It’s been a dream of ours to go to New York for a long time. There’s something magical about that place for both of us. Something that’s pulling us in. Neither of us have been before but on Tuesday we’re finally off to experience the city we’ve been wanting to meet for so long.
With all things that have been going on (read project flat) we’ve been flat out and late at booking both flights and sorting out where to stay. We knew very little about the actual areas of the city, or how big Manhattan is for that matter, and when asking friends who’ve been and who live there we got advised not to stay in Midtown but to go more towards Downtown. We started doing our research a week and a bit ago and it soon became clear to both of us that Midtown and more specifically Midtown East was exactly where we’d imagined we would stay. Right in the middle of it, surrounded by iconic buildings and close to Central Park. That’s what we had dreamt of. That’s where we were meant to stay.
Having left booking a hotel to the very last minute we got a slight shock when we looked at the lack of availability and what that meant for prices. Bit naive perhaps but that was the case. The hotel matters to us but not at the expense of being able to do all the things we want to do when we’re there. After further inquiring with friends we started checking out Priceline and Hotwire, sites where the name of the hotel isn’t revealed until after you’ve booked it which allows hotels to drop their prices somewhat. Both sites allows you to specify location and star rating and whereas Priceline is bidding based, Hotwire already has a given price for each hotel but on the upside you also get a breakdown of the hotel’s facilities.
It was quite fun bidding on Priceline and keeping an eye on Hotwire but we weren’t having much luck. It didn’t matter for the first few days but then our hearts started to sink. Would we have to settle for something which was less than we imagined? Stay in an area that wasn’t Midtown? Or perhaps break up our stay and go for two separate hotels? The more we looked around and talked about it the stronger the feeling got that the location did really matter and so did the type of hotel we would stay in. This will be our first visit and we wanted it to be special. As the old saying goes:
You never get a second chance to make a first impression
Past my bedtime and after a long day’s work on Wednesday I went onto Hotwire and there it was. A hotel in Midtown East, 3 1/2 stars, reasonable price and with a gym. It had our name on it and after asking D “Should we?” we booked it. For a second we were sat there looking at the confirmation screen, relieved that we had a hotel and that it was in Midtown East. Then we remembered that we didn’t actually know what hotel it was so we looked at the name – The Roosevelt. Well, that sounded good and classic. This was promising. When we googled it the picture that you see at the top of this post is what met us. We looked at each other and smiled. That was the kind of greeting we’d been after. Something magnificent. Wow factor. Classic New York and in a great location.
Late this coming Tuesday night we’ll arrive in a lit up New York and that foyer on 45th and Madison Avenue is what’s awaiting us and we’re pretty sure that The Roosevelt is looking set to provide us with a first experience of New York that we will never forget.
