King Charles III and Queen Camilla are set for a pomp-filled trip to the Big Apple Wednesday — but locals suggested a different itinerary if the royal couple wants to see the so-called real New York.
The UK monarch and his wife have a jam-packed schedule for their daylong tour of Manhattan that includes paying their respects at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and stopping by the New York Public Library.
Britain’s head of state hasn’t hopped across the pond to New York since Charles’ late mother Queen Elizabeth II toured in 2010. Charles, who became king in 2022 at 73, was last in the city in 2007, when he and Camilla visited to the Promise Academy charter school in Harlem.
But some New Yorkers in the outer boroughs questioned why the couple — who are stopping by during their state visit to Washington DC — were only sticking to Manhattan.
“They should go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens with all the cherry blossoms,” said Hilda Auffermann, 75, a retired teacher from Queens.
“Or what about the Statue of Liberty, our symbol of freedom?” she asked, while adding, “But I guess that’s a symbol that has more of a connection to France than England. Maybe they’re looking for things that have a connection to England.”
Melissa Corbin, 42, another Queens resident, who works as an office manager, suggested Charles and Camilla let loose on their trip — and maybe even head to the beach.
“Imagine the king and queen riding the Cyclone at Coney Island!” she opined before admitting, “I can’t really see them in Coney Island, probably too dangerous.”
Maria, a 53-year-old Staten Islander and longtime sales assistant at Macy’s Herald Square, urged the couple to fill up on family-style Italian food on the Upper West Side and to take a tour of Ellis Island.
“Take the subway — that will be hard — and the buses. Just mingle around the people,” said Maria, who declined to give her last name.
“When you come to New York, life is precious, laugh smile, smell the flowers … enjoy life,” she said. “Make the best of your vacation and have fun.”
But some New Yorkers couldn’t reign in their distain for the royal tourists.
“I hate the royal family. They are the biggest deadbeat welfare cheats in the world,” Guardian Angels founder and failed mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa fumed on his WABC radio show Tuesday.
“That’s why we had a revolution 250 years ago. To kick the British crown out. A fight for freedom. No taxation without representation,” he railed.
The visit will remain diplomatic in nature, and hit many of the same venues the royals have historically visited in their previous trips to the Big Apple.
