In NY we met my brother David in our AirBnB apartment around the corner from Little Italy in Nolita. It was a great central location and in a very lively area (so much so we felt the subway below us and kept the windows closed at night!) Whilst in NY we spent time with our good friends Louise and Lloyd who live in the Upper East Side area which was a short subway ride away. They live right by Central Park so a slow walk was much needed to recover from our first nights drinks!

As we have all been to NY before we didn’t need to do all the usual touristy things again so luckily for us we had Louise and Lloyds local knowledge and David who is is the most organised person we know with list upon list of bars and burger joints he wanted to try out!

Together we all went to the ice hockey at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn to watch the NY Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a great atmosphere and we had brilliant seats thanks to Lloyd. The middle aged American fans behind us really made the experience as they were extremely vocal about the opposition (‘let’s go Islanders’!)

Prior to our trip to the ice hockey we spent the day exploring Brooklyn. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge in the sunshine and through Prospect Park to Prospect Slope where we stopped for lunch and a potter around the local shops. We also stopped by Williamsburg to try out one of David’s well researched list of bars before heading to Dumbo where we had an ice cream and admired the views from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

It was 8 years ago since we were in NY last so we all wanted to return to Ground Zero, the 9/11 memorial as it was a building site when we were there last. It was moving to see what has been done in honour of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

We took David back to a restaurant for breakfast called Stardust near Times Square which we had been to previously. The staff are all wannabe Broadway stars so they sing as they are working. Its a fun place but the food was not great.

Another day we walked along the Highline which is a disused train line from 1934 that originally went through the centre of blocks. It’s now a public sky garden and is unusual as you are surrounded by views of the city and the local buildings. After this we took a yellow cab to South Sea Street Port but there is a total refurbishment going on at the moment so we had a pit stop in a local cafe instead.

We were so lucky with the weather that we took the subway to Coney Island, a seaside resort with an amusement park and beach. We enjoyed fish and chips and I even paddled my feet in the freezing water! It was a bit like Margate but what we liked about it was that you can get the tube to the beach from the city centre in an hour!

New York is a great first timers place, there is lots of tourist attractions to visit and tons of shopping to be done! Second time around our friends and family made it for us.