1- Both December and March are cold, so go in December, when the Christmas decorations are up.2- Yes, Manhattan is where all the tourist attractions are, especially for first-timers.3- Go for a long weekend, in other words, 4 days.4- No, don t rent a car, you ll be taking subways, buses and the occasional taxi exclusively.5- Click the 1st link below for a webpage about three very good and affordable hotels right in Manhattan.6- Follow the 2nd link below to an excellent Things To Do In New York City webpage.7- Follow the 3rd link below for a guide to how to behave as a tourist in New York City.Good luck, have fun, and welcome to the Big Apple!
since you got an excellent answer to all your questions, I ll answer the 2 I feel qualified to answer most, no 5 6. I don t understand why you mentioned hotels in downtown, midtown is really where you want to be, when we went in May this year, we stayed on Park avenue which is quite close to Times square but far enough away that you won t be in the hussle and bustle of it all as it can be quite a tacky place and always busy. there are millions of hotles in various price ranges in Midtown. due to your short time factor, I would stay in midtown and NOT in NJ like you mantioned as that would mean travelling. we walked everywhere cos we stayed so close, we stayed in a hotel called 70 Park avenue hotel, my brother stayed in hotel Jolly, my friends have stayed in Affinia and the hotel Metro, so there are a few you could look at, these are all around the east side, ranging from around 38th street to 34th st, ours was right next to 42nd street which is where Grand central terminal is on, which keeps you central to everything too, if you don t want to walk. with regards to being beneficial to stay in Times sqare, I personally wouldn t stay in a hotel there, but it keeps you central.we went from SCotland and for 7 days for my 40th in May and so we didn t want to miss a thing, we did just about everything there was to do. however if your time is limited, I would recommend statue of liberty, empire state building (at night) top of the rock (during the day) all 3 of these can be done in 1 whole day, huge tip, if you want to go inside the statue you have to book it in advance online so they can do police checks on you after 911, if you just want to see the lady from the outside, then you are able to buy the tickerts at battery park on the day, this will allow you onto the podium, just not inside. we did all 3 of the bus tours, the uptown, downtown and nighttime tour, if short of time, I would stick to the downtown tour and nighttime only, the uptown takes you around Harlem, it does show you where John Lennon was shot and the museum from the film `night at the museum` but we didn t think anything else was worth it if we didn t have time, so I have advised everyone to do the downtown one, as you will see wall st, china town (to pick up your fakes)the freedom tower building site, trump towers, empire state building, little italy, etc, etc. the one tour I would recommend everyone take is the nighttime tour, you meet the bus in Times square about 7.30pm and it takes you across to Brooklyn and you park right under the Brooklyn bridge and you have the chance to get out and take photos of Manahattan in the dark with all the lights on in the buildings, it s an amazing tour, honestly don t miss it if you can help it. we did a few days shopping both on 5th avenue and at woodbury commons which is a seperate tour we had arranged from here, another tour I d recommend if you are interested in it though is the TV and Movie tour that takes you around in a coach to scenes where the cosby house is, when Harry met Sally scenes, ghost busters filmed in the fire station, the NY libraray where sex in the city was filmed and the day after tommorrow as well as lots of other film locations, this is a 3 - 4 hour tour so you ll have the rest of that day to do other stuff. try and make a list of everything you would like to see and then divide it into what needs to be paid for and what length of time is needed for each and then you should have your itinary. remember to walk about and enjoy the city, and DO NOT miss a visit to Grand central terminal, if you do go for a long weekend, try and catch it on Fri and then Sat, it ll be like 2 different places. we arrived on the tue, and went in every day for breakfast and it was mobbed, the day we went to Statue of Liberty on subway was a saturday and I actually thought it was still closed because all the commuters had gone home for the weekend, so it was empty. the whole building is amazing though, you ll be hard to find you can t look stariaght ahead as you ll be busy looking up the whole time, and don t forget to go into the corners and whisper to whoever you ll be with, that s an old thing. try it.Enjoy yourself. hope I ve helped.