Before I got to New York City, I imagined visiting the Big Apple would be a once in a lifetime thing, as I don’t usually like to revisit places I’ve been before. In hindsight, I suppose I wouldn’t object to going again.
New York? Ahhh go on then if we must…
Anyhow, with visiting New York just the once you’re looking to tick off as many of the major attractions as you can, and buying yourself a City Pass is a must:
https://www.citypass.com/new-york
The one we bought was £112 and it gets you admission to five attractions:
- Empire State Building
- American Museum of Natural History
- Top of the Rock Observation Deck OR The Guggenheim Museum
- Ferry access to Liberty Island and Ellis Island OR Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum OR Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
When you consider that adult admission to the Empire State Building is $74, the savings are clear.
With a City Pass, we could book our times to visit each attraction, meaning we didn’t have to wait in lines to buy tickets – however as we visited in January, we didn’t see any massive queues. But the major attractions like the Empire State Building do require you to book your timeslot.
I’m 30 now, so I must admit that after a morning exploring Central Park, I had to go back to the hotel for a nap. In fact I’m pretty sure I did this every single day that we were in New York – which made it feel like we were there for double the time. Looking back, it was kind of a blessing in disguise that our Iceland trip got cancelled and we arrived in New York two days early, as I reckon checking off all the attractions on our City Passes would have killed me off. Oh, to be young and full of energy again…
OH, just before I start waffling on about the Empire State Building, I’d like to show you this:
On a walk through New York City, you can really easily spot the tourists amongst the locals. Why? The tourists have all had their heads filled that jaywalking is a massive thing in the States, and they obediently wait at pedestrian crossings for the little walking man to appear. Meanwhile the locals just waltz across. I even saw people crossing against the signal in front of a policeman, who didn’t seem to care.
I’ve done some research and yes, jaywalking is a thing, but in 2019, police only gave 397 tickets for illegal or unsafe crossing. However, 90% of those tickets were given to minority pedestrians, cos yaknow, racial profiling.
So I’d say, whilst you can get away with jaywalking most of the time in New York, just to be super-duper safe you should wait for the signal and only use pedestrian crossings – especially if you’re not white.
Because I’m really, really smart, I booked Aimee and me into the Empire State Building for 4:30pm. Why? Because sunset was just after 5.
I was really glad we’d booked ahead because the queues were ginormous.
According to their website, The Empire State Building was named the #1Attraction in The U.S. by the 2022 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards. Without a City Pass, $44 will gain you access to the museum and the 86th Floor Observatory. There is a fully-enclosed observatory on the 102nd floor if you really want to indulge your fear of heights – that costs $79 per adult and isn’t included on the City Pass.
Ok so I just said I was really, really smart but I wasn’t smart enough to know beforehand that a trip to the top of the Empire State Building would include a museum tour. I had just wanted to go straight to the top to watch the sunset before the sun actually set, but now I was rushing through bits of history that I wanted to look at.
Aimee had a close encounter with the tower’s most famous ape.
You’d think she’d look more terrified at her predicament…
Finally, we reached the 80th Floor Observatory and looked out on the Manhattan skyline.
The urge to resist singing Empire State of Mind to myself was becoming unbearable.
Fun/boring fact alert!!!
All American states have official nicknames; you may know Florida as The Sunshine State, Texas the Lone Star State, California as the Golden State etc. New York’s official nickname is The Empire State – hence the name of the tower. When it was opened in 1931, it was the first building in the world to contain over 100 floors, and the tallest on Earth until 1970 when the first World Trade Tower was completed. As of 2022, the Empire State Building is only the seventh tallest tower in New York City.
The 80th Floor Observatory is fully enclosed. If you want to feel the wind in your hair, you head up to the 86th.
It looked like we were gonna get a lovely sunset.
We weren’t the only ones up here to catch a sunset.
One lady locked down a spot at the railings to film the sun going down for 20 minutes. I took the opportunity to head around the other sides of the platform, where there was barely anyone else.
Looking north, towards Central Park and the H&M tower that neighboured our hotel…
Looking east to the East River and Long Island…
Looking south-west to the Hudson River and New Jersey.
It’s pretty nippy at the top, obviously, but there are some lovely powerful heaters to stand under.
After 20 minutes spent enjoying the views we headed back down. Earlier when we first entered the skyscraper, some staff took our photo in front of a green screen. As we left, we went through the gift shop and we were offered our pictures at just $30 for two… “just”…
Well, Aimee was in a “fuck it” kinda mood and bought two pictures. We both chose a backdrop – can you guess who chose what?
You exit the Empire State Building through the main lobby, which you’ve definitely seen in a movie or two.
For me, it’s Elf.
With night now upon us it was time to hunt out some food. We went from one New York icon to another…
Now THIS is why I was excited to come to New York.
If you ever Google “best pizza in New York” then Joe’s Pizza always comes up. On the wall are countless photographs are different celebrities coming in for a slice. It’s so popular it was included in the original Spider-Man films with Tobey Maguire – he works for Joe’s a delivery boy in Spider-Man 2. There are 5 branches scattered across the city and fortunately for us, one sits just off Times Square.
I love pizza. Always have. It’s my go-to comfort food. It’s probably the leading factor in why I’m getting chubbier. But I was in New York and there was absolutely no way I was not going to enjoy some classic New York pie.
Joe’s Pizza is the thing I miss the most about New York.
Just look at those beauties. A single cheese slice costs $4, and I bought a slice with mozzarella and a slice with sausage, mushrooms, onions and pepperoni for $5 each. It was insanely good. The flavour was amazing, the crust was slightly charred and delicious, but two slices was more than enough to fill me up.
It was simply the best pizza I’ve ever had – and for New York it was incredibly cheap. Pizza houses like this are probably one of the cheapest ways to eat out in the city. We would be back, 100%.
Great, now I’m hungry.
#VidOnTour 