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New York, New York


MMFy

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I've only been to the West Coast, but I assume this is across the board in the states.

Not putting VAT on any of the fooking prices.  Your restaurant bill almost doubles by the time you've factored in tax and tip.

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16 hours ago, Wainy316 said:

I've only been to the West Coast, but I assume this is across the board in the states.

Not putting VAT on any of the fooking prices.  Your restaurant bill almost doubles by the time you've factored in tax and tip.

yeah I just gave up in New York at trying to understand how much things would cost before we paid.

Just bring me the bill and tell me how much it is. I can't be arsed to work it out.

 

Definitely an expensive city though.

My sister wants a New York Rangers Jersey for xmas so I went to the NHL shop in NYC. $240 (don't know if that included tax, I didn't get far enough to find out because i aint spending that on my sister!)

Went on the NHL online shop yesterday here. £90.

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I'm bored, so here are all the things we got up to when we were there and how I'd rate them.

 

Statue of Liberty - Well worth it. Views of Manhattan from the statue and the ferry ride were superb. Statue itself is quite interesting. The museum was only half there as they're moving it which was a bit disappointing. Good photo opps

Ellis Island - I like the story of this more than the actual place. There wasn't really a whole lot to see there. A visit goes hand in hand with the statue as the ferry takes you there anyway, but it's not that amazing imo

Ground Zero - we did this as a tour. So we saw some landmarks from 9/11 like the chapel, The Occulus, the memorial fountains, the fire station tribute etc. It was all really interesting and very moving. The white roses on the names on the memorial nearly made me cry; as, surprisingly, did the story about the surviving tree :D I was freaked out by the amount of people taking smiley selfies and posed photos at the memorial. Really weird. it's not a happy place.

One World Observatory - Spectacular. I love tall buildings. Don't know why but I love being high up over a city. We did this one at night and it was incredible. If you do this or empire state I'd recommend doing one at night and one in the day as they're very different views.

Central Park - spent a good few hours wandering around. Think we covered about 6 miles in the park and did the bottom three fifths. Loads to see and beautiful views. A tour might be useful, but I just did an hour's research beforehand and plotted the major points of interest on a google map and then made a rough route myself. Good day out

The High Line - This was ok, but to be honest i think doing it in the Winter was a waste. Some good views of the city but most of the plants and flowers on the walk were obviously dead so it wasn't amazing.

Broadway - we saw Wicked. It was **** superb to be honest. I was looking forward to it, but it was way better than I thought it would be. Made even better than our VT arranged backstage tour afterwards.

Times Square - shit hole. Go for the pictures and get out.

Rockefeller - again great photo opps, but one of the busiest places I've ever been. if someone tells you they had a nice night at the Rockefeller centre at christmas then they're lying.

Empire State Building - again spectacular views. but go early. We went at about 9am, and by the time we got down the queues were insane. Queues to get in, queues to get into the first elevator, queues to get up to the next viewing platform. Insane. We were ok but if we'd been an hour later it would have been shit.

 

I think that covers it. I'm sure my reviews will be incredibly helpful. Tune in next time.

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  • 11 months later...

back from 5 days there, overall incredible place that I was slow to get in to rather than loved it from the minute I landed, was happy to leave as I was shattered by the end

stayed in Brooklyn, Williamsburg, indigo hotel, right on top of the metropolitan avenue subway station, was decent enough, not sure about cheap (is there such a thing in nyc?) there was a lot around us, a great bagel shop and restaurant choices, the supermarkets were "healthy" which was good and disappointing in equal measure, i'll be honest and say I didn't really get Williamsburg, we saw some hipsters and went to a hipster coffee shop but the whole place didn't really have a "vibe" to it or anything daft, Bedford avenue was really hit and miss too rather than a long consistent road of interesting stuff, the hotel was however a 15 minute walk to rough trade record shop which was awesome and theres a small park next to it where you can look over the river at the city

agree with the highline in winter comment, its half dead, its a decent time killing walk but its not must do for me, the most interesting thing I saw was the ridiculously big old school red brick tenement building, that made me wish id gone to the tenement museum or museum of new York whatever its called but that's not the wife's thing, did do 9/11museum, its a really cool designed building (see also the oculus) but there's also a lot of stuff in there that's not that interesting and a bit of America **** yeah stuff in there, there's the one exhibit hall that's dedicated to the time line of the attack (cant even remember what the 2nd hall is) and that's what you're paying to see and its very moving, agree about the photo stuff, same for me as Auschwitz and Hiroshima I didn't take any (I thought both of them are better museums too)

