Start: Grand Central Terminal.

Subway: Take the 4, 5, 6, 7, or the shuttle to 42nd Street/Grand Central.

Finish: The Plaza Hotel.

Time: Approximately 4 hours, not counting time for browsing in shops and galleries.

Best Time: Weekdays, when Midtown is bustling but the attractions aren't as packed as they tend to be on weekends.

Worst Time: Rush hour (weekdays 8:30-9:30am and 4:30-6pm).

If there's one area that defines New York in the popular imagination, it's Midtown. Concentrated here are the dozens of the towering skyscrapers that are so closely identified with the city and its skyline. Lining Fifth Avenue and 57th Street are blue-chip art galleries, high-toned boutiques, chic department stores, and, increasingly, theme restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe that make New York the consumer capital of the world. Midtown is Manhattan at its most glamorous.

From the subway platform, follow the Metro North signs to the main concourse of:

Masterfully restored in 1997, the main concourse is breathtaking. It's one of America's most impressive interior spaces, with gleaming marble floors, sweeping staircases, and an aqua vaulted ceiling soaring 125 feet (37m) high. Twenty-five hundred pinpricks of electronic stars litter this "sky" with a view of a Mediterranean winter sky's constellations.

Take a Break--Grand Central has numerous spots where you can pick up some provisions to fortify yourself for the tour, including Zaro's Bread Basket, Two Boots Pizzeria, and a branch of Brooklyn-favorite Junior's (try their legendary cheesecake).

For something more substantial, head downstairs to the Oyster Bar, where decent seafood is served in a first-rate setting of wide-vaulted ceilings Monday through Friday from 11:30am to 9:30pm.If you'd like to dine under the stars of Grand Central's celestial ceiling, hit Métrazur, perched on a balcony above the rush of the terminal, with an incredible view of the ceiling. Lunch is served 11:30am to 3:00pm, Monday through Friday, and snacks are served every day from 3 to 10pm. The New American menu features such specials as salmon sautéed with grain mustard and served with a frissée salad.

Leave the main concourse via the 42nd Street exit and turn right. Walk west for 2 blocks and then make a left onto Fifth Avenue, where you'll find the:

Climb up the broad stone steps guarded by twin stone lions, named Patience and Fortitude by mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930s for the qualities he proclaimed New Yorkers would need to survive the Depression. Cafes on either side of the grounds, past fountains marked by classical statuary, offer umbrella tables and food during warm weather. (Bryant Park out back is also littered with cast-iron tables, and it hosts a summer open-air film festival.)

The interior of the library contains manuscripts, maps, journals, prints, and more than 38 million volumes occupying 80 miles (129km) of bookshelves. You can sign up for tours (offered Mon-Sat at 11am and 2pm) at the information desk just inside the lobby. The library is open Monday and Thursday through Saturday 10am to 6pm; Tuesday and Wednesday 11am to 7:30pm.

Turn left out of the library to head uptown on the west side of Fifth Avenue. Look up and to your right as you cross 42nd Street to get a wonderful perspective view down the block to the:

Continue north on Fifth Avenue for two blocks to 44th Street, where you'll turn left. On the north side of 44th Street, at no. 27, is the Harvard Club, designed by McKim, Mead, and White in 1894 in an architectural style that mimicked Harvard's (at the time). The "Veritas" coat of arms tops the building. A few doors down at no. 37 is the Yacht Club, with a fanciful and flowing concrete facade of captain's cabin windows.

Continue along 44th Street. Near Sixth Avenue stands one of New York's most famous literary landmarks:

As Smart Set faded from influence in the 1920s, Vanity Fair began to take its place, counting Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elinor Wylie, and Theodore Dreiser among its contributors. In its offices at 19 West 44th St., Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Robert Sherwood served on the editorial staff. They began hanging out in the Algonquin, and soon their gatherings grew into the famous "Round Table," which also included Alexander Woolcott (drama critic for the New York Times), George S. Kaufman, Franklin Adams (columnist for the New York World), and Edna Ferber.

The group became famous for its witty, acerbic commentary on theater, literature, and the social scene.

One of the regulars, Harold Ross, took it into his head to start a magazine that would incorporate the group's sophisticated, satirical outlook and rounded up investors to begin publication of the New Yorker, with offices set up nearby at 25 West 45th St. The first few issues were extremely uneven, but within a couple of years E.B. White and James Thurber had been added to the staff and were reshaping the magazine into one of the most prestigious publications in the country.

