One of our wowOwow fans, Jai Carney, asked me to suggest “hot spots" in Manhattan for the coming summer. Here’s what I recommend. Get on Ticketron.com — do it now — and order tickets to the two greatest musicals in NYC: “South Pacific” and “Gypsy.” Go in hock if you have to. If you have the time and money, I’d say “do” theater every night. You can also buy last-minute seats in Times Square at the discount center.

Once you get to NYC, buy New York and Time Out magazines; just look on the newsstands. They’ll tell you about more things “happening” than you’ll have time or money to attack.

When you go to Lincoln Center for “S.P.," you can eat at Daniel’s Bar Boulud or the famous P. J. Clarke’s nearby or in O’Neal’s. Or you can go exotic and sit under a big paper dragon at Shun Lee West. When you hit the Broadway district, I’d recommend Sardi’s and its cannelloni on West 44th Street. It’s classic. Be sure to check out the famous caricatures on the walls. Or go to Joe Allen’s informal theater café on West 46th Street before and after and see the posters of flops past. If you are feeling a little grand, you can go to Barbetta right across the street from Joe’s and eat in the most beautiful garden in NYC. Try the champagne risotto.

Go down to Soho and Tribeca and even Greenwich Village and walk. That will be plenty hot and what you’ll find, nobody knows. The young and the trendy dominate the scene here. Want some late night fun after theater? Go to Caroline’s comedy club on Broadway and 50th.

Be sure to hit the two “hearts” of Manhattan — Rockefeller Center, the shops down under for walking when it rains and Saks Fifth Avenue.

The other “center” is 57th Street and 5th Avenue where Bergdorf Goodman mounts the most beautiful windows in the world. Tiffany & Co. will let you browse though they won’t give you breakfast.

And for true fun, walk east on 57th Street to Hammacher Schlemmer for amazing toys, games and gadgets. You could hire a horse and carriage to show you Central Park or just drive through in a taxi.

Walking is best.

I think the Circle Line Cruise is a perfect way to orient yourself to New York and that way you’ll get the Statue of Liberty, all the bridges, the Palisade Cliffs of New Jersey, the skyscrapers, the spire of Riverside Church and the Harlem/Hudson and East Rivers.

New Yorkers are friendly; you can ask them anything. Bring money and credit cards; you’ll never regret it.

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