New York in 5 days

Times Square is the most famous intersection in the world: giant screens, signs flashing day and night and that over-the-top energy you either love or flee — New York's honest welcome. The itinerary puts it at 9 am for a precise reason: the screens are already on but the sidewalks still belong to New Yorkers on their way to work, and standing in the middle of the intersection without weaving through crowds is a luxury that no longer exists by midday. It's a free, quick stop: look, turn on the spot, take your photos and move on — the hotel, after all, is two steps away in the Theater District. Then head down Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street: ten minutes on foot to the lions of the library.

Suggested time here: 50 min

The New York Public Library is New York's great library, its entrance guarded by two marble lions that even have names: Patience and Fortitude. Inside, the Rose Main Reading Room is a cathedral of wood and green lamps — and visiting is free, one of the most beautiful interiors in the city without a ticket. Behind it lies Bryant Park, Midtown's lawn-living-room: free chairs to move wherever you like and a crown of skyscrapers all around. Allow yourself the pause without hurrying: the day has only just begun, and mid-morning the park belongs to New Yorkers with coffee in hand. Grand Central, the next stop, is seven minutes on foot.

Suggested time here: 1h 23m

Grand Central Terminal is not a station: it's a Beaux-Arts hall with a turquoise ceiling and gilded constellations — painted backwards, and New Yorkers know it and will happily tell you. It's free, alive and working: commuters rush through it while you stand still with your nose in the air, and it's exactly that contrast that makes the visit worthwhile. Find the Whispering Gallery in front of the Oyster Bar: a whisper into one corner of the vault arrives crisp at the opposite corner — try it as a pair, one per corner, and it really works. Then off towards lunch: twenty minutes down Madison Avenue to West 32nd Street, with Midtown sliding past.

Suggested time here: 1h 10m

Koreatown fits into a single block: West 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway — they call it Korea Way — is an unbroken run of Korean signs stacked over several floors, with barbecue, bibimbap, bakeries and food halls open till late. The rule for eating well is just one: follow the queue of office workers on their lunch break, and you'll eat plenty at honest prices for Midtown. Afterwards the walk works it off: twenty-five minutes up Fifth Avenue, with the Empire State Building towering at the corner of 34th — look up, the photo is compulsory.

Suggested time here: 1h 35m

St. Patrick's Cathedral is the white neo-Gothic cathedral wedged between the skyscrapers of Fifth Avenue: two hundred-metre spires that dominated the city when it was finished in 1878 — today the towers around it mirror them, and that very contrast is the photo that tells Midtown's story. Entry is free and the stop asks no more than half an hour: inside, the volume drops at once, and the nave surprises you with how much breathing room it finds amid the traffic of Fifth. It's the right pause of the early afternoon, between lunch and the climb up Top of the Rock — which is five minutes away on foot, the time it takes to cross towards Rockefeller Center.

Suggested time here: 1h 25m

Top of the Rock is the Rockefeller Center's observation deck, and among New York's terraces the itinerary picks this one for an honest reason: from up here the Empire State Building is IN the picture, with Central Park opening out on the other side — the Empire State costs about the same, but its view doesn't contain itself. Tickets start at ~$45 (~€41, dynamic pricing) and must be booked with a time slot: choose the late-afternoon one, as this day does, and stay up for the golden light, when the skyscrapers switch on one by one. Keep your booking saved offline on your phone: you only get in with your chosen time. Dinner is ten minutes away on foot.

Suggested time here: 2h 50m

Restaurant Row is West 46th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue: a line of brownstones that is all restaurants, carrying the name since the 1970s and born to feed Broadway before and after the shows. Kitchens from half the world at pre-theatre prices, and the two local rules are worth gold here: New Yorkers eat early — at 6:30 pm you sit down without booking, from 8 pm the good places have queues — and the bill arrives without the tip, because 18-20% must be added and it's the server's pay. Book, or sit down early like they do here: the first day in New York ends at the table, with Broadway lighting up two steps away.