Why Manhattan?
Nowhere else energises you, surprises you and pulls you in as many different directions as Manhattan. So much to see, so much to do, no matter when you go. Peerless art to gaze at, alluring shops to browse through and hot, new restaurants to sample. But you can’t possibly experience all that the world’s most dynamic city has to offer in a single trip. Conveniently, though, you’ll find that most of the liveliest, most interesting new developments have been happening on the west side of Manhattan, so you can safely focus on that for a good chunk of your next stay.
Unarguably, Manhattan’s most spectacular sight now – and the area that is pulling the whole focus of Manhattan back down to where development started in the 1600s – is close to the west side of the tip of the island, where the Twin Towers used to stand. One World Trade Center, built to outdo the famous towers destroyed on September 11, 2001, is now the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Flanking that lies the magnificent open-air Reflection Pools memorial.
Across the square, the new US$3.9 billion (Dh14.3bn) white steel and glass Oculus looks extraordinary. Part roof, part sculpture, it arches over the World Trade Center mall and transport hub where New Jersey’s PATH trains connect with the 11 lines of the New York City subway system. And on the other side of One World Trade Center, across the street and backed by the marina on the Hudson, the Brookfield Place is New York’s ultra-glamorous new mall.
In Midtown, meanwhile, at the riverside end of West 34th Street, a whole new luxury neighbourhood is being constructed. Hudson Yards is a $25bn (Dh92bn), 28-acre riverside development of shops, restaurants, 4,000 apartments, offices, a school, The Equinox hotel and the High Line linear park. It claims to be the biggest building project Manhattan has witnessed since Rockefeller Center. Currently housing most of the city’s cranes, it will be finished only around 2025.
And an extra lure to keep you on the west side is that this year Lincoln Center, at West 65th and Broadway, is celebrating the 50th year of The Metropolitan Opera (metopera.org) performing there, with six new productions and a Met premiere. With opening night on September 26, there’s plenty of time left to book tickets.
A comfortable bed
New hotels have proliferated across the city, but, again, mostly on the west. A few blocks from the tip of the island, the Four Seasons Downtown now spreads its cool, pale-grey minimalist rooms over 22 floors at 27 Barclay Street and boasts a CUT restaurant by Wolfgang Puck. Rooms cost from Dh2,450.
Just around the corner and housed in one of the oldest high-rises in the city, The Beekman opened last year and, as a Thompson hotel, has a younger, less expensive vibe. Rooms cost from Dh1,270.
On the edge of Chelsea at 132 West 27th, Meliá's lively Innside New York NoMad has all its youthful receptionists double as concierges. Rooms cost from Dh790.
For style and substance, however, nothing beats the old-world glamour and quietly grand comfort of a traditional New York hotel. Particularly conveniently located, The Peninsula is on Fifth Avenue at West 55th, two blocks from Bergdorf's and one from the now barricaded Trump Tower. It has an excellent spa (book Lucy Kelly for a facial or reflexology treatment), beds of billowing, downy comfort, large marble bathrooms and probably the best concierge in the city. This is 55-year-old Frederick Bigler, who can fix anything, including a private tour of The Museum of Modern Art, with a curator via the hotel's Academy programme, and introduce you to anyone, including the chauffeur of the Mini Cooper that is your free-to-commandeer perk if you book a suite. Double rooms cost from Dh2,552.
Find your feet
Few other cities inspire you to walk as much as Manhattan. Those broad pavements, with their smooth, eight-foot-long paving stones, make it easy to stride out and see how each neighbourhood merges into the next. The best way to get a handle on the island is to jump on a bus. You just need a metro card, which is also valid on the subway (the unlimited-travel weekly card costs about Dh110 and is easily the best value), and a bus map. On an average Thursday, fellow riders ranged from a distinguished-looking elderly man in an ankle-length mink coat, who got out at Carnegie Hall, to an overweight, exasperated woman hissing into her phone: “Rita, it’s your constitution. You know it and you just have to live with it. Cook some rice.” The eavesdropping is almost as enjoyable as the changing view. The presence of locals makes it more fun than hop-on, hop-off tourist buses, and the large windows provide better sightseeing than a taxi or Uber.
Meet the locals
Only tourists take the Circle Line ferry, which takes four hours to sail around the island. A quicker, better alternative is the New York Water Taxi. Charging $5 (Dh18) on weekdays and nothing on weekends, this operates a 20-minute trip between Pier 11 on Wall Street and Red Hook, Brooklyn, where the lure for New Yorkers is the closet Ikea. For visitors – who may not have to get off at Red Hook – the draw is the close-up views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the ever-alluring Manhattan skyline. Plus, the eavesdropping, of course.
Book a table
For dinner, a new hotspot is Loring Place, at 21 West 8th street. Chef Dan Kluger – ex-ABC Kitchen – obsessively focuses on local produce, grinding his own wheat for pasta and buying vegetables from farmers in upstate Pine Island, where pickers start work at 3am each morning in order for the delivery to Manhattan a few hours later to be super-fresh.
New Yorkers are now obsessed with clean eating, green juicing and local sourcing. Pride & Produce, by Cheetah Haysom tells the story.
Robust, seasonal and local is also on the menu at Union Square Cafe, reopened by Danny Meyer to enormous fuss as a no-tipping (read: staff actually paid properly) restaurant. Its lobster ravioli ($29; Dh106) is possibly the most delicious dish in Manhattan.
Shopper’s paradise
No other city offers such a pulse-quickening range of merch. After reconnoitring new-money Barney's and old-money Bergdorf Goodman, which demonstrate what a great deal of wealth swishes around in New York, ignore the rest of Fifth and SoHo, with their lumbering, pavement-packing crowds. Brookfield Place is the new high-end home to stellar names such as Gucci, Burberry and Saks – with a brilliant beauty department – along with breezy, sporty, all-American chains such as J Crew. Here, a shift dress starts from $98 (Dh360), and a French terry cloth sweatshirt for men is from $69 (Dh255).
Other attractions include Le District, a massive French food hall, and Rite Aid, source of super-cheap guilty pleasures, such as a Wet n Wild eyeliner for 99 cents (Dh4). Walk a few minutes to Century 21, the discount designer department store. Recent causes for hyperventilating included Louis Vuitton Saint Jacques bags for just $795 (Dh2,900), down from $2,200 (Dh8,080). Other routine buys, which are always on sale, include men's Levi 501s for $24 (Dh77).
For camera, computer and tech nerds, nothing beats B&H (bandh.com), on 34th street and 9th Avenue. Here, the GoPro Omni rig goes for $4,999 (Dh18,365); a 12-inch, 8GB MacBook Air is $1,199 (Dh4,400); Dre Studio Beats headphones are $299 (Dh1,100).
What to avoid
Never think it will be quicker to jump into a cab. The subway is always faster. And the 102-floor, 443-metre-tall Empire State Building, with its $50 (Dh185) charge to skip the queues, has really been eclipsed.
Don’t miss
The biggest and best views now are from the 546-metre-tall One World Observatory, which you zoom up to in less than 60 seconds in a Skypod elevator. Here, it really is worth paying $56 (Dh205) for priority admission, which you can book in advance online. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 90-minute early-morning EmptyMet tours are worth the $149 (Dh550) charge for having the galleries to yourself. Essential visiting, too, is the new Met Breuer, housing a marvellous collection of contemporary 20th- and 21st-century art.
Getting there
From June 1, Etihad has double-daily direct return flights on the A380 to John F Kennedy International Airport from Dh4,360, including taxes in economy, and about Dh18,500 return in business. It also has dedicated business and first class lounges at JFK.
