Empire State Building, New York City

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This is a given if you've never been to NYC. Built during the Great Depression for years it stood as the tallest building in the world until the WTC North Tower surpassed it when it was completed in 1972. Its great to read and hear about the history of the Empire State Building but going up to the top and getting a 360 degree view of NYC is worthwhile and memorable. The observatory up top is open 7 days a week from 8am-2am with the final elevators going up at 1:15am. There are actually two observatories, one on the 86th floor and the other at the very top on the 102nd floor.
I was fortunate enough to visit NYC before the atrocity of the Twin Towers and clearly remember, as my picture shows, the way they jointly eclipsed all other buildings as they reached towards the heavens. My condolences to everyone who lost a loved one on that day.

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First, an admission – we didn’t actually go up the Empire State Building on this visit to New York! On our first trip in 1982 we went up everything we could – this, the Rockefeller Center and the World Trade Center. This time, with only a week at our disposal, we decided to be more selective and chose the Top of the Rock for two reasons: firstly, the queues aren’t the problem they are here, and secondly, you get a great view of the Empire State Building from it, whereas of course you can’t get that when you’re on top of it! Despite not going up the building however, we inevitably saw a lot of it, and as it’s one of the city’s main tourist attractions I think it deserves a mention here.

The Observatory is on the 86th floor, 1,050 feet (320 meters) above street level. Over 3.5 million people ascend each year, which explains the aforementioned queues. You can speed things up a little by booking in advance, but you’ll still have to queue for the lifts, so come prepared to wait. There is an additional Observatory on the 102nd floor, for which tickets can’t be bought in advance, so that’s another wait if you want to go higher. Note that this is currently closed for renovations so check the website before you go. And if all this waiting sounds too much, you can buy an Express Pass, which entitles you to go to the front of every line, but this will cost you - $47 at the time of writing rather than the regular adult charge of $20.

If like us you decide not to go up the Empire State Building, do go take a look at it nevertheless. It was built in1930, during the Great Depression, as a deliberate (and successful) attempt to build the tallest building in the city and in the world, an honour it retained until 1972, when the World Trade Center took that honour. Following the destruction of the latter, the Empire State Building again took over as the tallest in New York, but other have meanwhile surpassed it elsewhere in the world. Just the same, while craning your neck to look up at it, you won’t be thinking it’s on the small side!

Make sure you check out the building at night time too, as the floodlighting is very effective. The colours change from time to time, depending on the time of year, current events and holidays etc. For instance, on the 5th November 2008 the building was lit up simply in blue, to celebrate Barack Obama’s victory in the previous day’s US Presidential election.

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I know that this isn't necessarily a universally held opinion but, for me, visiting the Empire State Building is one of those 10 things to do before you die activities. The view from the top is superior to Top Of The Rock as, being in midtown, you get a much clearer view in every direction. It is quite possible to see Shea Stadium to the east, Giants Stadium to the west, Coney Island to the south and, on a clear day you can even see the Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson and that's in Tarrytown some 23 miles away! You also get a great view of the Chrysler Building which is obscured from view by the ugly MetLife Building if you're standing on Top Of The Rock.

Besides the view, there's the history and the wonderful films that have used the ESB. From "An Affair to Remember" to "Sleepless in Seattle". Stand at the top and I defy you not to be moved!
Now, don't get me wrong, TOTR should also not be missed. It has a wonderful view of Central Park and, of course, the ESB and the whole experience of getting to the top is so much more civilised although I noticed a decidedly more civil attitude displayed by the staff at ESB than I have noticed before. Perhaps they're getting the message that there's competition out there!

So, how do you achieve the impossible - get to the top of each without paying too much and not queueing for hours? Here's how we did it. Plan to visit the ESB first thing in the morning. We arrived at 07:45 and were third in line. They don't open the escalator up to the ticket office until 08:00 but we were at the top by quarter past (this was in May this year). If you buy online, you have to collect your ticket at the sales office and you need to be able to show your credit card that you used or else, like the person who was at the front of the queue when we arrived, you'll have to go back to your hotel and collect it! We bought our tickets there and then. There's no need to go for the CityPass or the express option and you definitely DON'T want to pay extra for the 102nd floor even if it is open. It's small, you have to look through fairly small windows and the view is actually no better than from the observation deck.

As for TOTR, plan to go about 30 minutes before sunset - that way you can watch as the city changes from day to night and thousands of lights in almost every building come on and transform Manhattan into a wonderland of twinkling lanterns! There is no problem with queueing and, if you go here: http://www.theatermania.com/extras/TopOfTheRock/ you'll get a voucher saving you $3 off each pass.

