This has always been on my ‘to visit’ list. It’s just a magical place where dreams are made etc. As always, Charlotte was the driver behind this one. ‘I’ve found cheap flights’ and ‘can I book this’ are her two favourite phrases. I’m glad she booked this one though.
A lot of this trip was in the planning. New York is massive, with so many things to see and do. We had a ‘must see’ list, and then I found a load of things which I knew we’d all want to see. About 80% of people who I told about this trip asked if we were taking the kids with us. Yes, is the answer. Of course, it would have been a completely different itinerary if we didn’t, but we can always come back another time!
Flights
We had booked flights with British Airways, and I was excited. I put BA up there with maybe one of the best airlines in the world-prestige, quality, great service. Oh no, not this time though because we actually flew with airline giants, Evelop! Yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either. BA had given this flight to them until January while they serviced their planes or something. What a swizz.
It was like flying with EasyJet for 8 hours. Had one cup of coffee. Food was weird. Amelia’s TV broke, so they turned mine off, and the woman’s behind me, who wasn’t happy about it. Film selection was weak. Just general rubbish flight!! I would say ‘never again’ but we have to fly back with them.
Landed at JFK, and the queue for immigration was MASSIVE!! Took a bloody age. We then got a taxi to our hotel in Brooklyn and we were tired. Landed at 2000 US time, which is 5 hours behind UK. We would have got a train to keep costs down, but as it was late, and we didn’t fancy trying to find which way to go, we got a taxi.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn was the choice for a couple of reasons. Main one was cost. Manhattan over New Year’s Eve wasn’t cheap. Initially, we booked an AirBnB, which was lovely, but we then changed to a hotel as we got a free breakfast with it! Another reason was it was only 20 mins to Manhattan on the subway, plus we got to see a bit more of New York that we wouldn’t normally see. It fitted in with our other travels of not staying in the dead centre, and seeing how locals live. Times Square definitively isn’t normal living!!
First morning, early wake up. Time difference probably made this easier as getting up at 0700 was 1200 in UK. Nice. Lovely breakfast at hotel, waffles and syrup and eggs and sausage and coffee.
For the trip planning, we had picked what we wanted to see, and then I clumped the nearby activities together. Today was DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and South Manhattan. We took a subway to just near Manhattan Bridge to get the iconic picture. Stan was also wearing the t-shirt with the pic on, so that was cool.
Brooklyn Bridge
Had a walk around and then headed to Brooklyn Bridge to walk into Manhattan. This was ace. The views were amazing, you could see the whole skyline. The people were busy. It’s weird being a tourist in a city, and all you can hear is other tourists. It’s the same for every ‘tourist’ part though.
Some parts of the bridge are narrower than others. There is a left and right side, but people don’t follow rules like we do. Cycle lane is used every now and then by cyclists who either took a wrong turn, or didn’t know what they were letting themselves in for. Ding ding ding on the bell as they tried to weave past people in the cycle lane.
There are also cops on the bridge in glorified golf buggies! They were pretty ace.
Over the other side, we found a street show. Some break dancers doing some spinning on the floor. Then demanding people give them money to watch. It was a pretty slick routine, but a massive anti-climax.
Headed down towards Wall Street. Stopped at a McDonald’s and had some food. It’s not as cheap as our stuff, which was a shame, but if I worked on Wall St, I probs wouldn’t worry about the price of a happy meal ($4.99).
Fearless Girl
Continued down the road to see the Fearless Girl statue. I knew where she was, but Google maps hadn’t moved her from her original place. She used to live by the Charging Bull, which is pretty much like the one in Brum I think. I say I think, it was that crowded I couldn’t see it! Literally a queue to take a picture of it!
Asked a hot dog seller where the Stock Exchange was, and that’s where the Fearless Girl now lives. No where near as busy as the bull, but more impressive. She’s a boss.
Statue of Liberty
Walked down Broad Street, which is a bit different to the one in Brum. This one was the first to be paved in New York. Went to Battery Park to recharge (haha sorry) and found the queue for the Statue of Liberty. Initially we were just going to get the free Staten Island ferry across to go past her, but the kids wanted to visit, so we did. Fairly long queue to get the ticket, then you have to queue to go through an airport style security check. Then wait for the boat in a queue.
Ride across isn’t too bad. Ferry needs more chairs if anything. As we got off I heard a dude say ‘yeah 240’, which I guessed meant passenger numbers. I asked what the most is and he said 800, which would be horrible going across with!!
Had a walk around the statue. Loads of people seeing her, taking pics and that. Nice little Liberty Island. Whilst here, we went to the museum but didn’t learn much. Went back across on the ferry. You can go up to the crown, but you need to book a couple of months in advance. We didn’t do that.
