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Travelling to New York City

The world revolves a little faster in – and around – New York City. By the final morning of my three-day trip to New York City I’m exhausted, hunched over on a rattling subway train, clutching a crumpled city map. After bombing past multiple stations, I shake myself from my stupor to decipher the conductor’s garbled words on the loudspeaker. This isn’t the train to the Museum of Natural History – in fact, we passed it five stops ago – this is the express train to Harlem.

By Kristen Hilderman /

New York City View | BCBusiness
The head-on view of the Empire State Building is New York’s money shot.
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The world revolves a little faster in – and around – New York City.

By the final morning of my three-day trip to New York City I’m exhausted, hunched over on a rattling subway train, clutching a crumpled city map. After bombing past multiple stations, I shake myself from my stupor to decipher the conductor’s garbled words on the loudspeaker. This isn’t the train to the Museum of Natural History – in fact, we passed it five stops ago – this is the express train to Harlem.

Just 60 hours earlier I was in a more dignified state, legs outstretched in Cathay Pacific’s business-class cabin, flying the red-eye from Vancouver to New York. In the privacy of my pod I dined, finished some writing, then hastily converted my seat into a bed to capture one fleeting hour of shuteye. Despite the comfort of my flight, the five-hour trip triggered a spiral of sleep deprivation. And in New York, where the slow get left behind, I had to struggle to keep up.

Stepping onto the frantic streets of Manhattan after just one hour of sleep feels like walking in slow motion. My hotel is near Times Square, the epicentre of city life, where native New Yorkers compete for sidewalk space with a constant deluge of tourists. Every few seconds a car horn pierces the ambient buzz of traffic and bustling sidewalk vendors. Steam rises from manholes, like the streets are exhaling into the morning air. I’ve never been to a city that felt so alive.

Weather New York seasons are essentially intense versions of Vancouver’s. Winter is colder and much more biting; summers are hotter and stickier.

Best Bed The LEED-certified InterContinental Times Square is in the heart of the city. Its adjoining dining room and bar, Ça Va Brasserie, is the newest restaurant from celebrity chef Todd English.

Best Meal The Breslin Bar & Dining Room in the Ace Hotel features gastropub delicacies, local beer and original cocktails made with fresh-squeezed juice and house-made syrups.

Can’t Miss Central Park is great, but the High Line, a park elevated above the streets and built on a historic freight rail line, is a unique take on green space in the city.
 

Amid a crammed three-day schedule, I set aside time to visit 30 Rockefeller and take in a sunset atop its 70-storey office tower, the GE Building. My instinct is to go up the city’s tallest tower, the Empire State Building, but 30 Rock offers similar panoramic sights. Plus, you can’t get the classic top-to-bottom view of the Empire State if you’re standing on top of it.

30 Rock is headquarters to NBC and home to programs like Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Most days there’s a queue lining the sidewalk outside NBC Studios waiting for tickets. When I breeze by, early Friday afternoon, dozens of weary 20-somethings are wrapped in sleeping bags, camping out until Saturday morning for SNL standby tickets. As the NBC employee guarding the line tells me, even with a standby ticket, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get in.

I’m hoarding a ticket for an elevator ride to the Top of the Rock, but before I make my scheduled ascent, I head to Madison Avenue for a few appointments. The crowd here fits into two categories: fur-draped shoppers, leisurely taking in the window displays, and rushed pedestrians, weaving through the crowds. I fit into the latter group, and after emerging from my final appointment I’m in a race against time to make it back to 30 Rock.

The straightforward Manhattan grid makes my foot journey easy to navigate, but 15 blocks is still 15 blocks. Like a true New Yorker I ignore traffic signals, narrowly escaping death-by-taxi on several occasions. The sun is low in the sky and as I approach Rockefeller Center, I have to hustle to the elevator entrance.

Just minutes after presenting my ticket, I’m through security and heading skyward on the 43-second elevator ride to the observation deck. From my vantage point I can see the sprawling, textured landscape of Central Park. The bushy parkland extends north, walled in on all four sides by residential buildings and skyscrapers that are dwarfed by the immensity of the park. On the opposite side of the GE tower lie the concrete jungle and a head-on view of the Empire State Building. As the sun sets over the Hudson River, the sky darkens and all of Manhattan comes to life in a flicker of lights.

That night I stay up until 3 a.m. poring over my nighttime shots of the city. And I pay for it with my tired subway mishap the next morning. When my train finally stops in Harlem, 44 blocks past the museum, I shuffle off and consult the subway map. I board the southbound train to continue on for one last bleary-eyed day of exploration. When I return to New York, I’ll be sure to arrive rested and with more than three days on my itinerary.