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Published: January 16th 2010
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It's hard to imagine anywhere more festive and exciting over the holidays than New York City. The bright lights, dense crowds and of course the intoxicating scent of candied pecans are quite invigorating. Yet again, Matt and I found ourselves bundled up in The Big Apple a few days before Christmas and I couldn't be happier. 😊
Our trip lasted from December 20-24th. Initially, we were to depart PBI at 6 AM to JFK. I was pretty excited about this as we have never flown into JFK before and I was interested in taking the train/subway into the city (
). We booked our initial one way ticket to JFK via JetBlue (. Unfortunately, nature intervened with a severe snow storm in the northeast prior to our departure. As a result, our initial flight was canceled altogether. Fortunately, JetBlue was a dream to work with and rescheduled us on an evening flight into LGA instead. The flight itself was quite nice as well. JetBlue offers a variety of on board snacks for free and provided TV's on each seat. We ended up arriving in NYC around 8 PM on Sunday, 12 hours later than we were scheduled.
For this particular visit, we booked the Belnord Hotel (
). We found the Belnord Hotel on a Hotels.com search and stacked up with reviews using Tripadvisor as well. For only $103 a night, we were a bit skeptical on the quality of this hotel, but all the reviews seemed positive, only complaining about the small rooms which isn't uncommon in NYC. Located on 87th between Broadway and Amsterdam (), it was incredibly easy to jump on the #1 train on Broadway and 86th. Additionally, the area itself was very charming and safe. Within minutes, we were able to walk to delis, Dunkin Donuts, the movie theater, Duanne Reade, etc... The hotel itself was very clean and aesthetically pleasing. Hardwood floors lined the common areas as well as the rooms. Despite the reviews of small rooms, we were pleasantly surprised to find a relatively spacious room. Inside comfortably fit a double bed with end tables on each side, a vanity, TV on the wall and a private bathroom. The room service was always on time to clean the room around 11 AM and very thorough. Overall, we were very impressed with the Belnord Hotel and would most certainly stay there.
The best and easiest way to break down the rest of the trip review is going to be by date. Here goes:
Sunday 12/20/09:
Despite arriving in NYC around 8PM, we still made the most of our first night. After settling into the hotel, we decided to explore the surrounding area around the upper west side. Almost immediately we came across a place on Amsterdam called Rancho Cafe (
). We ordered chips and guacamole and chicken fajitas. Everything was absolutely delicious! The chicken was so tender and the guacamole was freshly made at our table. The service and atmosphere were also excellent!
Monday 12/21/09:
Our second day was mostly spent in the southern part of the city. SOHO has always been one of our favorite areas and we were able to explore more of NOHO and Greenwich Village this time around as well. Matt and I stopped at the tried and true Quizno's for an early lunch. The fresh squeezed Orange Juice there was AMAZING! While in SOHO, we were also sure to do some shopping. 45RPM () was one of our favorite stores. Although we couldn't afford to purchase anything, it was great to look around at the different styles and overall aesthetics of the store. After spending much of the day exploring, we decided to see Avatar in 3D that evening (
). Fortunately, there was a movie theater () a few blocks away from our hotel. While waiting for our show time, we stopped at Hale and Hearty Soups on Broadway and 83rd for some dinner (). We ordered the Turkey wrap, turkey chilli with rice, seven herbs and chicken soup, lemonade and iced tea. Typical of NYC food, everything was delicious and relatively inexpensive only totaling around $21.00. My review of Avatar is simply that it was over rated. Although the special effects were impressive, the story line was generic and was essentially the same as Pocahontas. We will not see this movie again.
Tuesday 12/22/09:
According to TripAdvisor.com, Patzeria Pizza () on 46th between 6th and 7th was rated the top pizza place in NYC. Of course we had to try it! Matt ordered Sausage pizza and I had veggie. Although it was good, my favorite pizza place is still the one around Bryant Park. After lunch, we decided to check out the Top of the Rock (). We just did the viewing vs. the full tour. In my opinion, the Top of the Rock provides much better views than the Top of the Empire State Building. It didn't take us long at all to arrive at the viewing decks and I easily took about 70 pictures with my new Nikon D90. 😊 We ended up spending a little over an hour up there and could have easily been there longer if it weren't for the frigid temperatures. I would definitely be interested in going back in the summer and at night to see all the lights. As night approached, Matt and I decided to have a mini tribute to our engagement two years prior. On 12/22/07, Matt and I spent our day exploring SOHO followed by a very romantic dinner at a little place in Little Italy called Il Palazzo (
) followed by a marriage proposal by Matt. 😊 Since it was 12/22/09, we decided to toast to the engagement at the same place. Just as I had remembered, the food was amazing (the bread was awesome) and the atmosphere cozy and charming. I just love all the Christmas decorations around this time of year!
Wednesday 12/23/09
Wednesday was a pretty low-key day in NYC for Matt and I. We mostly explored Bryant Park trying to find the mysterious phenomenal pizza place we discovered two years ago. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and opted to eat at Chipotle instead. We also were able to explore the Upper East Side a bit and browsed lots of stores! FAO Schwartz (
was one of those stores and quite the experience! Although I am a huge advocate of walking, Matt and I were able to cover more ground in NYC this time around by taking the subway system. Towards the end of the trip, we were pros (although we did end up going over the bridge to Brooklyn by accident one night!) Black dots are apparently local stops whereas the white dots are express (). We also briefly visited the American Museum of Natural History () since it was walkable from our hotel. Like any museum in NYC, it is near impossible to see everything in one day. We mostly spent our time exploring the dinosaur exhibits this time around and were very impressed. I should also note that admission is voluntary to a degree and up to the patrons. Matt and I donated $20.00 for the two of us since we would only be there for an hour or two.
Thursday 12/24/09
Christmas Eve was our last day in NYC for this particular trip. There was something so special about waking up in the city on that day...perfect way to celebrate our first Christmas together as a married couple! Our flight was scheduled to take off around 2PM so we didn't have too much time to explore the city. We still managed to grab some delicious pizza at Labeleca Pizzeria (
) on 40th st right next to the 1 train downtown. I ordered chicken and tomato and Matt ordered 2 slices of pepperoni. This pizza was far better than Patzeria Pizza in my opinion! After devouring our pizza, we ventured to Juniors Times Square () per Matt's parents request. I ordered a red velvet cupcake for myself which was quite tasty.
Overall, this was yet another fantastic trip to NYC! We can't wait to schedule another trip back as soon as possible...this time hopefully in the Spring or Summer. 😊
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