I have had my eye on New York since 2014 and through a number of failed plannings I finally got to go in March 2016. I already had my list of things I wanted to do and food I wanted to eat so I was more than ready to roll.

Flight: I flew with Virgin Atlantic going there and then Delta coming back, the flight was around £390 direct. The first time I ever flew abroad was with Virgin Atlantic and I had such a positive experience but maybe my memory had moulded it to be better than it was because this time round the seat seemed to be smaller than I had remembered. However the service and food were still good (maybe not as good as before because there was one steward who kept feeding me snacks). Delta on the other hand, I will stay far away from. The plane was so old and the food was absolutely terrible.

Stay: I stayed at Q&A Residential Hotel, it was a new hotel so there was still a lot of facilities that were under construction but the room itself was amazing and for a good price. The room had so much space, the bed was comfy and it is right across the road from the Wall Street metro station. The entrance was kind of off-putting as there was still construction going on but the bellboy was waiting inside to take our luggage and guide us to reception.

Do: Central Park, this might sound silly but I never realised how big Central Park actually is. We didn't have a lot of time to explore the park as we had a booking so we went onto one of those tourist horse-carriages and payed for a 30 minute ride. I want to reiterate that it was certainly not my idea and the pungent smell of horse as you sat on the carriage, really does go right up your nose, although our guide happened to be Irish so it did feel a little like home in a weird way. Afterwards we went to Broadway to watch Les Misérables, which was absolutely amazing. I've seen the movie before and really liked it but always wondered how the picture would differ in a theatre. We bought our tickets cheap from a TKT booth.

Empire State Building, the view from the top is beautiful and remains one of my favourite night views. 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I was so excited for this as I love flowers but March is definitely not the right time to visit. What made it worse was that there was a beautiful picture of how the garden looked when all the flowers had bloomed but my reality at the time, was a field of dead grass. They do however, have a lot of greenhouses with tropical blooms inside.

New York in March is pretty cold but thankfully the day we went to visit Brooklyn bridge, the sun was shining and it was actually quite hot, hot enough for people to go on a jog topless (but maybe that is how Americans normally do, I wouldn't know).

Eat: One of my friends is an absolute Youtube junkie and before I even knew that I was going to US, she played a video about an American trio of foodies who were in New York and one of the must-try foods was Halal Guys. I did not have high expectations but what I would give to eat this again. Why have they not reached London yet!? What made it worse was, we did not know if it would be nice or not so we shared one portion. That was pain

Chelsea Market, has a lot of cute boutique stalls and so much food! Now times like these, sharing is much welcomed as you can try more things without getting full as fast but even then, there was just too many choices.

China Town and Little Italy are right next to each other so whether you are feeling for Chinese or Italian food there are many restaurants and cafes to choose from. I wanted dimsum so we headed for Jing Fong, which comes highly recommended on Tripadvisor. How it works in Jing Fong is, you are given a small piece of paper and these ladies in orange will be circling the restaurant with their cart of food and you just pick out what you want and they will stamp your paper. The only other time that I experienced this service was in China and I can say for certain that I am not a fan of it. The pig in me gets so stressed out because I am eating but at the same time you don't want to miss the ladies in orange so you have to be alert, unless you are willing to wait or to go chase her down.

We also got lured into a small hotel in Chinatown advertising a 'rooftop bar', it was not actually outside but the view was quite nice. 

For special occasions, PRINT. restaurant was amazing. The service was impeccable and the food from the starter through to dessert was gorgeous. They also have a rooftop bar (a real one, this time) with an amazing view. Sadly I have no pictures because I could not fit my camera into my tiny clutch and my phone at the time was not quite the quality it is now so I only have my word for this.

In London we have Shake Shack and when I went to try it, I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. However on the way back home we were hungry and so we got Shake Shack at JFK airport; how could the same company in different countries, be so different!? The burger meat had so much flavour and that bun! Another must-try food in New York is bagels and I love a bagel. The place we went to was called Leo's Bagels where there was so many choices of filling and type of bagel bun. The bagel in the picture below (or one half of it rather) was what saved me on that Delta flight.

There are still some things on my list that I never got to tick off due to time restraints and/or the weather so next time I visit, I hope will be in the hotter months. Until then, that ends my trip to NYC (๑・ω-)～♥”