America Vacation Spot : New York State

New York State’s vacation possibilities are almost overpowering—ranging all the way from the world's most exciting city and a huge ocean side recreational area in its southeastern corner, to one of the most famous sightseeing attractions on earth, Niagara Falls, at the northwestern corner of the state. In between are the greatest number and the greatest variety of things to do and see of any state in the Union. We'll take them in geographic order, out of New York, the gateway city, as most visitors do, but let's first take a quick look at what New York City offers its 20 million annual visitors. It will have to be a quick look, because any attempt at a complete listing of New York's attractions would fill a book the size of the city's five telephone directories, which together form the world's largest telephone directory. It's the most and the biggest of just about everything, even though Tokyo and London surpass it in size. There are more museums and more Chinese restaurants, more churches of different denominations and more newspapers in different foreign languages, more magnificent apartment houses and hotels and more beat-up slum buildings than anywhere else you can think of.

Things to see in and around town include the harbor, the new Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Statue of Liberty; Wall Street, the Stock Exchange, Chinatown and the Bowery; the garment center, the United Nations, the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center; the art galleries along 57th Street, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium and the Cloisters.

And among the hundreds of different things to do are seeing a Broadway show or hearing a concert at Lincoln Center, viewing a big league baseball or football game at Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium, watching the horses race at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Yonkers or Roosevelt, taking the Staten Island ferry ride, shopping at the big department stores or the smart shops on Fifth and Madison avenues, dining at any of a thousand superb French, Italian, German, Hungarian, Kosher, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Philippine, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Spanish, Latin American and American steak, chop or seafood restaurants.