We all know how much I love New York City, and last month I got to spend a day there which made for an interesting dilemma - with just one day in the city, what I was going to do in the Big Apple?
First up, by the time we got from JFK to the hotel, it was 10pm. For reasons unknown, somehow the
Hard Rock Hotel was the cheapest hotel on my work's travel system so that's where we booked. Located two minutes from Times Square it's obviously super central Manhattan. Would I stay there personally? No, but that doesn't mean it's a bad hotel - it's just not my vibe. We decided to try and power through a bit longer so had a quick walk to Times Square and then joined the queue for
Ellen's Stardust Diner. The food is pretty average - I've eaten there before - but it's fun to see the waiting staff perform, and we only had a ten minute wait at that time of night. (I've queued over an hour before.)
It was up early the next morning to make the most of the city before we headed to
Philadelphia to begin our working week. So we checked out at 8am and headed for a bagel. (Of course!) Had a great bacon and egg everything bagel from
bagel.market on Lexington, which was right round the corner from
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. Slight panic because it was a foggy day but, actually, the fog made it really cool as you can see from the photos. The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building looked super atmospheric. Plus there's some cool interactive elements. (Older blog posts on NYC's observation decks
here and
here, but I would recommend SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, which is the fourth tallest building currently in Manhattan.)
From there we walked over to Hudson Yards - getting caught up in the New York half marathon as we did - to take a squiz at Vessel, before we walked the High Line (previous blogs
here and
here). Always one of my favourite things to do, and it means you can pop to Little Island, too. (Another Thomas Heatherwick design.) Lunch was calling and given the end of the High Line is right by
Chelsea Market, it made sense to grab it there. I went for Chote Miya - I've eaten there before when they were in the Time Out Market in
Brooklyn, and it was still as yum as I remembered. (Older food posts
here and
here.)
Our next stop was Broadway to see
Death Becomes Her. I can vaguely recall the 80s film, and this musical adaptation did not disappoint. Starring Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, Megan Hilty (who is fab, and I adored her in Smash, the TV show - Smash has also opened recently on Broadway) and Jennifer Simard as the main leads, it was so, so good. Over the top, but zany and fun. Highly recommend if you're in NYC (or it comes over to the West End).
Finally, we headed to
Schmackary's to pick up cookies for the train ride, then headed back to the Hard Rock Hotel via the Rockefeller Center to have a drink and pick up our luggage. We were in the city less than 24 hours but what a fab bonus day it was in NYC! x
No comments