New York, New York

Ditto on The Strand, the Staten Island Ferry and the Library (bonus: they're all free).
MacDougal Street in the Village if you're looking for good cheap ethnic food in Manhattan.
On Saturday, the farmers market in Union Square is great for people watching.
If you want a great view of the city, with a bit of peace, take the subway to Roosevelt Island and sit by the river.
And if you want to avoid tourist traps, stay out of Midtown.
And Bay Ridge, along the harbor, under the Verrezano, is gorgous (though it's a bit of a hike from the subway)

 

IJAG particularly recommended Grimaldi's, as I recall.

 

Wolf's Deli for a foot-high pastrami sandwich. Man alive.

 

Beer drinker's paradise: Brooklyn Brewery. Tours on Saturday's from 12-5 p.m. (just a speaking tour, you don't get to see all that much) and Happy Hour Friday nights from 6 p.m. to whenever.

One of the founders worked for the AP, middle-east correspondent Steve Hindy, and the tour includes a great story as to why he decided to give up writing for brewing.

They have some really great brews. I love the '55 Pennant Ale for the Brooklyn Dodgers and they also have a great Weisse (wheat beer) and this smoked beer where they actually smoke all the dry ingredients ---- TREMENDOUS!

Great neighborhood (Williamsburg) with some nice restaurants nearby (Brooklyn's Dugout, a major hole in the wall, makes great burgers). If you go for happy hour, they have picnic tables set up and you can order from neighborhood eateries and have stuff delievered and they usually have a live band.

Within walking distance from a downtown L train.

I love that place.

 

Recommended site:

http://www.chowhound.com/boards/show/18

Lots of snobbery there, but a ton of good information, too.

 

Maybe a tour of the Bloomberg newsroom.

 

I suggest riding the No. 7 train very late at night.

 

If you haven't scored all your theatre tix yet, as an annual visitor to NYC, you probably know about the TKTS booth in Duffy Square. BUT you can get a few hours head start -- and a whole day for weekend shows -- at the TKTS branch office at the South Street Seaport at John & Front streets. That's the branch that used to be located in the World Trade Center.

Any cabbie can get you to South Street Seaport. The nearest subway stop is several blocks away but you'll be walking to and fro through an unattractive part of the Manhattan. Better to cab it and spend your walking around time elsewhere. South Street Seaport is a pretty good place to spend a short while, as long as you're already there!

I concur: Tom's Restaurant is worth a quick bite. Plus, it's only 3-4 blocks from Columbia U., which is worth a stroll across campus, too. Both are on the 1 & 9 subway line, I seem to recall.

 

Two words: Little Italy.

You're welcome.

 

Watching paint dry is more fun than the Cloisters. It is difficult to get to from Midtown.

If you want to see the Cloisters rent Coogans Bluff.

Your time would be better spent taking train to Oyster Bay and looking at Teddy Roosevelt' s home.

 

That is a cool place, especially during Italy World Cup matches ;D

 

Little Italy is filled with nice people from Kansas who are paying too much money for mediocre EYE-talian food.