Didn't do statue of liberty as the missus had done it before, I wasn't overly fussed by it either but disappointed I couldn't fit in the staten island ferry, went to battery park for a look at it, again not particularly nice in the winter, everything dead, little Italy and Chinatown are worth a walk through but I didn't stop too long, in general I did a lot of walking, somewhere between 25k and 30k steps a day, did rockerfeller which I really enjoyed, it was crazy busy, the missus wanted that window shot...so did every other ****...pre booked so queue to get down was the longest, Macy's black Friday sale was brilliant, 25% off more or less everything followed by a 4 day special of another 30% off everything so I wasn't that fussed by it before I went but I did a lot of good shopping, 5th avenue with the decorations was good, central park my missus chased round after a horse carriage then finally got to where there was an hour long queue for one and said **** that, it was the 39th anniversary of john Lennon's death so strawberry fields was good but weird (lying down on the floor with the flowers for a photo didn't sit well with me) there were hundreds of people and a lot of people playing guitar and singing

Brooklyn was probably my favourite place, or DUMBO to be specific, the boardwalk between the 2 bridges, along the river looking at Manhattan

the one bit of new York culture I loved was the deli food bit, really liked it, the bagel shop near my hotel got 2 visits (got a egg, hash brown, sausage and bacon one and then a pastrami mustard one and threw in a peanut butter jelly one too) food in general you're spoilt for choice, halal cart hotdog was actually a lot better than I expected, couldn't find any $1 pizza but did have a couple of good slices, we thought it would be fun to go to a really tacky American chain restaurant for some shite American food so went to ruby Tuesdays...it wasn't fun, it was **** terrible, bad idea, went to shake shack in dumbo for probably the best view whilst eating a burger you'll ever have and loved it there (root beer floater ftw) did go to a tacky ropey looking run down diner for pancake breakfast and that was good 

as expected I still hate the stupid god awful American tax and tipping system, just put the **** price on things like every other country

surprisingly I also really didn't like the subway system, shocked me if im honest, the simplest way to explain it I think is that its designed for new Yorkers and not tourists, longer explanation is its difficult to navigate, very narrow both on the platforms and the access, it has stupid names for the stations, often 2 names for the same station depending on what line you're on (my hotel for example the station was both metropolitan avenue and lorimer street) it has local and express trains so stops at different stations, theres a general lack of information and maps, the direction signs on the platforms are different to the direction signs on the concourse, its absolutely filthy (I expected that) just everything about it wasn't pleasant or as easy as it could / should be, the $33 week cards were great value though

would say the people were really nice, try not to do the obvious tourist stuff like stand in the street with a map but anytime I did pull one out or get the phone out looking lost someone would stop and help, anyone I asked for directions (usually halal cart owners) were really helpful

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I think your thoughts on the metro would be my first question, trying to get the metro to strawberry fields on Sunday - 

Take the A train at station 5 av / 53 Street, trying to take it to 72 Street but took the express by mistake and ended up at 125 Street so had to get a C train local back 

Its easy to compare new York to london as they're the top 2 ranking cities in the world, the tube blows it out the water, I'm not a world wide metro season pro by any stretch but new Yorks was mental

And that's before you then throw in the platform layout, the narrow bits (Union Station walking towards the L train you're talking maybe 1.2 metre tops between the wall and a speeding train) the signs etc 

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  • 2 months later...
On 12/12/2019 at 16:17, villa4europe said:

I think your thoughts on the metro would be my first question, trying to get the metro to strawberry fields on Sunday - 

Take the A train at station 5 av / 53 Street, trying to take it to 72 Street but took the express by mistake and ended up at 125 Street so had to get a C train local back 

Its easy to compare new York to london as they're the top 2 ranking cities in the world, the tube blows it out the water, I'm not a world wide metro season pro by any stretch but new Yorks was mental

And that's before you then throw in the platform layout, the narrow bits (Union Station walking towards the L train you're talking maybe 1.2 metre tops between the wall and a speeding train) the signs etc 

Sorry just saw this lol! The subway is pretty great when you know how it works. i.e. uptown/downtown, which trains can suddenly run express or local depending any random reason (as you found with the A.) So basically it is a nightmare for anyone thats new to it ! Especially on the weekend when certain trains might even be running on different lines. Parts of it are really decrepit and once there's a problem the knock on effe ct can be brutal across the whole system. Still, I'd take it over owning a car having to drive all the time every day of the week.

