Me and my boyfriend went to New York in August 2004 and had a fantastic time. Luckily it wasn’t too hot this year, so it was great for walking around and exploring the city. I recommend taking the Airtrain from JFK Airport ($5 per person). We then took the Long Island Railroad from Jamaica Station to Queens Station and we were in Midtown Manhattan in about 30 minutes. You can also connect to the Subway which will make the journey cheaper, but will probably take longer. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Midtown, which was good budget accommodation. Good location and clean, but don’t expect spacious rooms and luxury. It suited us fine! We organised our sightseeing to walk around in one area for the day to avoid wasting too much time travelling: e.g. Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan one day, Chinatown & and surrounding areas the next etc. We used either the subway or buses, and sometimes taxis late at night. The seven day ticket for public transport only costs $21 per person and for this you can travel per subway and bus within all 5 boroughs of NYC. I found the subway system quite complicated, but we never got lost. Main sites I recommend: Statue of Liberty – arrive early to avoid queues Ellis Island – Interesting, but not unmissable Brooklyn Bridge – interesting piece of architecture and offers great views (better than Staten Island Ferry in my Opinion) Empire State Building – book tickets on-line, arrive early to avoid queues and only go on a clear day. Definitely best views of the city! Grand Central Terminal –beautiful train station China Town and Little Italy weren’t that exciting; I preferred Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca. The Guggenheim Museum is a great piece of architecture, but there’s not really that much art in there. You will have seen it all in less than 2 hours. Good for a morning activity before going to Central Park, which is huge. We were walking for ages, maybe next time I’d hire a bike or roller blades. It’s amazing how calm it is here while being in the middle of New York City. A carriage ride in Central park is lovely and not that expensive at $35 for half an hour. As we stayed near Times Square, we were passing it every day and it was always extremely busy. It’s worth seeing once at night, but I would not stay in that area again. Restaurants are quite expensive here, but we definitely recommend Trattoria Trecolori on 45th Street, which served delicious Italian food. I suggest checking the Citysearch or Tripadvisor websites for restaurant reviews. Shopping was great as well, I liked Macy’s, but it was not as big as I expected. Century 21 has some good designer bargains, but I found the lay-out very messy and couldn’t find much that I liked. However, I found some good stuff in the other shops that I just happened to pass, around Empire State Building and Macy’s.
We also went to NYC to take some salsa classes, as they have the best teachers and dancers in the world. Eddie and Maria Torres offer the best value classes ($15 for at least 2 hours, sometimes 3 or 4 hours) and are also the best teachers. If you’re interested in salsa, check out www.newyorksalsa.com for all the information you need. We managed to catch some great live acts in NYC. In the summer, there are a lot of famous artists (all types of music) performing in the parks and we managed to see Eddie Palmieri for free, which was amazing. We also saw Jose Alberto and Oscar de Leon in the Copacabana and they gave great performances as well. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother with this club as it’s very expensive and you won’t be able to sit down all night unless you book a table. Also, the dance floor was far too crowded to dance. On the other hand, the Copa dancers were great and entertaining to watch.
I thoroughly enjoyed my week in New York City. Everybody I met was very friendly and there was a great spirit in the city. I can’t wait to go back!
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NEW YORK CITY
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