As some of you may know from our social media posts I took an impromptu trip to meet up with the rest of my Travelista Life crew back in November. When I say impromptu, I mean I decided to meet them in New York from Denver at 6pm the night before. I booked my ticket at 7p.m. and was gone at 4 a.m. a few hours later. It was getting close to the holidays and I was a bit unsure about spending the money but I am glad I did. Unplanned trips always turn out to be the best! It was promised by the rainbow I saw out of the window upon arrival.
With this post not only do I want to fill you in on our trip, but I also want to provide you with quick tips that will help you get through New York in a New York minute.
Before I start in on that I wanted to fill you in on a random but helpful tip. Always carry cash with you while you are in New York City. You would be surprised how often you run into cash only places. The places are usually hole in the wall type places but sometimes those are the best and you don't want to miss out because you are too far from an ATM. Ok, now that I got that important tip out of the way we can proceed with the main part of this blog post. :)
1. Arrival in JFK Airport
New York has many options when it comes to deciding which airport to fly into. The most popular ones are JFK and LaGuardia. On this last trip I flew into JFK. It is an airport that is fairly easy to navigate but there are a few things that I find to be tricky.
The cheapest way to get to the city is through the subway system. In order to get to the subway system look for signs leading you to the AirTrain. I followed the signs and some how ended up in the corner of the airport. Maybe I was tired but the arrows did point me the wrong way. If this happens to you you can always ask someone to point you the right direction. Once you find where to board the AirTrain it will connect you to Metropolitan Transit Authority’s A train at Howard Beach, or the giant Jamaica transportation hub, where you will find the Long Island Rail Road, plus the E, J and Z trains. It is helpful to figure out which stop best suits you before boarding the train. I almost ALWAYS get confused on whether to get off at Howard Beach or Jamaica station. It costs $5 to ride the AirTrain. You must purchase a MetroCard with $5 to pass through the turnstiles. If you have cash there are vendors standing by the turnstiles you can pay and get through quicker. If you intend on using the subway systerm afterwards, it might be worth just purchasing one from the kiosks so you don't have to bother stopping again to load credit onto your MetroCard. The MetroCard is not free
It cost $5 to use the AirTrain and $2.50 per ride on the subway. Sometimes stops have the same name, which I also fell for this time around. I got off a few stops to early and was completely lost. Luckily, I was not lost for long, I just turned right back around and caught another train. It did put me out an extra fare of $2.50. Not the most costly tourist mistake in the world.
2. Subway v. Taxi
Both the subway and yellow taxis are iconic of New York City. The subway is almost always going to be the cheaper option but if you are traveling a shorter distance with 3-4 people a taxi is going to be cheaper. With the subway you will not have to compete for one, maybe a little during high traffic times, and you can also avoid the traffic the New York is famous for. It is a tourist's best friend.
Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard
Buy as many rides as you want:
At a station booth: from $5.50 to $80* At a MetroCard Vending Machine: from $5.50 to $80*
Put $5.50 or more on your card and receive a 5 percent bonus. For example, a $20 purchase gives you $21.00 on your card. Refill your card to use the balance.
You get an automatic free transfer between subway and bus, or between buses.
Helpful tip: The MetroCards do cost a $1 so if you plan to come back before the expiration date printed on the back and save yourself a little bit of money, save your MetroCard.
If you choose to take Taxis everywhere it will be slightly more comfortable, not necessarily cleaner than the subway, but it will take less effort to get from point A to point B. The Travelista Life crew and friends always prefer to walk when we can and take in the sites. We saw much of the city on foot, this is often how we get our exercise in while traveling. Having a subway system that will take you pretty much anywhere in the city is just a bonus we take advantage of in any
city.
3. Food, Food, and more Food
New York is known for so many things and the variety of food is one of the biggest categories. It is a city of many cultures therefore, has so many places to try.
TAO DOWNTOWN
The day we arrived, we had dinner reservation. Reservations are crucial in New York if you plan on going to a restaurant. One of our companions on the trip had a good friend that got us in at Tao Downtown. There we celebrated our Chantel's birthday and it was one to remember. We got a little bit of the V.I.P. treatment (it is all about who you know #thanksadam), that treatment included a delicious spread of food, drinks, and the gorgeous, not to mention delicious dessert tower pictured above (top left). The food consisted of a mixture of Asian dishes and the dessert of exotic fruits, mochi, and mousses, not to mention the GIANT fortune cookie on the top. We even got to see Turtle on a night out, Entourage fans should know who that is.
After dinner we were escorted to a private elevator around the corner that took us to Doctors night club that had a beautiful view from the corner panoramic windows. It was mid November, therefore a bit chilly but we couldn't help ourselves but check out the view from the outside patio.
Helpful tip: Be mindful of your location and if you are on a tight budget be sure to ask about drink prices. We accidentally paid $40 per drink at that specific location. Drinks are pricey in NYC as is but it doesn't hurt to ask how expensive they are.
After our visit to Doctors we went back to Tao to check out the night club. Tao nightclub had an awesome environment. It was intimate but the vibe they created with the decor and music was fun and lively with a high-end feel to it. We all like to feel fancy sometimes. I can go on all day about the great experience we had that night.
