Category Archives: Holidays

Travel review: Pies & Thighs, Brooklyn

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One of dad and my favourite TV programs is Diners, Drive Ins and Dives on the Food Channel, where Guy Fieri drives around America visiting less high brow eateries and uncovering local gems

Tying in nicely with our love of fried chicken and our visit to New York, we looked up one of the restaurants featured in the program on our trip to New York last summer. Pies and Thighs specialise in fried chicken and huge pies. They have a couple of branches but we chose their location in Brooklyn as it was closer to our hotel

P&T1

We chose to have brunch there and arrived early as there’s a no reservation policy. It isn’t the largest restaurant and we were glad to be early arrivers as there was a healthy queue of hungry diners by the time we left Continue reading →

Travel review: Staten Island ferry

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There are very few truly free things in life but in New York, you can experience one of them. The Staten Island ferry plies a commuter route between Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan Island and Staten Island and it costs absolutely nothing to ride on it

It’s famous as the best way to get a free view of the Statue of Liberty, which is west of the route that the ferry travels. However, this is the reason most tourists go on the ferry, so there will be a bit of a rush if you’re boarding from Manhattan. Dad and I find it best to wait for the return journey when people have got bored on that view and it’s less crowded on the side of the boat facing the statue

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Travel review: Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

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Brooklyn Bridge is one of New York’s iconic sights, connecting lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. The cable-stayed bridge spans the East river and the best tourist view is from South Street Seaport, where you can appreciate the beauty of the bridge


It opened in 1883 and the foundations of the bridge are so deep in the river that this was where the diving disease of the bends was first diagnosed in workers building the bridge. It has in the past carried trains and streetcars. However, today, it has 6 lanes of roadway and and elevated pedestrian and bicycle walkway suspended above the roadway Continue reading →

Travel review: New York Penn Station

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New York Penn station was my and dad’s first introduction to Manhattan on our first visit to the Big Apple. To keep costs down, we stayed at a hotel near Newark Airport and took the New Jersey transit train to Penn station, a 25 minute journey

Firstly, to my non-USA readers, this station is huge, occupying several city blocks and spread over several floors. It can be hard to get your orientation as to which exit to head for but its bounded by 7th Ave to the east, 8th Ave to the west, 31st St to the south and 33rd street to the north. The signposting is generally good within the station though dad and I found that the odd route to some subway lines does suddenly disappear

Next fact to note is that the whole station is underground, so you won’t be able to spot it by any grand external facade. However, sitting on top of it is iconic Madison Square Gardens, so just aim for that instead  Continue reading →

Travel Review: New York, the Big Apple

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I’m continuing my review of my holiday with dad and ‘future mom’ to the USA last summer. After starting in New Jersey, we headed up to New York for a few days

We were all veterans of the Big Apple (interesting article here as to how it acquired that name) but wanted to see a few of the new attractions like the Freedom Tower Observatory and Highline as well as allowing dad to share some of his favourite food with ‘future mom’ as it was their first visit together

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Travel review: Hertz

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When we travel, dad and I often need to drive. In fact, some holidays require driving to fully experience that country, like the wide roads of the USA

Car rental counters are never great fun. Especially after a long flight. The staff seem to take forever to process each customer with a laborious process to allocate a car

There are cheaper rental companies than Hertz but dad found out that you could get Gold member status after making just 3 rentals. So, we went with Hertz and have stayed with them over the years Continue reading →

Travel review: Red Roof Inn, Princeton

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On our travels, dad and I aim to spend most of our holiday time exploring rather than in hotel rooms. We do like the odd bit of luxury but generally, we’re happy as long as the room is clean and in a safe area

In the USA, there’s a myriad of options in the motel price range. I think it may be because there’s a tradition of long distance driving but there are many more motels and motel chains than we have here in the UK

As we tend to only need a place to lay our head for a few hours in Princeton, Red Roof Inn suits our purposes. We arrive late into Newark Liberty International Airport, drive 40 minutes to Princeton and this motel is located right on the US1 highway, which is ideal as dad’s brain is usually trying to tell the rest of his body that it’s the early hours of the morning back in the UK!  Continue reading →

Travel review: Newark Liberty International Airport

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Dad and I usually enter the USA through Newark Liberty International Airport. Virgin Atlantic arrive at terminal B though we’ve also flown out of terminal A with a myriad of domestic airlines

As we usually arrive just after 11pm EST on the late flight out of London Heathrow Airport, dad usually gives up any semblance of dignity and makes an Olympic race-walking speed dash to immigration. It’s worth the indignity as the immigration line can be long and a quick walk can mean a difference of 15-20 minutes  Continue reading →