Park Central Hotel

Fantastic location - The Park Central Hotel is located one block from Broadway, a five minute walk to Central Park and a ten minute walk from Times Square! Our accomodation for the four days was a typically small hotel room with en-suite facilities (probably on par with a UK Travel Lodge in size and style). It was clean, tidy and the cleaners came in every day, to clean, make the bed and change the towels. The Receptionist staff were also friendly and efficient.
As with most New York City Break deals, ours didn't include the airport transfers - but even though this was our first trip to the USA and New York, it wasn't a problem. All of the New York Airports have Airport Shuttle Buses which will take you direct from the airport to your hotel. The cost for the two of us from Newark Airport was $50 dollars (which included the fare, tolls and a tip). If you don't fancy taking the Airport Shuttle Bus, you can take a New York Yellow Taxi. All of these have a fixed price agreement where it will cost you $46 (not including tip) from any of the New York Airports to anywhere in the Manhattan area.
Once in New York, we walked most places we visited. The Empire State Building is about a thirty minute walk from the Park Central Hotel. We got there for around 9am to avoid queuing and paid $19 per adult for an Observatory ticket. Don't bother with the $18 per adult Skyride ticket. Its an in-door roller-coaster simulator with a film of a New York Helicopter ride which is very short and a right rip off - it has nothing to do with the Observatory ticket. Once you have taken two elevator trips to the Observatory level of the Empire State Building, the views are amazing - we were told that on a good clear day you can see for eighty miles!
A Subway ride from the Empire State Building, ($4 adult return), took us to the subway station next to Battery park to enable us to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island. $11.50 adult fare is the cost of a return ferry trip to both Liberty and Ellis Islands (pre-book these over the internet from the Circle Line ferry company to get the "Monument Pass" to enable you to get into the Pedestal at the base of the Statue of Liberty). Once on Liberty Island, I would recommend the free National Park Ranger tour guide which you can take from the large flag pole located at the rear of the Statue of Liberty. It was very informative about the history, construction and renovation of the Statue and lasts for about thirty minutes.
"Ground Zero" is located about a ten minute walk from Battery Park. At the moment, it is screened off with tall, temporary walls as construction has already begun on a new building and monument dedicated to the 9/11 tragedy.
A visit to the Macey's store is recommended. If you take your passport and visit the Visitors Centre located on the ground floor, then they will give you a "International Savings Card" which entitles you to an extra 11% off! As we got an exchange rate of £1 to $2.055 before our trip, the extra 11% off made our xmas shopping very cheap!
A three course meal at "Planet Hollywood" including drinks worked out at around £25 per head. A pint of lager at the "Hard Rock Cafe" worked out at around £4. A twenty five minute trip around Central Park in a horse drawn carriage was $34 (not including tip).
All in all, New York was a fantastic trip which I would thoroughly recommend!

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*Introduction*
It all started on a cold winter’s night in December 2004. I had always dreamed about going to New York so in a fit of spontaneity (unusual for me) I started doing Google searches for flights and stuff. Flights only were coming back with ridiculous figures so I resorted to package searches. I finally settled on Expedia who came up with a competitive package for flights and hotels. Going with American Airlines and staying at the Park Central just down from Central Park was approximately £1700 for the 4 of us from Monday to Friday at Easter.
*Getting there*
We flew from Heathrow on the Bank Holiday Monday in March 2005. Our flight was at 1830 hours with a 7 hour ETA from London to JFK. American Airlines did a competent job with reasonable meals (although raspberry pie as a veggie main course was a tad weird). We had plenty of choice for movies as I opted for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie followed by Lemony Snickett seeing as I was seated by my 9 year old son (any excuse, eh?).
We landed late in the evening and by the time the Shuttle had arrived it was 11pm NY time and our equivalent of 5am so we went straight to bed at the hotel. The transfer was still something of an event as crossing the Hudson River by bridge and into New York left quite an imprint on the imagination as buildings became much bigger and streets criss-crossed before our eyes.
*A brief History*
New York is probably the most famous city in the world. Dating back to 1524, the arrival of Goivanni da Verrazono started the European settlement of what was traditionally an Indian enclave.
