Sacred City - NYC's Circle Line Harbor Lights Cruise

Want to See the Famous Manhattan Skyline? How About from the Hudson River, and Then the Harbor and Then the East River Within Two Hours, at Sunset. It's Almost Too Good to Be True!

I first moved to New York City in 1998. I had heard about the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, but always dismissed them as being for tourists.

"Pricey!" I grumbled. Their costs range from $18-$29 per person.

"Inconvenient! Tourist trap! Long lines, for what?." I whined. I mean, who wants to trek out to the piers and wait in long lines, amongst crowds of people just to board a bunch of old ferry boats with folding chairs on them?

I placed them, as many of us locals do, in the category of things I need not even consider, because I am not on vacation. We are New Yorkers! We live here! We don't need to see the skyline from the river? Is it really that special?

The surprising answers to all of these questions are yes, yes and YES.

I DO want to wait in line! I will wait, even in 90 degree weather and in crowds of tourists! I will gladly fork over the cash for the Harbor Lights Cruise ($24) and probably give in to however much their overpriced hot dogs cost, and plastic cups of beer. It's part of the experience and I'm hooked. It is THAT special and despite being a hardened New Yorker - I'm supposed to be used to living in this crazy big city right? - I want to go over and over again.

Why? Because, from any viewing point on one of these little ferries, the Manhattan skyline looms. There is really no other way to describe that. It towers over you and it doesn't matter if you are just visiting or if you've lived here for years. Everyone has seen some postcard, or opening credits of some movie panning over and knows this little island, this skyline, this cluster of so very many tall buildings and how extraordinarily beautiful it is at night. Suddenly from a boat, you pull away from the docks and there it is. Its is larger than life. It is literally breathtaking.