6 days in The Big Apple

There are so many highlights in this amazing city. The sights are incredible, and some have to be seen to be believed. You have the big buildings, like the Empire State, Rockefeller Center, and downtown in general. You have the islands with Liberty and the Immigration Museum. The clubs are brilliant, too, and every kind of music is represented. But my absolute favorite place was Times Square. No picture of Times Square quite captures the absolute magnitude of it all; it has to be seen with your own eyes.

Quick Tips:

If you intend to go clubbing in New York, I would recommend that you purchase a copy of Time Out; it really is an invaluable guide to the wealth of options. Food in New York is a very hit-and-miss affair; the pizza's great and highly recommended, but a lot of places you eat in are overpriced, poor quality, and don’t provide the fabled huge portions either.

Best Way To Get Around:

We found the taxi to be the best form of transport, for speed, convenience, and cost. The subway costs .50 a journey, so if there are a few of you, a taxi will often work out cheaper.

We stayed 5 nights at the Hotel Pennsylvania, and found it to be ok. The rooms are average size, but not especialy clean. They are cleaned daily, just not very well. The decor is very old fashioned, but this wasn't a problem. The bathroom was reasonable, and the hot water was always available, but the shower head was too low. The staff was a mixed bag, some are great, some are rude. The reason I would stay at the pennsylvania again is the location. It is literally on the same road as Times Square, two roads from 5th Avenue and near lots of other great sites like the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden. It is also easy to get to Greenwich village from here as it is just down 7th avenue southward bound.

This is a great day out. We began by wandering around downtown New York, this is the financial centre and includes places such as Wall Street and the World Trade Centre site. The buildings here are HUGE, and really interesting. We took a map and walked down Broadway, occasionaly turning off to visit a site. As you walk southbound you will eventually reach Battery Park and the boats to visit Liberty and Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty is amazing. Make sure you have your camera because the views from the boat of the Statue of Liberty with Manhattan in the background are breath-taking.

Clubbing in New York is excellent. We always began the night in Greenwich Village, and more particularly Bleecker Street. Here you will find lots of great bars to drink late. The clubs we moved on to were mostly playing house music, because that's what we got into while we were in New York. The clubs we visited were Discoteque, Lotus, Centro-Fly, and Cheater. Out of these, my favourite was Lotus, which had good music and decent atmostphere. The best thing to do is buy Time Out and check what's going on that night . . . there's always something. You don't need to get especially dressed up for clubs in New York, but it's usually better if you where shoes.