New York #1: Times Square and The Empire State Building

So unless you're a new followers or  reader or you've been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, it's likely you'll have noticed that Karl and I jetted off to New York City last week for a weekend of city fun.  I'd visited The Big Apple before but that was almost seven years ago and as I was only 15 and went with my drama class from school, it's not quite the same as going when you're a bit older and can experience the city in your own way. We managed to get the trip for a very reasonable price and if I had any advice relating to booking for yourself, I'd definitely say "play around". Change dates, airports and hotels until you get the best price and it can honestly save you hundreds of pounds! 

After a bit of a 'mare with the SatNav (which decided to take us to Manchester City Centre instead of the airport in rush hour traffic meaning we only just made our flight!!) we finally landed at JFK and began our fun-filled weekend. We arrived late afternoon so once we'd checked in to our hotel and freshened up, our first stop was, of course, The Empire State Building.

We had tickets to the main deck which is the 87th floor. You can buy tickets to go right to the top or the 102nd floor but for the price difference in the tickets we just didn't think it was worth it when you can get such amazing views of the city from the main deck. We headed up to the top at around 5pm so we could see the city in the daylight and words cannot describe just how beautiful it is. The city looks exactly how it does in the movies and it's one of those views you could never, ever get tired of looking at. Of course, being that high in the air on a February evening meant it was absolutely baltic and it was really hard to stand the cold for more than a few minutes at a time. We kept retreating inside the observatory to get warmed up while we waited for the sun to set but facing being chilled to the bone was absolutely worth it for the view that we were blessed with.

Well, you can see from the photos just how beautiful it was but they honestly don't do it justice and if you're heading to NYC soon I'd definitely recommend trying to catch the sunset from the Empire State! You will not be disappointed. Plus, going up at that time meant we got to see the views during the sunlight, during the sunset and when the sun had completely set so we got the best of everything! 

Because we'd been travelling for so many hours we didn't want to try and pack too much into our first day so after the Empire State Building we went over to Times Square. Now, when people think of New York, the first images that come to mind are undoubtedly of Times Square and, again, it's exactly how you would imagine it to be. The bright lights on the side of buildings, the abundance of street performers, the gigantic skyscrapers covered in flashing ads, shops bigger than you can imagine...Times Square has it all. It's always absolutely packed, full of both locals and tourists, and it is definitely one of the most tourist-y areas in New York but that doesn't make it any less magical. If you want a bus tour around NY, Times Square is the place to go as that's where most of them leave from. We got a Panoramic Night Bus Tour from outside M&M World so got to see the entire city by night, including the views of the absolutely beautiful skyline, completely lit up, proving it truly is the city that never sleeps.

Of course, we found ourselves in Times Square time after time (no pun intended!) as it's really the centre point of New York and was just around the corner from our hotel so I've including some of the photos I took during the day too.

I don't want to bombard you with too many photos (trust me, if I uploaded all of them in one post you'd be scrolling for around three years!!) so I'm going to split my New York posts up to make them a little bit lighter. Next time, look out for Central Park and the Statue of Liberty! 

Amy x