Everything & Anything New York City

Philippa36

The Bryant Park Hotel is lovely, we stayed for a night there and had Thanksgiving dinner - highly recommended.

nicky29

Hi all, Well been back 3 days now from my 1st trip to NYC and missing it loads!! Had the most brilliant time out there with my boyfriend here's some info about our trip which may come in useful if you've never been before:
Wed 20th Jan: Drive to Thistle Heathrow (£65 for 1 night including parking while we are away bargain!) took advantage of £17.50 pp 3 course dinner with wine offer we had through booking through Holiday Extras. Meal was lovely!

Thursday 21st: Hotel Hoppa to Heathrow Term 4, handy, 20 mins and £4 pp each way. Spotted Vanilla Ice at airport much to our amusement he gave me and my boyf a huge smile, only when he walked past did we realise who he was lol!
9:05am flight to JFK went smoothly no probs watched couple of films, nice food on Delta flight. Flights were £280 pp rtn booked in December.

Arrived approx 12:30 in JFK, taxi to Hotel Affinia Manhattan, 7th Ave W30th. Taxt $55 inc tolls and tip.

Affinia Manhattan, huge rooms for NY and although older style glad we booked it over the modern boutique we were going to opt for as rooms were tiny there!

Day 1 spent acclimatizing to the city; its noisy and busy and it took me a while to get my bearings with the avenues and streets but a Chipotle Mexican and Corona beer plus 1 in Rudys bar (local on 9th ave) and im starting to get the NYC bug already!

Day 2 We bought New York Passes online before we came (£75 each for 3 days sightseeing) Well worth it, we picked these up from Planet Hollywood Times Square on the evening we arrived to use the next day at our 1st attraction. We did ESB, Madame Tussauds, 3 hour Full Island Circle Cruise with interesting commentary, a great way to see NY and also Statue of Liberty, we got some fantastic photos up close to it from the boat (dont forget to have a free 1hrs bowling afterwards at Lucky Strike across the road from the pier) This is on a small sign at the ticket office on the pier so i dont think everyone sees it, glad i did we just showed our stub and had a great time bowling for free!!) Pretty tired but thought might as well blitz a few things on 1st day so went to Chinatown at 5pm - taxi cost $15 but next time ill get the subway E train for $2.25 single. Got approached by lady who took me to a side st and proceeded to show me sheet of handbag copies. I picked LV Speedy and 5 mins later she appeared with my bag. DONT pay more than $30 for these!! Walked to Little Italy few streets away and had a lovely Zagat rated Italian (Zagat is a guy who rates and recommends restaurants and bars in the city) If you see a Zagat sign you know it is a quality place but check the year he rated it!

Day 3 and 4 More sightseeing- we did TOTR, highly recommended and NBC Studio Tour. Also went to Museum of Modern Art, Central Park and Dakota Building where John Lennon was shot. Yoko Ono still lives in the Dakota apartments.

Day 5 Shopping- get your visitors card from Macys and Bloomingdales. Abercrombie and Fitch is great on 5th Ave, get your pic taken with the gorgeous male model on the door. They will give you a polaroid for free! Shopped for ages in here, the store is amazing, like a nightclub and loads cheaper than the UK!

We wanted to see a musical so queued at 3pm at TKTS in Times Square where they sell 50% off tickets for that evenings musicals and plays. We thought we would be q'ing for ages as it went on forever but after 20 mins we were at the front. Wanted to see West Side Story but it wasnt on that night. Instead we took the reps advice and saw Jay Z and Will/Jada Pinkett Smiths musical 'Fela' critically acclaimed and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Final morning we went to Ground Zero via subway E train direct. Visited Memorial Preview Site on Vesey St. Very moving.

We found NY very expensive for some things and so cheap for others as youd expect. I loved our local cafe for corned beef hash and scrambled eggs in the morning for $5 (Bagel Maven 7th Ave) as well as the Gramercy Cafe, in Gramercy a nice suburb we walked through to go to Nevada Smiths bar to watch Man United play (i didnt mind this for 2 hours!) Went to Marriott Times Square to the restaurant/bar 'The View' Well worth it even if drinks are very pricey as you'd expect, you pay for the view but its worth it.
We did the All you can drink brunch at HK Cafe (9th Ave) Stylish busy cafe bar where you can have unlimited champagne, mimosas, screwdrivers, bellinis and bloody marys for extra $12.95 on top of your brunch. I picked a Vegetable Ravioli for $11.99, it was really good and my partner had a lovely steak burger for the same!! Fun few hours spent there!

