Does staying near Grand Central make sense for my itinerary?
I've somewhat spontaneously decided to take a 3ish day trip to NYC. I visited it as a kid with my Dad, but would love to see the city again as and adult. He passed back in December and this is really the first break I'll have given myself since, so I want to make the most of the relatively short time.
Photography is one of my main drivers behind the trip but I don't necessarily want to carry my camera around the whole time, and I have an idea of what I want to do while I'm there (arriving Thursday morning on the red eye and flying out Sunday evening, in and out of JFK), but at a high level I want to see:
- Top of the Rock at sunset
- Brooklyn Bridge park or Long Island City for skyline photos (if LIC around sunrise my last day)
- Staten Island Ferry
- 9/11 Memorial
- International Center of Photography
- At least part of Central Park
- Times Square (not a must do I saw it when I was younger but the photography would be cool)
I've solo traveled before but not anywhere near the size of NYC, so I wanted some input: I've been looking at hotels around Grand Central and even considered a couple near Times Square, how practical would either be for the stuff I want to do and see? Any recommendations for a different area to consider?
Also any recommendations for photography/restaurants/bars/ around any of the stuff I mentioned is greatly appreciated!