Before we left home - I booked two days of hop on hop off double decker bus tours and we got the third day free.... This was the best investment! For $82 per adult (that's me) and $61 per child - this is what we got... Unlimited 3 days hop on and off - downtown - uptown - Brooklyn Tours - Free tickets for Empire State Building or Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center - Free ferry tickets for Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island - $40 off for each ticket to Phantom of the Opera - Free night city tour over the Manhattan Bridge - Free Museum tour - and $10 off Planet Hollywood meal... I enjoyed this tour company so very much - plenty of buses - great tour guides - We saw EVERYTHING - we wanted... Here is a free plug for this excellent company - City Sights NY - If you ever go to NYC - this tour really is a MUST..
The hotel we booked could not have been better - We were in the theatre district - very close to Time Square - The hotel was older but remodeled and closer to our budget... We stayed at the Washington Jefferson Hotel - Loved it!
Our first day - We checked things out
The first night we saw Phantom of the Opera - I had seen it in Los Angeles a couple of times and was looking forward to the girls experiencing their first Broadway play.... They loved it! Our hotel was close enough to walk to the theatre... On the way back to the hotel - we stopped by a shake shoppe and got the best malted I have ever had - at 10:00 PM...
The next day was busy from early morning until late at night - go go go was the name of the game and we definitely took in the town! We hopped on our bus at 9:00 AM - stopped off in Soho for breakfast and some shopping - walked to Ground Zero - walked to Battery Park - jumped back on the bus after visiting Lady Liberty - headed to Central Park to see Strawberry Fields and pay tribute to John Lennon's Imagine memorial - saw the Dakota (where he lived) and lost his life at such a young age. Took a pedicab through Central Park - saw the Friends (TV show) Fountain where they played and frolicked at the beginning of each show - Saw movie locations from - Elf, Home Alone, 27 Dresses, Enchanted and many more... Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock were filming a movie as we passed by... At night we jumped on the night tour bus and crossed over the Manhattan Bridge (I hate heights - scared the crap out of me AND the tour guide it was her 2nd official tour as a guide) The view from Brooklyn was amazing.