Empire State Building

The Empite State Building kan je niet ontgaan zijn gedurende een trip door New York. Ik ben er zelfs in geweest all the way to the top. Eenmaal bovenin besef je eigenlijk hoe klein wij mensen toch zijn.

I don't remember the price of this famous attraction in New York but i know it wasn't cheap. Actually the price doesn't matter because you just have to stand on this building to enjoy the view. And the view really is amazing here. You can sea Central Park and the Statue of Liberty from here and you can also see that all the streets except Broadway are blocks. For Americans, this won't be worth mentioning but Europeans aren't used to this at all. It's also funny that when you're standing on this building, the other buildings of New York seem very small.

Luckily I visited NYC in late winter/early spring so there wasn't extremely long lines but you could tell by the length of walkway inside the main floors at the bottom that the building was usually stampeded with people. I wasn't so happy about paying $20 but I couldn't haggle here. There are about 6 elevators and they travel faster than the speed of light, it just doesn't seem fast. My ears must have popped 4 times before getting to the 80th floor. The view from the top was AMAZING! You could see half of Long Island, New Jersey (of course), all the buroughs and every building to the horizon. $20 is not fun to dish out but I'd say it was definitely worth it!

Het is hoog, en niet heel duur om er boven in te komen!
Ik heb een zak chips gekocht, en die HELEMAAL onderin op zitten eten!

Gteat!!! It was a great experience, we went twice, once during the day, with a two or three hour queue to get up and then the same to get down, but that was worth it, and then again, later on in the week, at night, with less of a queue, only an hour or two, and a few lucky shortcuts.
The view during the day is spectatular, being able to see the whole of New York, and three other states. The view at night is completely different, but just as spectatular, with a the major landmarks lit up.

If you ever get to visit New York, it is a a must see attraction!!!

It's one of those things you have to do. You can not go to New York and not spend an afternoon over looking the city from that point. It was beautiful, seeing all the streets, and I went up late afternoon so i was lucky to witness darkness setting in and seeing the building lights turn on. Love.

This was my first experience going to New York, and if you're an avid tourist... you would think that the Empire State Building is one of the first things to see. But there's one problem... if you like to stand in line, this is the place for you. Another downside is that you can't even go to the tippy top because they stopped that recently. You're going to the 86th floor observatory deck.

First, waiting in line to get the ticket takes a while. For me, it was a half hour, but it's often longer. Buy tickets beforehand at a nearby shop or I understand you can buy them online. They'll pitch you this "combo" package. It's a ticket to the top and also a ride/movie experience that takes you on a "helicopter ride" of the city. They say if you buy that, you'll get through the line faster. Um, not really. It might save you 15 minutes, but in the grand scheme of a two-hour wait, don't do it unless you really want to see the movie anyway.

Then they catch you when you get to the top. You have to stand in line again to get your photo taken. It's annoying because they won't let you pass without it... which is just another way to make a quick buck.

Now you're at the top. Big deal. There's New York -- behind a fence with a lot of grafitti on it. Yes, I know for some it's just to say you've been to the top of the Empire State building. Make it last on your list if you've other things to see.

Now, you have to wait in line to get DOWN the darn thing. That was another 45 minutes. Ugh! Plus, it's not air conditioned, so prepared to be hot and sticky.

To sum it up... it was sort of a waste of time, but I felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards. Make it one of the last things to do on your list of things to do in New York. Otherwise, you'll find your trip to be really boring. It takes a lot of energy out of you.

This is a must visit if your in New York and have never been up. The queue to get to the top was never ending, and took a couple of hours to get to the top. That said, once at the top the views are amazing and you soon forget the wait.

This is pretty much a must-do New York attraction. If you decide to do it, try to time it so that you get to the top of the building about 30 minutes before sunset. This way you get to see the city in bth daylight and at night with all the twinkling lights.
To get your timing right, you wll need to sart queueing for tickets at least 2 hours before sunset. This is because the whole process takes AGES! You have to queue for your ticket, then queue for a security check, then queue to get a elevator about 2/3 of the way up, then queue all through that floor and get a photo taken, then get in another elevator to the top. If you want to do the skyride simulator, I would advise leaving 3 hours. It's worth it for the view at the top though!

The Empire State Building observatory was the first thing we wanted to see when we arrived in New York City for our first visit during the millennium celebration in Times Square. Luckily, we were able to wait in the extra long lines and shift through all the elevator changes to finally reach the rooftop observatory. We had an excellent night skyline view in the open-air observation deck, including the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, we did not visit the WTC on our first trip to NYC and the buildings were destroyed before we could go up inside them. The view from the Empire Sate Building was amazing and well worth the wait time and entrance fee. The Empire State Building itself is an amazing structure, architectually less modern looking than the Sears Tower in Chicago, my home town. To think a B-25 bomber had crashed into the 87th floor of the Empire State Building and it is still standing is a tribute to the design and workers who labored to build this grand structure and highlight of the New York skyline.