Hello guys, after my awesome experience in New York, I thought it was worth sharing an experience of the Big Apple from an African tourist perspective. Hope you are ready for this, so buckle up ?.
New York is a really vibrant city, and from my interactions with most Americans, am yet to understand why they hate it so much. Most claim it’s too busy, crowded, fast and lots of traffic. Trust me if you’ve never been to Nairobi or any other major African city, then you’ve not seen traffic and busy. With a city as huge and advanced as New York, 8 million people is not a crowd. Try telling that to a Kenyan living in Nairobi a city only a fraction of New York’s size but with almost 5 million people. Don’t get me wrong, Nairobi is one of the most awesome cities in Africa. Am just trying to justify why Americans(Not all) and New Yorkers don’t give this beautiful city the respect it deserves. Trust me New York is so beautiful. So if you have been planning a visit, get up and do so. In this post I’ll try and give you some few tips that helped me and few of places I think you should visit. So for the sake of making this post short and sweet, I’ll mention just a few places, at least a few of the ones I got to visit.
If you haven’t heard by now, New York is expensive, really expensive. So the best and cheapest way to navigate this beautiful city is through the subway. The New York’s subway system is one of the most fascinating and connected systems I’ve ever seen. Almost everywhere you’ll want to visit in New York is either close or next to a subway station. And as complicated as it is, I thank Google Maps for always coming through whenever I needed it. Anyone who’s been in New York will tell you just
how complicated the system is. I mean you just want to get from point A to B, now you have to go down two levels and follow signs written this as you look out for that train only to end up Queens when you were actually going to Manhattan. God bless Google Maps and you amazing local guides. There are actually schedules and written instructions of how to take your subway on Google Maps. How cool is that. It tells you the direction you should enter the subway and which signs to follow, the letter of the train you should take and even the stops on the way to your destination. How cool is that
. When you get here just get yourself a Metro Card, it’s way cheaper than taxis. The price of taking a taxi is almost a flight ticket from Nairobi to Mombasa in Kenya and am not even exaggerating.
So in order not to make this post really long and boring, I’ll just go straight to the point and list some of the places I visited while in New York. Please note that these are just a few of the places I think that are worth visiting and the tips you need before visiting them yourself. Hope you enjoy.
The Vessel.
This is a very new piece of structure found around the Hudson Yards. The Vessel is shaped liked something straight out of a Sci-FI movie. A very cool place to visit. What happens when you have a lot of money and non of the third world problems?? You build The Vessel and make entry absolutely free. Yeah you read right, this sculpture cost about $200 million to construct and the entry is absolutely free. You just have to book two weeks in advance in their website. However, if you feel like you want to visit on the same day without booking you can just go and pay $10 at the gate. I’ve never seen anything like it and I really loved it. Go to my review here to learn more about the place.
230 Fifth Rooftop Bar
You think New York is beautiful from the ground? You haven’t seen anything yet until you go on top of a building in Manhattan and voila, the most beautiful view you’ll ever see. Having been on top of Burj Khalifa trust me when I say the view of Manhattan is really beautiful from this rooftop bar. Especially during golden hours, this is a really top place both figuratively and literally. Had the best fish and chips here and I was not even in England. This is the place you go if you want a closer view of The Empire State building and those beautiful manhattan sunsets at the comfort of a seat while sipping virgin mojito. Could life get any better than that. For a moment, just a moment, you drift and forget all the world’s problems. It’s like couples’, groups’ and friends’ utopia. I recommend visiting on weekdays, that’s when its not packed. Visit this link to see my review of this place.
Liberty Island ?
Well technically the Liberty Island is not even in New York, it’s in New Jersey but still I think it’s one of a must visit place for tourists. The main attraction here is Her Majesty, Lady Liberty a.k.a The Statue Of Liberty National Monument. America’s symbol of hope, justice and everything nice?. For less than $30 you get to visit Liberty Island and Ellis Island using this link. Everything from the cruise to the becoming liberty simulation in Liberty Island Museum was just awesome. You get to learn awesome stuff about the statue and you also see and feel the original parts that were used in the making of the statue. It’s really worth a visit. There’s just a lot of great stuff to say about this place that this post doesn’t do it any justice at all. You can find my review of the Liberty Museum here and The Statue of Liberty here.
The Central Park
Every major city needs its lungs to function properly. In Nairobi we have numerous parks, well I guess that’s why it’s called the green city under the sun. But in New York, the one that really took my breath away was the Central Park. I mean, Madison Square Park and Bryant Parks are nice but The Central Park is just something else. From the famous Central Park Zoo, Belvedere Castle and the Bow Bridge to Wollman Ice Skating Rink, there’s just everything for everyone here. Maybe that’s why I loved it so much. You can virtually bring anyone of any age, religion or culture to this place and they’ll almost always find something that excites and entertains them. Well I guess that’s why New York is called the Big Apple, everyone can take a bite. One thing though, the park is humongous, trust me am Kenyan? and we are known for our endurance in long distance running but this one here was big of a task even for me to complete it all on foot in a cold day?.
Times Square
Word on the street is that New Yorkers hate Times Square! Well that’s kinda lame. But then again even Parisians hate The Eiffel Tower. That’s what happen when you get pampered a lot. All that aside, the Times Square is simply vibrant. The most colorful, vibrant and busy place I’ve ever seen. From the moment you step your foot here, everything else just seem to come to a stand still and for a moment, just a moment you forget all the chaos below as you focus on the screens above; I guess that’s why it’s called Times Square. Thought places like these only exist in movies. Anyways just be careful, don’t get distracted and watch both sides before you cross the road. It’s really easy to get carried away and forget the world beneath still functions. See here my review.
Brooklyn Bridge
If you watch movies then I bet you know everything about Brooklyn Bridge. That old structure connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. A really beautiful place to take that evening stroll just before sunset. There’s a beautiful view of lower Manhattan concrete jungle and the Manhattan Bridge & Williamsburg Bridge can also be seen beside each other. For more details just view my review here.
New York cannot be exhausted in a single post and if I am to write about everything then I’ll have to publish a book. There were so many other awesome places that iI visited and couldn’t include them in this post. There are really great restaurants and places in New York. The Wall Street for starters is a really nice place worth a visit. The Charging Bull in Wall St is one of the main attractions here together with the New York Stock Exchange (The richest room in the world). The One World Trade Center, where the 911 attacks happened, The Empire State Building and so many more. My relationship with New York was love at first sight and I will definitely visit again.
If you made it to this point thanks a lot for reading my post. I hope you found it interesting and will motivate you to visit New York some day. Thank you again.
