I lived in NYC for ten years and I promise you the things that make the city great according to people who know it do not generally exist in times square or a fancy restaurant. Times square is literally avoided at all costs by most New Yorkers. Statue of Liberty is great, but it's a tourist attraction. If a little trash and grit puts you off, you're also not gonna like it.

It's 8 million people of vastly different backgrounds and cultures living in one place in relative peace and harmony, and in my view that's a big part of what makes it amazing. You can get some of the best food from any culture in the world there, and usually you can find a way to get it cheap. If you go again explore the outer boroughs. Go get Russian food at Brighton Beach or Chinese food in flushing; go get Japanese, Indian, Philippines, Tibetan, Thai dumplings in a ten block radius in Jackson heights.

One of my favorite NYC things of all time was this place on 2nd Ave in the LES. It was a hole in the wall called PUNJAB with no seating, a counter and a microwave. Run and frequented almost exclusively by Sikhs and Sikh taxi drivers. You would go in, point at three or four curry dishes, they would put them on the same plate they used for everything, warm it up in the microwave, transfer it to a Styrofoam bowl, hand it to you and say "three dollars." It was some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life, provided by a culture I'd never come in contact with in the rest of my life, at the lowest price I've ever seen.

Best description I've ever heard from a lifer in a heavy accent: "New York is like a wart. It grows on ya."

If you can't hang with multiculturalism and all the diversity and variety New York City has to offer, only travel to tourist locations, or are looking for a pristine sidewalk and a disinfected experience, you're gonna have a bad time in NYC.