Tell me all about your time in New York

[Crookairroad]

Planning a trip is one thing that is keeping me going during furlough and homeschooling.

If you’ve been, please tell me all about it. What you liked, didn’t like, must do trips, food etc etc.

I can’t see travel being possible this year but do hope to go next Spring.

@SingingSands

My top tip: wear comfortable shoes, and break them in before you go! You'll walk for miles and miles each day.

Also, don't plan every day to the nth degree. Our best day out was getting a bit lost in Greenwich, finding an amazing place for brunch and wandering around aimlessly. We still talk about this after eleven years!

Thanks. Yes, that’s the impression I got on trip advisor. I think we will perhaps plan our first couple of mornings due to jetlag and then wing the rest.

@MintyMabel

We went and didn't actually enjoy it much. It was really hot the first week in July, maybe that impacted on our enjoyment. It was also crap for accessibility so that didn't help. But I can certainly say what to avoid!

Ellen's stardust diner was horrible. Far too busy, too dark, too loud. We didn't stay so can't rate the food but from the menu it didn't look anything to write home about.

How good the bus tour was, very much depended on who was giving the narration. One guy was good, all the others seemed to want to be anywhere other than doing that job. It was also absolutely rammed at most points of the day. Still worth doing though.

You will struggle to find toilets anywhere so plan wisely!

Definitely go for WTC memorial tour - again get there early as the queues do build up. Also the One WTC building was good to go to the top of. DD and DH also did Empire State Building.

Definitely research food options. In places like London and Paris we found it easy not to plan and just find somewhere to eat. That was surprisingly difficult in Manhattan.

We ended up at O'hara's restaurant and pub near to WTC quite by accident, it was a decent lunch. You'd have thought there would be loads of places to eat round there but there weren't many.

Thank you. We wouldn’t go in Summer. Heat is for a beach holiday, not a city break. We just get cross with each other.

We will definitely do the 9/11 memorial but I don’t want to do the museum. I know lots of people do though.

I’d read about Ellen’s and it seems to be a marmite place. I’ve taken it off our list as quite a few have the same thoughts as you.

Apparently there are no public toilets! I expect lots of coffee stops along the way to use their bathrooms.

Oh and don't go to a baseball game unless you're into baseball. We did that once and OMG it was cold and mind-numbingly dull! It went on and on and because of where Yankee Stadium is we'd taken a special ferry to get there so we couldn't leave early. Never again!

Things we loved: staten island ferry, Met Museum of Art, central park (it's gargantuan), 5th Avenue, One World Observatory, 911 museum and site, Tribeca, Soho, Century 21 for clothes and shoes, Financial District and Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge. Every street felt like you'd already seen in - we walked miles. Shake Shack. Blue Smoke.

Hated: Times Square, just awful.

We landed at 2pm and it took nearly 2.5 hours to get through the arrivals hall. And don't get a shared airport transfer, we went to every hotel in Manhatten before getting to ours. We got to our hotel around 7.30pm meaning we lost the entire afternoon.

Foodwise, we really struggled at times, and ending up wandering down side streets and finding small bakeries that all did hot soups with warm bread. You have to book everywhere for evenings.

And don't go in November...... the wind at night literally took your breath away. We'd planned all sorts at night but didn't anticipate the cold. The streets are a perfect grid and the wind howls in every bloody direction.

Visit hotels for their bathrooms. The ones at the Marriott in Times square are particularly nice!

It’s brilliant

Frick Collection; Chelsea market for food and the best roast beef sandwiches; the Highline; the McKittrick Hotel immersive theatre; the Village: get a drink and food in the Grey Dog; Brooklyn; Dumbo; cocktails in the Dead Rabbit

It was truly my favourite place ever. Cannot wait to go back

It's worth getting the Metro passes for the underground. It's not like London where you have to travel to the bowels of the earth, they're so close to the surface. Take a yellow cab for the experience too. If you walk over the Brooklyn bridge plan your food on the other side eg order pizza to pick up. The queues were long the day we went.

Just wander up 5th Avenue. Pop into Saks for a browse. St Patrick’s cathedral; Grand Central Station; the library. Just wander round. It’s really small and walkable

I hated Ellen’s Diner. For me, the massive queue was enough to put me off, but inside I found it was just really loud, the food was really awful and the service was rushed and rude. I went when I was in nyc on a girls holiday - the other 3 loved it but I loathed every second! I definitely thought it was the worst meal we had.

