James Munday.net Blog

Having watched films (such as Home Alone 2 and Crocodile Dundee) and read many books on New York I decided to take a weeks holiday to the Big Apple and wow, what a trip! I found a really good deal on Expedia.co.uk which incorporated direct flights and a really nice hotel on 77th Street in Manhattan for around £1220ish. You can get cheaper deals but I didn’t book in advance and payed extra for a nice hotel and suitable flight departure times. I also bought the Lonely Planet guide book which I can’t recommend enough (you can it from Amazon here).

I flew from Heathrow to JFK with American Airlines. The flight was nothing special, in-flight meals weren’t that great and the TV in headrest was a bit rubbish. When you finally land you have to spend ages queuing to go through customs. They are very strict and want to know everything. Why you are visiting, how much money in cash you have on you. Then they take your photo, fingerprints and if all that goes smoothly, you are allowed to go collect your baggage. Compared to the UK they are very slow at getting it off the plane. I must have waited about 40mins before I saw my case on the conveyor belt.

The first thing you notice when you leave the airport is the heat! It’s just very humid, stuffy and I imagine some people would find it hard to breathe. From here I got in one of those famous yellow taxis and headed to my hotel. I had opted to stay at ‘On The Ave‘ following some reviews I had read on the Internet. It was located just off Broadway on 77th Street and was only a few blocks from the nearest Metro.
The Taxi driver didn’t really speak English so I just sat in the back quietly taking in the views of all the skyscrapers. When I arrived at the hotel I paid the cab driver (you have to tip them) and had my bag taken into the hotel by the doorman. The first thing I noticed is how friendly the people are, they will do anything for you. I checked in and immediately was told that they would upgrade my room for free as I was staying for 6 nights. I walked into my room and was greeted by a huge Plasma TV on the wall, a King Size bed and a fabulous view over Broadway! I dumped my bag and decided to leave the hotel to explore the city.

I found the best way to explore the city was to leave the map in your bag (worth getting a map by the way - there is one in the Lonely Planet guide book). I was quite hungry by this point so stopped off to get some pizza, the first thing you notice about the food is the portions - they are massive. It was now evening and after wondering around for a couple of hours I headed straight to the Empire State Building. My parents had been up it in the early 80’s so I thought I would too. It was quite expensive to go in and you had to pay extra to go to the very top. Also due to the high level of security everybody had to be searched. Because of a random problem with the elevators everyone had to take the stairs for the last few floors. It was very humid and some people were taking ages to climb the very narrow staircase. Eventually I reached the observation deck, here are a few photographs I took:

You can get a fairly decent view of the Chrysler Building from the Observation Deck as seen here:

After staying on the observation for a while looking around the gift shop and taking in the views I decided to head to the very top. There is a small elevator which takes you to the top, it is an enclosed area and you get a near 360degree view of the city. As you have seen from the pictures it was quite foggy (or was it smog?!) so the photographs weren’t all that great. Here is one I took from the very top:

If you are on a limited budget and have to decide on whether to go to the top of the Empire State Building or to the top of The Rockefeller Center, I would chose The Rockefeller Center (this is explained later).

I then decided to head back to ground level taking the elevator, it seemed to take nearly as long getting down as it did to get to the top! When I was down I headed for the subway, which in America they call the Metro. I had heard many stories about the metro and was told to be careful but it really wasn’t that bad. The platforms were hot but the carriages although very crowded were air-conditioned. If you can use the London Underground you will find the New York Metro a piece of cake! It is also very cheap to get around, I purchased a 7-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard for $24 which at the time was about £12. This meant I could go anywhere on the Metro for the whole week I was there. Bargain!

I headed back to my hotel to drop off some souvenirs I had bought and headed back out into the City. I took a stroll down to Times Sq. and wondered around taking in the atmosphere and culture the city has to offer. Time flies so fast when you are having fun and when you are lost in your own little world. It was then time to head back via an Italian restaurant near my hotel. It has been a long day and I had been up nearly 24 hours so drifted off to sleep quite easily.

I woke up around 8am and was about to start my first full day in the city. Like most hotels in NY, breakfast wasn’t provided so I headed off to a shop down the road where I picked up some fruit and a pastry. I also made sure I had plenty of water as it was very hot, then I headed off to explore again!

