My husband and I just returned from our trip to New York City, and I couldn't wait to thank everyone for all the help offered by members of this board. The advice we got about cabs from LaGuardia was invaluable; we were no sooner out of the baggage claim when a "gypsy cab" driver tried to get our business. We ignored her and made straight for the cab stand. All went as described, except our driver had us hand the $4 toll to the booth attendant rather than having a transponder in the cab or paying the toll himself.

We spent 7 days in the city and began to get a feel for it. Our hotel (Belvedere) was very nice, and the price made it even more enjoyable. The first couple of days were rainy and cool; then came the heat. The bad weather made us grateful for the very nice laundry facility in the basement.

We walked, walked, walked and took the subway, mostly in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. We got to meet David, and had an enjoyable lunch with him before our schedules sent us in different directions. We got to see The Producers by going to the box office, enabling us to get good seats, reasonably priced, without standing in line in the heat in Times Square.
The food was good and the people welcoming.

A sprained calf muscle prevented my husband from enjoying our last day in town, but even so we didn't get to several things we'd had on our wish list. Of course, that means we'll have to go back!

I'm so glad you had a good time here. It may be mad stressful for me most of the time, but I'm not on vacation. It's nice to hear people feel good about coming for a visit!

I am glad you loved this great city. The way I think, the sprained muscle was a good thing (the silver lining...), because now you'll have to go back to New York for the unfinished business!

I love going to NYC! Just today we were talking with a friend here who has a friend there with an Upper West Side apartment - who might be interested in doing a house trade! I would love to spend one month a year in NYC - eat great Chinese food, go to plays, go to galleries. I imagine living and working in NYC might be both great and difficult - but vacationing there is fabulous!!

We saw the Producers last December and I thought it was the best play I have ever seen!! Such a great production - funny and great music. David arranged for us to have a backstage tour - I had never been backstage in a New York theater (everything was smaller back there than I had imagined). Ann, did you enjoy the Producers too?

Send us a review of your hotel - we are collecting US hotel reviews now.

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Glad you enjoyed your trip! I agree that the Producers was very funny, even saw it twice! We have tickets to see Enchanted April in a couple weeks, I'm wondering if anyone has seen it yet - I'll post a separate thread. Even though we live in NJ and it only takes us about an hour to get into the city it's great fun now and then for us to stay in the city when good hotel deals are available, so please do write a review.

We loved The Producers, too. I remember the film version with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and this was even funnier. The "Springtime for Hitler" scene was hilarious! Another evening when we were returning to our hotel after dinner, we were at the corner of 8th Ave. and W 45th St. when we saw a police car, barricades and some to-do a little way down the block. There were barricades around the front of the theater where "Man of LaMancha" was playing, the marquee was draped in fabric, and a podium with red ribbon and huge scissors were waiting out front. TV and print media camera people were there, too. Assuming something interesting was about to happen, we waited in the small crowd. Soon enough, some well-dressed people came out and the cameras got interested. Soon, more people came out and we realized we were seeing Kitty Carlisle, Carol Channing, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Whoopie Goldberg and Andy Rooney. There were others who surely were "somebodies", but that's all we could recognize. So we did get to see the original stars of The Producers after all! (The reason for the hubub was that theater was renamed in honor of Al Herschfeld, the cartoonist.)