I’ve been a couple of times to nyc now. I’d say definitely do all the ‘Big sights’ that people ask you about if it’s your first time. And pack comfortable trainers for all the walking (or do what I do and plan to treat yourself to a new pair when you get there at century 21 on your first afternoon).

I love climbing the vessel at hudsons yards and then walking along the high line park to get lunch or dinner if it’s pm at Chelsea market.

Breakfast or brunch at Tiffany’s cafe is fun to do and the food is nice, but not wow. It’s tricky to get tables though as they book up very fast.

@addicted2spaniels

Things we loved: staten island ferry, Met Museum of Art, central park (it's gargantuan), 5th Avenue, One World Observatory, 911 museum and site, Tribeca, Soho, Century 21 for clothes and shoes, Financial District and Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge. Every street felt like you'd already seen in - we walked miles. Shake Shack. Blue Smoke.

Hated: Times Square, just awful.

We landed at 2pm and it took nearly 2.5 hours to get through the arrivals hall. And don't get a shared airport transfer, we went to every hotel in Manhatten before getting to ours. We got to our hotel around 7.30pm meaning we lost the entire afternoon.

Foodwise, we really struggled at times, and ending up wandering down side streets and finding small bakeries that all did hot soups with warm bread. You have to book everywhere for evenings.

And don't go in November...... the wind at night literally took your breath away. We'd planned all sorts at night but didn't anticipate the cold. The streets are a perfect grid and the wind howls in every bloody direction.

Thanks for the transfer tip. We are definitely booking something private.

@PaquitaVariation

Visit hotels for their bathrooms. The ones at the Marriott in Times square are particularly nice!

Great idea.

I've been four times. My tips are:

• walk down the high line (old railway line made into gardens one storey up)
• don't do the long circle line cruise (really boring!)
• I've been up TOTR and the ESB - preferred the rock as you can see the ESB and good view of Central Park (plus quick to get up). I think you can now go up the freedom tower in the financial district
• booked for the Statue of Liberty for the first time last trip. It was ok, we'd booked for pedestal level. Walking round the pedestal itself was so windy it felt frightening. Quite nice to see the inside but missable
• enjoyed a Broadway show and a basketball match at madison square gardens
• did a lot of walking (first time without kids we walked everywhere and didn't take a cab or the subway). Subway is useful but not as nice as the tube
• we stayed at the NY Palace and Towers by the Rock. Nice to be central but sometimes we seemed to struggle to find nice local restaurants when we wandered out in the evening - due to our ineptitude I'm sure
• get the visitor pass from customer services at Macy's as it gives you 10% off

Oh to be in NY!

Forgot to add we caught the train from both Newark and JFK which was straightforward (my husband hates my penchant for public transport from airports!).
And another vote for walking over Brooklyn Bridge for great photos

Things that I loved when we went are:

• going to diners for breakfast, definitely don't just get breakfast in your hotel!
• the New York museum - really interesting history of the city
• the tenement museum - you book a tour of an unrestored tenement house. It's super interesting and not like a normal museum at all.
• Ellis Island and state of liberty - a great new Yorky thing. The ferry is fun and the history is fascinating.
• get tickets to watch a live filming of a talk show - we went for Seth meyer but there are loads. I can't remember how much it was (maybe it was free?!?) But again, super fun and different!
• go to some of the old bars/restaurants/food places - my DH loves mad men so we went to a couple of places that are in that (can't remember them all but one of them was PJ Clarke's)
• go to some 'cool restaurants' - basically we are big foodies so I just picked restaurants based on how I would in london, looking at new openings, places that have been recently reviewed etc.
• we did a couple of day trips when we went in spring, one to fire Island and one to up state New York for a hike. Both were really fun and a nice change from the city. In autumn we went to storm king sculpture park, which was incredibly beautiful. The train ride is up the Hudson so you can see the colours on the trees all the way, and then the park itself is gorgeous.
• when we went in autumn we also took ourselves on a walking tour around the village to look at all the Halloween decorations. Fun and free!

O I forgot to say - we stayed in park slope, which was a nice neighbourhood in North Brooklyn. I really liked it as there were plenty of bars, restaurants etc around but it was a bit more chilled (and cheaper) than Manhattan. And definitely go and look at the inside of central station, it's beautiful!

My DH tells me the hudson's yard vessel is closed now due to the no. of suicides - that had been a highlight of ours, after the Highline walk.

Friend went a couple of years ago for two weeks, booked an apartment. Looked out of her 3rd floor window and in the building opposite she saw a patient in a dentist's chair with a scary clown in full dress doing the dentistry Too much Netflix. It was Halloween.

