We’d had two really shitty Christmas’ (losing Pea in 2017 and Steve’s mum in 2018) and so I wanted to plan something for Steve to look forward to Christmas again, so on Christmas day I surprised him with New York – I know I am an incredible wife! Keeping it a secret for 8 months was sooooo hard – I normally cannot control my excitement. Booking it was a hassle too as we have a joint bank account and have access to each other’s credit card statements so I knew I’d need help from my parents with buying the tickets and booking the hotel etc. 

Christmas Day arrived and we exchanged gifts; I’d bought him a few card/board games to throw him off the scent! We had Christmas day as normal; my parents came over, we had food and then chilled in front of the TV. At 4pm I went upstairs to pack his suitcase – mine was already packed and hidden in my wardrobe, but I had decided to pack his myself only that day so as not to arouse suspicion. My parents had also brought their small suitcase as I knew if we used the bigger one that he’d know we were going further than Europe and I CERTAINLY didn’t want that! At 4.20pm I told him I’d found another present for him. It was a fake boarding card with every detail on he needed EXCEPT the destination. For the next 5 hours all I got was question after question – I just ignored him!

The next morning at 3.30am when we got up for our flight I told him where we were going – Frankfurt! Hahaha this wasn’t a lie. His face was a picture; like ‘Oooh that sounds nice’ but actually thinking ‘WTH’. Then I waited a minute, got my prop and told him we were going to Frankfurt but it wasn’t our final destination. He looked confused. I then held out a big apple (hint hint) and he was like, ‘ARE WE GOING TO NEW YORK?!!’ He was super excited!!

Travel

As it was Christmas day I certainly wasn’t going to rely on public transport so bless my parents they took us to our hotel at Manchester airport – I’m sure if you’ve read a lot of these posts you’re probably thinking ‘Wow, she’s got some good parents there!’ I know I do! God bless ‘em!

Unfortunately Singapore Airlines was a lot more expensive, and seeing as it was Christmas the flights were expensive anyway, so United it was – well Lufthansa to Frankfurt and then United to Newark. Entertainment wasn’t as good as Singapore with much older films and TV shows but it was enough to keep my mind off the turbulence. Food was ok though, quite healthy actually. which was a surprise.

Customs wasn’t too bad. A long wait to see an officer but then only 2 mins of ‘What brings you to the U.S?’ ‘Where are you going?’ ‘How long are you here for?’ before we collected our bags. Arriving into Newark, no issues at all. Leaving from Newark, absolute chaos, self check in with bags was ridiculous and getting through security an absolute joke! Make sure you get to the airport here 2.5-3hrs before your flight leaves. 

It is very easy to get to Manhattan from Newark airport – follow the AirTrain signs and get a ticket at the blue and orange ticket machines. $15.25 each for a shuttle from Zone B to the proper train station and then the normal train to New York Penn Station – takes 40mins in total. You do need to be careful with this as technically there are two ‘Penn Stations’; one in NYC and one in Newark so make sure you get the right one. You can get private shuttles or a taxi but both are horrendously expensive! For the rest of our time here we walked everywhere, surprise surprise! One thing I would say about walking in Midtown is that 5th Av and Park Av are always heaving so maybe do these just once and the other times try and walk down the others as they are a bit quieter – depends if you enjoy the hustle and bustle.

Hotel

At Manchester airport we stayed at the Clayton hotel. £75 for a Standard room, but I’d messaged them a month prior about my surprise trip and they gave us a free upgrade to a Superior! Thank you Clayton! The room was very nice with seating and table area, a comfy bed (pillows were a bit lumpy though), complimentary teas and coffees and a shower/bath. They also do a free shuttle service to the different terminals which is great. 

In Manhattan I booked us a ‘King room’ at the 4* Mondrian hotel (£762 for 4 nights). When we arrived, again I mentioned the surprise (this time in passing), et voila, free upgrade again! Lovely room with a super king bed, a large walk in shower, seating area and mini bar. Very nice and an extremely comfortable bed, but don’t bother emailing them or writing them a letter as they never respond. I emailed on 3 separate occasions and got no reply. 

Places to visit/things to do

There is so much to do in New York you could live there your entire life and not see everything. However in summer 2017 we went to Manhattan so we had already seen and done a lot. On our first trip here together we did the Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island (free to enter but $18 for the ferry to actually get to both places from Manhattan), 9/11 Memorial museum ($24 each), and wandered round Times Square, Central Park, Broadway etc. I myself have been up the Empire State Building before but I think you can get better pictures of Manhattan from the likes of Brooklyn Bridge and the ferry than there. I would definitely say the thing I loved the most surprisingly was the 9/11 Memorial museum – just amazing, but take tissues! The hardest part for me is at the memorial outside where the names of the people who died are engraved, more specifically the women and their ‘unborn child’. 

This time round was very much wandering and re-visiting places but now in winter, and obviously with a Christmas slant to it. If you choose to go to Manhattan at Christmas, and I would definitely say to experience it at least once, the first place you have to go if Rockefeller Centre. Unfortunately everyone goes there at Christmas to see the famous ‘Home Alone’ tree. I would suggest going about 4.30am or 11.30pm as you’re likely to have less people there at this time and you can probably get a better picture of the tree all lit up. 

