Celebrate St Patrick's Day (Mar), Coney Island's Burlesque on the Beach (May-Sep), New York Pride (Jun), Central Park SummerStage (Jun-Aug), US Tennis Open (Jul), Brooklyn Carnival (Sep), Macy's Day Parade (Nov), New York Marathon (Nov), Christmas Illuminations (Dec).

110 volts

+1

Local currency is the US Dollar ($)

GMT -5 hours

Address:845 Third Ave
New York
NY 10022
USA
Tel: +1 212 745 0200

Address: 810 Seventh Avenue
New York
NY 10019
USA
Tel: +1 212 484 1222
Web: NYC Visit

Tel: 0800 032 1751

Web: Halifax Travel Insurance

Tel: 0845 246 0006

Find one the world's greatest art collections in the newly-revamped MoMA gallery and modern masters in the Guggenheim. Look down from the seven-spiked crown of the Statue of Liberty and Gothic Brooklyn Bridge, or up to the 318-metre Chrysler Building's steely spire and Art Deco Empire State Building. Admire the Beaux-Arts grandeur of Grand Central Terminal and the world's largest blue sapphire, the Star of India, in the American Museum of Natural History.

Seek out St Patrick's Cathedral in cobbled Little Italy and SoHo's iron warehouses. Unravel the history of America's massive migration at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum (take the ferry to spot the Statue of Liberty from the top deck). Retreat to The Cloisters' medieval herb gardens and Orchard Beach's mile-long boardwalk.

Rise to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building at dusk to see New York's lights twinkle. Sip cocktails and spy the Statue of Liberty from the waterfront Rise Bar at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Battery Park. Hop aboard the free Staten Island Ferry to glimpse Ellis Island and New York Harbour, or climb High Rock Park's Mt Moses for 360° views of the city's skyline. New York shrinks from the Rockefeller Center's glass-fronted observation deck.

Blow the budget on diamonds and designer labels from boutiques on Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, home to Tiffany & Co, Saks and Macy's. Bag designer bargains in Century 21, antique jewellery and tapestries at Manhattan Art and Antiques Centre and fresh produce from Union Square Farmer's Market.

Savour wood-fired pizza with Chianti in Little Italy's laid-back trattorias and spicy Szechuan cuisine in Chinatown's 24-hour restaurants. Trendies munch on moules-frites in the Meat-Packing District's intimate French bistros, Greenwich Village tempts with a string of Jewish delis and Queens whets appetites with value-for-money world flavours. Smart restaurants cluster around Times Square, Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge.

Broadway's bright lights draw theatre goers to big musicals, plays and the sequin-studded cabaret. Live rock bands and moody dive bars fuel East Village and Lower East Side, while the ultra-trendy Meatpacking District blends chichi wine bars with base-charged dancefloors. Sounds of the saxaphone fill jazzy Greenwich Village and Chelsea keeps clubbers on their toes all night in cavernous brick warehouses.