Definitely be prepared for lots of walking, I was taking pain killers for the last few days , my legs and feet were agony!
TOTR and Central Station are worth visit . We went in February and it was bitterly cold .

I've been twice and just love the place! Just being there and looking up at the buildings is incredible, so tall. I spent the first while constantly looking up!
I enjoyed the Staten Island ferry. It was a bit of calm, we bought tea and snacks and just enjoyed the view.
I loved the Highline, as has been mentioned it's an old railway line that was reinvented into a beautiful, park type walkway along the meatpacking District.
We sought out The Dead Rabbit for lunch as the owners are from Northern Ireland (where I'm from) and we had heard of it before we had our trip planned.
We walked round the public library which was grand and memorable for me (DH not so much!)
You can't beat slices of pizza from little side streets! The best!
And of course Central Park.
Enjoy planning your trip.

"Thanks for the transfer tip. We are definitely booking something private."

No, don't book a transfer, you really don't need to. Either get the air train which is really simple or just exit the airport and join the queue for a yellow cab. If anyone approaches you asking if you want another say no, stay in line and the official there will put you in a taxi.

There's a fixed price so you won't be ripped off.

Plan restaurants/food in advance using trip advisor or you could spend a lot of time just wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat.

The Airtrain and subway from JFK is incredibly easy. From Newark, there's buses to Port Authority bus station which appears in so many movies it's quite cool to see it, and then you can get the subway or a cab to your hotel.

I have to admit I didn't like NYC the first two times I went, because we were staying in Midtown Manhattan and it was noisy as anything, nee-nahs all night, and a humid summer. It's like London though, plenty of charm if you get away from the horses. The northern tip of Manhattan is rather pleasant in the spring (Inwood Park), also areas round Columbia and southern Harlem.

Children go free on the subway, by crawling under the barriers or they will buzz a wide gate to let you through if you have luggage (you then get a free journey). The rechargeable cards are worth it.

Good food from delis or restaurants is clustered in certain streets so ask about ones near your hotel.

Ask people for help - they love it. Somehow New Yorkers combine being very polite with being very loud!

Went in April 2019 with DH and 2 DC. Highlights:

Going up Top of the Rock - absolutely fantastic

Staten Island boat plus Ellis Island museum - and booking months in advance for one of the limited tickets to climb up inside the Statue of Liberty - it was so much fun!

Hiring bicycles to bike round Central Park. It’s huge, so much easier to see on bike than foot.

Broadway show (we saw The Prom and got upgraded!)

Breakfast at Tick Tock diner - classic American diner.

Jazz and food at Birdland jazz club (need to book). Loved it.

Bus tour - we usually avoid that kind of thing, for being too touristy (!) but actually it was a brilliant way of driving through the neighbourhoods we didn’t have time to see properly.

Lunch at this great outdoor food market called Smorgasbord in Brooklyn (it only operates on some weekends) - really fantastic, international food.

Researched “best pizza NYC” and chose one of the places which comes up on those kind of lists for one lunch - was indeed very good pizza!

Bagels for breakfast from a proper NYC bagel shop!

Also walked the Highline, which was fun. And walked over Brooklyn Bridge with a billion other people on an unusually scorching hot day in April (got sunburnt!). Katz restaurant was good for some authentic NYC Jewish food.

We worked out that it was worth getting one of the City Passes, given what we wanted to do when we were there - researched which was best value for us. I don’t recall standing in any extra queues, it just saved us money.

We didn’t do Ellen’s diner as it seemed pricey and ultra touristy. Looked into Tenement Museum but that also seemed v expensive for (I think) only a 45 min tour. Didn’t managed to fit in The Met. Didn’t want to do the 9/11 museum - we felt DC were a bit young.

Had lunch in a sandwich place near Central Park called Alice’s Tea Cup, where they gave the DDs fairy wings, sprinkled glitter on them, and the crockery was like a traditional tea room in England, but the prices were absolutely extortionate for nice, but fairly normal English afternoon tea type food, which sadly we only realised after agreeing to go there with an American friend, who suggested it! We each got a pot of tea, because they had a very fancy and very long tea menu, but each pot was something like $10. Never mind the sandwiches, which were $15-20 dollars EACH. Before tipping, taxes etc. So check prices very carefully!

We absolutely loved going and pretty much had a massive grin on our faces most of the time!

(We loved going to NYC in general that is, not the extortionate tea room!)