Helicopter ride over New York video

The concrete jungle that is New York

New York.

I discovered a great site to create videos from your pictures, so my hubby made one of all our pics from New York; just click on the link under the pic and you’ll be taken to the video

Where to eat in New York

McDonalds in Times Square

Manhattan is littered with Starbucks and McDonalds on practically every corner and while we did enjoy the odd burger and hot chocolate, we were determined to try and eat somewhere else!

Admittedly the first night we got there we had a McDonalds, but we also tried a Wendy’s later on in the week. Most people I speak to say the prefer good old Maccie Ds, but I think Wendy’s is much nicer. The burgers taste so much meatier and authentic. And you can always get a McDonalds at home – so go for the Wendy’s!

And not content with visiting just two American institutions we also visited TGI Fridays! We weren’t tempted to try anything from the street-corner vendors though. By the time we thought about eating we were ready to sit down; the sight-seeing and shopping really takes it out of you!

We also ventured into a few delis and cafes for breakfast. Egg and bacon rolls were high on Michael’s list, while I preferred the ready-made fruit pots and croissants. We did try the sweet but stodgy American pancakes with maple syrup too. They just reminded me of cake – not my cup of tea that early in the morning!

There are loads of restaurants, pizzerias and deli to eat in, and while we kept finding places we thought we’d try we only made it to two – Connolly’s and Maggie’s.

Manhattan is home to four Connolly’s an Irish bar complete with an Irish barman too! We went to the third locations, based at 150 East and 47 Street As well as serving the usual American dishes like the New York Strip, it did a good Irish Stew and bangers and mash too. This had various big screen TVs dotted about the place, and if you went in at the right time you could catch the 5.30pm kick off in the Premier League back home! This was a lovely place, and seemed quite popular with the surrounding office-folk.

Maggie’s is another Irish bar, located 21 East and 47th Street. The family run business has a great atmosphere and did a good steak and rack of ribs! I think Michael would agree this was the best dinner we had while were were over there!

You’ll never be stuck for anywhere to eat; and if you have any suggestions of where to go let me know as we intend to go back next year!

Bus tour of New York

Empire State Building from the bus

A cold January morning in Manhattan is probably not the best time to take a bus ride of New York, but we we’re only there for a week so we had to make the most of it!

We’d booked a two day tour ticket through Expedia at the same time we booked the holiday so we just had to exchange our vouchers for the actual tickets and decide which tour to do first! The Gray Line All Loops tour did an Uptown, Downtown and a Brooklyn Tour going around most of New York.

We took the Downtown tour first heading around Manhattan, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, SoHo and to the Garment District. It’s the same style tour as the London Hop on Hop off tour, so we hopped off at Macy’s and Madison Square Gardens, and hopped back on and headed to downtown Manhattan and the water front.

Eventually we ended up at Ground Zero and Battery Park, where we bought a set of five lovely black and white pictures of famous landmarks in New York from a street vendor. Now we have a beautiful permanent reminder of our honeymoon; The ‘Flat Iron’ building, the Statue of Liberty, The Empire State, Times Square and The Chrysler Building. At this point we also decided to jump off the tour and visit the Statue of Liberty. You can do two different trips here as well; Liberty Island or Liberty Island and Ellis Island. We did the former. Being on a boat, crossing the water on a windy and freezing cold day, needless to say wasn’t fun! Although we could have sat downstairs we figured we’d miss all the scenery and wonderful views of downtown Manhattan.

Statue of Liberty from Liberty Island

The Statue herself was pretty breath-taking – you always see these things in pictures and on TV, but you never realise how great they are until you get there. Of course, we went before President Obama opened the crown to visitors again, so that’s something we’d love to go back and do. We also didn’t get to explore the island much – time was getting on a bit and we still have so much to do, so we hopped straight back on the ferry and headed off on the return part of the tour.

We ended up driving  through Chinatown, Little Italy, Lower East Side, East Village and past Rockefeller Center.