SAKS is literally round the corner and they do a cool sound and light show on the front of their building every 10 mins from very early in the morning. This is also very popular with tourists so I would do this just before Rockerfeller (just remember that the last show is at 11.35pm).

You can’t go to Manhattan and not take a walk round Central park, and certainly not at Christmas. Before we entered the park we walked past the famous ‘Plaza’ hotel which is the hotel from Home Alone 2! So cool and iconic! Once we entered the park we did most of the highlights e.g. the pond and ‘Gapstow Bridge’, Chess and Checkers House and visited the famous Central Park Carousel. There is a lovely literary writers walk on ‘The Mall’ you should do whilst there too, and of course no trip to Central Park is complete without seeing the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ statue – it’s probably my favourite thing in the Park! Another absolute must at Christmas, especially as a couple or with kids if ice skating. Now you can do this in Central Park, Rockefeller Centre or Bryant Park to name a few but Bryant is the only free entry if you have your own skates, otherwise its anything between $15 and $33.

As we didn’t get to see a Broadway show last time I wanted to see if we could do that this time round. However, all of the bloggers and websites said that the must-see show at Christmas in Manhattan is the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. I waited till we got to NYC to book the tickets, but actually it is probably best to book as soon as tickets start selling (maybe cheap groupon) or last minute as on the day they had 50% off so we got Orchestra (Stall) tickets for Third tier prices ($124 for both tickets, that’s £93 which is awesome)! The show, wow, just wow!! Now as a dancer who has done many shows and helped direct a few, I know how difficult it is to get everyone to ‘work as one’ but bloody hell, this show was just outstanding. The choreography was fairly simplistic but the co-ordination and shapes the dancers made and the timing was simply unbelievable. 

Even though I have been to New York about 4/5 times I’ve never walked across the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge. Steve really wanted to do this so one afternoon that’s what we did. Bear in mind that it can get extremely crowded (and sometimes they shut it for a couple hours just to get rid of the crowds). It takes about 25-30 mins to cross and that’s going at a steady pace. When you get to the other side I’d suggest going back on yourself and going to the waters edge as it is a perfect spot for a photo of Manhattan with the bridge in. Rather than walk back across the same bridge, we walked through Brooklyn little bit to Manhattan Bridge. I’d suggest making this your only big walk day if you’re not big walkers otherwise you’ll be cream crackered afterwards!

Another good thing to do, especially at Christmas is FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store in NYC; it’s in the film ‘Big’ with Tom Hanks. We found the famous floor piano keys from said film and queued up to try them. It was fun but we got some interesting looks as mostly it was very young children giving it a go! Haha.

Things you have to do at least once in NYC – Bloomingdales, Macy’s and Grand Central Station. Bloomingdales and Macy’s are department stores for high end fashion e.g. Prada, Louis Vuitton  – obviously for us this is very much window shopping! However you can find much cheaper down streets like 5th Av – lots of touts selling fake merchandise: handbags, purses, watches etc. Be ready to haggle though, NEVER accept their first offer! I’d probably halve it at least, but then again, I’m Yorkshire! Grand Central Station for me is just super; at Christmas it’s nice to see the decorations outside but it is cool to visit inside too; so many famous film scenes in there. 

Food

For breakfast at Manchester airport, we went to ‘Grain Loft’. Breakfast for Steve was the protein breakfast with eggs, sausages, bacon and beans, whilst I had the porridge, honey and banana. Both come highly recommended which for me is strange as I hate food at airports but these were actually delicious! 

In New York breakfast for us was a fairly big meal if we could. Fresh & Co (Park Av), Le Café Quotidien (70W 40th St) and Liberty Bagels Midtown (260W 35th St) were all great, the first two having good healthy options like Greek yoghurt + granola and protein bowls with eggs, avocado, bacon and spinach in. The bagel place is insane with a huge variety of bagels (including rainbow which of course I had to try) and fillings. Highly recommend all.

For snack type food including fruit we went to Trader Joe’s (a supermarket). This is a much cheaper option than eating out for 3 meals a day. Get a decent breakfast, snacks for during the day and then a big meal at night. 

Evening meals were Maggies Place (21 E 47th St) – an Irish/American pub with very attentive and kind staff and very good inexpensive food, Le Parisien (163 E 33rd St) a French restaurant with excellent (French speaking – wohoo practice time for me) staff and delicious French cuisine, and finally Nerai (55E 54th St) a fancy and expensive Greek restaurant with exquisite Greek food. I’d highly recommend the halloumi and the filet mignon here. Just wow! 

I know food can be very expensive in Manhattan but if you do a bit of digging first you can definitely find some real gems!

Final thoughts

Awesome trip with the added bonus of it being a massive achievement on my part planning it and keeping it a surprise from Steve. We had a super time and after it I was truly ready for Steve and I to begin our next, and maybe most important ‘adventure’ of all – IVF.