[firebrand]

One thing you should NOT do, for sure, is stay outside the city. Stay as close to the center of things as you can afford, because that's what it's all about (New York): being in the middle of everything.

[heighduke]

I might provide some more extensive recommendations later (I'm a native), but I do recommend that at one point in your visit, you stray from the more tourist-travelled parts of the city - Midtown/Times Square, the Village, etc. - and check out a more residential neighborhood. The Upper East Side or Upper West Side, for instance. Or even Park Slope in Brooklyn or Astoria in Queens.

[Tabi Katz]

One thing you should NOT do, for sure, is stay outside the city. Stay as close to the center of things as you can afford, because that's what it's all about (New York): being in the middle of everything.

LOL! I agree 100%. The whole point of being in NY is being in NEW YORK :) Love it or hate it, there's no place like it!