New York…Concrete Jungles Where Dreams Are Made

Ok, I suppose it depends on WHOSE dreams you are talking about. Because honestly, as a girl who grew up either living just outside LA or in the northwestern country of Montana…I was the FIRST person to say that New York was basically a “never want to spend my money visiting” destination. I am NOT a city girl, and even bigger European cities just don’t appeal to me. Been there, done that all over the world. Give me the country and small town quiet all day, er’ry day!

Whew, now that I’ve gotten THAT off my chest, it’s fair to say that NYW was one of my husband’s bucket list destinations. And yes, I called him crazy under my breath…and maybe to his face 😬

However, being the wonderful wife that I am, I decided to make his Big Apple dreams come true for his 39th birthday, and whisked him away for a long weekend.

Did he want to take private transportation to our hotel from the airport? No. He wanted to get on a bus, then go on the subway with our luggage. Like a real New Yorker, or something. His weekend, so of course we did it his way. It was easier than you might think, except we had more luggage than was convenient. If budget is important, you could definitely use this as a pretty easy method of transportation, barring you understand the subway system (we had quite a bit of experience from the tubes of London and the time we spent living there) and probably are a lighter packer than us. At least if your airport is LGA.

We pretty seamlessly made our way to the W New York – Times Square. Note, the lobby (and the Living Room, their in-house bar/lounge) is on the 7th floor. Check-in was a breeze, and as I also do for all my clients, I made my requests on booking for a high floor and Times Square views. I normally also contact the properties for my clients 2 weeks prior to check-in to re-request/follow up, but we booked this only 3 weeks prior. I love Marriott properties, and their app is easy to use, as well…another perk is that with Marriott you can use your favorite travel advisor *ahem, that’s me 😉* to book and still get your rewards points. We were not only able to check in early, we also received a complimentary upgrade that met all our requests, and were booked into a Times Square View Corner King room. Now, in NYC your hotels typically have a required $25 daily destination fee. W New York – Times Square offers you a daily $25 bar credit to The Living Room, as well as free access to their fitness club…which we did NOT use, nor did we intend to knowing we would be walking all day, every day, of our stay.

The room was clean and had great views. I would say that for the price point, the room was a little tired and could use some touching up, but everything in that area is expensive and we got a great rate considering. So I wouldn’t say that the value FOR THE AREA isn’t there, but if the hotels was in other areas, I would expect those little details to be attended to.

As for the rest of the trip, we had a blast. To make things short and sweet, I’ll highlight what we did, and add some tips. When it comes to the food…well, that is going to be a post of it’s own, because it simply can’t all fit here.

What we did (in 3 days)

The highlights of the trip for me were seeing The Lion King, the city lights harbor cruise (next time we will do the dinner one), skating at Rockefeller and the impulse midnight bus tour (word to the wise, bring a blanket or at least a jacket if going in the fall/winter).

It was a hot New York minute…and we can’t wait to go back. Here’s a peek into our quick NYC getaway!