Getting around Manhatten

The first morning I ended up in Manhattan was pretty overwhelming. A short 3 minutes walk from Port Authority brought me up to Times Square. It was exactly how I imagined it to be -- very busy and lots of animated digital advertisements all over the place. They are bright even in the morning.

I remember it took me quite a while to get myself oriented. My first stop was the visitor center to get some info. For this trip, I had planned not to go for a Broadway show but would definitely want to get into the David Letterman's Late Night Show (more about that later).

I also got the CityPass for New York. It costs $65. With that I get access to six attractions at half the entrance prices which includes:

* The Empire State Building
* A 2 hour Sightseeing Cruise around the Manhattan Island
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art
* The Guggenheim Museum
* The Museum of Natural History
* The Museum of Modern Art

This saves quite a bit of entrance money. The other thing about this pass is that I could use it to bypass the long lines that often forms in these popular attractions.

There is another kind of such passes. I think it's called "Go New York" or something like that. I did not like that one. This other card allows you access to places by the day ... i.e. visit as many places as you can in a day for a price. I did not want to run from one attraction to another the whole day long. My plan was just to visit one major sight a day, maybe two.

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