On our first trip to New York, my boyfriend and I decided to blow the budget on a yellow cab from the airport. The driver said he normally took the tunnel, but that he would take the bridge so we could get our first view of the skyline as we crossed he Hudson. It was perfect. Manhattan glittered in the sunshine against a bright blue sky, as magical as I had always hoped it would be. I grabbed my boyfriend’s hand and saw that he was feeling the same, and I swear I could hear Gershwin. One view that definitely should be shared, and that I will never forget.

www.iloveny.com/
Google map: bit.ly/yLa0OM

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A Mexican/Asian/American restaurant with the absolutely best view of southern Manhattan, especially after dark. Worth the effort getting to it in Brooklyn. Chances are you'll need a reservation and make sure you eat on the roof terrace!

almarestaurant.com/
187 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
+1 718.643.5400
Google map: bit.ly/w5qIxd

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Since I jacked in the rat race and headed east for a life on the Big Blue, I haven't been back. But Jamie and I have a dream of sailing 'Esper' into the great melting-pot one day...

New York, New York, so good they named it twice,
New York, New York, all the scandal and the vice, I love it!
Gerard Kenny, 1978.

I’m not so sure about the vice, but I love a bit of scandal and news, so what better way to start the day than with the New York Times? Sitting in one of NY’s many diners, while knocking back endless cups of coffee and wolfing down a real Big Apple breakfast, is a pretty good way to soak up the city morning atmosphere.

It does not matter what interests you, New York has it all. There are a million things to do and see, from art to sport, from shopping to parks and from Broadway to boat tours, it is impossible to be bored.

I started my affair with New York in 1972 when I visited the city for the first time at the tender age of fourteen. Flying from London on my own, too scared to disturb the passenger next to me – or to use the lavatory – I remained in my seat for the whole journey. Listening to Tony Blackburn through crackly headphones, on a continuous one-hour loop, must surely earn me some kind of medal? Emerging surprisingly unscathed from the experience of hearing the iconic disk jockey’s cheesy jokes eight times, I was met at the airport by the American family I would be staying with for a month.

It was the time of flower power and the hippy generation, a movement I embraced with open arms, marvelling at the brave new world of shopping malls. I bought LPs by Carole King, Harry Nilsson, and Alice Cooper, covered myself in cheap jewellery, slavered on the patchouli or musk perfume, and squeezed my feet into cuban heeled cowboy boots. I went to the Empire State Building – just pipped at the post as the world’s highest building by the recently built World Trade Centre. I saw the Rockerfeller Center, Central Park and the Statue of Liberty, but it was Saks 5th Avenue which impressed me most. Fab, all those bright, blinking, winking things.

Most amazingly of all during that trip I was somehow smuggled into a cinema to see the X rated “The Godfather”. Life did not get much hipper or happier.

Since my first glimpse of the metropolitan heaven that is New York I have been back often, sometimes on holiday and sometimes on business, but always with pleasure and affection. It has changed over the years, with even places like Harlem getting a makeover and becoming gentrified – this once ‘no-go’ area now offers Harlem Heritage Tours.

If you've never been before I would try a whistle stop tour of the major tourist sights – they are all worth seeing – but just strolling around Manhattan gives a great flavour of the place that spawned ‘Fame’, ‘Friends’ and countless Woody Allen flicks. Catch a Broadway show and see a Hollywood star in the flesh, if you are lucky, but ‘Off Broadway’ or even in one of the other boroughs – Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx or Staten Island – there are performances most nights.

NY never ceases to thrill and to throw up something new. The Frick Collection and Museum of Modern Art are always worth visiting for a culture fix. For aspirational shopping it is hard to beat Barneys, and the boutiques around SoHo are full of gorgeous clothes and to-die-for trinkets.

There is nothing quite like waking up in the city that never sleeps and I haven’t even mentioned the bars...

For more tales have a look at www.lizcleere.com

East of San Francisco, north of Mexico, south of Canada and west of Ireland.

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This museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design has a fabulous collection of art including many pieces by Egon Schiele and Klimt.
It also has two delightful cafes serving Viennese style food, wonderful cakes and gorgeous breakfasts. It's quite small and a refreshing change from some of the enormous museums in New York that can quickly exhaust you. Also it's not far from the marvellous Frick collection which is also fairly small and "do-able"

www.neuegalerie.org/
1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
+1 (212) 628 6200
Google map: bit.ly/uVgiK6

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