Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To absolutely HATE New York

993 replies

GreetingsFromVenus · 10/01/2022 01:01

Dreamed of going there for many years. Thought it would be amazing. Everyone seems to think it is.

Here now and I hate it. Extortionate prices, rude ignorant locals, so many aggressive beggars. mentally ill people shouting in the street. loads of homeless people. The subway stations are disgusting and feel very menacing compared to London.

I find it really depressing actually and feel that the way Hollywood has portrayed New York is all smoke and mirrors. It is nothing special at all IMO. In fact it has a LOT of social issues and it made me feel quite sick to be spending $100 just for a mid range meal for 2 (no dessert) while there were people asking for food outside.

Central Park - pffttt!

Cannot wait to get home next week and will never complain about London prices again!

Anyone else felt the same?

OP posts:
TrashyPanda · 10/01/2022 08:52

@Hemingwayscatz

If you’re a Florida person, NY probably isn’t for you.
I love both!

Mind you, I really don’t like London.

Itsallabitwank · 10/01/2022 08:53

I loved it but went 18 years ago, I’m not sure what I’d think now and at the age I am. I wanted to stay and live there at 26

Echobelly · 10/01/2022 08:54

I do rather like it - I'm a Londoner and I think in some ways it's quite like London, but with more of a certain energy. Which includes and element of roughness. We were going to go there summer 2020, but obviously that didn't happen - will hopefully revive that holiday in the next year or two.

user1471538283 · 10/01/2022 08:56

I loved it and want to go back to do the rest! I found that people were either really friendly or very rude. Most people loved our accents. It is expensive but every city is.

Have you walked the skyline? Got out of Manhattan?

WhosThatBehindTheFlask · 10/01/2022 08:56

I visited NY by myself for a few days about 7 years ago - a tag on to a business trip to the US when I lived in London.

I loved it. I honestly never came across anyone rude. Well, maybe a cab driver yelling at another outside the airport, but after that everyone either kept themseleves to themselves peacefully or went out of their way to be friendly to me.

I chatted to more people there than I think I have ever done over the same time period anywhere else.

I found it really vibrant and energising. If someone would have offered me a chance to (temporarily) live there I'd have snapped their hand off.

Each to their own, though. I really didn't like Florida when I went. Just not for me.

SummerSazz · 10/01/2022 08:57

@GreetingsFromVenus it's not been mentioned much but the immigration museum on Ellis island was fascinating and so emotional. Do this if nothing else!

Bouledeneige · 10/01/2022 08:57

I've been to NYC a few times - I think it is quite jaded and lacking in community and sparkle. I think London is way more exciting and interesting. Okay

Tulipomania · 10/01/2022 08:57

High Line
Union Square Farmers' market (if open at this time of year)
Guggenheim Museum
Frick Collection
Macy's & Bloomingdale's

Youngstreet · 10/01/2022 08:58

Fun fact. The layout of Central Park is based on Birkenhead Park on the Wirral, obviously Central Park is vastly larger.
Otherwise nothing to add. I've never been to NY but would like to.

Hellohah · 10/01/2022 09:00

I wonder if COVID has affected the city?

We went in 2019 and found the locals to be really friendly (a bus driver even went down the wrong road to drop us off outside our hotel), didn't see many beggars at all and none were aggressive, spent far less money than we expected too. Agree about Central Park though.

RoyalFamilyFan · 10/01/2022 09:01

I hated NY twenty years ago. Washington DC though is amazing.

Russelhobskettle · 10/01/2022 09:02

I went 10 years ago and while it was worth visiting it wasn't the best experience. People talk about London being an unfriendly place, but NY was worse. It was like people went out of their way to be unhelpful. A few really nice, which was a relief, but overall we had a feeling of being unwelcome. Examples - going out for breakfast and being ignored by the waiting staff who kept walking past us to serve locals. I think they considered us to be too far off the tourist track maybe. Went on an absolutely rubbish top of bus tour where the guide was useless and we could hardly hear. Then he started giving out aggressively to my friend (male) who got off the bus ahead of me "Don't ya tip your tour guide??". I said "Yes we do, but I'm doing it" and dropped rolled up notes into his hat. I'd liked to have been a fly on the wall when he unrolled them though... Even at the end the cab driver to the airport wanted to rip us off by charging more than he said when we got in. There are nicer places in the States to visit.

