New York, New York, so good they named it twice,New York, New York, all the scandal and the vice, I love it!

So sang Gerard Kenny in 1978. I’m not so sure about the vice, but I love a bit of scandal and where better to read about it than in the New York Times? Sitting in one of NY’s many diners, while knocking back endless cups of coffee and wolfing down a real Big Apple breakfast, is a pretty good way to soak up the city morning atmosphere.

I started my affair with New York in 1971 when I visited the city for the first time at the tender age of fourteen, flying from London on my own. Too scared to disturb the passenger next to me, or to use the lavatory, I remained in my seat for the whole journey, listening to Tony Blackburn through crackly headphones, on a continuous one-hour loop. Emerging surprisingly unscarred from the experience of hearing the iconic disk jockey’s cheesy jokes eight times, I was met at the airport by the American family with whom I stayed for one month.

It was the time of flower power and the hippy generation, a movement I embraced with open arms. I bought LPs by Carly Simon, Carole King and James Taylor, covered myself in cheap jewellery and musk perfume, marvelled at the bright shiny shopping malls, where I bought countless badges, and squeezed my feet into cuban heeled cowboy boots. I was taken to the Empire State Building – just pipped at the post as the world’s highest building by the recently built World Trade Centre. I saw the Rockerfeller Center, Central Park and the Statue of Liberty, but it was Saks 5th Avenue, which impressed my shallow younger self. Most amazingly of all during that trip I was somehow smuggled into a cinema to see the X rated “The Godfather”. Life did not get much hipper.

Since my first glimpse of the metropolitan nirvana that is New York I have been back often, sometimes on holiday and sometimes on business, but always with pleasure and affection. It has changed over the years, with even places like Harlem getting a makeover and becoming gentrified. This once ‘no-go’ area now offers Harlem Heritage Tours.

It does not matter what interests you, New York has it all. There are a million things to do and see: from art to sport, from shopping to parks and from Broadway to boat tours it is impossible to be bored. On the first visit I would try a whistle stop tour of the major tourist sights – they are all worth seeing – but just strolling around Manhattan gives a greater flavour of the place that spawned ‘SATC’ and ‘Friends’. Catch a Broadway show and see a Hollywood star in the flesh, if you are lucky, but ‘Off Broadway’ or even in one of the other boroughs – Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx or Staten Island – you will find performances most nights. And if you want to have a good meal in a romantic place try this!

I still return to this great melting-pot of a city time and again. It never ceases to thrill and to throw up something new. The Frick Collection and Museum of Modern Art are always worth visiting for a culture fix. For aspirational shopping it is hard to beat Barneys and the boutiques around SoHo are a delight, with their gorgeous clothes and to-die-for trinkets. Buy fresh produce and the finest food at the Chelsea Market.

There is nothing quite like waking up in the city that never sleeps and I haven’t even mentioned the bars.
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**This short Travel Story was submitted as part of the Holiday Travel Writing Competition. All short-listed entries such as this one are published in our online Travel Guide**

Story written by Liz Cleere | Since 2006 Holiday Velvet offers New York accommodation.