Our time in New York was extremely brief. Our itinerary only allowed for 3 days to fit it all in. We had originally booked 3 nights at The Hotel at Times Square, a groovy looking hotel within walking distance of Times Square. However, we decided to cancel the last night & stay with friends in New Jersey as we were flying out of Newark early the next day. This cut down our time in the city, making it even more rushed! That said, we managed to see quite a lot in the time we had!
Our flight from Vancouver didn't arrive until 5:00pm. By the time the cab got us to the hotel it was already sometime around 7:00pm so, after checking in, we decided to take a stroll to Times Square and to find some food. It was a good evening for a walk. After the cold weather we had in Canada & Alaska, the warmth in New York was most welcome!
Times Square © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
Times Square © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
Times Square © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
Times Square © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
We talked about our activities the next day and decided that we'd buy tickets for the New York City Hop-On, Hop-Off Tours: All Around Town Double Decker Tour - 48 Hours from the tour desk in the foyer of our hotel. From all accounts it looked like a good deal as it included 5 zones (Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, Bronx & a night tour) and an upgrade option allowing admission to one major city attraction.
Sadly our experience wasn't the best. Perhaps if we had started the day much earlier things would have been different, but still the inefficiencies of the various practices along the way didn't help! This is what happened:
The tour desk in the foyer acts as an agent & can only sell you a "coupon" to the value of their commission. You then need to take the coupon to a Gray Line office, pay the balance & exchange it for a ticket, or should I say a stream of paper that contains the ticket for the bus & yet more coupons! It would be quicker to go direct to the Gray Line office itself. The ticket is $69US per person & we bought the $20US upgrade that included a voucher for entrance to one city attraction.
On our way to the Gray Line office we were stopped by a guy in Times Square who was dressed in the Gray Line uniform & had a hand-held device. He said he could help us exchange the coupon for the actual ticket rather than going to the office where the queues were long. Feeling somewhat dubious we played along for a while. He called another guy over, also dressed in the Gray Line uniform, to help him "work the machine". They were having problems with the credit card we had given them, at which point they said they couldn't help us! We were worried that the card had been skimmed, but thankfully this wasn't the case. As it turned out, these guys are also agents. They aren't actually employed by Gray Line!
When we got to the Gray Line office the queue was quite long & we had to wait some time. As we got close to the front we were pulled out of the queue by a guy in a Gray Line uniform who said he could issue the tickets for us. You guessed it, he turned out to be another agent! And you guessed it, he couldn't help us because we wanted to buy the $20US upgrade! Feeling somewhat frustrated by this stage we expressed our feelings & he called the manager over who took us up to one of the staff at the counter who could finally issue the tickets!!
Time was disappearing fast! It was probably 2 hours since we bought the coupon in the foyer of the hotel! Once we had the tickets we then found the bus stop. Yet another delay as we joined a long queue of people waiting for the bus.
As a result of all this we didn't actually start seeing New York until much later than what we wanted!
New York
We chose the "downtown" route to start with & quickly decided to stay on the bus rather than hop-on, hop-off, as it allowed us to see many of the key sights along the way including Macy's, the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron building, Union Square, Chinatown & City Hall.
When the bus arrived in the financial district we got off & had some lunch at a great pub called Barleycorn in Park Place. It was nice to get out of the sun for a while & quench a thirst whilst having some good food.
After lunch we strolled down to the 911 Memorial site, the New York Stock Exchange building, and checked out the Charging Bull.
New York Stock Exchange © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
911 Memorial © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
One World Tower / 911 Memorial © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
We then decided we couldn't be bothered queuing & stuffing around with the bus anymore, so we took the subway!! I think it cost around $3US. Much cheaper, quicker, and far less frustrating!! My suggestion would be to avoid the Hop On, Hop Off bus. Do it yourself! The subway is easy & you get to see exactly what you want to see in a shorter space of time!! I feel we wasted a lot of time & money on the bus.
Apart from the bus experience, we did actually enjoy our time in New York! We were exhausted from rushing around to see as much as we could in the 2 days, but at least we got there! We even got to Central Park on a warm day. The New-Yorkers were loving it!
Central Park New York © Holidays Beckon Pty Ltd
As an aside, the straw that broke the camels back for the whole Hop On, Hop Off experience was when we had to exchange the "upgrade coupon" for an actual ticket at the Empire State Building Gray Line office! Oh.My.God!! Yet another queue! Their system is extremely inefficient and oh so annoying!
We loved the Empire State Building. We had a perfect day with blue skies & sunshine.
Empire State Building © Holidays Beckon
Empire State Building © Holidays Beckon
Afterwards we made use of the Hop On, Hop Off ferry coupon!! We went to Pier 78 on the Hudson River to catch the ferry (close to where Sully landed the plane!). This ferry does a loop making 3 stops along the way & takes about 1.5 - 2hrs. It stops at Battery Park (Financial District), Brooklyn Bridge, South St Pier, and on the way back it passes directly in front of the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.
We were a little late getting back to meet our friends for the trip to New Jersey! But we made it!!
Below is a collection of some of our favourite places in New York:
Brooklyn Bridge © Holidays Beckon
Chrysler Building © Holidays Beckon
Chrysler Building Lifts © Holidays Beckon
Central Park © Holidays Beckon
Flatiron Building © Holidays Beckon
Grand Central Station © Holidays Beckon
Grand Central Station © Holidays Beckon
Statue of Liberty © Holidays Beckon
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