New York is probably my favourite place I’ve been to, the sights, sounds and smells make this one of the most immersive and impressive places I’ve been. As soon as we left, I wanted to go back, and really missed being there!
As such, this is the first of a few different posts I’ll do about New York – here I’ll focus on some general hints and tips for a first timer, but in other posts I’ll also explore some hidden gems, the best rooftop bars and a couple of hacks for seeing some of the sights easier (and cheaper) than you might expect!
Getting to Manhattan
Our flight with Virgin Atlantic took us from Manchester to JFK, and by the time we’d cleared immigration it was almost rush hour as we embarked on our journey to Manhattan. We joined the taxi queue at the airport and got a yellow cab right to our door – it’s a flat fare of $52 to Manhattan (plus a $4.50 surcharge at peak times) plus tips – it worked out around $65-70 for us. We chose this option for it’s ease, given it was our first time in NYC we just wanted to get to the apartment as easily as possible. However, when it came to our return journey, and having spent a few days in New York, we decided we didn’t need to do the same to get back, and opted for the train. Our 7-day subway pass (more later on this) got us to Jamaica Station, where we then switched to the Air Train for less than $8 – OK we had to lug our suitcases down to the subway and on to the trains, but for the cost saving it’s a really simple and pretty quick way to travel, so if you’re on a budget, I’d definitely go for it. If you’re just arriving in NYC simply reverse the trip – get the AirTrain to JFK before switching to the right subway line for where you’re staying.
Where to stay
Whenever I’m looking for somewhere to stay when we go away, I always start by falling into the habit of sorting by distance to ‘city centre’ – in New York I’d advise the opposite. As a first timer you’ll more than likely still want to be in Manhattan (though next time we go back I’m definitely going to spend a bit more time in Brooklyn), however, I’d stay away from the Times Square area the city. Whilst overrun with hotels, it’s also the epicenter of tourism, and a manic place at most times of the day. You’ll obviously want to see it, but we found it so nice to get back to our more relaxed neighbourhood on an evening (we stayed in the Greenwich Village area in a typical brownstone apartment we found on Airbnb. It just meant we could start and end our day a little more relaxed, and had a place to escape the busy areas. Just make sure you’re not too far from a subway station and you’ll be fine!
Walk (almost) everywhere
I think we averaged about 25,000 steps a day on our trip to New York – there is so much to look at around every corner that you just find yourself walking loads. That said, I’d definitely advise buying a subway ticket (different types depending on how long you’re there for – pay per ride ($2.75), unlimited or 7-day passes) – we were there for 5 days, but definitely got our monies worth from a $32 7-day pass. But, as I said, we also did a lot of walking. We split our time in NYC up into different areas, simply plotting out on google maps all the places we wanted to see or visit that day, and then looking at the best route to walk between them – it definitely helped and is advised! In fact, I wouldn’t advise going to NYC without at least a rough plan of what you want to see and do every day – for any advice on itineraries, just drop me a comment!
Happy hours
New York is still one of the most expensive cities in the world, and as such, any opportunity to save money (for a tight Yorkshireman as myself) is most welcomed! We found most bars tended to offer a happy hour (or 3), usually between around 4-7pm where beers, wines and mixers tended to be discounted. After being on your feet for 7 or 8 hours, the site of a happy hour bar was like heaven most days, and definitely worth taking advantage of.
Tipping
Talking about cost brings me to the art of tipping in New York, which is simply a way of life you’ll need to adapt to if you don’t do it regularly already. There are plenty of recommendations out there for how much to tip, and when, but for what we needed here are a few simple guides…
- Taxis – rounded up to the nearest $5/$10
- Restaurants – around 20% as standard
- Bars – if table service then similar to restaurants, if bar service then we found either rounding to the nearest dollar, or a $1-$2 tip a round did the trick
There are plenty of other scenarios you may find yourself needing to tip in – particularly if staying in a hotel (bellhops, maids, doorman etc) but as we were in an AirBnb, the above got us by fine.
Storing luggage
This last one might seem a bit of a weird one, but we were staying in an apartment and had to be out by 11am, but didn’t fly until later in the afternoon, so wanted to make the most of our final day (which we did – brunch at Tavern on the Green is a must. However, we had 2 suitcases with us, so needed to store them somewhere. I’d planned roughly where we’d need to be later in the day to get back to JFK, and set about a google search. I found a company called Luggage Heroes we simply found a local business near to where we’d be, and booked our bags in. Leaving them at a dry cleaners for 6 hours felt a bit weird, but we collected them absolutely fine, and for around $12-14 it was money well spent.
Be sure to check back in the future to find out more about NYC, and if you have any questions or comments just let me know!
Hidden Gem Travels 