Most of New York's tourist attractions will cost you an arm, a leg and a couple of kidneys so I weighed up the pros and cons before buying a ticket to the 'Top of the Rock' at the Rockefeller Center. Fortunately the activity was well worth both limbs and both organs. Here are the 10 reasons why 'The Rock' rocks.

1. King Kong: The view from 'The Rock' is pretty damn amazing. Visitors can take a lift and escalators 266m in the air. But even with the whole of New York City sprawled out in front of me, my main excitement was pretending my hand was King Kong's and that it was crushing the Empire State Building. If you really want to get a jolly good view of the most iconic building in the Big Apple, the Rock is your place.

2. The scaffolding men: The building's developer, John D Rockefeller Jr, almost abandoned the project during the stock market crises of the 30s but he soldiered on. One of the most 'New York' of New York images is a photograph of some of the builders having their lunch out on an iron beam, with the city sitting below them. Visitors to the Rock can read about the history of the building's development during the economic crisis and the symbolism of the photograph.

3. The view of Central Park: On one side at the Top of the Rock, visitors can marvel at the sheer enormity of Central Park. It's an astounding area you can only really appreciate from the sky. It's particularly strange to see what is practically Manhattan's only green space surrounded by skyscrapers.

4. The Rock Museum: Before going up the 'space-aged' lift to the top, you can read all about the people behind the Rockefeller Center. Particularly interesting is the story about Rockefeller's wife Abby who was a prolific art collector but had to keep her impressive pieces in a private room because her husband disliked them.

5. The observation deck: When those Americans want to do something, they don't do it by halves. The observation area at the Top of the Rock is amazing with huge glass barriers making the most of the circular views. The building's owners spent US$75 million to upgrade the observation deck in 2005, which is now 6.1m wide.

6. Aforementioned space-aged lift: I haven't been so excited about going in a lift since my first outing to the Sky Tower in '97. The Rock's lift flashes crazy lights and shows video of the building's history as home to the NBC television network. It was fascinating to watch and the sense of anticipation as the lift blasts you upwards is totally exciting, even for an adult.

7. The sense of history: The Rockefeller Center's construction was epic enough but over the almost 70 years it's been open, the place has been home to so much exciting history. There's Radio City Music Hall, which was the largest theatre in the world during the 30s. And the Center is home to New York's most famous Christmas tree every year where people flock to go ice skating, made famous by so many NYC-based films.

8. The Prometheus sculpture: Sitting in front of the Rockefeller Center, this shiny bronze sculpture is incredibly beautiful and is considered to be one of the most famous pieces of art in New York. And when I say shiny - well check it out for yourself. It's gilded in 24K gold leaf.

9. Getting closer to the Chrysler Building: This Art Deco building is often shown in montages of New York and I have a soft spot for it ever since studying its design in high school. It is much more beautiful than the Empire State Building and you can get a really good glimpse of it from the Top of the Rock. If only those other pesky skyscrapers would get out of the way.

10. There's no shortage of cheesy photo opportunities. I couldn't resist grabbing the Empire State Building as if I was King Kong but the professionals will superimpose you and your friends sitting on the famous 1920s beam. The snappers up the top are a little over zealous however and were very keen to get Tim and I to slobber all over each other for a 'romantic' photograph.

Next stop: We'd seen Central Park from afar so it was time to 'get amongst it' - on a bicycle of course.

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.

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