New York is a place that I have always wanted to visit. I think living in England, it just seems so far away and like such an inspiring place. I mean, all of my favourite movies and films are set in New York. Everything from Sex and the City, Friends, Only Murders in The Building, Will and Grace, plus many more. But I wanted to go at the right time, with the right person. So, a few months ago, my husband and I decided it was time to finally book a trip. We had been speaking about it for years. We had the money, we had the time off work, we just needed to book the holiday…
Monday – Day 1
On the Monday, we travelled to New York from Manchester. There was a direct flight that got us into JFK at 6pm at night, but with the time difference, it was only 1pm. The flight actually seemed to go really quickly thanks to me binge watching Schitt’s Creek on the plane. As the plane was coming in, I could feel myself fizzing with excitement as I looked out of the window and saw the iconic skyline coming into view.
By the time we had collected our bags, got through the airport and made it to our hotel it was around 3:30pm. We had prebooked a private taxi from the airport, so there was somebody standing there holding our name on a sign, which felt boujee as hell compared to what we are used to.
We were staying at the Arlo in Midtown. When we first booked the trip, I mulled over finding the right hotel for far too long. But in the end my husband said that we just needed somewhere central, that was pretty nice but not too expensive as we wouldn’t be in the room for long. But it would be a bonus if it had a bar for us to have a drink in of an evening. The Arlo was absolutely perfect for that and I would recommend it to everybody.
So once we got there, we dumped our bags in the room, freshened up a little and then headed out into the city. We decided to walk in the direction of Times Square because it’s the most iconic place in the city. Plus, we had heard there was lots of places around where we could get some delicious food. In the end, I walked around with my mouth wide open, took far too many pictures, bumped into just about everybody and then gorged on a huge Shake Shack burger. Then we stumbled back to the hotel and passed out.
Tuesday – Day 2
On day two, after a very lengthy nights sleep, we were up early and out of our room. We had planned on staying out all day long and making the most of the city and then crashing pretty early at night in our lovely hotel room. Once we were up, showered and ready for the day, we started out at the Blue Dog for breakfast. It was my husbands first true American breakfast and oh boy, did he eat.
Once he had a little time to digest the mountain of food that he had eaten, we headed to the Museum of Natural History. I know, nerdy. But I fucking love museums and there was no way that I was going to miss an opportunity to look around. We spent hours wandering around and taking advantage of the warmth. Quickly followed by a stroll around Central Park. We had no destination in mind, we just wanted to wonder around. We did make a point of going to Bethesda Terrace just because it was in so many movies!
From the park, we walked over to the MET. If you know me by now, you will know that I am a sucker for history. I did tell my husband that we wouldn’t be too long in there, but I spent a good 3 hours walking around, much to his dismay. I loved every minute of it. The last time I was probably as excited to visit a museum was when I went to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. But from there, we headed down 5th Avenue.
For me, 5th Avenue was a calling. It is a road where I am meant to spend a fortune and never regret my choices. However, I had my sensible husband with me to reign me in. The truth is, we only shared a case to New York, so we didn’t have room for me to bring tones back with me. Plus, I buy pretty much everything that I set my sites on and fall in love with, so there wasn’t much in America to twist my arm. However, I did waltz around Tiffany like Audrey Hepburn and treat myself to a stunning gold coffee bean necklace to remind me of our trip.
From there, it was pretty late, and we were starving. Because we weren’t organised and didn’t book any reservations, we were pretty limited with what we could do for dinner. But we just happened to be walking past STK and I nipped inside to see if they had availability. Luckily for us, there was a table for two available and we could go straight in. I will say, the dinner was lovely, was it worth the money? Hard to say because we aren’t familiar with New York prices in general, but the food was good and the atmosphere was nice.
Once we had the meat sweats from STK, we had a slow walk back to our hotel where we had a drink on the roof before falling into our room and sleeping hard.
Wednesday – Day 3
The next day, we woke up pretty late. Probably a little jet lag combined with the fact that the day before we had walked almost 30 miles. But we had planned a much more relaxed day for the Wednesday. We were staying much more around the midtown area, local to the hotel. Our first stop of the day was Andrews NYC diner where we had an epic breakfast. I had pancakes and berries which literally filled me up until the evening when we ate around 7pm. The portion size in America will always be something that surprises me.
Next up, we made our way to the Empire State building because we had prebooked tickets. Before we had gone to New York some people tried to tell us that there are better views of the city and even though that may be true, there is something iconic about scaling the Empire State Building. I mean, who doesn’t want a Sleepless in Seattle moment? It was breath-taking. Everything that I had seen online was suddenly in front of me and I was truly overwhelmed for a moment.
When our time was up, we took a stroll to Grand Central Station. Again, I wanted to visit here just because of what I had seen in the movies. It is an iconic New York landmark and I had to see it for myself. I’m not going to lie, this was the only thing throughout our trip that my husband just didn’t understand. He was down for me dragging him around the city, but to go to a random train station, he didn’t understand. The again, I guess he isn’t a sucker for an American romcom like I am!
After Grand Central, we grabbed some coffee before going up to the Top of the Rock. I will say, it was very similar to going up the Empire State, but I am still glad that we did both. Whereas I think the view from the top of the Empire State is more iconic, I will say that the general view from the Top of the Rock is easier to see thanks to all of the glass around it rather than metal barriers.
Once we were done at the Top of the Rock, it was time to head to Times Square. We had tickets for a show, which was my husband’s first ever musical. I will say, as much as I adore watching Wicked, I don’t think it made a convert of my husband. But he did say that he enjoyed it and he loved seeing how excited I got while I was watching it.
