience and see one of these shows for yourself. It may take some planning ahead, as most of them need to be booked in advance over the Internet, but others give tickets on a first come first served basis.

So on your next visit to the Big Apple go a little off the beaten track and take in these usually unseen tourist sites.