The big apple

I always wanted to go to New Year City, so for my 21st birthday my mum surprised me with a 4 day trip to the big apple!

We stayed in a hotel called The Wellington Hotel which was on 7th Avenue right in the middle of the famous Central Park and Times Sqaure! The hotel was amazing, really comfy beds, amazing location and helpful staff. The price was also very good for a double room for 3 nights we paid £150 (We visited in August).

Day 1
When we arrived in New York we took a taxi to our hotel, checked in, dumped our bags and headed straight to Central Park.

Central Park was huge and so beautiful! Everywhere you looked you saw someone running or riding a bike! We walked for miles trying to find where we could hire a bike and after walking around for about an hour we finally found them! (Located near Central Park Zoo).

(From left to right: My sister, step dad and mum. By the way, the big cream hotel in the background is the The Park Plaza Hotel from Home Alone 2 – Lost in New York)

So we had our bikes, now we decided to bike the whole of Central Park. (Bare in mind its 6.1 miles all the way around – and it was between 24-27 degrees heat. HOT!)

After a long day travelling and biking around Central Park we decided to head for something to eat and to have an early night ready for another big day. We ate at a restaurant called Benash Delicatessen which was right next door to our hotel. The food was really good, massive portions (as you could imagine). I really wanted some of their amazing cheese cake but unfortunately I was way too full.

Day 2

Day 2 we decide to get up early and have a long day sight seeing. Before we went to New York we booked various trips so that we didn’t need to do it whilst we were there (We booked theses trips through Thomas Cook travel agents). We booked a water boat trip to see the Statue of Liberty, tickets to go to Top of the Rock and tickets to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant.

We decided to to do the boat trip first which lasted about an hour.The boat set off down East River under Brooklyn bridge towards Governors Island where the Statue of Liberty was situated. After doing 360 turns near the Statue of Liberty so that everyone could take pictures we travelled down the Hudson River past the Battery Park and the One World Trade Centre. We also went past the famous yacht and docking platform that was used in the Wolf of Wall Street film when the cops visit him on his yacht. We then turned around and headed back to our docking station of pier 15.

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After departing the boat we decided to grab some breakfast and have a walk down the famous Wall Street. From Wall Street we walked to the 9/11 memorial which was very airy. There was a 9/11 museum however we decided to walk back to our hotel to freshen up ready to visit Top of the Rock and Hard Rock Cafe.

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After freshening up we headed to Top of the Rock, we headed there while it was still light so that we could see New York by day light and as the sun set to night. There were three floors at the top that you could enter to set the amazing views of Central Park, the Empire State building, all the sky scrappers and the East River looking over to Brooklyn and Long Island. You could stay at the top for however long you wanted however we only stayed for about an hour to watch the sun set as it was soooo busy!

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From Top of the Rock we headed through Times Square to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner! We had a three course meal at Hard Rock Cafe which was so nice! BBQ ribs, steak, chicken, burgers and amazing desserts, such as cheese cake, brownies, cake and more! We were that full from our starters and mains we had to take dessert back to the hotel with us!

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Day 3

On day 3 we decided to go shopping. We decided to visit Woodbury Shopping Outlet which was actually in Garden City so we caught the bus there. It took about 45-60 minutes to get there and once you got there you got given a booklet with discount tickets in for different shops. The outlet had hundreds of shops such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Adidas, UGG, Gucci,, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Converse and Nike. We spent a whole day shopping and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for our final night.

We decided to eat somewhere nice for our last night so we decided to eat at a steak, seafood and oyster bar. The restaurant was called Redeye Grill . It was pretty fancy inside and the food was amazing. I had a steak that was as big as my head! The best steak id ever eaten!

After dinner we decided to buy some souvenirs from the gifts shops and head down to Times Square one last time!

Day 4

Day 4 (Our last day *cries*) we decided to have a walk around New York and have a look in some of the shops such as Macy’s. Macy’s was amazing and had sooo many nice expensive things that I would have loved to of brought however I had spent the majority of my money at Woodbury and in Urban Outfitters and Zara. I did however buy some Mac make up which was a really good price! After Macy’s we headed back to Central Park and visited Central Park Zoo. The zoo wasn’t huge but it had enough animals such as sea lions, bears, monkeys, penguins and other smaller animals. After the zoo we decided to lay in the sun in Central Park before heading back to the hotel to catch our taxi to the airport.

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After all the fun in the sun in New York we were well and truly shattered but that didn’t mean we wanted to leave. New York is such an amazing place and I will definitely be visiting again very soon. I’m so happy I visited in summer however I would like to visit in winter too for the amazing Christmas lights and the ice rink in Central Park.

I hope you enjoyed my blog on my trip to New York and please comment if you have any questions!