What to do when a snow storm threatens to ruin your holiday

Image: kmichal/Shutterstock.com

Australian country singer Doug Ashdown once sang “winter in America is cold”. Well, I’d have to say that New York in February can be absolutely freezing!

We arrived in mid-January, just in time for the biggest snow storm in a century to hit, which literally closed the city.

The same storm was responsible for delaying departure of our Caribbean cruise and altering our ports of call.

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Now we were back in New York just in time to experience Arctic winds bringing record low temperatures to the city. If we’d had a plan, things were not going to go accordingly. But this trip had been hastily arranged on the back of a health crisis and our focus was sharpened to enjoying the experience. So we rugged up and got on with it.

As it turns out, winter is a good time to visit New York (snow storms not withstanding). The crowds are smaller, hotels are a smidgen less expensive, restaurants are happy to see you, show tickets are a little easier to get and queues are generally less.

Our hotel on Eighth Avenue was very centrally situated so we were able to walk to shows and found great places to eat in The Hell’s Kitchen area of Ninth and Tenth Avenues and a quaint Irish bar just down the block became our ‘local’.

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We were fortunate our hotel room had both a fridge and a microwave. If we didn’t want to venture out after a long day sightseeing, we could pick up a prepared meal from the nearby convenience store and eat in enjoying the lights of New York from our window.

Having visited icons such as Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the September 11 Memorial and Museum during our first week we later opted to venture a little further.

The easiest way to do this was by bus or coach. This meant early, chilly departures from the pick-up point in Eighth Avenue, but it was well worth it. Again, as it was off season, there were less people on the tours made for enjoyable and comfortable trips.

We chose to do day trips to Washington and Boston and an overnight to Niagara Falls. On each trip the comfortable coach had WiFi, made regular food and comfort stops at nicely presented road houses and our guide provided adequate but not intrusive commentary.

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For each trip the notable attractions were more than adequately covered and we ticked off some of the ‘must-sees’ such as Lincoln Memorial, The White House, war memorials, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Boston Common, the site of The Tea Party and Niagara and surrounds. The Niagara trip also offered something extra — outlet shopping! This seemed to excite some members of the tour more than others.

Just for fun we rounded off our New York week with a visit to the Star Wars costume exhibition

All too soon our adventure was over, but we were discovering that too much travel is never enough! In fact for the six months after this trip the longest period we spent at home was 2 weeks.