Even after the Round Table stopped gathering at the hotel, the Algonquin continued to count famous writers among its guests, including Gertude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, who wrote the acceptance speech for his 1949 Nobel Prize on Algonquin stationery.

To soak up this hotel's genteel ambience, consider having lunch or weekend brunch in the Rose Room. Or ensconce yourself with a cocktail in a comfortable sofa or armchair of the lobby lounge, where New Yorker writers frequently conduct interviews.

Across the street from the Algonquin, but light-years away in design, is the Royalton Hotel. Poke your head inside and take a look; the whimsically futuristic Jetsons-style decor, created by Philippe Starck, has to be seen to be believed.

Cross Sixth Avenue (also known as Avenue of the Americas) and turn left. Before the corner of 43rd Street is the midtown branch of the:

Double back north along Sixth Avenue to 47th Street, where you'll take a right. This block, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is the Diamond District, where millions of dollars' worth of gems are traded every day. The business hustle on this block makes an unlikely setting for another literary sight, the:

The store sells new and used books and has hosted countless book publication parties, and the list of writers toasted here has included Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tennessee Williams. Today, you might find Arthur Miller and John Updike, who drop in frequently. In 1947, the store became headquarters of the James Joyce Society, whose first membership was purchased by T. S. Eliot.

Owner Frances Steloff (who died in 1989 at the age of 101) was known for lending a hand to perennially cash-strapped artists such as Henry Miller and John Dos Passos (Martha Graham once borrowed $1,000 to stage her first dance performance). This tradition grew into the Writers' Emergency Fund, which still offers loans to struggling scribes.

Turn left up Fifth Avenue to 49th Street. On the right side of the avenue stands one of New York's most famous department stores, Saks Fifth Avenue. Immediately opposite Saks, head west into the promenade of:

Stroll west through the Channel Gardens to Rockefeller Center's famous skating rink. In the summer, this area becomes an outdoor cafe; in cooler months, it's packed with skaters gliding along the ice to music and the twinkle of tiny lights in the trees. Each holiday season, a giant Christmas tree stands here, towering over the promenade. Paul Manship's massive Prometheus lounges above the skating rink, beneath a quote from Aeschylus. Upscale shops surround the plaza.

Take a look inside the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, once the RCA Building and now renamed the GE Building. Above the black marble floors and walls are monumental sepia-toned murals by José Maria Sert. This Art Deco building was featured in the movie Quiz Show.

Just to the left of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, head west (right) on 49th Street to Sixth Avenue. You'll pass the wrap-around corner windows with a digital news feed where early risers peer through the glass and wave in the hopes of becoming part of the backdrop during filming of NBC's Today show just inside.

When you reach Sixth Avenue, turn right and head uptown. A building boom in the 1960s and 1970s transformed this area into a canyon of 50-story glass skyscrapers. Although the buildings aren't of great note individually, together they form an urban environment of considerable grandeur.

On the right side of Sixth Avenue, north of 50th Street, stands the first rock center building to open, in 1932:

Continue up Sixth Avenue and take a right on:

The 21 Club, at 21 West 52nd St. (tel. 212/582-7200), is still a popular restaurant and one of the few establishments to survive from this era. Operating as a speakeasy during Prohibition, it relied on several clever devices to guard against police raids, including a trap door on the bar that sent everyone's cocktails tumbling into the sewer when a button was pressed. Today, it serves excellent food in a tavern atmosphere--if you can get a reservation in the popular dining room. The club is closed weekends in summer and Sunday year-round.

Continue down 52nd Street. Near the end of the block, take a left through the modern passageway/lobby, numbered 666 Fifth Avenue, through to 53rd Street. Under here, you'll pass by an undulating stainless steel wall waterfall designed by Isamu Noguchi. When you pop out onto 53rd Street, you'll turn right to continue the tour. However, museum shop aficionados can hang a left and jog half a block down to the Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) bookshop and the design store across the street.

