Holiday in NYC Heaven

Earlier on this year I was lucky enough to spend a week shopping, sightseeing and walking (sooooo much walking!) in the Big Apple! I’ve always had a long- distance love affair with New York and dreamt of visiting, so when my wonderful Mummykins turned 50 last year, I couldn’t think of anywhere better to take her for her birthday celebrations. When we first came out of the airport, I was so excited and thrown in to full-5-year-old mode, taking photos of the taxis and throwing my arms out trying to hale one of the many already lined-up traditional yellow cabs (I never pretend to be normal!). We’d booked a room on the 24th floor of the Row NYC hotel overlooking the huge crowds and fascinating lights of Times Square. The hotels newly renovated décor definitely satisfied that urge to find the perfect ‘I’m in New York!’ feeling.

On our first day in the big city, we went on a traditional NYC shopping trip (sorry Mr Bank Balance!) to Woodbury Common, where the outlets are to die for and outlet prices mixed with post-holiday sales (aka January Sales) meant having to try – and fail on many occasions – to limit ourselves. I’m not going to talk about my purchases too much, as I’ll be giving them their own private haul post (inc. Macy’s, Bloomingdales & Tiffany’s) in the next few days!

Before leaving home I had had just one request from my best friend ‘You have to go to Carlos Bakery!!’. We’re both massive fans of the programme at home (Cake Boss for any of you that haven’t yet been introduced to his genius!) and I just had to try one of his world famous cannolis. We’d left it quite late to pop in, but at 10pm I kid you not the queue was around the corner! However, the final product was most definitely worth it. Although I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with skittles (I love them, my hips hate them!), I'm not really a cake fanatic, but, albeit a little rich, the cannolis we had were delicious!

We spent the remainder of our trip going to the traditional touristy sights like Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station and Empire State Building (however, this was after a few cosmopolitans on my part so the photos are a little fuzzy!).  However, the most beautiful part of New York – which was really more one of my mummykins’ bucket-list-items than mine – was Central Park. Without sounding rude I was expecting a basic park with a few trees and could never really understand the hype, however, walking along 5^th avenue, through the full hustle and bustle of the shoppers and commuters, to then be presented with 843 acres (according to our tour guide!) of serenity literally stopped me in my tracks.  I think it may be one of those things that you don’t really understand the hype of fully until you’re inside it, but I’d say it’s most definitely worth a visit for anyone heading to NYC.

I’m not much of a foodie blogger, but I do have to give a mention to ‘Sarabeth’s’ restaurant.  I think there are a few different branches, but the one I visited was just on the outside of Central Park.  During our visit to the park I’d asked someone for any tips on places to go for lunch and was immediately aimed in the direction of Sarabeths.  They are well known in Manhattan for their brunch menu and on a Sunday the line is known to reach right out the door, so quite obviously I had to – at least attempt! – to be a ‘lady who brunches’ and try out their famous Eggs Benedict. Without sounding too much like a brochure, the quality of the food and size of the portions for the price was a little shocking due to the reputation it has.  All of the staff were very polite and attentive and we barely had to wait at all, although this may be due to there only being me and mum. 

I am sorry as I know I’ve gabbed on quite a lot on this post, but I wanted to make sure that I shared as many details as possible about this trip. I’ll also be posting a haul of all the goodies I treated myself to in a couple of days, so please keep an eye out!

Love Sara