Enjoy an amazing trip to New York with rock-bottom fares from an Icelandic airline
Wow Air’s new Gatwick to New York service manages to slash the cost of a stateside trip by stopping in Reykjavik on the way
THE Big Apple has always been a wow kind of town but just got a lot more awesome thanks to new rock-bottom fares from an Icelandic low-cost airline.
Wow Air’s new Gatwick to New York service manages to slash the cost of a stateside trip by stopping in Reykjavik on the way, feeding flights from all over Europe into flights to all over America.
The deal sees one-way flights costing as little as £129 — a great way to save cash at a time when the Pound’s slump against the dollar has hiked up the price of a traditional pre-Christmas shopping jolly.
We flew over on one of their first flights last week to celebrate the 40th birthday of my missus, Laura.
We made more savings by staying at trendy capsule hotel Yotel in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, just two blocks from bustling Times Square. With that extra cash to splash on the rest of our holiday, we dashed around the city that never sleeps and tried to cram in as much as possible.
Wow’s hour-long layover in Iceland — enough time to change planes — means you arrive in New York later than direct flights. But landing at New Jersey’s Newark airport rather than JFK means you can jump on the AirTrain and be in Penn Station and walking the neon-clad streets of Midtown in less than 30 minutes.
We wasted no time dropping our bags off and by 8pm were tucking into cocktails at bars on St Mark’s Place in the East Village — supposedly New York’s hippest street.
Our pub crawl took us to places as diverse as trendy tiki bar Mother of Pearl and Augurs Well.
The latter was serving up a mix of craft beers and belting live country music courtesy of three-piece Parallel Tribe, who are so good they’ll take a request, Google it and play it there and then.
Best of all, though, was Please Don’t Tell, one of the city’s top speakeasies — hidden bars and restaurants you can only find if someone lets you in on the secret.
If you want to go, look for the phone booth in Crif’s hot dog store and ring the number on the wall, as per the instructions. I’ll say no more.
There’s no better place in the city to blow off a drinking session than Central Park, just a few blocks from our hotel.
Along with thousands of other New Yorkers, we were up early the next morning to run around its perimeter path before spending the early afternoon trawling the shops around Fifth Avenue and visiting the city’s latest tourist trap — Trump Tower.
The Donald’s obviously big news — his face is even plastered all over fake dollar bills in the souvenir shops — but he failed to make an appearance, disappointing both us and the media scrum on the sidewalk.
Here, an older chap showed off many New Yorkers’ feelings by parading a billboard which exclaimed: “Tourists. Trump Tower is not America, it’s Babel!”
If the President-elect is hot property, it’s now considered cool to get off Manhattan island and head to one of the outer boroughs.
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Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg across the East River in Brooklyn have been popular for a couple of years but a halo effect is now spreading to surrounding areas such as Red Hook and Park Slope.
We tried drinks and appetisers in the Westlight bar on the 22nd floor of the new, swanky William Vale hotel, marvelling at the magnificent views over Manhattan’s famed skyline.
Then we hooked up with local pals for a fabulous night at Park Slope’s Talde, an Asian-American restaurant with a laid-back vibe.
Another (literally) hot pick is Y7 yoga, the city’s latest fitness craze that has you bending into the kind of shapes you really shouldn’t in sweltering temperatures to hip-hop beats rather than Asian pan pipes.
By the end of our hour we were sweating buckets — luckily, it’s in the dark so people can’t see the melting, sweaty mess you are left in at the end of the session.
You really can’t visit New York without paying tribute to the Twin Towers site. Since that fateful day 15 years ago, the surrounding Financial District has undergone massive regeneration.
We took a tour with CityUnscripted, a new travel company that offers bespoke trails led by locals with an in-depth knowledge of their home town.
Our guide was Vinny Quezada, a wise-cracking Dominican/Spanish/American guy with a shaved head, fuzzy beard and a love of football and techno music.
He took us around everything from the Federal Reserve Bank, where gold bullion is housed in huge underground vaults, to nearby St Paul’s Chapel, the miracle church that survived the Great Fire of 1776 and the terror attacks in September 2011.
The site of those attacks is now a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives.
Two gleaming infinity pools, inscribed with the names of those who perished, lay in the exact spots where the World Trade Centre towers were once a symbol of this great city.
The neighbouring 9/11 Memorial Museum offers a sobering insight into the events surrounding the al-Qaeda atrocity and keeps alive the memory of those who perished with moving video clips.
While New York will never forget the tragedy, it’s also a city that’s forward-thinking and has bucketloads of attitude. The new One World Trade Center that replaced the Twin Towers stands in a gleaming gesture of defiance.
We took the lift up to the observation deck on the 101st floor in a dizzying 47 seconds. We were treated to a presentation about how the tower was built before the big reveal.
Screens were pulled back to reveal incredible views that stretch for miles over the city.
Another unique New York wow moment.
GO: NEW YORK
GETTING THERE: Wow Air offers one-way flights to New York via Reykjavik from £129. See STAYING THERE: Double rooms at Yotel in New York are from £102 per night, including breakfast coffee and muffins. See .
OUT & ABOUT: A CityPASS to six attractions is £93. See . City Unscripted tours are £30 an hour for two adults (kids go free). See . For more on New York, see .
Capital ideas for journey
KEEPING COSTS LOW
NEW YORK flights from £129 can’t be any good, can they? Well, the planes are new and the staff are great – but you get nickel-and-dimed for everything, even the in-flight entertainment.
With Wow being an Icelandic airline, prices on board aren’t cheap either, beers are in excess of £5 and spirits cost £6.50.
Keep costs low by packing sandwiches and snacks – and download plenty of entertainment to your phone or tablet. In-seat USB power sockets ensure you will have enough charge for the journey and, mercifully, there’s no cost to top up your batteries.
HAVE A NIGHT IN REYKJAVIK
THE stop-off at Iceland’s Keflavik Airport allowed us to bag an extra night’s holiday in the capital Reykjavik on the way home.
We drove straight from the airport into town and caught some of the classic sights, including the Blue Lagoon spa and the Icelandic Phallological Museum (if that’s too much of a mouthful, it’s known as the Penis Museum).
You can walk round Reykjavik in a couple of hours. Check out the main street, Laugavegur, for great shops and bars. And there are great views from the belltower of the iconic Hallgrimskirkja.
We stayed at the gorgeous Apotek hotel and dined at Íslenski Barinn, a cosy pub that serves Icelandic classics including rotten shark, puffin and reindeer burgers.
Double rooms at the Apotek hotel are from £257per night (room only). See .
