Getting around New York City and is there a fashion museum
July 14, 2010 8:31 PM Subscribe
New York City car & driver for a day?
My girlfriend and I have a chance to spend a day in New York City tomorrow. Well not all day from about 2pm out.
We both really want to see Moma, PS/1 and a few other
choice artsy places.
I am concerned about having enough time before the places close.
I dont wont to spend my time figuring out the transit system
at the cost of not a few places.
So I was wondering about hiring a car and a driver for a day,
but I have never done such a thing before, is it done, if so
how, and how much?
Would a regular car service be able to pick us and drop us off fairly frequently (maybe an hour or two at each location).
Or should we trust an abundance of taxis?
Or is public transit simply the fastest way to travel around New York even when a person is unaccustomed to the routes. I love public transit in general and I have used it frequently in towns I have visited where I have some time.
Lastly is there such a thing as a fashion museum or such?
NYC is certainly known as one of the fashion capitols, and
I have noted down a few stores from Wallpaper (magazine)
but I havent seen a museum or gallery that focuses on it yet.
My girlfriend and I have a chance to spend a day in New York City tomorrow. Well not all day from about 2pm out.
We both really want to see Moma, PS/1 and a few other
choice artsy places.
I am concerned about having enough time before the places close.
I dont wont to spend my time figuring out the transit system
at the cost of not a few places.
So I was wondering about hiring a car and a driver for a day,
but I have never done such a thing before, is it done, if so
how, and how much?
Would a regular car service be able to pick us and drop us off fairly frequently (maybe an hour or two at each location).
Or should we trust an abundance of taxis?
Or is public transit simply the fastest way to travel around New York even when a person is unaccustomed to the routes. I love public transit in general and I have used it frequently in towns I have visited where I have some time.
Lastly is there such a thing as a fashion museum or such?
NYC is certainly known as one of the fashion capitols, and
I have noted down a few stores from Wallpaper (magazine)
but I havent seen a museum or gallery that focuses on it yet.
while you can hire a car and driver for a day, it'll cost you a TON of money—dial 7 car service, for example, charges $40 an hour within manhattan, with a two hour minimum. it's a pretty stupid thing to do unless you're rich, because you can get a cab within a minute or two* almost everywhere in manhattan.
to be honest, cabs won't really get you from major venue to major venue markedly quicker than the subway, and they'll cost you so much more. both google maps and hopstop will give you super clear walk + subway directions of routes from place a to place b to place c, as long as you can figure out what your itinerary is ahead of time.
also: note that 2 p.m. onwards is a ridiculously small amount of time if you want to visit more than one or two major museums in new york without running through them and not really seeing anything—the moma alone is huge and worth spending an entire afternoon in, if not an entire day. and then there's the fact that admission tickets are expensive. if you only have half the afternoon plus the early evening to spare, pick two or three places you really want to see and just stick to those. lucky for you, the moma is open late on thursdays this july, so if you want to visit it, make it last on your list.
as for the fashion museum question: the museum at fit and the costume institute at the met come to mind.
*except at around 3 to 4 p.m., which is when cabbies change shifts with other drivers.
posted by lia at 8:50 PM on July 14, 2010
to be honest, cabs won't really get you from major venue to major venue markedly quicker than the subway, and they'll cost you so much more. both google maps and hopstop will give you super clear walk + subway directions of routes from place a to place b to place c, as long as you can figure out what your itinerary is ahead of time.
also: note that 2 p.m. onwards is a ridiculously small amount of time if you want to visit more than one or two major museums in new york without running through them and not really seeing anything—the moma alone is huge and worth spending an entire afternoon in, if not an entire day. and then there's the fact that admission tickets are expensive. if you only have half the afternoon plus the early evening to spare, pick two or three places you really want to see and just stick to those. lucky for you, the moma is open late on thursdays this july, so if you want to visit it, make it last on your list.
as for the fashion museum question: the museum at fit and the costume institute at the met come to mind.
*except at around 3 to 4 p.m., which is when cabbies change shifts with other drivers.
posted by lia at 8:50 PM on July 14, 2010
Shit - in light of lalex's info about late Thursday hours (did not know that - nice!), I'd switch around the order of things. Head to PS1 first, then to MoMA. Same holds true about them being sister museums and able to give directions between the two.
posted by Sara C. at 8:51 PM on July 14, 2010
posted by Sara C. at 8:51 PM on July 14, 2010
Re the Costume Institute at the Met. This is what is on view right now. If this doesn't sound like the most amazingest thing in the world, your ideal dream of everything a costume museum should be, skip it. The Costume Institute is very small and, while the exhibits tend to be pretty well curated, it can be kind of underwhelming. They do not have any permanent collection on display - it is ONLY this exhibit.