The best tip i can recommend is to do a little bit of planning before you go, im so pleased we did as i feel we made the most out of our 5 days there. Dont bother bringing loads of going out clothes, i did but if you are predominantly sightseeing you will inevitably end up walking miles every day as we did so wont feel like donning high heels and dresses in the night. I did one night and begged for a taxi :-) Of course this is only because we blitzed the sights in the day. If you are partial to the odd drink look out for happy hours, we went to Latitude on 8th Ave and had $3.50 Margharitas and Martinis before our theatre show. There are always happy hours on and fixed price menus too are excellent value sometimes for mealtimes. We had a Dunkin Doughnuts right by our hotel and i got in the bad habit and having 1 every day after sightseeing

I cant wait to go back, what a city :beer: !!

Sammy_Dee

I'm off on Tues! Can't believe how quickly it's come around!!!

I know I posted it on the old thread - but we now have $1000 for 8 days (plus C/Card if absolutely needed!)

We're not using the trip for shopping, more sight seeing and catching up with my friend.

Is there a dress code for theatres? We're seeing Phantom at the Majestic.

Eeeeeek! Roll on NY!

greenface

nicky29 great post and some good tipsy (sorry tips) dress smart for phantom and comfortable you dont want to get in and tuck a big coat jumper sweatshirt under the seat and have a pair of snow boots on . Enjoy the show so jealous
Dont over do your money from day one and you will do ok for money. Push the boat out and have a nice meal etc enjoy NYC

phatbear

Sammy_Dee wrote: »

Is there a dress code for theatres? We're seeing Phantom at the Majestic.

!

Theres no dress code for theatres, in fact its interesting seeing how people dress totally different for shows, for instance when i went to see spamalot on broadway i was dressed in tshirt and jeans the people in front of me look liked they had walked out of a GAP catalogue and the people to my left were in dinner jackets etc.

bleepandbooster

Rolex........Rolex..........:p

spurs_nut

can you recommend and decent apartments in time square? And is the underground safe and easy to use

thanks

M4RKM wrote: »

Thanks for your report, great, apart from the 2 elements that are listed above, and this is really for people who are going soon.

A taxi, is $45, plus toll and tip, and the toll is $4.50, making it $49.50. If your taxi driver didn't help you at any time with your luggage, giving on a 10% tip is probably acceptable, however, I've never had a taxi driver that hasn't helped with luggage, and this is where 15-20% is more the benchmark. Most of the time, people figure that the taxi is $60, with toll and tip.

Advertising on a web forum like that, that you've bought illegal goods isn't the wisest things to do. Going to Chinatown in the first place to buy a knock off handbag again just displays some naivety in what these bags are, and how they are made, and who they support. You were lucky that the bag was brought to you, because there have been stories, where you're led into basement or backroom of the shop. Didn't you think why you were shown a sheet of paper, rather than them being freely on display. It's blatantly illegal. Are you the type of person that goes around to someone you don't know to buy drugs? No?! So why fund someone elses drug habit (possibly), by buying illegal items on the streets of New York.

Please people, if you want bargain handbags, head down to Century 21 where there are loads, and these are legal and real, or look in Macy's they always seem to be on sale there.

Lady_S

Subway is perfectly safe so long as you are careful. Same rules apply as anywhere else, don't have all your valuables/get all your cash out etc and you will be fine.

you can search loads of websites for areas. I have liked skyscanner of late, you can narrow that by the area you want to stay. I always consult trip advisor for the reviews on properties aswell.

bleepandbooster

Have a look at "Radio City Apartments" ........we stayed there a couple of years ago.........clean and tidy. Very near Subway etc and yes the subways are safe and easy to navigate.

David

KK22_2

nicky29 wrote: »

Went to Marriott Times Square to the restaurant/bar 'The View' Well worth it even if drinks are very pricey as you'd expect, you pay for the view but its worth it.

Hey, great review, very informative. We're going back in May and really cannot wait! I fancied going to The View this time for drinks and was wondering if you could remember rough prices for the drinks? Thanks