Everything & Anything New York City

stevedisco

scoobyju1 wrote: »

Not sure on the dates you were looking for but I picked a week in May (Sat to Sat) & popped it into Expedia & for the 3 of you, you could spend a week in the Waldorf Astoria for under 3k inc flights.


There's also some slightly cheaper options on there so have a look around & flights are direct from Manchester.

Personally, I would love to stay at the Waldorf but it's always mega expensive when I visit.

Thanks scooby! I have taken the plunge, I suppose it's not a bad place to have your honeymoon - just need to blag a nice upgrade now

JOHN1982

highnal wrote: »

I'd love to read a trip report

bb69 wrote: »

Congratulations! Look forward to reading your trip report and more about the proposal

Here you go then (you may be sorry you said that!) ...

First off I’d like to warn everyone that there’s not really anything ‘money saving’ about our trip. With the exception of the flights, a voucher for money off the hotel and a voucher for money off the car from the airport (thanks M4RKM!) we were happy to splash the cash on our ‘holiday of a lifetime’. We checked here, Urbanspoon and Tripadvisor for the best places to eat. Saying all that, we did get a Halifax Clarity credit card which was great for keeping charges down.

I’ll only really list the places we went on each day here, but if anyone wants any information on anything we did, anywhere we ate, or anywhere we ate just ask!

A quick one; apart from a single day where it bucketed it down, the weather was amazing. Sunny and in the high 20s every day!

Hotel was Holiday Inn 6th Avenue Manhattan. Couldn’t fault the place! Spotlessly clean, really attentive and cheerful staff and what I thought was a brilliant location. Room was pretty roomy considering all the negative things I’d heard about NYC room sizes!

Beers of choice: Sam Adams Oktoberfest, Brooklyn Beer, any of the Sierra Nevadas … oh, and nothing ‘light’!

Tips:
Walk everywhere for as long as your legs can stand it. You see, hear and smell so many things you’ll miss in a taxi or the subway.
Don’t be afraid of the subway. It’s really safe, clean and fairly easy to use (took a day or two for me!).

Wednesday:
Flew Heathrow – Newark. (1 hour delay, otherwise uneventful)
Took Carmel Cars from the airport to our hotel. (Great, meant we could relax)
Went for a walk up 6th Avenue for a few blocks and then back down 7th (we were pretty tired).
Had a massive slice of pizza and a beer for tea in Rosa’s Pizzas on 7th (Lovely!).
Drunk a few beers before bed in a bar across from our hotel, The Ainsworth (Always packed!).

Thursday:
Breakfast in our hotel (Prime Caf!)
Walked down 7th to The Woolworth Building and City Hall Park.
Got tickets for the WTC Memorial, walked down to that. Totally overwhelming.
Went to look at the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters, The Charging Bull and Battery Park.
Staten Island Ferry right past Liberty (and back). Would highly recommend doing this … it’s FREE!
Crif Dogs (St Marks Place) for chilli dogs for lunch. They were gorgeous.
Subway to Brooklyn hoping to tour the brewery … it was closed! (My mistake, wrong day!)
Ended up in The Whiskey Brooklyn, such an awesome bar! Had a few beers and some whisky!
Tea was at Beauty & Essex (Essex Street). Expensive, but so utterly cool!
Drinks at Nice Guy Eddie’s on 5th Avenue before bed!

Friday:
Breakfast at Balthazar’s (Spring Street).
Looked around the shops in the area and especially the Apple Store on Prince Street.
Tried to get into The Wooster St Social Club where they film NY Ink. Unfortunately they were having a production meeting! Still peeked through the window at Ami James!
Walked down to Century 21. A MASSIVE, much better version of TK Maxx … spent a LONG time in there!
Then the rains came! Proper hammered it down, so we headed back to our hotel to drop off our shopping, drenched! I grabbed some more pizza and we holed up until the rain stopped.
Tea was at Hard Rock Caf! on Times Square. Excellent food in an amazing building! If you don’t want the food you can still go in to look at all the memorabilia.
We then went to see The Lion King musical. Breathtaking, would recommend it to anyone!

Saturday:
Had breakfast in a great little diner somewhere between Central Park and Broadway.
Picked up picnic stuff from Zabar’s Deli (Broadway) and huge cookies from Levain Bakery (W 74th St)
Went off to Central Park to propose to my girlfriend!
So … I knew I wanted to propose there, but wasn’t sure where! We walked around for most of the morning and ended up in Shakespeare Gardens. We sat down on a bench, in front of a statue of Romeo and Juliet (a story we both adore) and I just thought “this is perfect”. I got down on one knee and produced the ring I’d been hiding for weeks (that’s another story) … and she said “Yes!”. People around were congratulating us and clapping, it was brilliant! We walked around for the afternoon on cloud 9 ringing people to tell them the news!
We headed over to the Metropolitan Museum. They have a bar on the roof where we had celebration cocktails overlooking the park.
Tea was at RUB BBQ (W 23rd St) for some huge meaty sandwiches and yet more celebration drinks!

Sunday:
Breakfast was at the legendary Katz Deli (E Houston St).
Sunday was a ‘shopping day’ so took in Bloomingdales, Barneys, Tiffany’s, Abercrombie & Fitch … etc!
Lunch was a burger and milkshake at The Shake Shack in Madison Park.
Had a look at the Flatiron Buildling, another icon of NYC.
Tea was a romantic ‘Couple’s Night’ meal at Ayza (W 26th St), a wine and chocolate restaurant.
After tea we headed to Top of the Rock to see the city at night. It was fantastic!

