Can You Meet Women in Midtown Manhattan?

Yes, but not by standing on a sidewalk. Midtown streets are fast and crowded. a dating coach's warning about New York streets fits them exactly: many people walk with headphones in, or are packed into crowds where it is hard to get close to anyone. The way to meet women in Midtown is to find the places where they have stopped, starting with Bryant Park.

coach lived in Midtown for stretches of his time in New York, and he says he knows it well. His advice is to use the area as a base and to do your approaching at its pauses.

On a Midtown avenue, a woman is usually going somewhere, and a lot of the people around her are too. Approaching her means stepping into a moving line, and the conversation has to compete with traffic and a train to catch. You can still say hello. You just get fewer good conversations per hour.

None of this is a verdict on the women. It is a verdict on the setting. A woman who cannot stop is not a failed approach. She is a set to skip.

Bryant Park is a public park in Midtown between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, and it is a pause in the middle of the rush. Women eat lunch and read there. coach names it among his four daytime parks in Manhattan, along with Washington Square, Madison Square and Union Square. His logic is the one that applies to every park: "If someone's out in a park, they've come out to be among people."

Madison Square Park, close to the Flatiron Building, is a short walk south, and our guide to the best parks in New York to meet women compares all four.

My broader point is that the best place to meet women is everywhere. If you are in a coffee shop and there is a woman who looks relaxed, say hello. In Midtown that can mean a cafe at a quiet hour, a bookstore or a bench. The key test is the same one: does she have time?

Skip a woman who is checking the time, carrying a coffee and walking fast. Let her go, and look for the next one.

Keep it short and warm. Many women in Midtown are on a break, and a long preamble can feel like a delay. coach says to be as direct as you think you can get away with:

"Hi, I saw you and wanted to say hello. I am Sam."

If she smiles and answers, ask a second question about her, such as what she is reading or whether she comes here on her break. If she looks at her watch, ask for her number and let her go. A short, warm exchange with a way to continue beats a long one that makes her late.

Midtown after work has bars, and My advice on New York nightlife applies: venues change fast, but the categories stay the same. General admission bars need no planning, and you can walk straight in. He likes midweek, when a woman who is out often has no fixed plan.

For dating logistics, coach recommends Manhattan below about 60th Street. He says it is easy to get women to come to Manhattan, and hard to get them out to the outer boroughs. Midtown sits in that range. If you meet a woman here, a date is a short trip for her, and an instant date is easy: there is a coffee shop, a bar, an ice cream place and a restaurant within a couple of blocks almost anywhere.

Say "have a good day" and keep walking. In a city this big, you will probably never see her again, and My point is that a bad conversation is soon forgotten.

Picking the woman who has time takes practice, and a coach beside you speeds it up. On a Cold Approach Bootcamp, you do the approaches in the field with feedback after every set. Each training day has two four-hour blocks, daygame and night game mixed to suit you, with no skill floor. The Bootcamp runs in New York and Miami.