Ground Zero
We had a walk to Ground Zero to see the 9/11 memorial. It’s a really nice, lovely park that they have made. The two sites are immaculate and well kept, and is a fitting tribute to what happened. Some folk were taking selfies there and smiling, and I thought that was a bit crass.
Went back to the hotel after this, having done a shed load of steps and had a really good day.
The Ride
Day two started in Times Square. The plan changed slightly as I decided to book The Ride. This is an entertainment bus, where there are three rows of seats facing out to the left hand side of the bus, which has glass front , or side. There are two people who are the comperes and they give you a tour of a bit of New York. As you’re driving around, they make jokes and laugh at people for wearing ponchos, or carrying dogs and that, but then there are people on the streets who are part of the show. Another was, restaurants in Times Square are legally allowed to add 30% to food bills as tax, because of the high rental prices.
A cleaner will start tap dancing, or a bloke in a top hat raps at you, or a couple do ballet. It’s a bit of fun, but not worth $69 each! We bought an Explorer Pass, so it wasn’t that much for us. There are a few types of passes-City Pass being the main one. If you are doing a few big activities, it does save you time and money. Don’t spend $69 on the ride though. I did learn some cool stuff though, like one of the buildings was moved down the road on rollers, as it was a listed building and they wanted space for another building. Literally picked it up and rolled it down the street and plumbed it all back in!
New York Public Library
Next in the list was New York Public Library. Two reasons to see this. 1, lovely architecture and that. 2, it is home of the original Winnie the Pooh and friends!! Lovely story. A.A.Milne would travel to London, and bring his son, Christopher Robin a teddy back. Him and his mate decided to write a story about the ‘adventures’ they got up to, and it ended up in a newspaper and then everything else. Original Winnie looked a bit sad though, so they drew him a bit more fun. He had Tigger and Eyeore and Kanga (Roo was lost in the 1930s) and piglet, really nice to see.
Whispering Arches
Little walk down the road to see Grand Central station. Another iconic building with amazing architecture. Including, the whispering arches. You can stand across the hallway, and talking into an alcove, and the person on the other side can hear because the sound travels up and around the domed ceiling! Amazing. Bit of a queue to do this too. Queuing is quite a big thing in NY.
Today was the only day it rained, but by gosh did it rain. Just a constant drizzle of really wet annoying rain. We ploughed through with just our coats, it’s only a bit of rain innit. My coat was not quite a coat, and more like a flannel so I was soaked through. Was nice getting to places to take them off and put in the cloak room, or coat check as Americans call it!
MoMa
We did this in the Museum of Modern Art. This was a busy museum. Main draws in here are Van Gogh’s ‘Stary Night’ and Monet’s ‘Waterlillies’. There are some Picasso’s and Magritte’s and that too. There was a queue for Stary Night. Never seen anything like it! Char waited in line while Amelia and I walked around for a bit. After we had done a loop, we had somehow ended up in the Stary Night room and Char was like ‘are you serious’!? It was much easier to go in the back way and just not queue! Weird.
We somehow missed some of the paintings I wanted to see, like Andy Warhol’s ‘Campbell Soup’, and Rousseau’s ‘The Dream’. I had asked someone where Monet was, and she told me the wrong room, like she didn’t even care. This will be a common theme throughout New York.
We had a quick walk round Times Square after this. Today was 30th Dec so they were getting ready for the little party the next day. It was so busy and not great. Went home.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
New Years Eve started off great! We went to Tribeca, so called from the words ‘Triangle Below Canal street’. Clever. Here though is Hook and Ladder 8, a fire station which is instantly recognizable as the one from Ghostbusters! Their HQ was this building, which has painted the logo outside for extra photo ops. We looked in the letterbox, but couldn’t see much, but then the bloody fire engine came back from a call! It had the logo on the front, and the firefighter’s uniform had the Ghostbusters stuff on. Amazing. They kept the big doors open when they were in, and they had a little shop selling FDNY T-shirt they wore! So we got Stan one. He went in and had a good look around. A defo must for anyone who likes Ghostbusters!
Color Factory
After this, we walked to the Color Factory. I’m not quite sure how to describe this place. It’s like, a colour experience? There are loads of different rooms with different things to do in each. Like a sensory overload thing, but with macrons and sweets and ice cream included! The best bit is defo the massive ball pit. Amazing. Staff were lovely. It’s an Instagramers dream! There’s a couple of these in America, but they move round every now and then. I think New York is moving soon.
