Adding to what magic_tears said...
When you go to Macy's, look for the wood escalators, cause they're cool.
I thought going to Liberty Island was kinda pointless - the statue's too big to see that close anyway. But if you do go, you can get tickets in advance online. You also need separate tickets to actually go into the statue, which you can buy at the same time as the ferry tickets, and if you don't get those then it's really pointless to go at all.
Central Park is great. Good luck finding your way around though. When you're ready to leave, I'd recommend just walking towards whatever buildings you can see, and finding your way home from whatever street you end up on. The Central Park zoo used to be free, but it's not anymore, and I didn't think it was worth the entrance fee. The Ramble is really cool though if you can find it (I think it's kind of towards the north east of the park) - it's like a natural forest kind of thing. There's also an amusement park with a bunch of rides near the south end of the park, which I also thought looked like fun, but I never had money for it so I don't know if it actually is.
I found the Empire State building really boring, but that's just cause I don't find standing around admiring the view very exciting. I've never actually been up the Rockafellar Center, but I've heard the elevator to go up it is really cool.
The Apple Store on 5th avenue is worth seeing, just cause it's an unbelievably cool building. It's usually crowded inside, and it's just an Apple Store, so it's mainly just the building, but it's open 24-hours and has free WiFi (and internet access from the display computers of course), so it's also kinda useful. I don't remember what the cross street is, but it's on 5th avenue right at the south end of Central Park.
FAO Schwartz is also on 5th avenue, right behind the Apple Store. It's a really nice toy store. There's also a giant Disney store a little further down 5th avenue.
Of course you can't go to New York and not see Times Square. It's crowded. But it also stays open really late. And I like the Toys R Us.
SoHo is cool. Don't ask me how to get there though - I can never seem to find it on my own. I think the Wire St. subway stop is at one end of it.
Lombardo's Pizza has the best pizza I've ever had. And near there, there's a place called Rice to Riches, which has nothing but rice pudding in tons of flavors, and is unbelievably cool.
I didn't think China Town was particularly great except for that they sell these little tiny turtles everywhere that are unbelievably cute. But it might just be cause I have the San Francisco one to compare too.
And since you're from the UK, go shopping. Thanks to Bush, the American economy is in the toilet, which means the dollar is really weak, so the exchange rate will be really good.
And I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm not thinking of right now, but I have to go to go to class now...
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