The Morning: A trip to New York

Expert advice to make the most of a New York City vacation.

View in browser|nytimes.com December 15, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Elisabeth Goodridge has a guide for anyone visiting New York City in the coming year. We're also covering South Korea, ABC News and Nikki Giovanni. —David Leonhardt Manhattan earlier this month. Dave Sanders for The New York Times Welcome to New York By Elisabeth Goodridge I'm the deputy Travel editor and a Brooklynite of more than 10 years. It's prime Yuletide in New York City. The window displays at Bergdorf Goodman beckon. There's a new riverside ice rink in Williamsburg. Buildings, brownstones and bodegas across the city pop with decorations. A woman I saw holding court on the 6 train last week was accessorized with felt antlers, a gaudy Christmas sweater and three large dogs also wearing holiday sweaters. But the crowds these days, and oh, the prices! The cost of everything, from sandwiches to hotel rooms, has soared. And the city expects to get nearly 65 million visitors this year, this close to prepandemic levels. In recent days, it has felt as if all of those people are on the sidewalks of Midtown, furiously trying to elbow their way into Bryant Park's holiday market. In today's newsletter, I'm going to share eight tips for enjoying New York — whether you're visiting for the holidays or any other time of the year — without going broke or getting lost in the crowd. The Louis Vuitton flagship store during the holidays this year. Katherine Marks for The New York Times 1. The city that never sleeps tends to wake up late. Crowds are sparse in the early mornings across all the boroughs, even at the top tourist spots. So grab a bodega coffee and enjoy Rockefeller Center at 5 a.m., when the Christmas tree lights up daily, or walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise. 2. You need to book that table, reserve that slot, buy those tickets in advance. This is crucial for the must-do activities on your itinerary, including fine dining (here is The Times's list of New York City's 100 best restaurants), some Broadway shows and even visits to Santa at Macy's. You may pay less for off-peak times, or reservations might even be free, but you'll still need a reservation. 3. Otherwise, New York remains a frenetic place. For inspiration, look to our recently published 36 Hours columns on New York City and Brooklyn, or our locals' guide to celebrating the holidays. (A few suggestions from me: Walking is free and entertaining, and rooftop bars are still a thing, even in winter.) But remember to pace yourself. 4. And remember, there's more than Manhattan. For cold, gray days, visit offbeat museums like Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, or the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. Summertime could mean Governors Island for camping, taking in views of the Statue of Liberty and sliding down the city's longest slide. In the fall, the Queens County Farm Museum has one of the East Coast's best corn mazes. Oysters served curbside on Arthur Avenue are worth a trip to the Bronx, but so is the Bronx Zoo, City Island or the New York Botanical Garden. 5. You actually don't need to spend a ton. Free and sometimes-free museums abound. Check out newsletters like DoNYC and The Skint, which list free events, cheap tickets and discounts. Of course, New York also has the best pizza and bagels and other inexpensive eats. Our Frugal Traveler columnist, Elaine Glusac, recently explored New York on a budget; she walked the city and ate takeout, saw free art and found cheap theater tickets. 6. Don't be part of our congestion problem. Our traffic is the worst in the world (always No. 1!), so for all of the places you want to go, take the subway, unlock a Citi Bike, hop on a ferry or walk. 7. New Yorkers like to complain, but it's not all that bad. Yes, there are crowds. But it's still the greatest city in the world with countless reasons to visit. The last few years have seen more developed green spaces, more ferry routes and more e-bikes in the bike-share program. We have a new performing arts center, a new wing of an old friend, even a new island. 8. Enjoy our city of contradictions. We New Yorkers love to have you here. Just don't talk loudly, walk slowly, stop suddenly on the sidewalk or make direct eye contact on the subway. Feel free to ask for directions, however. We'll not only help with a smile, but probably show you the way. THE LATEST NEWS South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment and suspension from office has left South Korea, one of the United States' most important allies, without a strong​ elected leader. South Korea faces challenges like a threatening North Korea and deep political polarization at home. We explained the impeachment. 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"Public anger at the system is, therefore, absolutely logical — you might even call it a preexisting condition," Al Jazeera's Belén Fernández writes. FROM OPINION Since the Menendez brothers' trial in the 1990s, Americans have come to understand that domestic abuse is torture. The justice system needs to do the same, Rachel Louise Snyder writes. Nicholas Kristof suggests a donation that can transform a life this holiday season. Here's a column by Ross Douthat on making pop culture great again. Ends soon: Our best rate on unlimited access for Morning readers. Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year. MORNING READS in Central Park. Simbarashe Cha/The New York Times Bundling up: Our photographer strolled around Central Park to capture the festive and cozy attire of the season. Taylor Swift Poetry Quiz: Can you match the poem with the Swift song that inspired it? 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It's a harbinger of spring, "the best of the berries," Kimmerer, a plant ecologist and member of the Potawatomi Nation, writes in this persuasive treatise about the supremacy of the natural world over the economic one. John Burgoyne's line drawings bolster her timely argument with a simplicity reminiscent of Garth Williams's illustrations in "Charlotte's Web." More on books Before we look forward to 2025, why not take stock of the past through the lenses of these new historical novels? "The Last Whaler" and "Pearly Everlasting" pair especially well with "The Serviceberry." Nikki Giovanni, the renowned and unafraid poet, died this week. To understand her contributions to the world of letters and humanity, read Veronica Chambers's appraisal. THE INTERVIEW Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times By Lulu Garcia-Navarro This week's subject for The Interview is the travel writer and PBS personality Rick Steves. We spoke about the transformational power of travel, which he still very much believes in despite a growing nativist sentiment around the world, as well as his recent cancer diagnosis. You've been very open about receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer. How are you doing? Well, thank you. I'm doing as well as you can be doing when you have prostate cancer. A month ago, I said goodbye to my prostate. I see it as a journey. I don't speak the language. The locals are friendly. I don't know exactly where it's going. I'm not in control of the itinerary. I want to tackle it with what I consider a traveler's mind-set. But it's scary at the same time. Has it given you more of an urgency to do things you haven't done before? No, but it gives me an awareness of what you might regret when you're wrapping up your life. You know, you think about that. What have been the sacrifices of being on the road so much? Because you have spent such a huge portion of your life going out elsewhere and discovering. There are regrets. It has not been good for my family. I got divorced. It has not been great for relationships with loved ones. It's a choice you have to make. You know, I would love to be the person I was before I was a travel writer. I would have had a very, very beautiful life being a piano teacher and coming home every night for dinner and mowing the lawn and joining clubs and being regular and reliable. But I've chosen a different path. It's a mission for me. And I don't spend a lot of time explaining to people why my values are the way they are, my priorities are the way they are. And in a way I'm sad about it, but again, you have to make a choice. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Photo illustration by Vanessa Saba. Source photographs: Paul Stephen Pearson/Getty Images; Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images. Click the cover image above to read this week's magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Get a great white elephant gift. Keep toiletries tidy with a shower caddy. Find a gift for the person who has everything. MEAL PLAN Linda Xiao for The New York Times The holidays are upon us. We've got every recipe you need for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and more. See them here. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was nonchalance. Can you put eight historical events — including the invention of Schrödinger's cat, the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer and the creation of the waltz — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018