We went home and studied the map and decided against the Uptown and Brooklyn tours; we didn’t really fancy going through Brooklyn and the Bronx or to the many museums so we didn’t actually use the second day of our ticket. It wasn’t really too much of an issue though, as the two day doesn’t cost much more than the single.

Shopping in New York

With Fifth Avenue, Garment District and designer shops dotted all around Manhattan, it’s easy to want to spend all your hard-earned cash on clothes and accessories.

As a thrifty spender, its always good to remember the smaller shops and outlet stores. On our honeymoon/shopping expedition we visited many of the big shops, and bought a few labels from the mad-house that is Macy’s, and even that had a few great bargains that weren’t even in the sale.

There was a great discount place on Lexington Avenue, American Apparel or something similar, where we bought a few things; t-shirt and a jumper, and this fab purple bag which I’d seen everywhere, but at a cheaper price!

Some of the up-market shops actually weren’t as impressive as we had hoped. We visited the Disney Shop; three-stories of Disney madness – it was huge and packed full of great stuff. I was really excited, hoping to find my 3-year-old nephew and 2-year-old niece a super present but was quiet disappointed. I was hoping to be inspired, but nothing took my fancy. In the end we ended up buying a pair of light-up Cars trainers for our nephew and a pair of pink sparkling trainers for our niece from a discount shoe store.

The lesson is to shop around; just because you’re in the big city don’t be taken in by the big shops and designer labels…that way you can buy more clothes and accessories! Remember, they let you bring two suitcases back…

M&M World New York

Blue as Elvis

I didn’t know one existed until we got to Times Square but I was sure as hell wasn’t going miss the chance to visit M&M World!

Oh my god, three floors full of M&Ms and merchandise; mugs, toys, t-shirts, pyjamas, cushions – you name it, it was there! We must have spent 30 to 45 minutes just wandering around, looking at the fridge magnets and keyrings, saying “I can’t believe there’s and M&M XXX”. We thought about buying a few bits and pieces, but there doesn’t seem to be the same enthusiasm about the brand as there is in America.

And the chocolate…wow! In the centre of the shop were tubes and tubes of different coloured M&Ms, either by themselves or in combinations like the New York taxi (yellow black and white). There were colours and types of M&Ms we didn’t know existed, including almonds, which was odd but enjoyable none the less. We actually bought a few packs of M&M Infusions I think they were called; minty chocolate “posh” M&Ms with marbled shells; quite tasty as long as you put them in the fridge! Otherwise the coating feels a bit plasticified!

There were also a few giant plastic M&M statues dotted around the place, including Green who was dressed as the Statue of Liberty and Blue who was jiving as Elvis.

Bit disappointed that I didn’t invest in one of the huge packets of peanut M&Ms – my favourites, but I thought it might weight down my suitcase on the way home!

Shopping in New York; Macy’s

New York is fab for shopping – and I hate shopping!  It begs the question ‘Why New York?’ but it was somewhere we’d both wanted to go for ages and I did relish the chance to be able to shop somewhere other than Croydon!

On our first day out, we visited Macy’s (oh my god I love Macy’s) and went back further into our week-long stay!  Macy’s is huge and has just about everything you could ask for.  As we went in January, the sales were on – fab – and the temptation was to spend most, if not all of the spending money on clothes, Michael wouldn’t let me!

Macy’s is spread over two conjoined buildings, and has some of the oldest escalator I’ve ever seen.  Get up to the fifth floor and they’re wooden, yes wooden escalators!  The place is so huge you could quite easily spend the whole day there – and it’s easier enough done with a Starbucks, McDonalds, a pizzeria and pretzel joints to keep you going throughout the day.

If you show your passport at the customer service desk, you’ll 11% off international traveller discount card.  It’s vaid for about a month so you can use it again and again, and although the prices are generally cheaper in the US anyway, it does make a difference.    Michael got two pair of Levis at $35 each (about £20) and a Calvin Klein jumper.  I even managed to treat myself to a few bits and pieces; jeans and a gorgeous black jumper amongst other things.

