Photo: Rhododendrites , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Every week, someone books a hotel "in New York" that turns out to be a shuttle ride from an airport runway, and their whole trip inherits the mistake. Where you sleep in this city shapes everything: what you see out the window, where you eat breakfast, how much of your vacation you spend underground on the subway. The good news is that there's no single right answer — there's a right answer for you. Let's find it. First trip? Stay central, but not that central Midtown makes sense for first-timers: you can walk to Times Square, Broadway theaters, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park, and every train line in creation passes underneath. The trade-off is soul. Much of Midtown empties after office hours and the blocks immediately around Times Square never stop being Times Square. My compromise pick: stay south of the chaos, in the 20s and 30s — NoMad, Flatiron, Chelsea. You're fifteen minutes from ev...
Photo via Unsplash Few cities have appeared on screen as often as New York. From sweeping romances to gritty crime dramas and beloved sitcoms, the city's streets, brownstones, and skyline have served as the backdrop for thousands of films and television shows. For movie lovers, walking through New York can feel like stepping onto one giant film set, where a familiar stoop or street corner suddenly comes alive with cinematic memory. This guide takes you through some of the city's most iconic filming locations and how to experience them yourself. Greenwich Village and the Sitcom Stoops Greenwich Village is sacred ground for fans of New York television. The exterior used for the apartment building in Friends sits at 90 Bedford Street, at the corner of Grove, drawing visitors who pose for photos year-round. A few blocks east, Tom's Restaurant on Broadway and 112th (uptown, technically Morningside Heights) served as the diner exterior in Seinfeld, while the West Village stre...