TRAVEL || New York - Day 1

My first day in NYC was more of a first evening. We landed at JFK around 4pm, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity at customs and the luggage carousel, we finally bundled ourselves into the back of a mini-van and headed off to our hotel. We were quite lucky, as there wasn't too much traffic which means we got to take the Queensboro Bridge and see the New York skyline at night - the movies do not do this sight justice, not in the slightest. Seeing this view with my own eyes has got to be one of the greatest moments of my life.

We stayed at the Washington Jefferson Hotel, on West 51st Street - right around the corner from Times Square, and one block over from The Gershwin, home of Wicked on Broadway. From the moment we stepped into the hotel, we were treated with nothing but kindness and respect from both the staff and the other guests. After checking us in, the concierge gave us a welcome pack full of maps, local attractions and vouchers, all of which came in handy on more than one occasion. 

We weren't in the hotel long before we decided to venture out and do some late night sight-seeing. It really is true when people say that NYC is the city that never sleeps, we was out until past midnight and it seemed that everyone else was too; Times Square was crowded with people bundled up in hats and scarves taking photos of the infamous lights and yellow taxi's. It was incredible.

By far my favourite part of the evening was walking back into the warm hotel room, crawling under the duvet into one of the comfiest beds I have ever slept in, and listening to the traffic outside my window, waiting for the fun day of activities ahead of us. 

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As I mentioned before, we booked our trip through Expedia - they had a great selection of hotels to choose from (some of which were WAY out of my price range) but using some of the tips I mentioned in my previous post, I found a few hotels that seemed nice, but the Washington Jefferson beat them all out as it was so close to both Times Square and a Chipotle. Our stay at the Washington Jefferson cost us £130 each for five nights, which I personally found a great value for money as we were no less than three minutes from Times Square, hundreds of restaurants, a subway station and you could see Radio City from our hotel window. I cannot commend the staff enough, they were polite, helpful, knowledgeable, and had a wicked sense of humour - I love when hotel staff treat their guests as people, and not as customers; the staff at The Washington Jefferson went above and beyond my expectations.

I am somewhat of a hotel snob, so I always tend to judge a hotel by its cleanliness, and I honestly could not fault them. If you are planning a trip to New York City then I would definitely recommend staying as The Washington Jefferson.

Plus! They have free high-speed WiFi throughout the hotel which is available to all guests.

To find out more about the Washington Jefferson, you can visit their website www.wjhotel.com 


Come back next week to see what I did on day two of my trip to NYC.
Previous posts can be found here.

Kirstie xoxo 

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† This post is part of a series. All views are my own and based on my own experiences formed during my trip to NYC February 10th-15th 2016. Any prices given are taken from Expedia.com and are based on my own booking experience in September 2015