I've just come across a voucher scheme on offer from Expedia for the ESB that you might like to check out: http://www.expedia.co.uk/pub/agent.dll?qscr=tsdt&stat=5&flgc=0&loid=178293&ofid=4032&wtid=28 It looks good but I haven't read all the small print!

One final point (if I need to convince you!). One of my favourite guide books (Not For Tourists) has this to say, "Some New Yorkers think it's hip to have never been to the Empire State Building. These people are idiots" I absolutely agree.

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One of the things we just HAD to do in New York was go up to the top of the Empire State Building.

We queued from quite early on, about an hour before it opened, but we were already round the block. The queue moved steadily though, and about an hour later, we had tickets in hand. Security was understandably tight, but it moved along quickly.

We later realised we had misunderstood the ticket lady, as these tickets would only take us to the second highest point, not the actual top.

It’s quite a windy way to get to the elevator that takes you up to the (near) top. They were doing renovations at the time, so I am not sure if this is always the case. But we finally got to the second highest point. We spent about 20 minutes here, it was very crowded and viewpoints were scarce.

We then decided to go to the very top, so had to get further tickets. I had cash but they insisted on a credit card payment. Not happy to do this, we had no choice, so they swiped my credit card. (This proved a bad move though as a couple hours later we realised my card was cloned!!!).

Anyway, we were blissfully unaware of this and went to the top… it was freezing cold, but the view over the city was absolutely spectacular!!!

We spent about 45 minutes up at the very top, taking photos and enjoying the views, then started the trek down.. more winding and queues, although these went quickly. Needless to say, the queue outside was now incredibly long, we couldn’t actually see where it ended.

Well worth doing - it gives you a fantastic rooftop view of this splendid city :)

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Oh god, it was so difficult to go up there because of the long lines waiting to pass the security, then the lines for the tickets, then the lines for the first elevator to 80th floor and then another line for the next elevator!!! But it was something I wanted to do the first afternoon in NY and it’s really worth to wait, especially during sunset when you see the lights the skyscrapers lit and create an amazing overview of New York City. You can go around the viewing platform and see far to the Brooklyn bridge or to Hudson river but I enjoyed looking down at the streets. I also enjoyed the building when I was away from it, in many parts of Manhattan, on the boat or from the Brooklyn bridge. The floodlights change color some nights and my local friend is very lucky standing by his window every night and watch it…. After major events it takes specific colors like red, white and blue after 11/9.

Empire State Buidling was built in 1931 and it is the tallest building in NY (from 1972-2001 was the World Trade Center) and the construction was part of a competition for the world’s tallest building (Chrysler building was the other one)!. It has 102 floors and it has an art deco spire at the top. It’s 381m high and it’s the second tallest building in United States after Sears Tower in Chicago (442m). The building was designed by Gr. Johnson and more than 3500 workers work for 14 months and you can see many photos of them inside the building. The building was almost empty the first years because of the economical crisis that period.

There was supposed to be a landing platform at the top but then some not so stupid people decided that it is too dangerous. One strange accident happened at 1945 when a B-25 plane crashed into 79th floor and 14 people died! There is a fence on 86th floor so the people don’t try to jump but more than 30 people committed suicide from other floors of the building.

The entrance fee is $20 but I used my city pass and I didn’t have to pay anything (with the city pass you avoid the first long line also). We also got for free the audio guide because of the city pass. The city pass costs 74$ but gives you free entrance to 5 more attractions like Metropolitan museum, MOMA, Guggenheim museum, Museum of Natural History, Circle Line tour.

At the store of the building you will find some souvenirs, I liked the snowballs with King Kong attached on it :)

This iconic building is another very popular tourist attraction. It is worth going very early to avoid the masses of people. Things are very well organised, and it took us only 20 – 30 min to get to the observation deck after we arrived.
The views are off course absolutely fantastic. It is quite crowded at the top, and a little patients is needed, especially with groups of people entertained by their tour guides.
We bought tickets at the hotel before we left and arrived a few minutes after 8 in the morning.
Fee: 19 $US

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It's been in over 90 major motion pictures (remember King Kong?). It held the title of world's tallest building for over 40 years and was built in less than 2 years between 1930 and 1931. You can buy tickets for the observation deck in the lobby. The second photo was taken from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

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If you are happy to arrange your visit in advance then buy your ticket online and print it off before you go. I did and it saved me a 2 and a half hour wait to buy tickets on the day. We just breezed in, presented our tickets and joined the queues for the lifts - they were quite long as well. By contrast we didn't have to queue at all for the "Top of the Rock" at the Rockerfeller Centre - and to be honest we enjoyed the views from there more than the Empire State.