Anyone been to New York recently and loved it?

[Crushed23]

I went in 2017 and fell in love with it, and was planning to go again this year, but with it getting quite a few mentions on the ‘overrated’ thread, I am worried it might have deteriorated a lot in the last 7 years? 😩

we were just about to book Westin Times Square via our travel agent. Where else would you recommend. My head is about to explode with all the decisions.
financial district?

I would choose Bryant Park area which is just south of Times Sq- near the Library. That area had a really nice vibe when we went. Bryant Park Hotel looks in a good spot.

We were in New York 2 weeks ago. Me and my husband took our 14 year old. We last went 20 yrs previously. I only smelt weed once. It didn’t seem dirtier than the last time we went. We felt service wasn’t as good as previously. I was concerned it would be very expensive but we didn’t spend as much as we thought we would. We stayed in midtown and had a great time. My son loved it, he preferred it to London.

We are Londoners so used to City living, we visited in February and loved NYC before, have been many times before though the last previous visit was in 2019. It really has deteriorated and is extremely expensive now. The weed smell is prevalent everywhere, I didn't really notice anyone smoking cigarettes or vaping. It's very sad the homelessness, a lot are very mentally unwell and swearing, screaming on the streets. Some shops have every single item locked up. We went into a Duane Reed and every item was behind perspex, you have to press a button to wait for someone to open it up for you. Unfortunately with it being so expensive we wouldn't visit again.

We were just north of Chelsea (34th street I think not far from Madison Square Garden), and happy there, it was pretty central for everything.

Just booked the Kimberly hotel in Midtown East- anyone stayed there?

We are going in the summer. Where are the reasonable places to eat? I have fussy teens, so I don't want to spend a fortune in fancy restaurants. We are staying in Lexington area, 15 mins walk from Times Square.

Same @48wheaties my son wants to go to Raisin Cains so that's one we have on the list!

We found food costs ££££

Hits with our teen included Serra by Birreria - top floor of Eataly, Flatiron

Cecconis at Dumbo outdoors overlooking Brooklyn Bridge at sunset

Location, ambience and food at these two were all really memorable

Takeaway salads from Whole Foods, and bagels from many places esp Upper West Side

We preferred to go to a few nice restaurants and then have take out for other meals

Oh thank you, @TiaSeeya i was planning on going to the whole foods market and Trader Joe's for deli items, as we have a little kitchenette in our apartment . It would be nice to dine out too, so I will definitely check out your suggestions!

We did salads from wholefoods market. Loved it in there! We also liked Bluestone Lane cafes, though some have a full menu and some more takeaway / shorter menu. The Greenwich Village one is nice @48wheaties

Thank you so much @MurielThrockmorton

You should consider Chicago as an alternative, beautiful city and very clean. Lovely lakefront with beaches and nice museums etc if that’s what you’re after. Very good food scene, good comedy scene as well.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w2RHPBWj9K0

I used to love visiting NY when I lived in the UK but when I moved to Chicago about 8 gears ago I can’t spend more than 3 days in NY without feeling overwhelmed anymore.

Visited Oct 2023 for 3rd time (previous visit was 18 years before). Loved it, I think it has cleaned up its act, never felt threatened and still so much to do. Only downside it has got very expensive but that is probably owing to naff exchange rate for the dollar compared to 18 years ago!

To add you can definitely still have a great time at NYC especially if you avoid the obvious touristy traps like Times Square like others have mentioned. I haven’t been in about 3-4 years so I can’t say how it is now but as you rightly said in one of your posts most cities have deteriorated to a certain degree since Covid.

Boston is also a great alternative as well as visits to upstate NY if you’re up for it.

I visited last month and still loved the city. Did notice the cannabis smell and the desperate homelessness problem. These problems don't seem unique to New York to be fair.

I went last year, it wasn’t as amazing as my first visit 14 years before - felt like it was more run down, more chain restaurants and bakeries rather than indie places, but we still had a brilliant time. We didn’t really do sit down dinners as had a short visit and wanted to budget for shows and other things, but we had a couple of affordable meals at diners and then had good food at time out food hall in Brooklyn and Chelsea market. Also loved the fast food like shake shack and whole foods markets for hotel room and Central Park picnics! We only went out for drinks a couple of times which helped keep costs down. I didn’t find it more expensive than London for coffee, we found some little cafes and bakeries which were comparable places. We had a good breakfast at our hotel which got us off to a great start! I will always love NYC but I feel like London has a more interesting and varied food scene at the moment. Maybe we didn’t explore far enough afield though.

I really wouldn't worry about the weed.

It's a more pleasant smell than cigarettes IMO, it's mostly being vaped rather than smoked.

Potheads are a lot more chill than drunk people or ice addicts (which is, I assume, the main reason some US jurisdictions are happy to let it rip).

We recently came back from our NYC trip. Stayed at Grand Central which is 5 mins from Bryant Park. Great location.Had a view of Chrysler building from room. Would have hated to be in Times Square. V glad we took that advice. We walked round one night and couldn’t get close..too many people!
I loved it, even though it was effing roasting. So much to do! However, it does stink of weed, streets are pretty dirty and it’s very expensive. Definitely worse than when I went 20 years ago! There are some interesting people hanging around but they are pretty harmless. Nothing we don’t see around here. Still want to go back when it’s cooler and visit places we didn’t have time for