Obviously New York is also famous for Bloomingdales, and we did manage to prise ourselves away from Macy’s to visit there too, but we weren’t very impressed.  It didn’t seem to have anything appealing to our age group – it seemed to cater for the older generation.  We did think perhaps we were looking in the wrong place, but scoured most of the shop and found nothing. So in our opinion – stick to Macy’s – it has something for everyone!

Helicopter Ride in NY

Statue of Liberty from the helicopter

I’d never contemplated a helicopter flight over Manhattan, so imagine my surprise when I opened up the big brown envelope (with the mandatory silver bow) on Christmas day to discover that my parent’s had bought just that for me and Micky.

We had a 15 minute flight on the Big Apple tour with Liberty Helicopters, which cost $140 each. (www.partner.viator.com/Big-Apple-Helicopter-Tour-of-New-York). My mum ordered us to sit as the front, because that’s where we’d get to see the most.

As Micky pushed his way to the front of the queue, I stood there thinking “that’s it we’re in the back of the helicopter and we won’t be able to see a thing” but they put us both as the front – result!

The flight took you all over Manhattan, from hovering over the Statue of Liberty, to Ground Zero and the Washington Bridge. It was a really clear day (luckily the best of the week) and you could see for miles.

It was an awesome experience, one we’ll never forget, and we got some really good pictures to go with it. Definitely recommend it to anyone.

Radisson Lexington

Situated on Lexington Avenue (surprisingly) and E48th Street not far from Fifth Avenue, the Radisson Lexington is ideally placed for anyone looking to be close to everything during their stay in New York.

We booked a petite room which we got to see a video tour of the room before we booked, which was enough to convince us that we’d be okay in a smallish room. We figured we probably wouldn’t be spending much time in the room anyway – far too much to see and do!

Once we’d arrived and checked in, we went up to our room in the fourth floor and dumped our bags; we looked out of the window and were confronted by a brick wall! We didn’t mind too much, it’s not like we booked a room with a view!

The room itself was big enough for us, and had a fab 32″ TV for those nights when you couldn’t sleep (jet lag meant my husband was up at 4am watching Tom & Jerry cartoons).

The hotel had a few restaurants; we only visited the Dynasty Chinese on the mezzanine floor. It was a lovely quiet place, where you could enjoy a nice, reasonably priced meal with a bottle of wine for about $60. It had a cafe downstairs which we thought about visiting for breakfast but it was a little pricey. There were plenty of cheaper alternatives just were just outside anyway. The was also the Alma Grill and a Starbucks – as if New York didn’t have enough!

We also visited the bar and had a Cosmopolitan cocktail; no idea what was in it, but we certainly wouldn’t drink it again. It was quite an expensive cocktail and we both felt a bit sick after it! We switched over to Bailey’s and were surprised by the huge quantity we were given – definitely enjoyed the Bailey’s on ice in the cosy bar!

Overall, the hotel was really nice; we didn’t have any complaints and the staff we’re pretty friendly, as were most people over there. We’d probably book the same hotel again as it was central to everything; Macy’s, Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building – what more could you want?

Honeymoon in New York

The concrete jungle that is New York

“New York – its London only bigger,” was the reaction I got when I said I was heading to the Big Apple on my honeymoon.

Living in Croydon, the ‘concrete jungle’ as it’s so kindly known, people wondered why on earth we wanted to go to New York in the middle of January when we could have gone away somewhere for some winter sun.

For us, it was a once in a life time thing; we both wanted to go so we thought why not? And after an eight month wait and an eight hour flight we were there!

London only bigger was certainly right; the buildings are bigger, and the food portions are certainly larger, but Manhattan itself is much smaller than both my husband and I imagined. Perhaps this was just because it was so easy to find your way around on foot that we didn’t feel the need to hail a cab or take the subway.

We walked everywhere, even halfway across Manhattan for our helicopter ride…more on that later!