So I’ve been trying to figure out how to best tell you about our trip to New York and at the same time keep it as a diary for Wille and I so I’m going to post each day as it went by basically.
We left on Monday April 1st and flew in to JFK via Helsinki, Finland. On arrival the immigrations ´procedure took forever. After traveling for god knows how many hours we had to stand in line for another 2 1/4 before we could get through customs and be on our way to the hotel.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn Chelsea on W 24th St. If you’re looking for a hotel in Chelsea I can totally recommend it. It’s got 3 stars and a 4.4 out of 5 rating by previous guests and I can totally understand why. On the plus side; Great location, friendly staff, good size and CLEAN room, GREAT breakfast with ALL the trimmings (home made waffles, bacon and eggs, bagels, croissants, fresh fruit + LOTS more) and cookies and milk in the afternoons. On the minus side; The water pressure in the shower wasn’t great. Yeah, I know not a lot to complain about. The photo is of our view from our 6th floor hotel room. City views would have been great but the NYC fire escape façade worked well in our book too.
Since we were so late in arriving to the city all we had time for that night was to get dinner. We went to Chelsea Market and took a quick tour there. As you can see it was already a quarter to eight which meant 1.45 am for us and we were getting pretty tired.
We chose to eat at Giovanni Rana which a couple of you recommended when I asked for New York tips. Thanks for ALL the tips btw guys, they were great!
The restaurant had great atmosphere, nice decor and friendly staff. What more can you ask for?
Oh yeah, great food! I’m usually on a LCHF (sort of) diet but on this trip I decided I’d eat whatever took my fancy so I had the cheese tortellini and a spinach salad on the side. SO good! And not just because I hadn’t had pasta for ages.
After a brisk chilly (temperatures were quite low and it was pretty windy during most of our stay) walk back to our hotel we finally jumped into our beds after a loooong day.
Stay tuned for more of our trip tomorrow.
28 Comments
Love the vibe of the city that you’ve captured in these photos. Can’t wait to see more. Welcome home xo
Looking forward for more posts :-). Your hotel seems nice and charming, but I was shocked by their rates, 350 $ per person and night…and I thought my city is expensive LOL
It didn’t look charming (more modern) I have to say but the atmosphere was really nice. Manhattan hotels of an OK standard are SO expensive but staying in the cheaper ones with fewer than three stars usually means not so clean rooms, yucky bathrooms and no breakfast. My colleague stayed in an “affordable” hotel in Chelsea’s Meatpacking District not long ago that had bunk beds, non functioning locks on the door and a midnight “visitor” in her room. I’d rather save up and pay a bit more to be safe in a fresh space after a long flight and long days in site :).
Lovely New York – must be my favourite city all categories 🙂
Will be awaiting further posts!
LOVE Giovanni Rana… The atmosphere, the location and the FOOD! 🙂
I know, it was amazing :).
Wille says thank you for the birthday greeting!
I am taking notes for the October NY wedding I’m invited to. Hope to find hotel rooms cheaper than Stockholm!
I’ve been a long time reader but rarely comment. I’m so excited you are back in NYC; my hometown. If you have the time you have to try the following restaurants: Freeman’s in the Lower East Side, Yaki Tori Taisho in St. Marks, Golden Unicorn in Chinatown for dim sum, Sugar Sweet Sunshine in Lower East Side for delicious cupcakes (the best pistachio cupcakes in NYC), PEEP in Soho for Thai food (go in the restroom to see why it’s called PEEP). Have fun in NYC!
Sorry to hear you had so much of a hassle at the airport. Security here can get kind of crazy, especially in bigger airports!
Looks like you had a great start to your vacation!
Great post! I love that we’ll be able to read the day-by-day in a series of posts. Welcome home!
Ah, we’re actually back home already :). Thank you so much though, I’ll save these tips for next time. Soon I hope!
I kind of expected long lines from experience so Wille and I made a mad dash for the immigration area but it turned out that four other planes had landed just before us :).
Awsome photos! I thought a lot about guys, hoping all was going well. I’m sorry the weather was so cold. Can’t wait to read more about your trip. How were the kitties when you got home?
Mini was outside when we arrived and came happily towards us when she came in. Bonus was annoyed with us and we had to coax him out of his hiding place with food. Exactly how we expected it to be 🙂
Amen. Safety in NYC is paramount!
I stayed in some low ranked places while in Amsterdam and, while I have great stories to tell NOW, at the time? *shudder*
April 1st and no April Fools pranks??? That’s a very American thing!
Maybe the customs agents were pranking you with that loooong wait.
I pranked Wille that morning as we were waiting for our first flight saying it was delayed an hour and that we’d be late for our connecting flight :).
Jättefina bilder Benita, och jag är grööön av avund! Ser fram emot att få ta del av resten av resan! <3
I actually live here and am so curious to read your NYC posts. Of course you will find beauty in a fire escape view, I totally get it.
And isn’t Chelsea Market great? I practically raised both my kids there, since it’s such a friendly and exciting place to spend indoors time with kids during the long winter months.
Can’t wait to read your next posts – good chances you passed by my house or coffee place 🙂
I’m guessing you and Wille had a shared double so really $350 per night is not bad. Love your photos!!!
I was at MOMA last Thursday with my duaghter and I would be lying if said I didn’t keep a look out for the two of you!!! Looking forward to more of your posts about NYC. Sidetour is a great site to bookmark for next time- lots of wonderful adventures to be had, I’m hoping to go on some tours with them this month- photography in Central Park? Yes please!!! It is wonderfully warm this week- such a pity you didn’t get some of the spring weather.
So far your trip to NYC sounds like a winner. Thanks for the tip about the Hampton Inn. Now that we have children, we’re always looking for good bargain hotels, and you need one in Manhattan. We recently stayed at a Hampton Inn by the beach when all the beachfront hotels were booked. We had a wonderful time, with the amazing breakfast and indoor pool. Enjoy your trip!
We did. We had quite a large room with two queen size beds which was perfect for us.
I didn’t know that cheaper hotels are not secure, from this point I would pay everything what is needed 😉
We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Soho last year and thought it was great for location, breakfast and free in room wi-fi.
We’re staying in an airbnb apartment in October because it seemed to me the Hampton prices had gone up considerably this year, which is a shame 🙁
Åh, när jag var i NY i december åt vi middag där, verkligen helt fantastisk pasta! En negativ bieffekt av att ha ätit där är att ingen pasta hemma är i god längre, eller i alla fall inte lika god som man tyckte att den var förut!
thanks for sharing Benita! Love that you were able to take this trip with your son – your pictures make me want to jump on the next plane 😉
Thanks for sharing your journey! I love NYC. My sisters and I go every fall and we’re always looking for new places. Brooklyn is #1 on this year’s list.
We just got back from Mexico Monday. Our pilot warned us that the recent federal budget cuts have hit the Customs area hard, making for very long lines. There were four international flights expected in at about the same time, luckily ours got in early so we were more towards the front of the line. Even then, it still took over an hour to get through!