McDonald’s have launched the New York Classic this week, so we’ve gone all Big Apple and picked five of our favourite things to do and see in one of the world’s greatest cities.
By Robert Carry
New York has been a favourite among the travelling Irish since the days we were crawling off Famine ships and during the Celtic Tiger era the city spiked again as one of the most popular shopping destinations for Irish tourists.
But while Christmas shopping trips to the Big Apple might be frowned upon these days, New York still has plenty to recommend it as a holiday destination – here are five things you have to do if you find yourself in the city that never sleeps.
1. Hit the beach on Fire Island
People don’t often associate a trip to New York with a day out at the beach, but it’s on the coast, gets great weather during summer time and there’s no of shortage places to get your feet wet.
Fire Island is up there with the best of them. Like an American version of Thailand’s Koh Phi Phi Island, it has no paved roads so cars are banned. People get around by walking, biking or – if you’re really lazy – golf-carting.
You can get to Fire Island’s various villages by shuttle ferries which depart from Patchogue, Sayville, and Bay Shore in Long Island or by water taxi or private boat.
As well as its beaches, the island also has a range of drinking and entertainment venues. If the need takes you, you can stay the night in one of its numerous accommodation options.
It’s pitched as a type of laid back version of the Hamptons, although it does have a slight twang of that bohemian pretentiousness about it. That said, the fact that there are hundreds of wild deer running around the place more than makes up for it.
Click here for an accommodation guide.
2. Get emotional at Ellis Island
At one point in the late 1800s, half of New York’s population was foreign-born. Half of those foreigners were Irish. While distinct Irish neighbourhoods have been all but wiped out by successive waves of immigration from other parts of the world, there are still ways of connecting with Ireland’s link with the city.
The often ludicrous queues for a trip to Liberty Island (home of the Statue of Liberty) makes it a tourist trap that is best avoided. However, from the jump-off points at Lower Manhattan, you can take a ferry to Ellis Island – the site where the world’s emigrants turned up in their millions for a slice of the American dream.
You get a great view of the Statue of Liberty on your way and the island is home to the American Family Immigration History Center, which contains manifests of 25 million immigrants, passengers, and crew members who entered New York Harbour as well as artifacts collected at the time.
Happily, Irish visitors can now skip the once popular de-lousing procedures once carried out on the island.
Click here for ferry info and here for more on the island itself.
3. Pretend you’re Jason Bourne with ‘The Accomplice’
Plodding the well-worn tourist trail taking in Macy’s, the Empire State Building or Yankee Stadium will appeal to some, but there are more interesting ways of seeing the sights. Alternative tours such as scavenger hunts are enjoying a surge in popularity and the most highly-rated among them is ‘The Accomplice’ New York.
Part tour, part show and part game, The Accomplice begins when you get a phone call from a suspicious individual who tells you to pick up a package.
Then, you and 10 other randomers spend the next two-and-a-half hours running around the city picking up clues, meeting people playing strange characters. You are tasked with solving a mystery that in some way involves a ridiculously attractive fictional starlet that has gone missing. Either that or they’re using you as a drug mule.
Click here for more info.
4. Do a double-take at the Irish Hunger Memorial
Battery Park on the lower tip of Manhattan is one of the few substantial green areas in what is one of the world’s most densely populated places. Aside from offering a chance to look at something other than skyscrapers for an hour or two without having to negotiate the roller-blading hordes in Central Park, the 32 acre site is also home to the The Irish Hunger Memorial.
Created in 2002 by Brian Tolle, the exhibit honours the memory and experiences of the 1.5 million people who died as a result of the catastrophic events in Ireland from 1845 to 1852.
The unusual memorial is made up of the reconstructed ruins of an actual County Mayo cottage which was taken apart stone by stone before being transported to the US and then reassembled.
The somewhat incongruous monument, surrounded by soil and native vegetation brought in from the western coast of Ireland, is elevated above ground level on a quarter-acre concrete slab. It faces onto the Hudson River in one direction and a busy intersection on the other. It’s worth a look if only for the sheer weirdness factor.
Click here for more information.
5. Run away with the circus
Who hasn’t dreamed of chucking it all in and running away for a life of operating a candy-floss machine, cleaning up vomit and collecting children’s teeth from the foot-wells of bumper-cars?
Well, you can get a taste of carnie life by arranging a visit to New York’s Trapeze School. However, it’s by no means for the faint of heart. You can get a taste of the high-flying circus acts such as flying trapeze, tightrope walking and a ton of other seemingly-dangerous-but-actually-quite-safe activities.
The firm has a year-round, indoor facility at 518 W30th Street in midtown Manhattan, and an outdoor location (open May through October) situated downtown in Hudson River Park on top of Pier 40 (West St. at Houston St).
Click here for more info.
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