Visiting New York City with Teen-Agers

Traveling with teenagers can be challenging, to say the least. But if you're planning a trip to New York City, you can keep your teens busy and happy with activities and destinations that will suit their interests just fine.

Take your teens downtown to the Chelsea Piers Sports Complex, located at 23rd Street and the Hudson River. They will love this huge sports complex, which has a rock-climbing wall, a driving range, indoor soccer fields, a health club, basketball courts, skating rinks, inline skating rinks, a pool, a bowling alley (they have 9 p.m. Extreme Bowling) and a spa. Check the Chelsea Piers website for schedules and drop-in programs.

Your teens will be looking for dry land after taking a spin on the Circle Line's SHARK Speedboat Thrill Ride. The Shark is a huge sightseeing motorboat that leaves from the South Street Seaport's Pier 16 and takes passengers to the Statue of Liberty in no time. Rides leave every hour daily from May 24th through Labor Day.

You might actually get a smile from your teen if you book a trapeze lesson for him while visiting New York City. The Trapeze School New York offers two-hour Flying Trapeze lessons that will have your teen doing the knee-hang and even learning how to catch someone else. It's all safe -- everyone wears a harness and there's a big old net to catch wayward flyers. Reserve online or at the trapeze school -- classes fill quickly. You'll pay a one-time registration fee of $22, plus $47 for the lesson on weekdays or $65 on weekends. Trapeze School has an indoor site at 518 W. 30th Street, and an outdoor site at West and Houston Streets. Check out the 2-minute Trapeze New York video to the left.

Call or go online for Ticketmaster or Telecharge and reserve seats for a Broadway show. Do this well in advance of your visit to New York, because many shows sell out. If your teens are old enough to be on their own, reserve tickets to shows they might want to see. Current shows that are popular with teens include Legally Blonde, Young Frankenstein, Spring Awakening (for older teens), and Avenue Q (for older teens). If you want to save money, stand in line at TKTS for discounted (from 25% to 50%) seats to some of the biggest shows in town. You'll find the TKTS booth at the Marriott Marquis in midtown. It's open from Monday to Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m. for evening shows, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Saturday and Wednesday matinees, and from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. for Sunday matinee and evening performances. You must buy tickets on the same day as performances and pay with cash or traveler's checks.

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The shopping possibilities are endless in New York City, with hundreds of places teens would die for. Among the shopping meccas:

-- Niketown, where teens pay homage to sports and sneakers. This store is filled with eye-catching footwear and showcases displaying footwear worn by rich and famous athletes and celebrities. Niketown can be expensive, but it doesn't cost anything to browse. It's at 6 East 57th Street.

-- The huge Apple store on Fifth Avenue, between 58th and 59th Street, recognizable by its iridescent above-ground cube that leads to an underground wonderland of IPods, IPhones and Macs.

-- The Virgin Megastore, the huge music and movie store where you could literally spend an entire day browsing. The Times Square store features three stories of CDs, DVDs, books, clothing, a coffee shop and more. Look online for Virgin's special events calendar. Everyone in the music and book business likes to perform and autograph their recent releases at the Times Square location. Virgin is located at 1540 Broadway in Times Square and at 52 East 14th Street in downtown New York's Union Square neighborhood.

-- The MTV store, also in Times Square, is a tiny boutique below the MTV studios that sells clothing, accessories, backpacks, tote bags, lip balms and other items, all emblazoned with the logos and insignias of their favorite MTV television shows. This place can get crowded, so your best bet is to visit in the morning. The MTV store is located at 1515 Broadway and 44th Street.

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