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I had to rush a small bit of it the morning of the day I left, it was OK for a December day, didn't do it all just a bit of the meat packing district, can imagine in the summer with it being a bit greener it's a nice space and you could dip in and out of the stuff below it would be good, it might be worth the wait with the Hudson Yard development looking good* even if that weird viewing gallery building can get **** with the price

* I think the biggest non infrastructure construction project in the world at $25bn

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On 15/02/2020 at 10:02, chrisp65 said:

On my very long term / retirement bucket list wish list is to walk the Highline.

I’ll do that one day, but its a way off.

It's definitely worth doing, but I found it probably the most underwhelming part of my trip to New York

 

As v4e says, maybe int he summer when it's a bit greener it would be better, but I didn't think that much of it.

New York in general is fantastic though. I'm looking forward to finding an excuse to go back.

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Coming back at the start of May, just for 2 nights but most of 3 days. I've done quite a lot last time there but still plenty more I haven't obviously! Planning on going up an alternative tall building than the newest one, probably Empire State this time, and take a ferry to Liberty or Staten Island instead of viewing from Governors. Might make it to Evil Twin. Probably walk the High Line again, see how that new development has got on since my last visit. Will try to catch something on Broadway.

Any new restaurant or bar (craft beer) recommendations going? I know NYC is a place where you really need to be up to date!

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On 11/12/2019 at 09:50, villa4europe said:

the one bit of new York culture I loved was the deli food bit

not been to NY for a while but reading this thread got me nostalgia for Carneiges  .. looked at their website and its closed down since 2016   :(

 

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6 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Coming back at the start of May, just for 2 nights but most of 3 days. I've done quite a lot last time there but still plenty more I haven't obviously! Planning on going up an alternative tall building than the newest one, probably Empire State this time, and take a ferry to Liberty or Staten Island instead of viewing from Governors. Might make it to Evil Twin. Probably walk the High Line again, see how that new development has got on since my last visit. Will try to catch something on Broadway.

Any new restaurant or bar (craft beer) recommendations going? I know NYC is a place where you really need to be up to date!

Can't help on the restaurant or craft beer places suggestions.

But if you go Empire State go as early as possible. We went early on a weekday and barely had to queue. On the way down we passed the queues that had now formed and they were enormous. And lots of them. Queue to get in, queue for the first lift, queue for the second lift, queue for the observation deck etc. Get it done early.

Boat trip to liberty island well worth it in my opinion. Views of downtown Manhattan were great from there

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2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Can't help on the restaurant or craft beer places suggestions.

But if you go Empire State go as early as possible. We went early on a weekday and barely had to queue. On the way down we passed the queues that had now formed and they were enormous. And lots of them. Queue to get in, queue for the first lift, queue for the second lift, queue for the observation deck etc. Get it done early.

Boat trip to liberty island well worth it in my opinion. Views of downtown Manhattan were great from there

Last time we went to One World, probably because it was newest (and highest?). We'd booked a time slot for sunset, but barely made it because the queues were still so long, lifts and then photograph against a green screen that we didn't want and basically told them to piss off, in the nicest possible way, and ran past I think. There was even some little cinema thing they forced you about the construction - probably interesting but just wanted to see the view before sunset! Won't be trying that again.

I've just remembered about Top Of The Rock(efeller), from which you can see the Empire State building and therefore may be a better (more iconic?) view, any experience, anyone?

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35 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Last time we went to One World, probably because it was newest (and highest?). We'd booked a time slot for sunset, but barely made it because the queues were still so long, lifts and then photograph against a green screen that we didn't want and basically told them to piss off, in the nicest possible way, and ran past I think. There was even some little cinema thing they forced you about the construction - probably interesting but just wanted to see the view before sunset! Won't be trying that again.

I've just remembered about Top Of The Rock(efeller), from which you can see the Empire State building and therefore may be a better (more iconic?) view, any experience, anyone?

I did both Empire and One World. I did One World at night and Empire in the day to get two different experiences. I loved them both!

Didn't do top of the rock but would do that next time for the change

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I'm due over in Manhattan in late September with my good lady who's never been. I was there for a st Patrick day parade 15 yrs ago.

I'll be staying in midtown not far from central park (Wellington hotel...3.5 * but only bothered about using it for a base). Thing is I'm totally put off by the subway tube system although once mastered it's the best way to travel - i get that. However, i do appreciate traffic can crawl and i intend to walk loads but @TheAuthority....am i being daft by thinking a yellow cab from my hotel to the piers for east river ferry and other ferries (wall st area) is a bad idea time and expense wise ? I don't think I'll crack the tube by the time I'm due to leave (staying 5 days) and dread getting in the way of the locals at the barriers never mind boarding the wrong tube !

Thanks in advance !

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