[THREAD CLOSED - SEE PART 2] Anything & Everything New York

M4RKM

IMO, a fare at about £300 is going to be the cheapest we will see nowadays...
£350 seems about average... i really think the days of sub 200-250 fares are over.

Though openskies has created a lot more routes, esp from heathrow, i think off peak winter routes will reduce in the new year..

this is just my thoughts anyway..

M

misscomickat

I just booked for £314 with Air France for the Autumn.

M4RKM

misscomickat wrote: »

I just booked for £314 with Air France for the Autumn.

direct, or via CDG Paris?

stardust2000_uk

Pont wrote: »

Just got back (literally 2 hours ago) from New York! Totally whacked but as a dedicated MSEr felt honour bound to report in!

Markets - Sundays (7th Avenue) - we were taken by surprise to find this bang outside our hotel's door. Eat from the street vendors and haggle with the stall holders! Egyptian Cotton sheets a bargain (600 count king size 2 X sheets/4 X pillowcases $15).

Have fun!

Pont, Glad you had a good trip. Where on 7th Ave is this market? We're wanting new bedding so this could be a winner!

bella123

hi
Can you use the METROCARD when you travel on the buses?

M4RKM

yes.. the standard - multiride (1 day or 1 week) is valid on both buses and subway.

the pay as you go, is valid on subways, buses, and express buses.
express buses are $5, and only pay per ride metrocards can be used.

(not strictly speaking, but in a tourist term it is, don't want to confuse you!)

you can "transfer" from subway to bus, and bus to bus, and on a pay per ride metrocard, it won't take any more money off.

more information can be found at http://www.mta.info

hope that helps

Mark

misscomickat

My flight is direct from Heathrow

M4RKM

not a bad price at all in the current climate, especially for a direct flight..

do AF fly direct? could be a Delta Codeshare?! thats my thoughts...

M

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It rained for more than 10 minutes on Wednesday night!

I don't know what it's been like in New York today, but further down the coast we've had thunderstorms all day, with absolutely TORRENTIAL rain at various times. Fortunately these coincided with our need for coffee / ice cream / other forms of sustenance.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Enough for now. Back off to enjoy the next few days. Will add other NY things if I think of them.

Continuing where I left off before:

7. If your rings are ever at all tight, take them off BEFORE your fingers swell up like sausages. Failing that, I picked up an excellent tip a while back, probably from the Old Stylers, about passing a piece of cotton between ring and finger, and pulling that round and round your finger while easing the ring up. Adding soap helps too.

8. Bring at least TWO pairs of your most comfortable shoes if there's any danger of one of them breaking. You don't want to be breaking in a new pair while walking miles and miles and miles and miles and miles ...

9. This is not specific to NY, but the cubicle doors on American toilets unnerve me slightly: there nearly always seems to be a gap at both hinge and lock end through which you can see out. And in public restrooms, there's always one door which just doesn't seem to want to lock at all, and I always seem to pick that door when there's a long queue. And I found one in a cafe yesterday where you went through the door, and there were two toilets with just a screen in between, no doors at all! Fortunately the outer door locked well.

10. Couple of specific shops to look out for:

lolamancity wrote: »

Another STRONG recommendation... We wanted to buy a few electricals but couldn't find anywhere at all that sold exactly what we wanted (there certainly isn't any kind of Curry's/Comet style places there!) we walked up and down for miles, and finally stumbled across this amazing place on the last day http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ , B&H Photo Video 420 9th Avenue, they stocked absolutely every make and model of every bit of kit or accessory you could ever want (which was odd, as we'd noticed a shortage of loads of the stuff we have over here) the people who work there are ultra helpful, ultra knowledgable, ultra quick and ultra efficient, and the prices cannot be beaten in my opinion...most of the stuff we saw was over half the price of the UK.

For some reason the boys didn't find this where they expected to, but that might just have been them. Also, if you're staying at the Cosmopolitan (where else?) you might find what you're after closer to hand, at J&R, 23 Park Row (across from City Hall Park). I would say worth a try if you're in the area anyway.

DS3 bought a guitar from 30th Street Guitars, 236 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues). I have no idea if they were good prices, but he was happy, and they knew how to look after a customer's mother, giving me a seat near the air con and showing me the water cooler, leaving him to go off and play. They also had some suggestions about how to get it back home undamaged without paying more than the guitar's worth, but we'll have to wait and see how that works out. Fortunately it's an electric guitar and we can if necessary take the neck off and put it in a suitcase ... The good news is it's well below the excess duty limits.


I never made it to Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Tiffany's or Century 21, so cannot comment on their respective merits. This seems rather unfair given that they all got to go to 'their' kind of shop and spent considerable amounts of time if not money in them. However I noticed that we drove past a Macy's somewhere between Thursday night's hotel and the delights of Wildwood, so if the boys wind me up on the way back I'll be calling in there just to annoy them.


Only two more nights in the US. I think I shall be glad to get home, but it has been a good holiday!

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

DS3 bought a guitar from 30th Street Guitars, 236 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues).

Just to add that this was a recommendation from a grandma we met while looking for a guitar shop near our hotel which was nowhere to be found. I think she would have adopted DS3 had we been willing to inflict him on her: he was being absolutely charming and she was very taken with him. We generally found that 'regular' people went out of their way to be helpful, whereas anyone in uniform tended to wave vaguely in the right direction and move us on.