Best touristy dates

Times Square
Shed your sense of shame and head to Hershey’s Times Square (1593 Broadway at 48th St; 212-581-9100, hersheys.com) to purchase the sweet stuff and post a saccharine message to your beau on their outdoor scrolling marquee, just ask a shop assistant and they’ll direct you to the counter where you can display your love in bright lettering for 15 minutes for only $1.95. Eat your sweets in the pedestrian area’s garden chairs (Broadway between 42nd and 47th Sts) and compete to spot the most tourist faux pas–loser buys the drinks at the Marriott’s View Lounge (1535 Broadway at 45th St; 212-704-8900, marriott.com). Once you’re nicely liquored up, descend to euro-cheese karaoke lounge Pulse (135 W 41st St between Sixth Ave and Broadway; 212-278-0988) and sing your favorite songs in your favorite foreign accents.

Chelsea Hotel
Connect with New York’s cultural cache at the Chelsea Hotel’s (222 W 23rd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves) recently revived monthly tour (July 30 11am, $40). If one of the rooms resonated with both of you, check at the front desk to see if it’s available for the night to “soak up the ambiance.” Otherwise grab some Beat lit from Skyline Books (13 West 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth Aves; 212-759-5463; skylinebooks.com) and read to each other in Chelsea Park (W 27 to W 28 Sts between Ninth and Tenth Aves; nycgovparks.org). Once your thumbs are sore from clicking, head back to the basement of the Chelsea Hotel for a drink in the Star Lounge’s Room 100, named after the suite where Sid and Nancy’s love ended. Maybe it’ll be the place where yours begins.

Central Park
Strap on your fanny pack and do Central Park tourist-style. New Yorkers rent rowboats, outdo them with by making a reservation for a Venetian Gondola tour of the Central Park lake (212-517-2233; $30 for 30 minutes). Grab yourself a hot dog from a vendor, pay no less than $3 and announce loudly “this is so New York.” Flee your embarrassment and take a long meander south (tourists get lost y’know) and hop in a horse-drawn carriage (they line up along Central Park South between Fifth and Sixth Avenues; $34 for the first 30 minutes,$10 for each additional 15 minutes), make sure you heckle the joggers. Get a memento of the day with a cheesy caricature in the south-east corner of the park.

Moonlight romance

Thrill-seeker

Foodie

Intellectual

Indier-than-thou

First dates

Naughty

Artsy

Nature

Touristy

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