My first bite of the BIG APPLE NEW YORK
A few months of planning and we were off, we had an action pack itinerary with all of our sightseeing trips pre booked before we left. This not only saved us time but money as well, as it didn't eat into our spending money - which of course we needed every penny to shop shop shop!
So we flew out to NYC early on the 21st Nov, after a 7hr comfortable flight with BA and after an hour in a cab from JFK we arrived at our hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
No sooner had we checked in and dropped our bags off we were back out again. The 5hr time difference meant we had all afternoon and evening to explore. No time to feel sleepy - we were in the city that didn't sleep! And only being there for four nights we didn't want to waste a second.
Our location was perfect, situated on West 57th we were just a short walk to Times Square, Broadway and 5th Ave. Walking down Broadway to Time Square really was a WOW experience. It was just like I imagined it and as you see in the movies... yellow cabs, horns, sirens, bright lights, buildings as tall as the eye can see and even steam coming up from the man hole covers in the roads...this was NYC...what a place!
Our days were busy and long, we did the MOVIES & TV SET TOUR, TOP OF THE ROCK, EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, STATUE OF LIBERTY, CENTRAL PARK and on our last day we went to the 9/11 Memorial site. All of these I would highly recommend and it's worth pre booking.
A couple of tips: We took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty as it's free, runs every 30mins and you get just as good a view! When you visit the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock, do one during the day and one at night.
Shopping...needs little introduction. We loved going to MACYS and BLOOMINGDALES and seeing their Christmas windows and of course making some purchases inside the store! Luckily some of the BLACK FRIDAY sales had started so we managed to get some bargains. However NYC isn't as cheap as other cities in the US.
Food and drink...in typical New York style we often ate 'on the go', grabbing a $.99 cent pizza slice and a Starbucks to keep us going. One place I'd highly recommend is ELLENS STARDUST DINER, we ate breakfast there and it was just amazing. Such a great atmosphere for 9am with the waiters taking it in turns to sing to the restaurant whilst serving us. You Tube/Google it…you'll see what I mean. Eating out can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be, like any place really. You certainly won’t go hungry that's for sure!
Getting around in NYC is really easy, cabs are readily available and they charge by the block so not too expensive, if you take the bus it's so cheap $2.50 per trip no matter if you go one block or 30! Or if like us you choose to walk most of the time, make sure you wear comfy footwear otherwise by the end of the day you'll suffer. I don't think I've ever walked so much, I even joked to Gaby that I would recommend people doing a few weeks training on a treadmill before they come to NEW YORK!!
Our 5 days flew by, we were glad we had an itinerary to ensure we did everything we wanted to otherwise you could run out of time. Lastly we need to pack before we left, thankfully we both had the wisdom to take very little with us to make sure we had room for all of our shopping. Pleased to say we just about squeezed everything in and was up to our 23kgs allowance!
One nice little surprise as we left, the hotel had upgraded our yellow cab to a LIMO back to JFK! That just finished our trip off a treat. Will I be taking another bite of the Big Apple?...never say never!