New York City Travel - It Has Everything

Manhattan, which is an island, is one of the 5 boroughs of New York City (NYC). It is the mecca of American business and luxury. Manhattan is home to some of the finest hotels in the world and features some of the best restaurants one could ever hope to eat at. There is so much to see and do in this great city.

We have visited this wonderful place more than 200 times!!! I wish I could have written about all my visits here – there are so many great stories to relate. Oh well, as the saying goes, “it is better late than never”.

Usually when we travel to familiar places, we do not plan our trip much in advance, although we have a good idea as to what we want to do. Given that our visit to Manhattan was after a hectic 2 weeks in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, we decided to take it easy!!

This time we stayed in the very center of the city on Broadway and 66th Street at a super location called the Philips Club. This club affords its members ownership in a luxurious home in Manhattan Through the concept of fractional ownership. Our close friends and relatives, who own one of these homes were kind enough to let us stay in their property!!! It is very close to Times Square which is one of the most happening places in NYC. Manhattan has avenues going from north to south, and streets going from east to west. Some of the famous avenues are; Madison, Park, Lexington and Broadway.

Central Park

I usually start my day with a walk in Central Park situated just one block from where we stayed. Romanie usually gets up late, so I tend to go on my own. It is difficult to fathom that there is such a big park right in the center of the city. One sees people from all walks of life enjoying the beauty of this magnificent park. People come there for all kinds of leisure activities like; walking, jogging and cycling mainly for exercise, Having picnics with loved ones and family, Just sitting on benches that line the park and watching the world go by, watching the many acts of entertainment that goes on all the time, getting portraits done within minutes by street artists, etc., etc. There is literally something for everyone to do at Central Park!!

Times Square

We tend to go for walks quite a bit when we visit NYC. Our favorite place is Times Square, where anything and everything happens!! There are so many eating options – our favorite being eating from the many street food vendors. Some of them are very famous with lines forming to get food from them. Just to sit at a way side in the outdoors at a way side restaurant sipping coffee or beer and eating whatever you fancy is a great way to unwind, relax and enjoy!! Times Square is very active literally 24 hours every day. We tend to go there after dinner to enjoy all kinds of night activities!! By the way it is very safe as long as you are aware of your surroundings.

Broadway Shows

Going for at least one Broadway Show is on our itinerary each time we visit Manhattan. We have seen many shows over the years. We usually make our decisions based on reviews to be found on the internet. We tend to go to the theatre the previous day and buy from the theatre’s box office. There are all kinds of options to buy theatre tickets on the internet. Also, there is a booth right on Times Square where tickets are sold at much reduced rates on a last minute basis. In this last visit we saw the Carlole King musical called Beautiful and the Andrew Lloyd Webber show called The School of Rock – we highly recommend both!!

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Over the years we have seen most of the many attractions throughout Manhattan and its vicinity. This time around we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The sheer size of the Statue of Liberty and its beauty, situated strategically at the mouth of the great Hudson River is truly awesome. Hearing about the hardships endured by the early poor immigrants to the USA and getting to know the process they went through once they got to Ellis Island was so amazing and educational to the two of us.

Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden

This time around we got lucky – we got to see Billy Joel, one of our favorites, perform live at the Madison Square Garden arena.

It was such a great experience! Merely being at the arena was thrilling – it was our first visit to Madison Square Garden. Seeing such a huge crowd having a great time was unforgettable.

Listening to Billy Joel singing his classics such as Uptown Girl, Piano Man and The Longest Time was so cool!!!

It was amazing so see so many ardent Billy Joel fans who seemed to know most of the lyrics of all of the songs he sang!!

Eating Out

Last but not least, we love to dine out when wherever we are, especially when we are in NYC. It is so nice to be able to do what we love doing!! Let us tell you about a few nice places we ate at;

Café Boulud on E76th Street, a super French restaurant where we met up with some of my close business associates and had a sumptuous meal with a few glasses of fine red wine!!

Bar Boulud situated very close to Lincoln Center where the food was super and the close relatives we had lunch with meant that we had a great time!!

Spice Harmony a highly rated Indian Restaurant at E50th Street, where the food tasted really authentic.

Appleby’s, a well-known chain food outlet where I enjoyed a really succulent steak.

Land, another highly rated restaurant serving delectable Thai cuisine. Both of us had a leisurely dinner at Land.

Basso 56, a fantastic Italian restaurant. Italian cuisine happens to be one of my favorites.

The above is meant to be sampling of the thousands of eating options available throughout the city. I tend to research mainly on Trip Advisor as to where we should go each night. I would urge everyone to look at several reviews of any restaurant you choose, if you do research in the web, just to make sure. You will be pleasantry surprised that price does not necessarily determine how good a place is. Researching can be very rewarding especially when you come across gems!!

The time you have seems to be never enough when visiting Manhattan. Make the most of it when you get there.