Is there a New York City Travel Forum

Nope. You are in the right spot though - Beyond Europe forum.

You can ask questions on the Reddit Sub r/AskNYC too. Very active and most of us are very helpful. Just don't ask what hotel you should stay in. We live here, we don't know.

I bet that TripAdvisor has a New York City forum.

Ask your question( s ) , you'll get answers here .

Ask away. There are NYC members like me happy to help!

I have found this to be one of the best sites of its kind for outside of Europe.

As others have suggested, ask your question. People who live and have lived in New York are on this site but many others who have visited New York are also on this site,

Hi, @Tom_MN

Actually, admission to the Cloisters is free on the same day you've bought a ticket to the Met--and vice versa. The Cloisters isn't open late any night, while the Met is open until 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. So one strategy is to go see the Cloisters in the morning (allow 2 hours to see it all) then head back down toward the Met for the second part of the day, getting lunch along the way.

SNL tickets: I've been. There is a whole process for standby tickets, and if you put in the time standing in line, you have a pretty good chance of getting in, but it will eat up your Friday night and early Saturday. First you preregister online, then show up by 7pm, then stand in line until midnight, when they hand out the numbered tickets for the next night. Then there is a whole process the next night where you may or may not get in.

As for the ticket lottery, it's open every August. Write a brief but heartfelt note about why you want to see the show. I always write about how I grew up watching it, the show is the same age as me, yadda yadda, now I watch with my teenagers, etc etc. After about 6 years of trying, it finally worked! Saw the live show with Ariana DeBose in January 2021.

If you win the normal email lottery, you may be notified at any time in the season, with between two days and three weeks' notice (definitely not all at once in August!). I got my email at 4 pm Thursday for the same week. Sometimes they send out emails in a big batch for the next three weeks or so. A lot of people enter anyway and just figure out how to get there. If you do get tickets for the live show, you show up about 9:30 for the 11:30 airtime.

SNL still requires proof of vaccination, but I think they no longer require masks.

I remember going to the Cloisters on my very first trip to New York back in 1981. I loved that place!

One of the major features of The Cloisters is the original " Hunt of The Unicorn " Tapestries . These were donated to the Met By John D. Rockefeller . They were duplicated over a roughly fifteen year period in Stirling , Scotland and now hang in the Renaissance Palace at Stirling Castle . ( Mardee , this is for you since you'll be headed there) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_of_the_Unicorn#/media/File:Replica_of_'The_Unicorn_is_Killed_and_Brought_to_the_Castle'_tapestry,_hanging_in_Mary_of_Guise's_Inner_Hall_in_the_Royal_Palace_at_Stirling_Castle..JPG

Thanks, steven! I will definitely look for them there. I loved the unicorn tapestries!

The Trip Advisor NYC forum is quite busy, although a lot of time is wasted having to tell people that AirBnB is mostly illegal in Manhattan, and likely to leave you with no place to stay. But they just don't want to believe that something on the internet could ... not be true!

Yes! Please DO NOT book and AirBnB for NYC unless you are staying 30 days or more. They are illegal, and can be cancelled without warning. Please book a real hotel or hostel unless you want your trip to be ruined.

Consider Long Island City if you want a more budget-friendly option. It sounds far, but I assure you it's not "the suburbs" in any way. LIC (Long Island City) is directly across the river from Midtown, and is just 1-5 stops from everything between Times Square and Grand Central. It's a safe neighborhood that caters to wealthy local residents and tourists.

The subway, by the way, is perfectly safe, if a bit gritty looking. (We are working on it.) You can now tap in with any chipped credit or debit card. Nothing could be easier: no finicky, flimsy Metrocards to swipe anymore (unless you want to; the swipe terminals are still active.)