Oh we nearly had trouble getting in here. You can only get tickets online, so pre-book is the only way of getting in. We had the Explorer Pass to use for here. When we arrived it said ‘sold out’. They wouldn’t let us in first of all as ‘third party purchases’ were not allowed today. I said a one sentence argument, and they let us in.
After an hour and half in there, we walked outside to a building which loads of people know. The Friends Apartment block! Char was not impressed! Not sure what she was expecting mind. From here we were walking to the Sex and the City apartment. Well, Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment. The houses were bloody lovely along here. Even the doors and stairs to them were awesome.
Bit of Sick
Before we got there, fancied a quick bite to eat, so went to a Dunkin Donuts. It was hard work as the cashier couldn’t really understand us and she was more concerned about the wrong change she had given to the bloke before us. Partly my fault. She had change for a $5, but then she asked if it was a $20 he had given her. I said twenty, thinking she wouldn’t believe me, but did! I didn’t see what he gave her so he may be up!
Half way through the bargain priced croissants which Stan wouldn’t eat, he decided to go sick. First of all a little bit, which Char caught in a paper bag. Then a bit more. Then the bag ripped from having a load of sick in. And then more sick. It was blue from the ice cream in the colour factory! Quite fitting. Took a while to get someone’s attention to start a clean up. I used about a hundred napkins. Then they gave me a bit of blue tissue. Weren’t bothered at all! People were stepping over it. One couple sat next to us left. After I cleaned it up, I asked to use a sink to wash my hands, and he just invited me behind the counter, with all the food. Nice.
Saw Carrie Bradshaw’s house, and instantly jumped into a waiting taxi to go to the next place. I had booked free tickets to go up the Vessel. This is a weird art installation step statue building thing. Look at the picture to understand. In the taxi I realised we were a bit early, so got out at the start of the High Line.
The High Line
This is an old railway track that’s been lovingly converted into an urban garden walkway. Really nicely done. It’s up on a bridge type thing so you walk over part of the city, looking down, whilst seeing bits of art work and birds. Quite busy place, but also very relaxing and rewarding.
The Vessel
At the end of the high line is where the vessel is. Char saw it and said ‘nopes’! Her and Stan went into the shopping centre for a Shake Shack, and me and Meelie went up. Really cool thing. Loads of steps, nice views. Saw a rooftop spa on a nearby building. Came down, found Char and Stan, and sat in the shopping centre for a bit while the kids played with a sequinned filled wall.
Walked back towards Times Square and found Macy’s. Amelia has wanted to go in here, so we did. It’s quite big. Like a big Debenhams. It was New Years Eve, so everywhere seemed well busy outside. Street sellers popped up selling light up glasses with ‘2020’ on them. Kids got a pair to wear for our party in our hotel room tonight.
New Years Eve
We didn’t really want to stay outside till midnight. Times Square is a definite no-no. You have to get penned in at 1200, with no toilets or anything whilst in. Another place which is supposed to be good is Prospect Park in Brooklyn. We ordered pizza and were asleep by 2100! First time i hadn’t stayed up to see the bongs! We did call Char’s mum and dad at their midnight though, so it’s like the same.
Central Park
New Year’s Day is here. A new year in New York. It was a bucket list thing for Char. Tick. We went out to Central Park. Got subway up to Columbus whatever and walked through the south west corner. Went for a little walk and saw that it was such a stark contrast to the rest of the city. Lovely serene feeling.
Walked through Strawberry Fields and saw the ‘Imagine’ mural on the floor. Quite a few folk here taking pictures of it. There was a guy playing one Beatle’s song, despite a sign which says ‘no playing music’.
Day at the Museum
Carried on up to get to our 2nd destination, which was the American Museum of Natural History. This is made famous by Night at the Museum, which is a great film! There are a couple of ways of getting in. One is to have a city pass like we did. Two is queuing up and paying the $18 or whatever the entrance fee is. Three is, queue up and pay whatever you want! The $18 is a ‘suggested’ fee, so you can pay 25 cents if you want, and they will let you in. Boom. Above all, the City Pass queue is a lot shorter.
Spent ages in here. 4 floors, with different parts of the world and animals and space in different rooms. From the film, T-Rex is the big prize. The main dinosaur is now in a special exhibition where you have to pay more. We didn’t, as we saw one in another room. Another cool thing is the Easter Island head. ‘Hey dum dum’. That one.
It’s a really nice museum. Certainly on par with the British one, but probs bigger. One place I would swerve is the cafe there. Bit of a rip off! There was a butterfly exhibition too, but we had to get a special ticket to see it, which we didn’t know about. Was a bit expensive for a tiny walk through thing.
