New York you biscuit!

The gov, my wife, and I recently went on a trip to New York as part of a family vacation. We were fortunate enough to get some voyager miles from the family which meant all our flights were taken care of. All we had to do was pay for the hotel and all the odds and ends. So we broke open the piggy bank, counted our pennies and booked a special that Expedia had on offer to the New York Palace.

A long flight later and with very little sleep we arrived at JFK airport and caught a shuttle to our hotel.

WOW!!!

We arrived at the hotel and were immediately upgraded to a better room by the guy at the front desk as it was our first and probably last visit to the hotel and to New York. The view left us speechless...

St Patricks Cathedral

Eager to pound the pavement, we dumped our bags and headed straight across the road to the Cathedral for a look inside. The beauty of the place was absolutely incredible. When I looked across at the gov, she was actually crying. Naturally I apologised for whatever I must have done wrong but she was simply caught up in the place.

We probably averaged 10 to 15km day and night. Apparently there are places to avoid late at night but we never found them and walked around, quite happily, at midnight. By using the subway we covered most of the island in four days. We went to the Rockefeller Centre which lets you know, very quickly, how big and busy New York actually is.

The view of Central Park from the Top of the Rock.

We watched the Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show on Broadway, from front row seats after the Gov batted her eyelids at the cashier who promptly gave us 50% off. We walked Central Park which can easily take an entire day to get around. Visited the Raging Bull in Wall Street and the Twin towers site. We walked through Times Square at night which is a site to behold! There's enough advertising there to make a life long vegetarian head straight to Mickey D's!

Times Square

We took the Statten Island Ferry which goes past the Statue of Liberty and gave us some great pictures. Its free and fitted into my Scottish budget very well. For those who are travelling with their wives, girlfriends and/or secretaries do you best to avoid a place called Macy's. This place is like Gateway Shopping Centre on Steroids! 3 hours later, an extremely happy gov emerged followed by myself lugging plenty of shopping bags. A good place for some bargain shopping though.

We witnessed New York turn green as they celebrated St Patricks Day. We watched the parade for hours until our feet started to hurt. As the saying goes, you're either Irish or you wish you were Irish!

New York's finest on parade

We learnt the hard way that they don't include Vat in their advertised prices which is roughly 10%. Now, when you add this to the fact that waiters expect 15 - 20% tips on the bill, this means that you can add 25 - 30% to the price of everything when you eat out.

If you enjoy a beer or two your in for a bit of a shock. A beer at the bar at our hotel was going for $10 ex Vat which certainly did not fit into my Scottish budget. The best option I found was to buy them at the Smileys Deli where they went for $2.20 which is roughly R15.

Food is bit more expensive and they are crafty about getting a few extra dollars out of you. We sat at a burger restaurant and ordered a "Traditional American Cheeseburger" which was advertised at $5. I could only raise my eyebrow at what arrived. A roll, patty and a slice of cheese. When I inquired about the tomato, lettuce, onion etc I was then told that these were $1 each and when you added some fries too the meal, it came to about $10 each. Then add Vat and the tip which came to $12.50 a meal. Sneaky Russians!

One thing I must add is the overall friendliness of the New York people. Sure there were a few cheeky/rude bartenders and waiters which we had read about on Tripadvisor but every time we stopped on the street to check our map, someone would come up to us and ask if we needed assistance. Being from South Africa we naturally grabbed our backpack and wallets and prepared to be mugged but no. Just genuinely friendly people just wanting to help. Respect.
Prices aside it was unbelievable trip and we would go back tomorrow. Someone said to me that you can never describe New York to a person who hasn't been there. You have to go. He was quite right.