New York City 2017 – Day 1: JFK, Times Square, Columbus Circle, Central Park

Hi Everyone!

I have finally been able to write up posts on each day of my New York holiday – I want to share as much information as possible, hence why I am posting each day separately. I hope you find this helpful or interesting.

We left home around 11am on Sunday 26th March to go to Heathrow Airport, depending on traffic it can take considerably longer to get there. I paid to park at Heathrow Long Stay – I preferred this option as I could keep the keys to my car – you hear lots of horror stories with airport parking companies – plus there is a designated shuttle that takes you to and from the terminal.

The flight departed around 4pm – we flew with Virgin Atlantic (VS009) arriving in New York, JFK airport about 6 and a half hours later. From the airport we jumped straight into a taxi which took us to the hotel – The Wyndham New Yorker. Once at the hotel, we got checked in, put our bags in our room and went for a walk to Times Square, which was about 10 minutes away. If you are looking for a hotel in New York i would definitely recommend this one. The room was nice, we were upgraded to one with a view and were happy with the service. This hotel is a perfect location, most landmarks are in walking distance, otherwise you can get on the subway one block away. There are lots of restaurants, shops etc nearby.

On our first full day we went to McDonald’s for breakfast, it was chucking it down with rain and everywhere we walked past was so busy so we opted for the easy choice. From here we walked to Columbus Circle and into Central Park, even though it was a pain that it was raining quite heavily, it did mean that alot of places were not very busy, making it very good to take pictures.

Instagram: hayleyxmartin | Central Park, Bow Bridge

Before we went on this trip I knew I wanted to explore more of Central Park this time and that is exactly what we did. We walked down the Mall to Bethesda Fountain then made our way to Belvedere Castle – which took a while as we didn’t know exactly where we were going but found it in the end! It is so strange that the castle is right in the middle of the park – very surreal. Making our way back to where we started in the park we took lots of pictures and admiring the view of the city. Central Park is definitely of my favourite places.

Due to the heavy rain, we headed back to the hotel to dry off a little bit, on our way back we got Dunkin’ Donuts and hot chocolate – this has to be my favourite – it is a fairly thick consistency and tastes really good.

Later on we headed into Times Square, it is definitely different during the day, I would recommend visiting both day and night – personally I don’t like staying here too long as it’s so busy and there are people everywhere but you definitely have to go and experience it.

The rain stopped in the afternoon so we continued exploring and having a wander around – somehow we managed to walk right down to the Flat Iron building – It isn’t until you are in the city that you realise how close everything is in proximity. To wrap up the day we had dinner at Hard Rock Café in Times Square. Afterwards we did some shopping, I got quite a few items from Sephora which I will share in a separate post.

Thank you for reading,

I would love to hear your New York experiences, please leave a comment.
Follow my blog to find out what else happened on my holiday,
I will be posting Day 2 tomorrow at 9am!