Well what can I say?….New York has definitely stole my heart!

It was definitely the best birthday present I’ve ever had, and I have my gorgeous husband to thank for paying for it all. My wonderful parents for looking after the children and dog while we were away… none of it would of been possible without their help, and I’m ever so thankful.

It has always been my dream to go for my 40th Birthday, and to actually spend my birthday there was perfect! Of course I missed everyone at home terribly, but to be honest we walked on average 17 miles a day and I know the children wouldn’t of been able to cope with that.

The flight over there was great, American Airlines kept us fed and watered and there was inflight entertainment to pass the time. We sailed through customs and security, no problems at all. My husband had booked a shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel,   We found the desk to order the bus easily enough, but then had to wait nearly an hour for the driver to arrive. Once hubby and I were on the bus ,with at least another 8 people, we had a hair raising drive from JFK through manhattan, typically we were the last hotel to be dropped off. I think if we were to go next time we’d opt for a yellow cab to save on time.

We freshened up at our hotel, The Yotel, and went out for a bite to eat. We walked straight in to Dallas BBQ and got seated straight away. Lovely food for the price and the cocktails looked amazing, but as I felt shattered at this point after travelling and the time difference, I thought it was best not to drink 🍹. Though I was tempted!

A short walk to Times Square after our meal to take some photos …. nothing prepares you for the busyness and noise! The bright lights that make you think it’s still daylight when in fact it’s dark! The smells, some good some not so good. So many people and the constant beeping of the horns and sirens.

It was 8pm (1am back in the U.K.) and we were so tired so headed back to the hotel. 3am I then woke the next morning!! I had a peek on Facebook and updated my status while waiting for hubby to wake up, and had a snooze until 6am.

We found Andrews coffee shop, which was recommended to us,  for breakfast, we both ordered pancakes and bacon with maple syrup and lots of coffee. Lovely food with a fab service, we definitely recommend this place, as we visited it for the following  two mornings as well!😋

It was forecast to rain all day, and it did! No stopping at all. We hopped on the downtown bus with our freestyle pass and got off near the 911 museum and pools. Definitely a must see if you’re in New York, but take some tissues. After spending the morning there we found the Staten Island ferry,  which is free, it goes past the Statue of Liberty there and back. We then got soaked finding our bus stop back as the rain was relentless! The queue for the bus when we found the stop was long and we very nearly didn’t get on it as there wasn’t much space left. Finally got back to the hotel and ordered room service as we were too cold, wet and shattered to go back out!

The next day was my birthday, luckily no rain… just overcast. We had breakfast at Andrews then went straight to the Empire State Building, no queues and got to the top quickly. Next we went to Macy’s to find the piano from the film BIG, it’s on the lower level.

Next on our list of things to do was go to grand central and find magnolia bakery while we were there to buy cake, then on to see st Patrick’s cathedral, trump tower, tiffanys, the plaza and we also found the Dakota building and strawberry fields on our walk through Central Park.

On the evening we went up Top of the Rock, we just missed the slot for the sunset but it was great to see Central Park at dusk and then as it got darker to see the Empire State Building all lit up was amazing!

We ended up having our evening meal and cocktails at our hotel restaurant as everywhere else was so busy, being a Saturday evening.  It was scrummy though!

The Sunday was a scorcher! We jumped back on the hop on hop off bus with our passes and went back downtown to go up The One world observatory (the new world trade centre) again hardly any queues as we were there early.

Brooklyn Bridge was next, the views from the bridge were amazing! We walked to Dumbo and took the iconic photo of the Empire State Building through the bridge.

We were hoping to stop at Juliana’s for Pizza but the queue was so huge we decided to have a quick meal at the Shake Shack, it was disappointing fast food; I’d definitely give it a miss!

Walked back over the Brooklyn bridge and walked down the Hudson River back to midtown. It was a typical Sunday afternoon where all the New Yorkers were having their daily jog or walk with their dogs. We arrived at the pier where our boat for the twilight cruise would go from. This was with our freestyle pass so no idea how much it would cost without. Amazing views of manhattan and New Jersey with the sun setting and also lady liberty herself.

The final day we packed our suitcases and got a late checkout so went shopping for the kids and take in our last views of the city.

So there you have it, It was a blast and we’re already planning on going back!

Thanks for reading