Helpful tip: If you happen to get a drink voucher to use, we would not suggest letting the bar tender see it immediately. I'm sure it depends on the bartender but they tend to skip over you to help the paying customers and you may never get helped. It is a shame, our bartender made a rude comment about intentionally skipping over us.
Chelsea Market
If you like food, like we do Chelsea Market is a must! (Pictured bottom left) It is a market place of walk up restaurants making all different kinds of food. WARNING for the indecisive: this place will make it nearly impossible to make a decision on what to eat. Traveling a group made it easier to try different things everyone ordered but if you are traveling with fewer people it might require a couple visits. If you can't make multiple visits, don't worry there are things to try all over New York so don't spend all your time here.
BTW: The font I chose for this post is called Chelsea Market. It seemed appropriate. :)
Joe's Pizza
I don't really have to say much about this place because Nicole covered it in her post ( read more at North AmericaNew York: Joe's Pizza !!!-). But all you need to know is that we frequented it....a lot! Everyday to be exact. When in Rome!
Pana II
This place was so magical and the photo was delicious. It is known mostly for it's atmosphere of layers and layers of Christmas lights that create a magical place to dine (Pictured: bottom right). It is very small so if you are claustrophobic I do not recommend going here. If you are in the area or love the idea of the lights, it is worth a try.
Pasticceria Rocco
This was a bakery we just stumbled upon (pictured: bottom middle). We we are so glad we did! I know in Chantel wrote about this place in her post about New York so I'm not going to go into too much detail but everything we had there was sooo good! There were so many options so you will probably buy more than you planned on but take some for later. To read more about this post go to Chantels post at Lobster Tails and Bridges.
Totto
I don't now about you but we looove us some good Ramen. My last night there we decided we were going to find a recommend ramen place. We arrived at one Tottos but the wait was about an hour. We put our names in but we were all pretty hungry so we searched to see if there was another one near by. We were in luck! There was one about 15 minutes away that had room for us. I had the curry ramen (pictured: top middle), yum ! The servings are very big so most of us couldn't finish our food. I highly recommend sharing if you aren't a big eater.
4. The Sites
When you think of the tourist attractions in NYC first things that come to mind are Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Wall Street, to name a few. Although that would be a lot of ground to cover they are possible to see in one day. We saw most of these places in one day plus some because we walked much of the way and if you stay in a certain path they you end up running into most. Rather than seeing The Statue of Liberty up close we were okay with seeing it at a distance from Battery Park.
We opted out of going to the top of the Empire State Building and went to The Top of the Rock instead. You must buy tickets for a specific time, so we bought one of the last times of the day to insure a night view of the city as featured in the photo above, and to avoid the big crowds. We recommend doing the same if possible.
Another thing we recommend, if you have it in you, is to visit time square around 1a.m. Every time I have been there it is impossible to take a photo without one hundred tourist in the background. When we made a late night visit before leaving in the morning we were able to take some awesome photos without all the background tourists. I even got a chance to use my pinhole camera I bought well I was there at Lomography (for all you photo nerds). It was worth the lack of sleep!
5. Leaving The Big Apple
As we have mentioned before in other posts, I had a really early flight out of JFK that Sunday. After our 2a.m. visit to Time Square and our trek back to our hotel, there was not much time for sleep. We had did so many fun things that weekend there really wasn't much time to sleep. We love to "carpe diem". :)
I had to head to the airport around 5 a.m. to catch an 8:30a.m. flight. I figured I could sleep an extra 15 minutes since the subway connected to our hotel would take me to the line I needed. I instantly regretted sleeping those extra few minutes because I had to take a convoluted way to the train. As I approached the platform up a set of stairs I heard a train approaching, it didn't appear to be mine so I hesitated. Unfortunately, I it was mine and I missed it by a half second. Turns out my train wasn't going to be by for another 1.5 hours according to display next to me. I decided to wait around after asking a gentleman with a suitcase next to me if he was also going to JFK. I decided to take my chances and have faith in him being right about another train arriving within the next 45 minutes. If it was any later or if there were any delays along the way I would definitely miss my plane.
All the stars aligned and I made it to the airport in time, with just enough time to make it through security and get to my gate before it closed. I thought I was out of the woods as long as I ran. So I ran, and ran, and ran some more...my gate was sooo far away. I even had to exit the airport and take a walking path to get there. Finally, I had made it. I could see my gate from the security line. For some reason I saw no signs of people rushing to the gate. That was either a really good sign or a really bad sign. I got through security and to my gate to find that we were delayed 45 minutes. There are not many times in my life that I am greatful for delays, but this was one of them.
Moral of the long story is, don’t sleep for an extra 15 minutes even when you are sleep deprived. You never know how frequent the trains run at off times. Silly me, I thought 5 am would be a normal time to rub trains frequently but I was sure wrong.
Always give yourself plenty of time when leaving New York, if you aren’t a local things do get tricky and confusing so you will be greatful you had a few extra minutes to figure it out.
Coming from Manhattan be sure to transfer at Jamaica Sation to get to the AirTrain. Some lines are confusing because they have JFK as a stop at the end but I assure you that is not the one you want. I have fallen for that before and had to take a huge detour.
Look out for more posts from my trip back to New York this April. Suggestions or comments welcome for stuff you want to read about.