Turning right onto 53rd Street, cross Fifth Avenue and walk two-thirds of 53rd's next block to the second pocket-sized, granite-and-waterfall park, where sits a brief, graffiti-covered stretch of the:

Return to Fifth Avenue and take a left to cruise past glitzy outposts of high fashion, including Ferragamo, Cartier, and Versace. Between 51st and 50th streets rises the unmistakable neo-Gothic bulk of:

Across the street as you exit, in front of 630 Fifth Ave., crouches Lee Lawrie's 1937 Atlas, one of New York's most famous statues, in 15 feet (4.5m) of bronze.

Walk along the north (left) side of the church on 51st Street. Cross Madison Avenue and take a right down it, admiring the Gothic-style tracery on the backside of St. Paddy's across the street. On your left, the block is filled with the brownstone-gone-amok mass of the:

Take a left onto 50th Street and walk toward Park Avenue. As you look right down Park Avenue, you'll see the Helmsley Building, a lovely structure that sits astride the avenue, crowned with an elaborate cupola. The building is overshadowed by the Met Life Building, one of New York's greatest architectural travesties.

Across Park Avenue, between 50th and 49th streets, stands one of the most famous hotels in the world:

Cole Porter and his wife lived for many years in one of the permanent apartments in the Waldorf Towers; one of the hotel's dining spots, Peacock Alley, still boasts his piano. Other famous residents have included General Douglas MacArthur, Herbert Hoover, Henry and Clare Booth Luce, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Gangster Lucky Luciano also lived here under an alias until he was forced to leave the Waldorf for less luxurious digs in the state penitentiary.

Take a Break--St. Bart's may be the only church in New York with its own terrace cafe, Café St. Bart's (no phone, though serious advance planners can book on-line at www.opentable.com ). Under large umbrellas, with the Byzantine building shading you, you can dine al fresco on scrumptious fare, like the blue-crab burrito with chili oil, or the St. Bart's Classic--tomato-basil soup and a grilled farmhouse cheese sandwich. Main dishes run from $10 to $14. In summer, the terrace presents live music; in winter, the cafe moves indoors into an uninspired back room of the church's complex. Open for lunch year-round, dinner in summer only.

Walk around the left side of St. Bart's down 51st Street to Lexington Avenue and turn left up the east side of it. The subway grating on this block is perhaps the most famous in the world, ever since 1955 when one of its gusts of hot air sent the skirt of Marilyn Monroe's dress billowing right into pin-up legend in The Seven Year Itch.

Continue north up Lexington to 53rd Street, where the corner office building (no. 599 Lexington) features Frank Stella's Salto nel Mio Sacco, a colorful 1985 work, in the lobby. Across 53rd Street from this building is the austere, glass-and-buffed-aluminum pinnacle of Citicorp Center. This pillar of international finance incorporates, at the corner of 54th Street, the modern and angular:

Just north of St. Peter's, at 55th Street and across Lexington, is the:

The longtime home to many of the city's top art galleries and upscale boutiques, 57th Street recently has been filling with theme restaurants and overblown chain retail stores. From Park Avenue, turn left along 57th Street, and you'll come to the beautiful black-and-white:

Across 57th Street at no. 32 is:

Continue along 57th Street to Fifth Avenue. On your left stretches the bejeweled:

Cross Fifth Avenue and continue along West 57th Street. Halfway down the next block on your left at no. 40 (an office atrium entrance hallway down the right side of the passage) is the:

Across the street, on the seventh floor of no. 41, is:

Return to Fifth Avenue, cross it again, and turn left (uptown) onto it, passing some of the city's most glamorous shops. On the east (right) side of the street, on the fourth floor of no. 745, you'll find:

Continue up Fifth Avenue. Just north of 58th Street is the toy store of every child's dreams:

Across from F.A.O. Schwarz stands the landmark:

For an afternoon cocktail, there's no better place to stop than the bar where the Bloody Mary was invented: the King Cole Bar in the St. Regis Hotel, 2 East 55th St. at Fifth Avenue (tel. 212/753-4500), adorned with a wonderful mural of the merry old monarch himself. An elegant afternoon tea is served in the Astor Court, a plush venue with a vaulted ceiling, trompe l'oeil cloud murals, and 22-karat gold leaf on the delicate stuccowork.

The hotel itself is a landmark, built in 1904 by John Jacob Astor and housing some of the most expensive rooms in the city. Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock, and Salvador Dalí all stayed at the St. Regis, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono occupied suites here in the early 1970s.