Be the ultimate New York girl about town
CARRIE Bradshaw was the ultimate New York girl about town – and every time I have visited my favourite city, I’ve dreamed of bumping into her.
Yes, actress Sarah Jessica Parker does live in the city but, let’s face it, what’s the chances we’d meet on Fifth Avenue, hit it off and spend the day shopping and drinking cosmopolitans?
So while in the Big Apple with my friend Kerry for a long weekend, we decided to do the next best thing – the Sex And The City Hotspots tour, which would take us to some of Carrie and co’s haunts.
We met our bus at the Pulitzer Fountain by the Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue, the site of Mr Big’s engagement party to Natasha. From there, we were plunged into Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha’s world.
Our tour guide was a hive of inXfoXrXmXaXtiXonxxaxbxoxuxt the show, which ran for sXix xsexries and led to two movies. A jobbing actress herself, she even gave us some good gossip about feuds between the girls.
New York was the fifth star of the show, with much of the series being shot in the city. We saw Carrie’s famous brownstone stoop and my friend had to stop me hyperventilating when there was a fun stop-off at the Pleasure Chest in the West Village, where Charlotte bought a sex toy.
We sipped cocktails in Steve and Aiden’s bar Scout and spent time shopping in boutiques in Greenwich Village.
The tour is definitely worth doing if you were a SATC fan and it took us to corners of the city we’d never have known to visit.
A trip to NYC is usually accompanied by lots of shopping but it is getting harder to find bargains in Manhattan.
But if you want to shop until you drop, it’s worth heading to the Woodbury Common Premium Outlet, which is 50 miles north of the island.
Gray Line City Sightseeing offer a frequent daily service from the Port Authority and it’s around an hour’s travel time. We booked our trip before we left Scotland but the tickets are open, so you can choose the day you want to go when you arrive.
Here’s some top tips for your day of shopping – and it will definitely be a full day as the outdoor mall is the size of some towns. ● Get a map – you’ll need it to navigate the 220 designer stores. ● Make a plan of shops you definitely want to go to and hit those first. ● Stop for regular breaks and have a good lunch. ● Wear very comfortable shoes. ● Bring an empty suitcase. I didn’t bring one and really regretted it. You’ll see most people wheeling them around and might think it is completely ridiculous… but two hours into the trip you understand exactly why they brought them.
We arrived at about 10am and shopped until 8pm. It was like an endurance test but we were delighted with our bargains – some of which had 70 per cent off.
The only issue was fitting it all into our suitcases for the flight home…