And the Met is nowhere near other places on your list, and closes at 5:30. Choose wisely.
posted by Sara C. at 9:08 PM on July 14, 2010
And the Met is nowhere near other places on your list, and closes at 5:30. Choose wisely.
posted by Sara C. at 9:08 PM on July 14, 2010
Public transit is probably indeed the fastest way around New York. If you're concerned about figuring out the routes, maybe you can post the museums you are hoping to hit and us locals can help you figure out the routes. Honestly, it's not that difficult especially with assistance from google maps and/or hopstop as lia linked to.
My advice is actually is to learn which museums fall on which subway routes and choose accordingly. 2PM on is a very short amount of time; figuring it out this way would maximize the number of museums you would be able to see.
posted by pinksoftsoap at 10:28 PM on July 14, 2010
My advice is actually is to learn which museums fall on which subway routes and choose accordingly. 2PM on is a very short amount of time; figuring it out this way would maximize the number of museums you would be able to see.
posted by pinksoftsoap at 10:28 PM on July 14, 2010
Just nthing the advice to not get a car, or even use cabs, if you want to get anywhere quickly in Manhattan. The subway system is awesome.
posted by Grither at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2010
posted by Grither at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2010
If you need to get around Manhattan quickly, take public transit during rush hours, and taxis the rest of the time. Driving will, in many cases, be slower than walking. NYC is the least car-centric city in the US by a fairly wide margin.
The subway map is (sort of) geographically accurate. You should be able to find your way around just fine. If you've got a smartphone, Google Maps or HopStop will help you navigate the transit system.
posted by schmod at 8:00 AM on July 15, 2010
The subway map is (sort of) geographically accurate. You should be able to find your way around just fine. If you've got a smartphone, Google Maps or HopStop will help you navigate the transit system.
posted by schmod at 8:00 AM on July 15, 2010
I think people can sometimes be overwhelmed with our public transit system because the map looks a little daunting. There are so many different lines and the system is really big.
However, it's a lot easier than it looks, because more often than not you only need to use a tiny fraction of the system. The E is the only subway line you need to know about if you will be in New York for one day and your only priorities are MoMA and PS1. Literally. The rest of the map? Ignore it. Subway trains that do not have the letter E on the front? Ignore them. Suddenly the system becomes super easy, easier even than learning our taxi etiquette.
posted by Sara C. at 10:03 AM on July 15, 2010
However, it's a lot easier than it looks, because more often than not you only need to use a tiny fraction of the system. The E is the only subway line you need to know about if you will be in New York for one day and your only priorities are MoMA and PS1. Literally. The rest of the map? Ignore it. Subway trains that do not have the letter E on the front? Ignore them. Suddenly the system becomes super easy, easier even than learning our taxi etiquette.
posted by Sara C. at 10:03 AM on July 15, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Traffic here SUCKS, and you can easily lose an hour waiting to cross a major cross-town street like 34th or Canal.
You should use the subway. It is very easy and will get you places exponentially faster than taxis or a car service because there is no traffic.
MoMA and PS1 are on the same subway line (the E), only a few stops from each other*. They are sister museums, which means that you can easily get directions from one to the other - anybody at the front desk will be almost required to know, and other staff will probably be able to give you directions as well.
If you really only have from 2pm onwards, I would not count on getting in all of MoMA, all of PS1, and other art oriented attractions (like gallery hopping). All of those places close before 7pm. How to get between them isn't really going to be the issue: closing time and the fact that museums are big and take a long time to see is what's going to kill you.
If I were you I'd look at a floor plan of MoMA before you go and pick a few key things to see (the Painting and Sculpture wing is a must if either of you is even vaguely interested in Modern art, btw), then take the E to PS1 and do a drive-by. Skip any other artsy plans unless you know they are open late. Then make really awesome dinner plans.
Don't know if this is on your radar at all, but the New Museum of Contemporary Art has free Thursday evenings and stays open late (9? 10?) might be a good alternative to PS1 if you want to spend longer at MoMA and really see everything.
Re fashion museums - FIT supposedly has some kind of gallery, but I don't know anything about it and, as above, it will probably have museum-ish hours and close around 6.
*You can use the same line to get to the art galleries in Chelsea and SoHo - an awesome thought that had not occurred to me before writing this. They should promote the E train as being super artsy!
posted by Sara C. at 8:47 PM on July 14, 2010