Sure, you can celebrate the entrance of the year 2011 onto the world’s stage in Walla Walla or Peru but everybody everywhere knows that it’s best seen and heard live from Times Square in New York City. You’ve got the ball drop, Dick Clark (we hope), and 999,999 of your closest friends to celebrate with. The Jetsetter Show suggests you spend all your New Year’s Eve strokes of midnight at the biggest show on earth but, if you can’t, make sure to get there at least once in a lifetime.

If you’re reading this in the final week of 2010, chances are there are no more hotel rooms available within one hundred miles of Times Square, so you might want to begin planning for next year instead. But if sleep in an actual hotel room is not high on your list of New Year priorities, get thee hence to New York City on the last day of the year, along with your favorite person of course, and get ready to count the ball drop along with approximately one million people in attendance and another billion or so around the world watching on television.

Times Square on New Year’s Eve is what jetsetting is all about and here’s what to expect. The sheer size of the crowd has forced New York’s finest to get creative in attempt to stop people from killing one another with random, inelegant stampedes. To maintain order, the police have created a system of “pens” to segment the crowd. The first arrivals are directed into the ones closest to the ball on 43rd Street and then filled backward towards Central Park. Once full, the pens are

closed – you can leave but not re-enter. Keep in mind that no alcoholic beverages are permitted (the city has an open container law) and no portable outdoor toilets are to be found either.

On the positive side, since Times Square is a public location, attendance is free and no tickets are required to gain entrance. Entrance and mobility around the area is quite limited during the event. If you’re one of the ones lucky enough to have snagged hotel reservations in the vicinity, be prepared to prove that you are actually a guest of that hotel.

What else do you need to know about New Year’s Eve in New York City? Oh yeah. The ball starts sliding down the pole at 11:59 p.m and the celebration kicks off the moment it touches down at midnight. Grab your best guy, gal or person of indeterminate gender and start smooching.

The Jetsetter Team

Flickr / Ed Yourdon

Tags: New Year's Eve, New York City, Times Square