Central Park is a kids playground as much as it is an adult one. There are so many nifty little parks and areas for the kids to play around with. My 3-year-old marveled at the cobble stones, the worms, the pennies in the ponds, and the water fountains, and we only visited a small stretch near 55th Street. (the secret garden)

Great place to take the Statute of Liberty Ferry. Or if you don't have 2 hours to burn, it's also just a great place to stop by, see the river, all the boats. Lots of street vendors and performers. Pretty nice walk all the way up North.

While we were there, we saw some street dancers who were jumping over each other, and also had a flock of 25 pigeons literally eating out of our hands.

You've seen all the pictures and movies, but Times Square is better in person. Go at night. now that NYC has closed off part of it from cars and put down chairs and seats, it's even better. In the one hour we were there, we saw a guy dressed up as batman and a michael jackson look-alike doing a wicked moonwalk.

It's definitely a tourist trap, but still worth the trip. We helped a group of teens from Alabama take a picture and then had a dad from India help us take our picture.

Lots of great vendors, a nice little sand park, live performances, cool t-shirt vendors, surrounded by lots of hip shops and restaurants (for bathroom breaks and weather escapes). Easily accessible by subway.

Great place to take a break, people-watch, buy a meal and sit outside, or buy some interesting trickets or T-shirts.