Hudson Hotel

I was in the fortunate position of having won this trip to New York - my third in fact !!!
We flew from Heathrow with Virgin (wonderful airline - very efficient and very nice staff !) and arrived in New York somewhat later than we had anticipated as there was a storm in NY and we were unable to land ! After meeting the Virgin rep, we were then transported to our hotel, which was very modern but very very dark inside ! (All the floors, walls & ceilings were painted chocolate brown for some unknown reason !)
We were given our room number and after travelling in the chocolate brown lift (!) and negotiating long corridors (also the aforesaid brown) we discovered our room.
The room was very small, but clean. The bathroom was also ‘compact’ (knees touched the door when on the loo !) but again was clean - plenty of towels and toiletries. There was a safe in the cupboard which was easy to program and gave you the extra feeling of security for somewhere to leave money & passports. A television and ‘mini bar’ also occupied the cupboard (prices were absolutely over the top !)
The hotel is situated on West 58th close to 8th Avenue so we easily found places to eat. On 8th Avenue there was a superb diner serving meals all day - the breakfasts were just the thing to set you up for the day ! Close by there was also a supermarket and a pharmacy - both 24hr.
As we have visited NY before (1998 & 2000), we didn’t do the tourist bit, but went to places we hadn’t gone to before. We had an excellent day at Canal Street - this is where you can pick up fake Designer goods at a fraction of the price of the originals & the copies are brilliant. EG Prada, Louis Vitton, Burberry handbags were selling for $18 & you could barter & get the price down even further ! My husband bought a Rolex for $28 !!!!!!!! It was hilarious to see lots of these tiny shops all selling the same goods & trying to get you to part with your money !
Whilst out & about, we just tended to get boxes of fruit from deli’s and then eat properly in the evening !
On the Sunday there was a street market along 7th Avenue and the prices of goods was absolutely amazing - of course there is no sales tax added at the markets, so the price you see is the price you pay. I picked up beautiful leather handbags for presents and they cost me $10 - a similar bag (of the same quality) would have easily been over £60 here.
Another place we visited was the South Street Seaport Centre. It is a lovely area with lots of nice shops and cafes etc.
We felt that prices had somewhat increased since we last went, but this could be because items such as CD’s have come down in price so much here. We found that PC software was quite cheap as well as the branded perfumes.
A place that was very important to visit was Ground Zero. In 1998 we had stood on the roof of the World Trade Centre & then in 2000 (when our children also came with us !) we had been up to the observation deck. It was a wonderful place and we really had to see for ourselves what was no longer there. I found that it was quite a poignant place, lots of people milling around, but at the same time a quiet place.
All in all we had a wonderful weekend (Friday - Monday) and I would recommend New York to anyone. Travelling around by subway is easy and there is so much to see and do (everything is SO BIG) - VISIT SOON !!!