DIRECTORY A-Z - Rough Guide to New York City - page 324

SMOKING
Smoking has been banned in virtually all indoor public areas (including malls, bars, res-
taurants and most work places) in New York - fines start at around $100 for breaking this
law.
TIME
New York City is on Eastern Standard Time (EST), which is five hours behind Greenwich
Mean Time (GMT), three hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, fourteen to sixteen hours
behind East Coast Australia (variations for Daylight Savings) and sixteen to eighteen hours
behind New Zealand (variations for Daylight Savings).
TIPPING
Tipping in a restaurant, bar, taxi, or hotel lobby, on a guided tour, and even in some posh
washrooms, is a part of life in New York. In restaurants in particular, it's unthinkable not to
leave the minimum (fifteen percent of the bill or double the tax) - even if you disliked the
service.
TOURIST INFORMATION
For general enquiries, call 311. The best place for information is NYC & Company (the
official visitors bureau), 810 Seventh Ave at 53rd St (Mon-Fri 8.30am-6pm, Sat & Sun
9am-5pm; 212 484 1222, www.nycgo.com ). They have bus and subway maps, inform-
ation on hotels and accommodations (including discounts), touch-screen databases and up-
to-date leaflets on what's going on in the arts and elsewhere. You'll find other small tourist
information centres and kiosks all over the city; Times Square, 1560 Broadway, between W
46th and W 47th sts (daily 9am-7pm); inside Federal Hall at 26 Wall St (Mon-Fri
9am-5pm); City Hall Park on Broadway opposite the Woolworth Building (Mon-Fri
9am-6pm; Sat & Sun 10am-5pm); and Chinatown, at Canal/Walker/Baxter sts (daily
10am-6pm).
For information about what's on, the Village Voice (free in Manhattan,
www.villagevoice.com ) is the most widely read free weekly, mainly for its comprehensive
arts coverage and investigative features. Other leading weeklies include glossy New York
magazine ($5.99; mymag.com ) , which has reasonably comprehensive listings, the vener-
able New Yorker magazine ( www.newyorker.com ; $5.99) and Time Out New York (
newyork.timeout.com ; $4.99) - a clone of its London original, combining the city's most
comprehensive what's-on listings with New York-slanted news stories and entertainment
features.
The New York Times ($2.50; www.nytimes.com ) is an American institution and prides
itself on being the “paper of record”. It has solid, sometimes stolid, international coverage,
and places much emphasis on its news analysis.