We – a couple - visited New York in late December 2007. This is not a blow by blow report but some comments and observations on what we did. It was not our first trip to NYC so we were able to do some things that a first time visitor might not.

We flew BA from London to JFK arriving late afternoon. The flight was uneventful and would have been right on time except that we were kept sitting on the tarmac for over 20 minutes waiting for a gate to come free. The immigration and customs checks were pleasingly quick and easy although we were lucky to be early off the plane as there was a long line building up behind us. The immigration official did not ask us a single question – just stamped our paperwork and passports and we were done.

We took a cab to our hotel. There was a long line for the cabs and, when we arrived, no sign of any. After 5 minutes or so dozens of them started arriving. We never found out why this happened. The transfer downtown took about an hour.

We checked in at The Mercer in Soho – see report on www.tripadvisor.com. We thought it was an excellent hotel, well located with friendly staff. Expensive but worth it we thought.

We liked staying in Soho. It was surprisingly quiet at night for a city centre. It does not have the large tower blocks of the financial district or mid town. The rhythm of the day was that it was very quiet for the first half of the morning, busied up as the shops opened late morning, was packed with people in the afternoon and early evening and quietened down as the evening went on. It has lots of cafes and restaurants and is convenient for Greenwich village, Washington Square area and Nolita. We felt very safe and comfortable and recommend it highly.

More to follow.

Glad you enjoyed Soho. About 40 years ago there was talk that a cross Manhattan highway was to be built destroying the neighborhood. The price of lofts where nothing and it was fairly desolate. Now as you know there is a Tiffany's, Prada, and Ferragamo.

To NY'ers it is not city center but one of the more intersting neighboods. The arteries to the Holland Tunnel can get nosiy however.

The taxi arrival issue was simply a temporary clog in the works. When taxis drop passengers at the airport they then have to go to a huge holding pen (sometimes hundreds of cabs) and are called out to pick up riders in the order they arrived. The dispatchers at each terminal are connected with the pen and call for as many as they need. Rarely, a cab stalls out or has some sort of malfunction, temporarily blocking the line of cabs being sent to the terminals.

(The only time you might really not have any cabs is after midnight or so - otherwise the line is usually just a function of how long it takes people to load their luggage - and themselves - into the cabs.)

Aduchamp1 - interesting background. Perhaps I used the wrong phrase with "city centre" but it begs the question for me of does NYC have a city centre and if so where is it?!?

ny traveler - that would explain the cab issue - thanks

Part 2 - food

We did not eat in our hotel. We had breakfast at either Balthazar – 10 minute walk – or Le Pain Quotidien on Grand Street – 12 minute walk. Balthazar would do basically anything you want for breakfast during weekdays. We were less clear on what was available at weekends as did not eat there then but the menu advertised was “continental breakfast” – pastries and suchlike I suppose. Le Pain Quotidien was more basic but suited us fine and did good cappuccinos.

We had dinner at the following restaurants.

Boom (Soho) – I can’t remember much about this as we were tired after our flight. It had a relaxed atmosphere with a live jazz trio playing. The only irritation was an automatic service charge and open credit card slip – see earlier post on this!

Lupa (on Thompson just north of Houston) – excellent Italian food and great atmosphere. Packed out with people enjoying their food. Fantastic anti pasta followed by great pasta. Very helpful with the extensive long and all Italian wine list.

Union Square Café (just off Union Square) – black bean soup followed by scallops. Buzzy atmosphere but the portions were too much for us. Excellent waiting staff.

Balthazar – like bistros in France no longer are! Loud and very busy. Great steak frites but felt neglected by our server. This was in contrast to breakfast when the waiting staff were excellent.

Mesa Grill for brunch – we ate quite late and it was still busy. The food wasn’t as good as I remember from 3 years ago. Execution was fine but I thought it a little unexciting. Has it gone off the boil?

More to follow.

Manhattan city center = "midtown" = north of 34th St, south of 59th St

Part 3 - What we did.

Over 4 days the following.

Guggenheim museum - we thoroughly enjoyed the permanent collection but thought the temporary exhibition of Richard Prince was terrible – a real case of emperor’s new clothes.

Frick Collection – excellent and went because of recommendations on this board. Splendid Rembrandts and Turners and we loved seeing the house and inner courtyard. We recently rewatched Martin Scorcese’s The Age of Innocence and there was a resonance between what we saw in the film and this house. Highly recommended.

Metropolitan museum – went to the Dutch masters exhibition and thought it was excellent. We also enjoyed the van Goghs. Horrible long queue to retrieve our bag and coats from the cloakroom.

Foods of New York tour of Greenwich village – an interesting walk around the neighbourhood in a party of 14 with a guide. It included visits to several restaurants and specialist food shops with tastings (in the shops mainly). The food was a bit of a mix to say the least eg pizza, cheese, olive oil, wan tuns (sp?). Personally I would have preferred more of a consistent food theme but as an insight to the area which we wouldn’t have got otherwise it was very good.

Subway to Brooklyn Heights, walk around the neighbourhood and walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge in mid to late afternoon along with seemingly half of New York City! Excellent views and fascinating to see another area.

Walking, walking and more walking, people watching and taking in the atmosphere. Also a look at Grand Central station which is well worth a visit. We must have walked miles each day and the block system can lure you – or at least it did us – into thinking “well it’s only 8 blocks so let’s walk” or whatever. And doing that several times a day, meant we probably walked further than we planned.

Shopping – the boutiques around Soho were great with some bargains to be had in the sales and second hand stores. We picked up some bargains in Loehmans which we think is a great store. Very few tourists seemingly, but some really good deals and nothing like as busy as Century 21. We did go to Century 21 late one afternoon where some people seemed to have spent all day with trolleys piled high with clothes. It needs a certain mindset and determination to search out want you want and is not somewhere to go if you are feeling tired. We did get some great bargains but I would never say it was an enjoyable experience!

More to follow.

Final part - other observations.

There were a lot of tourists in mid town but it felt less so where we were staying. A lot of continental Europeans were around as well as us Brits.

The subway is easy. Get a map and a metrocard. The card issuing machines would not accept our UK credit cards so make sure you have cash if you are from the UK. We planned in advance what train we needed by working back from our destination and it was fine and safe – at least between the upper east side and the financial district (and Brooklyn Heights)which is where we were.

Cabs were easy enough to hail although one refused to take us when we said where we wanted to go (only our hotel!) before we got in. I gather this is illegal.

The dollar/sterling exchange rate made everything seem very good value.

Four days was about right for us. We felt we had done enough in that time. We transferred back to JFK in a limo which only took 40 minutes – we had allowed an hour and a half in the rain so had a bit of time on our hands! The flight back (last one of the day) was late leaving by about 50 minutes but arrived back in London on time.

We had a great time! We were made very welcome and the short trip went off without any hitches.

I hope some of this is helpful for trip planners.

Sounds like you had a great trip, Glad you experienced the convenience and ease of using our subway system. It's not as scary as some people think.

<<Cabs were easy enough to hail although one refused to take us when we said where we wanted to go (only our hotel!) before we got in. I gather this is illegal.>>

It is legal for the cabbie to refuse if he/she is has the OFF DUTY light on, usually seen around 4-5PM. Once the cabbie goes off duty, he/she must head back to the garage to turn in the cab. An off duty cab may pick up one more fare, as long as that fare is headed in the direction of the garage.

Thanks ellenem - I didn't know that. As I recall though this cab didn't have the "off duty" light on.

It wouldn't surprise me either way.

Great report Diz01.

You did a great job selecting things to do, particularly the museums.