New York, New York!

I am a big fan of birthdays. Not just mine, but friends and families birthdays are something I love to celebrate. Milestone birthdays however are something I am trying to get the hang of. This Christmas I turn 40, and to celebrate I made the audacious call that I wanted to have both my Birthday and Christmas in New York.

I can’t tell you why New York, and I need to be honest, not a significant amount of thought went into the location, but as soon as I said it, I knew it to be true.

Somewhere along the line, New York for Christmas became a two month explore of USA and Canada, starting and finishing in San Francisco (my self professed spiritual home, even though I have yet to go there). Overall, cause for much excite!!

So now begins the anticipation and attempt to spread the cost as much as I can over the following months as I comb Pinterest for cheap travel trips and use Airbnb to keep accommodation as low as we can.

The first coup was booking the accommodation for us and family over my birthday and Christmas – and for those who do not yet already know this New York is not cheap!! We have a number of family and friends joining us in New York to celebrate, and we wanted to try and get us all accommodation in the same location. Hotel accommodation is not cheap, for the three odd nights we were looking for it would be at least $250 AUD per night- with no guarantee of quality or good location. We scoured Airbnb and Homeaway, and were dismayed to see that for about $1,000 USD we could not even stay in Queens. But then… We moved our search out of New York State and into New Jersey.

For $161USD per night we have secured a two bedroom apartment that sleeps 6, and is a 15min bus ride to Times Square. Whoot!!

Now to figure out what to do for Birthday celebrations!