One of the first places I went was Central Park. Central Park is a large public, urban area and measures 800m by 4km. Apparently it gets 25 million visitors annually and I was one of them! The park has a lot of history, if you are interested check out the Wikipedia article about it which can be found here.
I took a few photos of Central Park whilst in Manhattan, here are a selection:

I spoke to a guy who worked in Park whilst visiting Belvedere Castle and he told me it was the hottest week of the year!
When leaving Central Park I came across the John Lennon Tribute which is also known as the Strawberry Fields Memorial, here is a photo of the Memorial Mosaic:

Then just a short walk from the Park on the northwest corner of 72nd Street I took a look at the Dakota Building. Many famous people have lived there over the years such as Judy Garland, John Madden etc but perhaps the most famous of them all was John Lennon. This was the place of his assassination. Here is a photo I took of the front of the building:

I jumped on the Metro and headed downtown but decided to get off in the Financial District. Here I visited Ground Zero, the place the Twin Towers once stood. There wasn’t really a lot to see because its currently a building site, however there was a memorial to all those people who sadly lost their lives on September 11 2001. I took some photos of where the buildings once stood:

From here I headed to the ferry terminal. It was rush hour so the ferry was busier than normal as people were heading back home over to Staten Island. There are amazing views of the Statue of Liberty on the way over as seen here:

Also, when crossing to the other island we got escorted by the US coastguard. There was a boat either side of the ferry, I’m not quite sure why, perhaps something to do with the heightened security since the 9/11 attacks? Anyway, this is one of the boats:

When approaching Staten Island you get amazing views of Manhattan, infact they are so good it’s quite hard to get a photo due to the amount of other people trying to get one! I did however get chance to take a few, here is the best of the bunch:

There wasn’t really anything on Staten Island I wanted to see so departed the ferry and got back on it again (unfortunately you have to do this) so I could return to Manhattan! Of course on the way back over you get to see all the great views again.
Once back in Manhattan I took a wonder around the Financial District again and walked down some famous streets:

The place is a hive of activity, this is where people earn serious money and boy you can tell. The guys wearing very expensive suits and the women wearing their Jimmy Choos whilst on the phone. Actually, most people seem to be on the phone all the time! And in amongst it all there are thousands of tourists taking photos, buying gifts and generally overwhelmed by the amazing skyline. Whenever you look up you see sights like this:

As I carried on wondering around I kept coming across parks in the middle of the city. One of which had squirrels running around and they are so used to the tourists I was able to get very close and take a photo:

One of the Parks I visited that evening had an amazing arch as the entrance. Sadly I don’t remember the name of it so if anyone knows please feel free to leave me a comment! Here is a photo of the arch:

A trip to New York wouldn’t have been complete without visiting Chinatown. I walked through the hustle bustle streets and looked in many shops. It was getting pretty late so as per usual on the way back to the hotel I stopped off to get some dinner. This time it was a homemade burger, waffles and chips from a small restaurant near my hotel. It was delicious and a thousand times nicer than anything I have had from a pub/restaurant etc in England. And because it wasn’t from Rip-Off England, it was cheap too!

The next day I decided to do some shopping as I hadn’t really done any serious shopping yet. Everyone knows that New York has great shops, famous avenues and amazing prices. Being a big kid I went into Toys R Us, it was huge! They had everything you could imagine (apart from a Powerball but thats different story). There are some great features in the store, such as the giant T-Rex and the Empire State Building made from Lego. Both pictured below:

After buying a fair bit of stuff bit I decided to take it back to the hotel (carrying shopping around all day is hard work)! Then I would grab some lunch and head back out to explore. I decided to use my mornings for shopping and then afternoon and evenings to see and experience the city. That afternoon I thought it would be fun to go on a tour bus. As a matter of fact it was one of the best parts of my trip. I got to see most of Manhattan and could relax taking in the sites whilst listening to the friendly tour guide telling us about the history and culture of the amazing city that never sleeps. I took a few photos whilst on the tour bus, a selection of which are below.

Times Sq. (where I got on the bus):

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co (I bought a few souvenirs here):

Hard Rock Cafe:

The Fashion District:

These are everywhere:

Broadway Bus Lane (make sure you don’t stand up!):

The Empire State Building:

The Empire State Building Up Close:

NYPD:

Macy’s Department Store:

World Trade Center (WTC1):

These are dotted all over the city:

Manhattan Bridge:

When leaving the tourbus you have to give the tour guide a tip as this is what makes up most of their wages. The great thing about the tourbus is you can get off it and back on another one whenever you want. I can’t remember how much it cost but it’s well worth the money and gives your legs a rest!