The British explorer, Henry Hudson, arrived in 1609. Working for the Dutch West India Company, he set up a trading post to trade furs, skins, birds and fruits with the local Indians. Soon Dutch settlers followed and Manhattan was named New Amsterdam. Governor Peter Minuit bought the island for $24 worth of trinkets and blankets - a bargain by anyone's reckoning! Saying that, the Indians that sold it were merely passing through so they didn't do so badly either.
By 1700 the population had reached 20000 but the boom time of immigration in the mid 1800's saw many arrive from Ireland, Germany and Eastern Europe. Many Chinese settled after working on the railways.
Today, NY has a population of around 8 million people from all corners of the globe. It's that rich diversity that makes the city such an incredible mix of cultures and creeds.
*The sights*
Look, we were tourists determined to do tourist things so in our time we did all the usual stuff you’d expect:
*The Empire State Building was awesome. It was a bit disappointing that our pre-purchased tickets from Expedia did not entitle us to jump the ticket queue. Arriving at noon meant we didn’t get to the 87th floor observation deck until around 1.15pm as the queue was huge. However, having survived the now usual thorough security checks and scanners, nothing really prepares you for the view from the top. It was a cloudy day and yet we could see for miles. Boy, it was cold up there but we joined in with all the camera clicking and the results from my new digital camera even surprised me.
The ESB was completed in 1931 making it the tallest building in the world at the time. Synonymous with NY, probably the most famous image of the ESB is the sight of King Kong grabbing planes from the summit during one of the most significant movies of its era. It used to be possible to go as high as the 102nd floor but no longer, sadly.
Other buildings worth seeing include the Crysler Building, The Flatiron Building, The Woolworth Building and the United Nations Buildings and Ground Zero.
Times Square just has to be seen at night. With all those neon signs, TS is a blur of colour that assaults the eyes and makes the pulse race quicker. There are so many biggest and best in Times Square with an MTV building, Toy’s-R-Us, Hershey shop, Planet Hollywood and much, much more. Times Square is alive with shops, restaurants and theatres and I even had the fortune to glimpse Robbie Williams doing an interview in the eponymous MTV crib (building y’all). Sadly, he didn’t recognise me or, indeed, ask for my autograph.
**The Statue of Liberty is like a pilgrimage to Mecca for Americans. We encountered large queues to buy tickets from Battery Park even as early as 9.30am. However, the wait was worth it with the arrival at Liberty Island ushering in an amazing hour or so. Once you step onto the island, you can’t help but notice just how big the statue is. Originally a gift from France in 1886, the statue looms large over New York and was more often than not, the first sight an immigrant would see of America. There is the obligatory café and souvenir shop to visit but the highlight for me was the stunning views of Manhattan Island from the many vantage points on Liberty Island. I almost thought that Manhattan looked like a model with the sky scrapers making New York so unlike anywhere else I’d been before.
Unfortunately, the queue time to gain a “time pass” to actually get onto the statue was 2 hours which was far too long for us to wait. There were plenty of people who did and I’m sure the views of NY made it worthwhile.
From Liberty Island we left for Ellis Island which houses the Immigration Museum. This is a huge place devoted to the immigrants that poured into America in the 19th and 20th centuries. We only spent about an hour here although I would say that the café was overrun, overpriced and, generally, pretty awful. We entered a film show showing what life was like for those early immigrants and the talk from the park ranger that came before the show was fascinating with many of the audience willing to pose questions. I even posed one myself and was taken in by the sheer numbers of Americans who had come to honour their family roots. We left at around 4.30pm which led to a further criticism that there were only 2 ferries serving the route. This meant an hour wait in freezing cold conditions and a pretty disgruntled queue (it was just like being back in Blighty for a while!)
What can I say about Central Park? This place is adorable, often thought of as the playground for New Yorkers. Smack bang in the middle of Manhattan, Central Park attracts 15 million visitors every year. It is 843 acres in size and contains numerous places to go. We took a horse and cab ride around Central Park that lasted around half an hour. It cost $35 with the driver giving us some insights into places to visit.
The Children’s Zoo rocked. We stayed here for quite a while with lovely exhibits of seals, polar bears and monkeys amongst others. There is a reasonably priced café at the zoo and it only cost us $6 each as adults and $1 each for the kids.
