We had a week of free time in New York and needed every second of it. The city is huge but not difficult to get around.
We spent a lot of time in and around the centre of New York that was walking distance from our hotel in Time Square.
We visited the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Time Square, Broadway, Central Park,5th Avenue shops including Tiffany's, the Apple Store, the Trump building, Modern Art Museum among other things such as the Toy's R Us Store and Century 21 shopping centre.
We also took a bus trip out to the Woodbury Common to shop at the Outlet Centre. It was quite an experience. It was an hour's drive out of New York and the stores are fairly spread out so there is a lot of walking involved between shops. People were arriving with empty full size suitcases to store all of their purchases. There were some good deals and my favourite Izod shop was there. It took us two hours to get back into New York with traffic hold ups so it was a huge day.
Because we were located centrally in Time Square we opted to walk to most places and caught a cab if there was a lot of distance involved.
No trip would be complete without a Broadway Show so we went to see "Jersey Boys"which we all enjoyed.
Our organised tours were a half day city tour which gave us a good overview of the city and included a harbour cruise where we got to see the Statue of Liberty. We also booked an organised tour of Brooklyn which gave us a good overview of Brooklyn and Coney Island.
There were a multitude of Restaurants to choose from for dinner so we ate mainly around Time Square so we could easily walk home afterwards. By the end of the week we worked out that the restaurants just out of Time Square about 8th and 9th avenue were much quieter and cheaper.
I loved the hype of New York. It is very noisy - full of rushing traffic and people. Everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. Once I got a grip on the pace and noise I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I never at any time felt unsafe and there was a lot of police presence in the streets which was comforting. People were friendly and helpful with directions.
I still had difficulty with the concept of tipping. It is second nature to Americans but I found it very off putting to have to ensure that the tipping amounts were correct as there are optional rules depending on the service provided.
Our hotel accommodation at the Staybridge was good with friendly helpful staff. Our rooms were good with the exception of a small bathroom and inadequate wardrobe space. The full laundry self service was free as was breakfast every day. Wednesday and Thursday evenings they have a happy hour period between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock where free food and drinks are served. The food was not top of the range but adequate for complimentary service. We were walking distance from Time Square so we appreciated our stay there.
It is hard to imagine the damage that hurricane Sandy left behind in all the areas that we visited. I have seen documentaries of the storm which was unbelievable - especially in the Brooklyn and New Jersey districts. We were so lucky that we were home safe and sound when that happened.
