Day one Friday (Arrive at noon)
First off, head to the Upper West Side to check in at the affordable chic Hotel Belleclaire (250 West 77th Street; +1 212 362 7700; hotelbelleclaire.com), where rooms start at $129 (£64) per night. Pick up a one-day MetroCard Fun Pass for $7 (£3.50), which offers unlimited travel on the subway and local buses (mta.info; $42/£21 for two over three days).
Lunch: start your weekend with a glamorous flourish and head to Perry Street (176 Perry Street; +1 212 352 1900), Jean Georges Vongerichton's much-lauded West Village eatery for $80 (£40) for two, including a glass of wine.
For instant acclimatisation, take a free two-to-four hour walking tour with a local volunteer from Big Apple Greeter (bigapplegreeter.org). There's no better way to get the insider scoop.
It's Friday, which means several museums have free entry evenings. Both the Whitney Museum of American Art (+1 212 570 3676; whitney.org) and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (+1 212 423 3500; guggenheim.org) are close by - choose one and head to it for a pre-dinner peruse.
Dinner: take a subway down to Flatiron and for around $90 (£45) for two, feast on herring, sweet Italian sausage and other thoroughly New York foods at the new Borough Food & Drink (12 East 22nd Street; +1 212 260 0103), which specialises in cuisine from the five boroughs of NYC. For your hotel-of-the-moment hit, pop in to Ian Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel for a bedtime drink at the Julian Schnabel-designed Rose Bar - $30 (£15) for two.
Day two Saturday
Breakfast: pick up coffee and muffins at Dean & Deluca (10 Columbus Circle; $6/£3 for two) at the Time Warner Center before heading just south to Bryant Park (bryantpark.org) for free ice skating (excluding $8.75/£4.35 skate hire).
Lunch: You'll have just enough time to poke around the nearby stunning beaux arts New York Public Library (+1 212 930 0800) before a southern Italian lunch at the Trattoria-style Bar Stuzzichini (928 Broadway; +1 212 780 5100) for around $80 (£40) for two.
After lunch, enjoy a rousing walk across Central Park to the Frick Collection (+1 212 288 0700; frick.org), an art museum housed in Henry Clay Frick's former residence.
After a wander around the immaculate interior, stop for tea overlooking its winter garden ($40/£20 for two). Next, head out to the Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts to see a show. It houses, among other things, the Metropolitan Opera (metoperafamily.org). Tickets for one of the many operas running during the 2007-8 season, La Traviata and Marriage of Figaro, for example, start at just $52 (£26).
Dinner: Head back across town for a late bite at Sparks (210 East 46th Street; +1 212 687 4855), the notorious Mafia haunt and arguably the city's best steak restaurant. It's a serious business but you'll taste few better steaks this side of Buenos Aires. It will set you back $120 (£60) for two including a bottle of wine. After dinner, go to the Empire State Building (esbnyc.com), travel up to the 86th floor observatory and look down on the twinkling city for $36 (£18) for two.
Those with energy left can head over to cool new supper club on the Lower East Side called the Box (189 Chrystie Street; +1 212 982 9301; theboxnyc.com) run by Oscar Hammerstein's grandson Simon. Tables are expensive but it's free to stand at the bar and there's always something quirky to watch on stage. Expect to pay $20 (£10) for two beers. Cab home: $20 (£10).
Day three: Sunday
Mid-morning: take the subway right down to the bottom of Manhattan to catch the free 25-minute Staten Island Ferry from South Ferry Terminal. You can get off long enough to pick up a coffee ($6/£3 for two) and then head straight back so you can experience the thrill of arriving in Manhattan by ship.
Lunch: The Corner Bistro (+1 212 242 9502) in Greenwich Village has the best burgers and the best value - an 8oz bistro burger and fries for two costs just $14 (£7). Next catch the subway up to Harlem for some real - free - neighbourhood jazz at Big Apple Jazz/EZ's Woodshed (2236 Seventh Avenue; +1 212 283 5299), a record shop and café at the geographical epicentre of the 1920s jazz explosion in Harlem.
Back on the subway, head to Grand Central Station for oysters at the Grand Central Oyster Bar (oysterbarny.com; $40/£20 for two including a glass of champagne), before going upstairs to the Campbell Apartment, a hidden bar within the station in the former residence of 1920s mogul John Campbell, for a final end-of-weekend martini ($24/£12 for two) before heading to the airport.
Total: $975.50 (£484)
British Airways flies to New York from London Heathrow. Visit ba.com
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