The "hicks" are back from our most delightful 4 days in NYC. We were so lucky 'cause the weather was nice after the big rains and now it looks like it is going to turn bad again. We flew Jet Blue and were impressed. Loved the extra leg room.

We arrived at our upper west side hotel around 8 pm on Saturday. It was so beautiful outside and we walked around the area, located Zabars and the nearest subway station. Started out early on Sunday and took the subway downtown where we took the dd bus to get acquainted with the city.

Won't bore you with all the details, but thanks to all of you we weren't intimidated and just had the best time. We saw a lot of the places that we had on our must see list.

Yesterday was such a lovely, warm day. We walked down Central Park West, spent some time in the park and because we wanted to have our main meal at lunch time started looking for a place to eat. We found such a nice place at 72nd and Columbus. The Columbus Grill. It was quiet, with tasteful background music. Just the respite we needed from the hustle and bustle of the city. The food was top notch and $30 for both of us. I highly recommend it.

Thanks so much to all of you for your excellent input. I'm sure we will be back before long.

As another person who has always been intimidated by the thought of visiting NYC, I'd be interested in more details!

Lee Ann

Lee Ann:

I would be happy to give you more details about my own experience, but you would probably get better information by clicking on my Author Name and look for my original post entitled Intimidated by NYC. Because of all the great information I got, we decided to make the trip.

I also copied 8 pages of past posts on the subject of New York City.

Everywhere we went we were treated very well. Several times we asked people on the street for directions and they were more than willing to help us out.

Lee Ann

Sorry, I posted the above by mistake before I was through.

I read Fodor's Guide Book and felt really prepared before I left. Because of the Fodorites I believed that it was easy to get around town. We traveled by subway mostly, but took a taxi once and the bus once. No problems.

I'm so happy that I got over my fear and made the trip. Hope you will also.

Glad it all worked out and I'd love to hear more details also!

I too would like to hear a few more details. Specifically, were you happy with your hotel (the Beacon?), the upper westside? How did the cab from the airport work out? Did you stay at an airport hotel on the last night? If yes, which one? How was it? What was the highlight of the trip? What would you do differently next time? Thanks. It's only with feedback that we can help the next person a bit better. ;)

We loved the upper west side. Stayed at On the Ave Hotel and liked it very much. Because we booked late there were not a lot of hotels to choose from. It was quite expensive. Staff could not have been more helpful. Room small, but clean. We liked coming back to that area at the end of the day where it was a bit more quiet and less crowded.

We were very impressed with organized taxi system at JFK. Waited for probably about 5 minutes. Since it was 7 p.m. on Sat., traffic was light, so took about 40 minutes. So exciting seeing the skyline when we came over the bridge! The trip back to the airport was also problem free.

Stayed at the Holiday Inn at JFK and was pleasantly surprised that it was quite nice. Staff efficient and businesslike. The shuttle to the airport was right on time. Runs every half hour in early morning hours.

One of the most interesting things to me in the city was at the Guggenheim Museum, where, on each level, the restrooms are for one person. What on earth could they have been thinking??

We went to the Empire State Building about 4:30 in the afternoon and it took an hour to get to the top. We stayed to see a magnificent sunset and then the lights of the city. Very nice.

What would we do differently? We went to MOMA, the Guggenheim and Museum of Natural History and I think I would have traded one of them for the Circle Line Boat trip instead. I also would have planned in advance for exactly what I wanted to see at the Natural History Musuem. It is overwhelming and we spent too much time figuring out what we really wanted to see and making our way from one area to another. We were there when it opened, but so were busloads of school children.

What was the highlight? I think for me it was just being part of the city scene on our first evening on the upper west side. For my husband it was riding the subway.

Four days is a very short time to try to do what we would have liked to do, but we enjoyed every minute. I would have liked to have spent more time in Central Park. I loved seeing St. Patricks and the nearby Public Library. Am sure that a guided tour of both of those would have been wonderful. Maybe next time. We had a nice overview of the city and will have to go back to see it in more depth.

By the way, what's with all the honking? How does a driver know if they are the one being honked at and what are they supposed to do? I noticed that there were signs about being fined for honking. Is that just at that particular street corner?

This has been so sweet.....reliving my trip. Thanks to all.