We visited Coney Island during our recent trip to NYC. There is a subway that will take you right to the area, so that was convenient for us (it is a long trip however, from Queens area it was over an hour to get down to Coney Island). The outer streets have a wide assortment of shops and restaurants like you’d expect in a touristy type area, with Nathan’s Hot Dogs commanding a big presence on one of the street corners. The street areas were kind of filthy, especially around the subway station entrances. Also, in that area there is a decided lack of public restrooms though we did find more on the actual beach side of things. We walked through the amusement park area and rode the Wonder Wheel for $8 which was fun, we got some great views of the beach and surrounding areas. There is a wide boardwalk along the beach, with many gift shops and food joints along the way. The beach itself seemed fairly clean, and there were a lot of people there swimming and enjoying the (very hot) sun that day. We were actually there during some record setting heat, and we didn’t bring swim gear so that was something to deal with but we made out ok. All in all, we enjoyed the visit just to say we were there. As people who spend time at Florida beaches and theme parks, there’s no competition but there is a great deal of history so that made it a fun few hours to spend.