Weekend in New York

I had a weekend business trip to NYC and I brought my wife with me. We had a great time sightseeing, shopping, and dining. We were there for the record snowfall, and it was really neat seeing all that snow. I had never seen it snow that hard. I found the New Yorkers to be very nice. My cell phone had slipped out of my coat pocket exiting a taxi, and it was returned to me about an hour later. The person who found it refused a .00 reward!

Quick Tips:

Walk around and see the sights. If you stay at a hotel with a doorman, use him for suggestions on everything; sightseeing, getting around, dining, tickets, and more. They won't steer you wrong, but make sure you tip them.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking and taxis.

This was a decent hotel for the money, and I would stay here again. The location is great, 1 block from the Empire State building and 2 blocks from Macy's. Madison Square Garden and Penn Station are also within easy walking distance. The hotel is surrounded by many restaurants, shopping, and several subway stops. This was my second stay here. I find comfort in knowing what I am getting. This is not a luxury hotel; nor is it a bare-bones budget hotel. I put it right in the middle. Our room was rather small, but we do not spend much time in the room anyway. The bathroom is large and the room has all the standard amenities, including an in-room coffeepot. The room was clean, and we had a view of the Empire State Building. I also like staying here because of the "freebies" I get as a member of their loyalty program. The staff was very friendly and the doorman was helpful with directions and information. The hotel provided FREE high-speed wireless Internet, a big bonus for me. I did book my room on Hotels.com because they offered a lower price than the hotel's website. We walked from the hotel to Times Square and on up to the Ed Sullivan Theater, and we took a taxi back to the hotel. We had a great time.

With so many restaurants to choose from and the fact that we were only in town for one good dining night, I did extensive Internet research prior to arriving in the city. We were staying up around Macy's but chose to eat at the Landmarc in Tribeca. What a great choice! We probably passed 100 restaurants on our way there AND were glad we did. I read their menu online, along with several reviews. It was better than advertised. I hope the owner doesn't get mad at me, because I read that this is a local place with very few tourists. Hopefully this will lead to more business and he can expand, because the only fault I could find about the place was it's size—small.

We started the dinner with a very nice New Zealand wine recommended to us by the friendly bartender. Everything I read about their wine list and pricing policies was true. I have never been to a restaurant that priced wines pretty close to retail. It was refreshing.

For starters, my wife ordered her favorite, French Onion soup. It was very good. I wish I had ordered the calamari. It looked great, but I had had some the previous night in the Poconos. For dinner I had the rib eye, THE BEST I HAVE EVER HAD, and that includes Flemings, Ruth's Chris, and Mortons. My wife had the filet migon. Both steaks were perfect, as were the side dishes. For dessert we tried the sample platter. You get a small portion of all five of their desserts, another great idea.

The atmosphere is great. Although it was a smaller restaurant, you "had" to visit with the other guests waiting for a table in the bar area. We met some really nice people there, and they all had the same question for us, "How did you find this place"? I told them that I had found it through my research on the Internet.

The service was great. We did see a family there with two young children. They brought them blue cotton candy on a platter for dessert. It was so interesting that the couple sitting next to us asked for some. They had been to this restaurant four or five times before. We were very pleased with the whole evening and would definitely come back.

OVER THE TOP! Wow, what a sandwich! First off, come hungry and ready to sit close to strangers. This place packs them in. We both ordered the famous Woody Allen; Corned beef and pastrami, on rye. That's it, no other condiments or garnishes... just the best deli meat around, piled 8-inches high. The prices are high for a lunch spot, but the sandwich was so big (but not the biggest on the menu) we ended up not eating dinner that night. The bad part was we were not able to taste their world famous NY Cheesecake. I would definitely recommend splitting a sandwich ($3 extra) between two people and ordering dessert. We did see our neighbors eating the strawberry cheesecake, and one slice fed four of them. It is crowded, noisy, and worth the visit.

My recommendation for sight seeing in NYC - My wife and I had only 2 days to spend in the city. We picked up brochures, but noticed that they were very expensive. So we hailed a cab from Mid-town Manhattan and asked him to take us to Battery Park. He dropped us off and waited while we walked around and took pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Cost $15.00. We hopped back into the taxi and had him take us up to the west side of Central park, around 67th street and drop us off. Cost $20.00. From there, we took a nice 2 mile walk through the park, winding over to the east side. We saw a lot of birds and squirrels including the famous hawks perched on a ledge across the street from the park. We also made a point to find the Alice in Wonderland sculptures, they were very nice. We then exited the park at the southern end and made our way down 7th avenue to the Carnegie Deli, to restore all of the calories we just burned off. A short taxi ride back to the hotel for $6.00 and we were done. We saw a lot of the city in a 4 hour window, for around $40.00. We could have saved the last cab fare and walked back to the hotel, but it started to snow (Feb 11th - Start of the record snowfall for NYC). We really enjoyed our time in the park. Some of the sightseeing tours start at $50, or more, per person.