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Selection of oysters and clams from around the wor
washington statue blocked by trees
in park avenue
pilgrimsJust returned from a week in New York with my wife
Just returned from a week in New York with my wife. See what we liked and disliked!
We liked:
1. Our hotel and its location(The Carlton Hotel at Madison Avenue). In fact we loved it!
2. The proximity to the 5th Avenue and subway (green line 1 block away and 2 other lines 5-10 m away)
3. We enjoyed the hop on and hop off bus tour. It was really worth it!
4. We liked the reasonable priced deli for breakfast next to our hotel (corner of 5th Avenue and 28th street);
5. We had fun in the ferry to Staten Island and see the statue of liberty. It was our moment of relief, this where we spent 1 hour wihtout spending money!
6. We loved the diner cruise, it was really amazing the see the city by night;
7. We liked the Sex and the City tour. It was quite hilarious, at least we had a good laugh and the guide was real good.
8. We had a spectacular view at the Rockfeller center, we had the chance to see the sunset and the lightning up of the city;
9. We liked the GreenVillage area and the Upper East Side next to Central Park.
10. The shopping was fine, a lot of places to spend money. You don't really feel the recession in New York!!
What we disliked:
1. We hated the tip or gratuity culture in the USA. it's simply horrible, such a huge pressure to have always 1-2 bucks in your hand to tip anyone!
2. we disliked the service in some restaurants, but still we had to tip 15 - 18%, we were simply afraid to be embarrassed by the waiter or the person serving us!
3. We really hated when we visited the well know terrace bar at the 230 5th Avenue (where you can have a spectacular view of the city and the Empire State building) when the waiter asked us for our credit card to be kept in her hands. When I asked what for, she said that there was too many people and basically she was afraid we would runaway with paying. If they din't trust the customers, why we should trust them? of course I refused and instead I paid straight away. Never seen such situation before. The food was horrible and of course we still gave a tip. Again we were afraid to be pointed out in front of so many people!
4. We disliked the breakfast at our hotel, too expensive and hardly nothing too eat;
5. We didn't particular liked Chinatown, it was too chaotic!
6. We disliked the transport from the airport to the hotel. We booked with Airlink, we had to wait more than 30 m to leave and the driver was rather nuts in terms of driving. The way back to the airport was better, despite the van was 10 minutes late;
