Can I really do New York in 10 hours? You bet!
When are you going back?’ asked the US immigration guy at JFK. ‘Tonight,’ I said.
‘You’re coming to New York for the day?’ He looked bemused.
‘There’s a new early flight from London that gives you 10 hours in Manhattan,’ I said. ‘I fly back at 11pm tonight.’
Norwegian’s new flight leaves Gatwick (it doesn’t yet offer a similar service from here) at 6.45am and arrives in JFK at 9.45am. I’m in Times Square – all neon signs, yellow cabs, skyscrapers, honking cars, gridlock and attitude – by 11.30am and take the subway to the Lower East Side. I pop up at Delancey Street, which in the late 19th Century was where most new arrivals ended up after Ellis Island – Italians, Irish, Swedes, Germans and Eastern Europeans all mixed in together.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers a fast track to New York’s past. Then, hopping on the subway again, I’m back at Times Square for a posh lunch at The Knickerbocker Hotel. After that, I’m back on the subway up to 77th Street on the Upper East Side. I take a breather in Central Park – a glorious oasis of green in the centre of Manhattan – before heading to the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art to take in the must-see Rei Kawakubo/ Comme des Garcons exhibition and admire the view of the New York skyline from the roof terrace. Then I grab a bus to the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Center. Cocktail in hand, I walk out on to the roof terrace to watch the sun set over the Hudson River before setting off back to JFK.
New York is a wonderful city – even if you only have 10 hours.
n Norwegian (norwegian.com/uk) offers early flights from Gatwick to New York JFK from €284 return. Bloc Hotel at Gatwick has rooms from €90 (blochotels.com/gatwick)