N.Y. Meeting Challenges You to Choose Leisure Activities

Must-sees include the Museum of Natural History and the contiguous Planetarium, which are marvels adored for everything from dinosaurs to the live-butterfly exhibit and IMAX movies. For the “tadpoles,” there is the Children's Museum of Manhattan on West 83rd Street and the participatory Children's Museum of the Arts on Lafayette Street.

For older children, some of our favorites are the zoo in Central Park, which includes the Petting Zoo that the youngest visitors will love. The Bronx Zoo is the place to go if you want a first-class zoo experience. The Bronx and Brooklyn Botanical gardens are also spectacular. The New York Aquarium is in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, and while there, you can view the marine life, taste a famous Nathan's hot dog, and experience what's left of the amusement area's former glory days.

Many Broadway shows are geared for children, prominent among them“ The Lion King,” “Shrek—The Musical” “Mary Poppins,” and “Momma Mia,” all long-running hits, and all likely to provide considerable enjoyment to adults as well. There are also many activities and sites directed at teens, and several are of great historic interest.

Walking tours of the downtown business and historic district are marvelous and include sites from America's colonial era such as Fraunces Tavern and Trinity Church (several famous Americans are buried here), the site of George Washington's first inaugural address, City Hall, the New York Stock Exchange, and of course, the site of the Twin Towers. For all age groups, we also recommend the boat tours that circle Manhattan and visits to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

With New York world renowned for its multiple art offerings, we will limit ourselves to a few of the indisputably great collections, all of them must-sees for art lovers and those who aspire to be. The top four, in our view, are the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Frick Collection.

If you are a frequent visitor and want to explore museums you haven't experienced yet, try the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which is next to the Botanical Gardens and Prospect Park (Brooklyn's Central Park). For those with special interests the spectacular Museum of African Art, the Jewish Museum, and the Folk Art Museum certainly merit a visit.

For music lovers, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall will be open. Balletomanes should go online to the Web sites for the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center or the City Center to see what performances are being offered. The American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet are both among the world's elite ballet troupes. For chamber-music lovers, there is a concert series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and performances can usually be found at other venues as well.

When many people think of New York, of course the first thing that comes to mind is Broadway, the heart of the best of theater in the nation and the incubator of the next generation of the most accomplished acting talent. In addition to the lavish and smaller musicals for which Broadway is world famous and the award-winning dramas that fill its many theaters, there is Off-Broadway and even Off-Off Broadway, for new, often experimental and cutting-edge theater. The “TKTS” booth in Times Square is a great option for purchasing reduced-priced tickets on the day of a performance, and those of you who prefer to plan ahead to be guaranteed seats can always buy tickets online through the major ticket agencies.

For compulsive athletes, parks abutting the East River and Hudson River are popular and picturesque places to run. And the truly dedicated can almost circumnavigate the island. The track around Central Park's reservoir is also a popular place for joggers, as is the park's designated running lane. For tennis aficionados there are several public and private courts throughout Manhattan, and Randall's Island beneath the RFK (formerly Triborough) Bridge has driving and putting ranges for golfers and is quite nice and convenient by car.

Several other unique New York experiences merit attention as well. These include visits to the extensive and storied Chinatown and Little Italy neighborhoods in lower Manhattan. In the latter it would be a shame not to detour to Viniero's or Ferrara's for fabulous pastries. Zabar's and Russ and Daughters are renowned for Yiddish delicacies. H and M Bagels on Broadway and Kossar's Bialys on Grand Street are the best for those ethnic treats. A tour of the Lower East Side is a must, as is the Tenement Museum for those whose ancestors may have found their first American home in that part of New York. Shopping and gallery browsing on West Broadway and Spring and Prince streets in the SoHo neighborhood just south of Greenwich Village are also quite special.

We would encourage you to use the Internet to buy tickets or find out more detailed information about sites and events that pique your interest. Nearly everything we've mentioned has its own Web site, which includes the address, phone number, hours, and how to purchase tickets. Remember, New York is extremely popular in the fall, so don't wait. We'll see you there! ▪