There are so many other things to do in Central Park like visit the ice skating rink (Woolman rink), visit the Carousel (We did but didn’t go on it), Try the Belvedere Castle Discovery Centre and so on. A visit to www.centralpark.org will tell you so much more!
*Other places to see*
Rockefeller Centre and Radio City Music Hall, South Street Seaport, The Winter Garden and Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Top museums include: Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Sex, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Frick Collection, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and Skyscraper Museum.
*Getting around*
With our hotel so well placed we tended to walk to most places although the size of the buildings make the distances seem less than they actually were. New York seems to live and breathe taxis with huge swathes of yellow cabs at times dominating the roads. I had it on good authority that it was best to stick with the official yellow ones, which generally charged about $5 for a short trip of, say, a mile. I’m told the others can be a bit of a rip off so stuck with the genial yellow variety.
We did use the subway too. This is much safer than people realise and cost $2 each for a return trip. You can buy a pass that lasts a day although we never needed to do this. In fact, I ended up checking with a lovely American lady whether we were waiting for the correct tube to Battery Park. It turned out that there was a delay with our particular train so she endeavoured to take us to another train giving me a short history of downtown Manhattan in the bargain. She was typical of the many friendly New Yorkers we encountered and if you want to start a conversation with an American then all you need to do is ask “Where you from?” I had several conversations with American peeps who all asked that very question!
*Eating Out*
As you’d imagine in NY, there are no shortage of places to eat. We found some really decent diners to have breakfast out preferring the more informal places although there are plenty of restaurants that will serve you breakfast. On our last day we found a really cool diner where my 9-year-old lad was talked into trying grits by the waitress. He took one look at the white, semolina type substance and promptly ignored it!
There is everything from food vendors along the street selling hot dogs, burgers, pretzels to diners to restaurants like Planet Hollywood in Times Square. We tried an Italian restaurant just off Times Square and had a pretty reasonable meal for four for just shy of $100. Remembering that with such a great exchange rate, this was the equivalent of around £60 for a 3 course meal including a couple of glasses of wine each. I did wonder whether there was a Mafioso connection but then it pays not to stereotype *typed with a mouthful of cotton wool*
*Things to do at night*
Crikey, there’s all the shows on Broadway, several movie theatres, endless shops in Manhattan in general, movies being shot on set and numerous people trying to persuade you to be part of the audience for the latest show. If you can't find anything to do at night in NY then you are dead already!
*How to Pay*
I took dollars to tell you the truth although I tended to stick everything on credit card to attract the great exchange rate that usually comes as a result of using Visa. I shied away from travellers cheques as I didn’t want to pay the commission. As I got nearly $1.90 to £1, I did very well for buying goods in NY. The exchange rate is still highly competitive now hovering around $1.80 to £1 so now has never been a better time to visit the States!
*Climate*
We went in March and it was very typical of an English Spring. We encountered everything from 18C on one day down to 4C on another! I understand it is sub-zero in Winter whilst things get very warm indeed during Summer months with sun screen a must. Temperatures can get as high as 29C in August.
*Conclusion*
I could go on all day about New York. There were so many things we never got to do so there is the ambition to return one day. I could tell you how we ate a curry in the middle of Grand Central Station (typical Brummies?) or about how we managed to find a Macdonald’s restaurant in Macy's. Of course, I'd be massively over a tolerable word count so maybe I'll keep those adventures back for another time.
I’ve tried to keep this at a reasonable length and if you are planning to go then I’d strongly recommend taking a guide book. I bought the “Brit’s Guide to New York” which I got on sale at WH Smith at Christmas. It normally retails at £10.99 but I got it for £6 (ISBN 0-572-03033-9). This really did help give us an idea on what to do and where to go when we got to NY as every second is precious with so much to see and do.
I hope that this has given you a flavour of what NY is like. It’s hard to put into words what a wonderful place it is. I can only implore you to go one day.
*The ESB is at 34th Street and can be reached by subway B, D, F, Q, N, R, V, W to 34th St. It is open from 9.30 until Midnight. $12 adults, $11 seniors, $7 children.
**Statue of Liberty can be reached by ferry from Battery Park with ferries leaving every 20 mins from Gangway 5. Subway 1,9,4 and 5 to Bowling Green will get you there and ferries leave between 9am and 3.30pm. Cost $10 adults, $8 seniors, $4 children.