RoyalFamilyFan · 10/01/2022 09:05

Reading comments I realise I went in the 1990s when crime was sky high. I lived in London at the time so I was used to big cities, but this was scary.

cobblers123 · 10/01/2022 09:06

I went in 2003 with my best friend and we absolutely loved it. It was bloody freezing, the Hudson had ice floating about in it.

The people we had any contact with were very nice, we were engaged in conversation several times by people who wanted to know about England, once in the ladies loos of the Empire State Building.

Not sure I would go back though, it was an experience but would rather go somewhere else if I went back to the US.

Cam77 · 10/01/2022 09:07

Visited around 2016. Agree with the OP. Brooklyn is quite pleasant, but Manhattan, Queens and the rest, no thanks. Dirty, loud. Rude, unfriendly people that make Londoners appear like amiable country folk by comparison. Immigration and airport staff are comically rude and unhelpful. Ripped off in the first shop I went into it. And the subway and train stations. My God. Also found the museums, particularly the Natiral History Museum, significantly inferior to what London or other major capitals have to offer.

The scale of the place is impressive and you can imagine how the affluence and endless skyscrapers and “centre of the world” vibe made it the greatest city in the world TM in the 70s and 80s. But that time has well passed. I wouldn’t put in the top 20 cities that I’ve visited.

RoyalFamilyFan · 10/01/2022 09:07

So in the afternoon we saw an enormous pool of blood outside central park and police - a man had just been stabbed to death.
Central Park is meh. It is a big park. Ellis Island is interesting yes. But there are much better cities.

RoyalFamilyFan · 10/01/2022 09:08

@Cam77 I agree the NY museums are inferior to London museums. Washington DC museums are amazing though and worth visiting.

Neron · 10/01/2022 09:10

YANBU.
I went 12 years ago, and it was awful then too. Wish I hadn't bothered.

thetaleunfolds · 10/01/2022 09:11

I was so excited to go to New York. Had dreamed of going for years. When I finally went I was so disappointed, same reasons as you. Everyone was so rude, everything took so much effort and was crowded, streets so dirty and I felt really unsafe. I was there a week and after the first couple of days I was looking at flights to somewhere else in the US to spend the rest of my week

Never going back!

cobblers123 · 10/01/2022 09:11

Would add that the tipping side of it was a nightmare for us, we just tipped restaurant/bar staff what they had on the bill as gratuity but tipping tour guides, taxis etc. was really stressful. The bus tour was a constant round of ""don't forget to tip the tour guide" many times as he gave us the spiel

Had heard a few horror stories before we went of people being shouted at for not tipping enough, in one case being followed out of a diner into the street!

LadyEloise1 · 10/01/2022 09:12

I absolutely loved New York when I visited some years ago.
It felt safe, though I never used the subway.
I'm sorry to hear that it appears to have changed. But obviously Covid will have impacted hugely.

layna12 · 10/01/2022 09:13

I went on a girls trip mid December a few years ago and I fell in love with the city.

It felt magical, I loved everything about it.

Mary46 · 10/01/2022 09:15

I loved it been 3 times. Its lovely lit up at night. Have not been in years. Love shopping side Jersey G etc.

Foolsrule · 10/01/2022 09:15

What an odd post! You can find something amazing in any city. It sounds like you’re ill prepared and didn’t do your research. Your first fail was to go in January.

hennybeans · 10/01/2022 09:15

I went to university in NYC about 20 years ago. I'm American but have lived in the UK since graduating. I love NYC. It's grimy, gritty, edgy, vibrant, multi cultural, and when I'm there I feel like I'm at the centre of the world.

Saying that, I haven't been since 2019 and I can imagine the pandemic has hit it hard. And even in 2019 when I took my DC for the first time, I remember thinking God, this place is filthy! London is so clean and leafy in comparison. Our first stop getting of the subway there was a homeless lady having a shit in the corner of the station. I haven't seen that on the tube yet!

But I can look past that for the history, the sky scrapers, museums and so much to do. NYC is the essence of America, the true melting pot. Give it a few years to get back on its feet after covid and like others have said, leave midtown try some other boroughs.