Dead Pet Tree
We left the museum and headed over the road back to Central Park. I had seen a tweet the day before from Jane Fallon, talented wife of Ricky Gervais. She said that there is a tree in Central Park where people hang pictures of their dead pets. I was in! Mission was to find it. She said it was in The Ramble, near the Bird Feed area. I saw both of these on the map, and it happened to be en-route to my next stop, so perfect.
Finally found it, after asking a couple of walkers who didn’t know what it was, but too look over there’, which is just where it was. Bit weird to be honest. One of the pictures looked like a dinosaur. Headed on from here. We had passed a lake which was nice, and then the Boathouse, and carried on to the Alice in Wonderland statue. It’s one of my favourite books, and the statue is quite nice! Quite big, with all the characters there. Nice.
Walked back south towards the city after this, got a hotdog on the way. Passed The Plaza hotel, famous for Home Alone 2. Saw the worlds biggest menorah too! Passed Trump Tower, and ended up in American Girl shop. It’s like Barbie, but bigger. The shop is pretty cool to be fair. Had a go at basket ball, and Amelia spent some Xmas money on an outfit for her doll back home.
Plan was to go to Ellen’s Stardust Diner. First of all, we had about 5 recommendations from people to go there, more than anything else! Secondly though, we saw the queue, asked people at front how long they had queued, and it was like an hour wait. Char was getting hangry, kids were tired. Went here and there to get food, and finally ended up waiting 25 mins for a table in Juniors. Times Square is busy for food!
Was an ok dinner. Spent a fair bit in there, service was decent from the manager, and had some lovely cheese cake too. Went to bed quite tired, and this was to be our last night at the hotel. Packed our bag, and slept well.
Last Day
Final breakfast, filled up. Dropped our bags at reception and headed out for an almost full day. We had booked to go Top of the Rock observation deck at 1245, which gave us enough time to go ice skating at Bryant Park, or so we thought. Used our city pass to get tickets, but after 5 mins on the ice, we had to get off so they could clean the ice!
It had taken us about half out to get our skates on, and find a padlock to lock our stuff away in the locker. Was a weird system. You had to keep your shoes and put them in a locker, but locks weren’t provided!? They would sell you a combination lock for $12! No ta. Char managed to find one with the number on, so we used that.
Anyway, we were kicked off the ice, which would have taken 20 mins to clean. We had a bit of an argument with a worker and she finally gave us return tickets for later as our tickets for Top of the Rock were due soon.
Top of the Rock
Went to the Rockerfeller Centre, and got in line. We were shouted at a bit more about getting in this line and that line, then shouted at through security, then shouted at to get into another line, then shouted at to get our picture taken, then shouted at to get in an elevator. Char was dreading this bit. Not a fan of lifts, and also high buildings, but she did really well!
Quite nice views from up there. It’s quite busy, but not too bad. You can go a bit higher, and a bit more higher when on the deck, which we did. Getting down to ground level is a bit of a queue, but it went down fairly fast. We were shouted at to get as close to the people in front of us for some reason. It didn’t make the queue go any faster as only a certain amount of people can go in the lift. ‘Stand shoulder to shoulder’, they didn’t appreciate us taking the piss when we crouched down to get shoulder to shoulder with the kids.
After the Rock, we went to the Lego shop. Had to queue to get in, obviously. Bought some lego, then went back to the ice skating. Enjoyed in here, and it was getting dark by this time, so the tree was lit up and nice. There was a big winter market around the ice rink. It’s only here for the Xmas period-it’s normally a green park when not ice rinked up!
Finally got tired of ice skating, in which Stan had mastered by the end. Meelie was still rail holding, but enjoyed none the less. Subway back to hotel. Picked up bags. Ordered an Uber. We could have public transported it to the airport, which took a bit longer, and a few changes, but for ease, we therefore took a taxi.
Same plane on way back. Kids slept most the way. I slept a lot. We all slept. Landed back in UK at 0900, and drove home.
In Conclusion…
We absolutely loved this trip. Was another ‘big trip’, like the Dubai one. So much to do, and so much to do for kids. I would defo go back there, but not at Xmas/New Year time. It’s so busy! It would be nice to see in the summer, and experience a different weather extreme.
One tip I’d give is plan plan plan ahead. Ask people who have been before and get as many tips as you can. We did, and they defo came in useful. Things like using the subway, or getting tickets for places. It’s defo not somewhere you can turn up and wander round. It’s bloody huge!
We would defo stay in a different suburb next time. Queens, or The Bronx. Would loved to have seen more of Brooklyn, but Manhattan is the big draw.
Lovely holiday. There’s a load of pictures below! I took nearly a thousand whilst there! Enjoy!