A new day and I decided to go shopping again, the weather had been really horrible. It had been raining heavy all night and they had even closed parts of the Metro due to flooding. It didn’t really affect me because I didn’t have to go very far downtown. I went in loads of shops and bought a few T-shirts amongst other things. Then I headed for the famous M&M store! It was huge and I got very carried away, you could buy any colour M&M so I decided to buy nearly every colour available! The M&M’s were stored in huge tubes like the ones below and to get at them you place a bag underneath and pull a lever:

There was also a full sized NASCAR in the store:

I also visited the New York Yankees and NBA Stores. Due to buying so much my bags were really heavy so I thought it would be a good idea to drop them off at the hotel. I had lost my bearings a little so decided to ask a lady for directions to the nearest Metro. Sadly she didn’t know so I carried on walking only to have her catch my attention quite some way down the street where she pointed out a Metro. New Yorkers are very helpful towards tourists as long as you are polite to them.
After dropping my things off again I headed back out, I wanted to go visit Liberty Island so headed back Downtown. It didn’t take long to get to the ferry terminal. Security is very high and everyone had their bags searched, I also had to remove the belt from my trousers etc before being allowed to board the ferry. I went with the Circle Line who seem to operate most ferries which go between the islands. This is what the ferry looks like:

The views are great on the way over to the Island and I managed to get a couple of photos of the lady herself as we were approaching:

When in Manhattan the Statue looks quite small but like most things, when you get close you realise the true size of it. The ferry arrived at Liberty Island and everyone got off to explore. There isn’t much to do apart from a gift shop and to walk around the statue. This is what the Statue of Liberty looks like up close:

I was only there for about an hour before I decided to get back on the ferry, the next stop was Ellis Island. Ellis Island is located at the mouth of the New York City harbour and has a lot of history. From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island. When on the Island I went inside the Immagration Station and the architecture was amazing:

You can also see Manhattan from inside the building, just imagine what the immigrants were thinking as they had nearly reached their destination:

After spending a while on Ellis Island I decided to head back to Manhattan.
That evening I wanted to go to the top of the Rockefeller Center also known as ‘Top of the Rock’. The weather had cleared up so decided to head there. It didn’t seem as busy as the Empire State Building and was certainly more interesting. There was a short film you could watch before going up explaining the history of the building and how it was built. I also had my photo taken inside and it was made to look like I was sat on one the steel beams just like the construction workers did all those years ago:

There is a light show you can watch when going up in the elevator, sadly I didn’t get a video of it but I am sure there are many of these on YouTube.
When at the top you get a fantastic view of Manhattan. The best views are Uptown towards Central Park as seen here:

And Downtown where you can see the Empire State Building:

Whilst at the ‘Top of the Rock’ I met 2 travellers, we took each others photos and then we all had our photo taken with fireworks going off in the background. This was taken by a worker who then gives you a card so you can buy the photographs from them at a later date (which I did).
The view from the Rockefeller Center is truly amazing, I wish I had chance to go up there on a clear day as you can see for miles. This might be controversial but the views from the Rockefeller Center are much better than those from the Empire State Building.
Having met 2 fellow travellers, the 3 of us decided to go late night shopping! This was great fun, I visited the M&M store again, went into loads of the tourist shops so we could buy T-shirts and other souvenirs for our family and friends. I got a photo of Times Sq. at night as well:

After a hectic day we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
The next day I visited The American Museum of Natural History located at Central Park West at 79th Street. This was great fun and some of the exhibits were really interesting. I took a few photos whilst there, here are a selection:

After spending a lot of the day at the Museum I headed Downtown as I wanted to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn. It was very hot and the guys on the side of the road selling bottled water must have been making a killing. The Bridge has a lot of history and with amazing views and wonderful architecture a walk across is a must. Here are a couple of photos:

I spent a while in Brooklyn just wondering around and the first thing I noticed was the lack of people, it didn’t appear to be as busy as Manhattan and sometimes when walking I would be the only person on the street! After an hour or so I decided to head back over the bridge.
By this time it was evening and I wanted to visit Central Park at night. I had heard some scary stories about people being mugged and killed but it didn’t really bother me. I started off the evening by making my way to Central Park and then wondering around listening to people making music, watching people dance, skating etc. The skating was fantastic, I managed to get a quick video:

Their is a beautiful fountain in the Park, here are a couple of photos:

It was starting to get dark so took a photo of the skyline at night from the Park, it seemed to come out quite well:

It was getting late by this point so I headed back to the hotel to retire for the night.
The next day was my last full day in New York City. I spent the whole day shopping and bought a fair few clothes and gifts. I also visited Macy’s and saved a fortune when buying some jeans and some tops. Remember, if you are a tourist and go to Customer Services you can get 10% off all purchases although you still have to pay sales tax (remember to take your passport). As this was my last day I decided to get an early night as every other night I had been going to bed very late.

After a nice stay in Manhattan it was time to head back to the airport in a yellow cab. JFK is quite a basic airport, it doesn’t have many shops and is quite boring. It does have a shuttle type transport system which allows you to go between terminals (good idea to kill time and visit the shops). After a week long stay in New York I was on the plane home.

All pictures used here are available in larger and higher quality formats. If you would like copies please contact me through the website.