One day in Manhattan with a 10-year old girl

[fuggy]

She wants to shop, and she's already seen the Statue of Liberty. Here's my plan:

We arrive around 12 noon on this Sat. Maybe we'll hang around Times Square a while first. Then, we're first going to the visitor's center and buying those 1-day Metro Cards. (I've bought them before, and they're worth it, as long as you ride the subway a lot, of course. I know she would like to just ride the subway, so we may just take "extra" trips.) She wants to go to Chinatown, we'll go there first. I know not to buy any "designer" stuff there!

Then we plan to take the subway up to the nearest stop by FAO Schwartz, shop there and then walk down to Trump Tower. She's a fan of "The Apprentice", I don't watch it. Anything to do there other than just take pictures of her in front of it?

We also plan to spend time shopping at Herald Square, including Macy's. If there's time, we plan to go to Times Square. If not, we'll be going to Rockefeller Center the next morning, can we walk to Times Square from there? Is Sat. night or Sun. morning the best time to visit Times Square, or should we get that over with first thing when we arrive? I'm not a TS fan, but I know she'll adore it.

Thanks!

[Edward]

That's a lot of shopping for a 10-year old. Try Museum of Natural History instead. Visit Times Square at night, lots of people and neon, more interesting than during the day. In Times Square, you can visit Toys R Us store, they have ferris wheel inside.

[lofter1]

Take the R train Downtown to Chinatown from 47th / Broadway (one block north of the Visitors Center); Get off at Canal St stop. Chinatown is all around you there.

After check out the Children's Museum of Manhattan at 182 Lafayette St. near Grand, just a couple blocks north of Canal / Chinatown ( http://www.cmom.org/ ).

From there you can walk a couple blocks over to Broadway and up to Prince St. where you can get back on the same R train and go back up town -- get off at 5th Avenue stop to get to FAO Schwartz. From there it's a short walk down 5th Ave to Rock Center. (Don't miss the Christmas windows across the street at Saks). Take her to the Top of the Rock, too. Then you can get on the 6th Ave subway (B / D / F / V ) at Rock Center and go downtown to 34th for Macy's, etc. From there it's another short walk up Broadway to Times Square for Lights / Crowds / ToysRUs.

[fuggy]

Thanks! I think, if anything, I'll see if we can cut Chinatown short. I found that most of the stores are selling the same things that the next store is selling, so we'll maybe buzz thru there, just so she can say she's been there. And we'll see if we can't just "window shop" some of the major stores.

Thanks again.