new york is like no other place in the
world and while this city has many
unique offerings it also has some unique
challenges for visitors so today to help
you out i'm going to be sharing even
more common tourist mistakes to avoid
and a lot of these we've never discussed
in the channel you don't want to miss it
not using the bathroom before leaving a
restaurant or any tourist attraction
this is good advice in any city around
the world but especially new york where
public bathrooms can be an absolute
nightmare to find so if you're at lunch
you're at dinner you're visiting one of
the museums if you can don't force
yourself use the bathroom before you
leave and it'll just be one less thing
you need to stress about during your
trip you can all thank our cameraman
amazing ben for this one because he made
me think about it not checking
the hourly forecast in new york city
today in february perfect example it
said the high was 62 degrees i'm
thinking that's what ben did because he
showed up without gloves without a hat
but it was 62 degrees around 2 a.m it's
actually 42 degrees right now 13 mile an
hour wind chills feels like 37 and i
even caught myself shivering for my
viewers out there from warmer climates
you have to be very careful about
checking the forecast look at the hours
you're gonna be out because the
temperature can dip drastically in the
course of one day and don't forget about
those wind chills so the weatherman
light again well do the weatherman liar
did you not check the actual like hourly
conditions i'm a new yorker now who
checks anymore not knowing your order if
you go to a busy pizza spot or a busy
bodega and there's a lot of people
trying to order there's a long line i
have seen this many times where a
tourist or someone not from new york
isn't confident in what they want and
they're still checking as they ask for
their order i've seen them get skipped
over or get kind of a dirty look or say
are you ready are you ready so do
everybody a favor when you're ordering
in a busy spot and check the menu first
and then step into line you may think
that the staff is being rude to you but
in new york city fast pace of life
they're selling a lot of food you're
just slowing them down if you don't know
what you want
there are so many mistakes you can make
on the subway that we could dedicate an
entire video to this one that i see all
the time is when a tourist or someone
from out of town
is checking their subway directions
where to go
at a busy spot like right the beginning
of a staircase and they just stop they
just freeze and you have to walk around
them like your inconveniencing
all the people that are just trying to
go through their day so what you need to
do is pull over somewhere where there's
not a lot of people walking take your
time gather your bearings and you can
get where you need to go perfect
demonstration of how to be considerate
when you're looking
for where to go
taking a train the wrong direction this
actually happened to me last week i
think was the first time in almost a
decade
i went the wrong way i was texting
somebody the train was just pulling up
and i didn't even have a chance to look
if it was going uptown or downtown so if
this mistake happened to me it could
happen to any one of you i highly
recommend having an app on your phone
like city mapper or google maps let's
say you don't have an app you can always
look up at what direction the train is
going now this could be confusing to
people not from here because this says
uptown meaning uptown in manhattan and
the other side
says brooklyn and queens also in new
york there's different lines on the same
color so just because the train is blue
does not mean it's the train you need
you could be looking for the a or the c
train in this example if you take the a
train let's say at 59th street
your next stop is going to be 125 versus
the c which is going to go local so make
sure to look for the letter or the
number not just the color on new york
city trains all right ben what do you
think not subscribing to this channel
would that be a common tourist mistake
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going to a random street food vendor
especially in the really touristy areas
of times square i'm not saying they're
bad i'm just saying if there's not a lot
of other people there the food is
definitely not going to be as fresh i'm
all about taking my chances with random
street food whenever possible but just
keep that in mind if a place isn't busy
it could be a reason for that and i know
you want to get that hot dog experience
out of the way
but be careful
choosing the wrong observation deck or
just going to too many observation decks
now these have become one of the most
popular tourist attractions in new york
city especially because we have five of
them right now there's a lot of factors
that go into choosing the right one for
you for example if you want the most
immersive experience i picked summit but
if you want to go at night i think i
would lean on top of the rock or on the
empire state building or if it's
freezing cold outside and you don't want
to be exposed to the elements well right
behind me there is the one world
observatory we have covered every single
one on this channel putting a link down
below to our playlist you want to check
that out but another big problem would
be going to too many observation decks i
know those attraction passes allow you
to hop freely between most of them the
lines are long and you're going to spend
so many precious hours just looking at
new york city rather than actually
experiencing all the things you can do
at street level so my recommendation is
to only pick one
i just came up with this but walking in
the bike lane and not paying attention
because you will get hit by a bike trust
me engaging with street performers or
sellers and
forgetting to leave a tip i'll tell you
a story i was in a city in mexico and i
saw a guy dressed as a star wars
character and a little girl and her mom
went up and took a picture with him and
didn't leave a tip he looked a little
upset but nothing else happened i
promise you that if you do that in new
york city to one of the disney
characters they're gonna say some things
that are not rated g to you or worse
they might even follow you ditto if you
take somebody's cd and don't leave a tip
for it so just be aware of that assuming
that new yorkers are jerks and being
afraid to approach them let's say if
you're lost look new yorkers might be
gruff and they may be to the point but
if you want to ask somebody for help i
guarantee you most new yorkers will have
no problem stopping whatever it is
they're doing to support you but you
need to be very specific you need to
have a cross street in mind you can't
just say oh where is 500 broadway just
respecting people's time you know
they're not going to make small talk
with you like they would in some other
cities in the u.s where maybe the
general population is a little bit
friendlier to outsiders but they will
help you thinking that central park is
just an easy thing to mark off your
checklist that you can visit it in one
hour and see everything central park is
two and a half miles top to bottom and
there's a lot of dense forest in between
paths that zigzag if you have an hour or
two you could probably see columbus
circle
up to bethesda fountain you would need
to dedicate an entire day to central
park to see everything we filmed an
entire guide there it took us over eight
hours and we walked almost 10 miles
zigzagging all around so if you want to
do all the central park you need a lot
more time than you think and we did a
great guide to central park check it out
when you get a chance
where to begin with city bikes the first
mistake you could make is actually
renting one and riding through busy
streets if you don't have a lot of
experience with it some of the taxi
drivers here some of the drivers in
general are absolute maniacs to put it
lightly and if you're not an experienced
urban bike rider you could run into all
sorts of trouble a mistake that a lot of
people make
is they don't return the bike properly
they don't push it in properly until the
light comes on so if your bike is not
docked properly and somebody sees that
and takes it around for the day if it's
not returned within 48 hours you'll be
charged one thousand two hundred dollars
this is the exact spot that ben got a
ticket two months ago with me some of
you sticklers for punishment insist on
driving your car the parking enforcement
people in new york are absolutely
ruthless we parked her to film the
memorial and we were out of the car for
less than 10 minutes and we came back
and ben had a 100
ticket later in the day ben got a second
ticket because he parked in a bus stop
that was hidden by construction
scaffolding you have to read the parking
signs with a magnifying glass sometimes
to figure out what day of the week is it
okay and what hour is it okay to leave
your car i have never met someone that
drove in new york full time who did not
get at least a couple of tickets and
when you look at the money that you
spend on a ticket versus what it would
pay to park in a garage so if you can
avoid bringing your car i always tell
you to do so check out our new york city
tips playlist linked here and tell me in
the comments have you ever made any of
these mistakes i'm curious guys thank
you so much for watching as always until
next time