New York New York

The Chrysler Building

New York 

How we love it! Busy and noisy and crazzzzzy! There’s so much to see and experience it's a difficult one to chop up into bite size chunks. If you haven't been before make sure you've got plenty of cash in your purse because you're expected to tip a minimum of 15-20% for anything and everything!

Hotels

Hotel on Rivington 

Its downtown, its cool, its quirky, its modern and best of all has floor to ceiling views of the city. Expensive but well worth it – check out the high floor king size room with corner tub. Goodness gracious me! 

60 Thompson 

Right in the heart of SohHo, this is small boutique style hotel. Sophisticated and sensual accomodation, fabulous roof deck, bar and restaurant and right in the heart of where it all goes on. Highly recommended.

Restaurants

The most popular restaurants don’t take reservations so past 7.30-8:00 expect to wait either in a queue or at the bar until your name is called for a table. Zzzzz......

Tre 

173 Ludlow St (Between E Houston and Stanton St on trendy Shoreditch of NY - the Lower East side). Tre is an intimate and friendly Italian offering excellent contemporary but home-styled fayre. 

Also close by; Schlinders and Spitzer. 

Blue Ribbon Sushi betw. Prince & Spring

The original (and still the best) sushi restaurant in NY offering the freshest fish this side of the Pond. Sit at the bar and watch sushi chefs prepare your dishes to order. Simply fishtastic!

Comfort Diner 

Best for a traditional American-style breakfast – endless pancakes, eggs, hash browns and all kinds of yummy comfort food. These guys have portion control issues. 

Bubbys Pie Co 

Yum + yum + yum. Amazing food + much more than pies! Fantastic for brunch. Very busy so get there early.

Café

Once Upon a Tart 

We like the NY café culture although there's never anywhere to sit! Try their carrot cake or giant muffins and be impressed by the huge choice of posh teas. 

Bar/Club 

Cocktails at The Campbell Apartment  – it’s basically in Grand Central and has the best Cosmos we could find (+ we tried a few). 

Champagne brunches @ Il Bastardo in Chelsea THE new big thing – all you can drink of the sparkly stuff + huge portions of deliciousness. Its the way forward.

Sightseeing 

Staten Island Ferry 

See the ‘tiny’ Statue of Liberty at your liberty (Ma’am) and minus the tourist hordes. Great photo ops and all for the bargain price of $0. YAY!

Hell’s Kitchen flea market 

America’ most famous outdoor urban flea market (so they say) – bargains galore! Weekends only – get there early!

MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) 

Home to a vast array of artworks from every discipline – check the site for upcoming exhibits

Free on Fridays 4pm-8pm but you will queue (for a long time so we didn’t bother) 

Central Park 

Ice skating in the evening on Wollman Rink or dinner at The Loeb Boathouse (v. romantic!)

Rockefeller Center  

Not one for vertigo sufferers. For one of the greatest views you’ll ever experience, zip up 70 floors in glass floored and ceilinged elevator to the Top of the Rock! Less tourists than the Empire State + you get to appreciate the iconic building itself ‘cos you’re not on top of it! 

Shopping

Bloomingdales (www.bloomingdales.com), Barney’s (www.barneys.com), Saks (www.saksfifthavenue.com) and Bergdorf Goodman (www.bergdorfgoodman.com).

Need we say more??

Other highlights

The Chrysler Building (swoon), walking over Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, Williamsburg, Grand Central Station, Christopher St for the Stonewall Inn (its a bit of a dump but its where it all started girls), wandering in Little Italy, Chinatown, Tribeca, and Greenwich,  Soho shopping (Prince + Spring Sts), 5^th Avenue shopping, The Bowery Hotel (have a drink in the bar – home to a million Hollywood memories including Sid + Nancy’s drug fuelled demise and where Jack Kerouac’s scribed his classic masterpiece ‘On the Road’). 

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