Carrme said:
What hotels are close to downtown... where there's alot of shopping?
First, a caution, because I have lived in the UK for the last two years and New York City is constantly changing, so a present native may correct me, and I'm operating from memory. But 20 years of living there has left me with a pretty good mental map.
Pretty much anywhere in Manhattan is where there is lots of shopping. A lot of Manhattan consists of buildings with shops at street level, and sometimes the basements and the floor above street level, and offices or apartments above. But from Madison Avenue west to 7th Ave or Broadway are the main shopping streets in Midtown, say from 59th to 42nd. Shopping streets stretch wider then, from say 2nd Ave to as far as 11th Ave in the Meat Packing District, which is now anything but, and now has a bunch of designer shops. It's funny to hear someone ask the street for Central Park because it stretches all the way from 59th Street to 110th Street and from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue.
If you're on thefashionspot, you MUST visit the fashion district, which runs from about 25th St. to 40th Street from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue. Include a visit to the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum at 27th on 7th (also known as Fashion) Ave. It's always interesting. There's a booth (7th and 40th maybe?) under a shelter that looks like a button and needle that has information of all types on the district. In this area, the buildings are full of showrooms and workshops where everything gets created, and the store-level places are suppliers to the trade or wholesalers.
Macy's is at 34th and 6th, Bloomy's is at 59th and 5th, and the big designers are on Madison (which is just east of 5th Ave.) above 59th. Madison is very interesting to walk all the way from 59th up to 80's, where it is convenient to walk east to the Metropolitan Museum.
Broadway is another good walking street. I'd walk that one from 8th St.. south to Canal. In between, West is Soho and the Village, East is the East Village, which is funkier. At Canal is Chinatown, and below Canal and to the West is Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal). That entire area also has a good number of designer shops and is good for shopping.
All the bookstores will carry more than one shopping guide book. so you might want to visit the first B&N or Borders you happen across. Enjoy.
So if you have a very sharp eye you can spot them. 
I didn't like Chelsea much, I expected it to be something more special.. 
how does NYC become lonely? it's funny how some people comment that you can never feel lonely in NYC but some people say otherwise....