Monday:
Breakfast was at Jack’s Bar and Grill on 7th.
To contrast TOTR the night before, we went up the Empire State Building to see the city during the day.
Walked about to see Radio City, Public Library, The Love Sculpture, UN HQ and the Chrysler Building.
Came back to Grand Central. What a place! Had cheesecake for lunch at Junior's there!
Walked down to Penn Station and took a train out to Red Bank in New Jersey to see Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash! Great pilgrimage for anyone that likes Kevin Smith (if you don’t you probably have no idea what I’m on about!). Red Bank was a lovely little place, check out The Dubliner pub if you're there!
After the train back we headed to Times Square and hit all the big shops in the area. The first night of the Met Opera was on and they were showing it on the huge screens there. Amazing, walking around TS to the sound of opera! You have to be able to ignore people trying to give you CDs or get you to go to comedy shows (“What’s wrong, don’t you like black folks?” – brilliant technique!).
Late tea and booze in Harrington’s Bar and Grill on 7th.

Tuesday:
Breakfast was at a little diner on 7th, can’t remember the name though!
Hit a Ricky’s (hair and make-up place) and then Macy’s for more shopping! Macy’s is unreal!
In the afternoon we walked the length of The High Line from top to bottom. Such a brilliant idea and so peaceful.
At the end we walked to Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment (66 Perry St) then the Magnolia Bakery (awesome peanut butter cupcakes! 401 Bleecker Street).
We had tea at The Spotted Pig (W 11 St), a great little pub with amazing food.

Wednesday:
Our last day! Booo!
Took the subway down to see Ghostbusters’ HQ (still a working fire station, 14 North Moore Street)
Walked the Brooklyn Bridge (Amazing views of Manhattan, and generally a nice walk).
Subway from Brooklyn to the Museum of Moving Image on Long Island
Back to the hotel for tea
Car to the airport
Free upgrade courtesy of BA to World Traveller Plus! Great way to end an amazing holiday! :beer:



TL;DR – You’re considering booking a holiday in New York? What the hell are you waiting for? Do it, DO IT NOW!

goneshopping

7 weeks to go now!!

gem3641 wrote: »

Morning - I fly to NY 8 weeks today, to say i'm excited would be an understatement!! :j:j:j

Bearing in mind it will be mid December (12th - 20th) and v.busy is there anything I should be looking to book now!!

I though I should at least book a show now but not sure if there's anything else.

Any help would be appreciated.

poor_johno

Hey, Im planning to go to NY over the easter bank hols with a few days either side of the bank holiday thrown in. I'm just curious as to what the weather has been like around the first/second week of April from people that have actually been around that time. The web states it can get a "little" wet. Any advice before I book would be appreciated thanks!

bb69

poor_johno wrote: »

Hey, Im planning to go to NY over the easter bank hols with a few days either side of the bank holiday thrown in. I'm just curious as to what the weather has been like around the first/second week of April from people that have actually been around that time. The web states it can get a "little" wet. Any advice before I book would be appreciated thanks!

Hi we went this year from 15-20 April The weather was mixed due to the bad weather the east coast was having. The first two days were sunny but a bit windy the Saturday night was heavy wind and rain. Then Sunday gorgeous sunshine and really warm, the remainder of the days were a mix of sunshine and showers. It was about 70 degrees the day we left.

I think its difficult to know and predict for future years. Although mixed the weather didn't stop us from getting around and an umbrellas are sold everywhere when it rains. I wore a coat with a hood so was fine.

the mornings did start off cold, but then got warmer. So I'd say take a variety of layers and scarf and hat etc just incase.

i plan on going in June next year, as would like it a bit warmer!

edit - I have been in December boxing day to new year and for about 4 days the weather was similar to April! Its so difficult to predict!

bb69

gem3641 wrote: »

7 weeks to go now!!

ah wow lucky you! Have you booked anywhere for dinner or lunch?

bb69

I'm so desperate to see the city now watching The Real Housewives of NYC! Lol New York is so my place to go and I can't wait to go back

goneshopping

bb69 wrote: »

ah wow lucky you! Have you booked anywhere for dinner or lunch?

Hi I've not booked anything at all yet!! Open to any suggestions.

It's just me & my Mum on the trip. And we'll be there for 7 nights.

Spool excited! :j

greenface

JOHN1982 great report & congratulations. From my experience some good memories for me too. loved the lion king -juniors-hard rock Totr esb lots lots more . It feels like a film set and you have a feeling you know whats around the corner. I have visited a few citys and woulds say NYC (mainly manhattan) is so easy to navigate around. Agreed too walking is the best way to see/smell & taste new york

scoobyju1

stevedisco wrote: »

Thanks scooby! I have taken the plunge, I suppose it's not a bad place to have your honeymoon - just need to blag a nice upgrade now

Yay! Good for you, you won't regret it!

If you don't ask, you don't get. I recently took a trip to Vegas where I asked for a view of the strip at the Tropicana (which turned out to be an upgrade!) & they were happy to! Also, on my next trip to NYC, I'm staying at the Distrikt hotel where I've dropped a hint it's my birthday so have put me in a room with a view of the Empire State & as they say 'some other little surprises' so it's worth asking