Even though it was a long day, we were both in the mood for a few drinks. So after we ate some amazing tacos, we decided to bar hop our way back to the hotel. We drank so much that the night became a little bit of a blur, but surely that just means that you’ve had a good time, right?
Thursday – Day 4
For our third full day in New York, we were traveling south. So after another big breakfast we got the subway to Brooklyn. I’m not going to lie, the subway scared the shit out of me. I guess it was just the unfamiliarity of it all. I used to feel the same about the Tube in London, but now I zip about on that all fay long confidently. And as I am sure you guys can guess, we headed to Dumbo to get the iconic picture of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Thankfully, we arrived there nice and early before it got too busy. I had read up before we went and everybody said that you needed to beat the crowds in order to get a good picture and I feel like that was mission accomplished. I had no shame at all in having my photo taken in front of the iconic backdrop. At the end of the day, I was never going to see these people again!
Once I wrapped my impromptu photoshoot, we made our way over to Battery Park. We needed to be on time for our Statue of Liberty cruise that we had booked. We had it prebooked for quite a while. That was nice because we didn’t have to scramble to try and get tickets like some other people. We opted to go with a simple boat cruise which took us around the southern point of Manhattan. It included the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. In all, the lasted for around 30 minutes to an hour and to be honest, it was perfect.
It gave us a chance to rest our legs while taking in the sites. Plus, we got plenty close enough, especially considering that neither my husband nor I were desperate to get off the boat on Liberty Island itself. I would have liked to do the museum tour of Ellis Island, but we had a call to make, and we simply wouldn’t have had enough time. But what we did was great for us, and we got some great snaps of the Statue of Liberty and we got to bask in the sun for a little while.
When the tour was finished and we disembarked the boat at Battery Park, we walked to the 9/11 memorial. Again, we had prebooked the passes. They were completely free, but pre-booking them just saves making a fuss when you get there. The passes themselves give you access to the memorial and the museum. My husband and I decided just to go to the memorial rather than look around the museum. The main reason for this was because I knew that after looking at the museum, I would be a wreck and just want to go back to our room. I am an incredibly emotive person and I carry burdens within me so deeply that I find it hard to shake the feelings. But the memorial itself was hard enough to stomach.Don’t get me wrong, the 9/11 memorial pools really are a beautiful thing. I can remember seeing the second plane go into the World Trade Centre when I was just 7 years old and it is something that has stayed with me all of my life. But sitting in my house in England as a child, I didn’t really put into perspective the number of people that were lost that day. Seeing the names of everybody, hit home. Fucking heart-breaking. Not just for the people affected or impacted by a loved ones, but also for the entire city.
After we took some time at the memorial pools, we headed next door to One World Trade Centre. I wanted to go here for two reasons. The first is that I knew that the Vogue NY headquarters was there and I wanted just to worm my way in and bag myself a job. But also, because we had passes to the observatory deck. It was by far the best views that I had seen of the city and I am so glad that I took my DSLR camera to get some good photos. Honestly, the view was out of this world, and we were so lucky to get clear blue skies.
Up next, we had a fair walk to our next and final stop on our sightseeing tour of the day. From One World Trade Centre, we walked to Greenwich Village. It was around 30 minutes, but in almost 20 degrees, we walked very slowly. So, we made the most out of by stopping at every single bar and food vendor that we saw along the way. Our 30 minute walk in the end took an entire 4 hours and it was bloody amazing because we found some small and lovely places that we would have just walked straight past if we had marched ahead.
Seeing the Friends apartment building was quick and fleeting. But for a lifelong fan that was raised on the show, I loved to see it. However, my husband who has only ever caught a few episodes just looked me as if to say, “We have just hiked to see a random building?”. I guess he was right. But up next on the random building tour was Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment. The walk to Carries building was only 7 minutes. However enroute we happened to stumble into a pizza place. It was some of the best food I have ever eaten. Then once we were on Perry Street and I took a picture of the iconic steps, we booked an Uber to take us back to the Arlo.
After we had an hour in our room, we were torn. We were beyond exhausted, but we also wanted to make the most of our final night in New York. So my husband forced me to freshen up and get changed and from there we headed out onto the town. We found every bar in the midtown area. Then had hot dogs from a street vendor at the end of the night when we were both too drunk. Mainly because we couldn’t handle finding a restaurant. I think in the next few weeks I will do a post all about the places where we ate and drank. What was worth it and what was simply overpriced!
Friday – Day 5
This was the day that we were heading back home. By 7am we were both up and we slipped into some comfortable clothes. We could then go for a long walk around New York and to get some breakfast. Once we left the hotel we headed north towards Central Park. It was amazing to catch the beautiful start of the day. I am so glad that we made time to do this. We then stopped somewhere and grabbed a coffee and some pastries.
With just a few hours before we needed to head to the airport. We decided to hit up some of the tourist concession stands for souvenirs. I bought more I <3 NY t-shirts then I care to mention, but I love them all dearly and they are all I have lived in since I’ve been home. We then packed up, our hotel doorman hailed us a cab and we headed back to JFK. And said goodbye to New York.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip to New York and seeing some of our photos. It was an amazing time getting to see the city on our whistlestop tour. I can imagine that it will be the kind of place that I go back to time and time again. Especially to say that the entire trip only cost us around £3,000, which I think is pretty reasonable. I think the next time I go, I would love to visit with some of my girlfriends. Then we could spend ridiculous amounts shopping and hit up all of the overpriced cocktail bars in New York. Things that unfortunately my husband didn’t want to do. But we had the most magical time and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Truly, New York is one of my favourite places in the world.
