Holiday Review: New York
SIA member and full-time wheelchair user Lizzie Tench celebrated her 50th birthday in New York City. Join Lizzie as she shares her review of The Big Apple.
This year, I turned 50, and to celebrate the milestone of surviving half a century of life, I decided to participate in 50 activities throughout 2024. One such activity was a much yearned for trip to New York City. We flew from Manchester to JFK direct with Virgin Atlantic and had pre-booked a transfer from the airport to our hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
TIP! … When you book a hotel room, look for an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant room.
I would recommend a powered device for getting around if you want to make the most of your trip as New York is a vast city, and travelling around by cab would be slow and expensive. The subway is efficient and there are plenty of accessible stations you can use, but I wouldn’t fancy pushing the distances between them myself. MTA is the official app for the subway and it shows you all of the accessible stations. They are currently making improvements to access, so it will only get better in future years.
Day 1
We went to Grand Central Station, located at East 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Note that in NYC, the streets are numbered and set out in a grid, making it much easier to navigate around than most British cities. Grand Central has distinctive architecture. It contains numerous works of art and is one of the world’s ten most-visited attractions. The main concourse is often featured in films and is easily recognisable. We also explored the beautiful lobby of the Chrysler Building – an Art Deco skyscraper near to Grand Central. Being a workplace, the security guards only allow you to walk/wheel in certain areas of the lobby, marked out by an invisible line! My friend then hired a scooter from Central Park Bike Ride (bikerent.nyc) and we went around Central Park for 3 hours (there is an off-road cycle path with a 20kph speed limit).
In the evening, we ate at Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, which is a fine dining restaurant with a plant-based menu overlooking Madison Square Park. We had the 5-course tasting menu and it was phenomenal. You need deep pockets to eat here, but you only turn 50 once, so I can definitely recommend it for a special occasion. We walked back to the hotel through the cacophonous Times Square, which was an overwhelming experience for the senses.
Day 2
We travelled by elevator to the 100th floor of The Edge for panoramic views of NYC. Sadly, there are no concessions for disabled people so you must pay full price. The view from the observation ledge was worth it. We drank ice cold cocktails at the top. After that, we walked along the High Line, which is a 1.45-mile long elevated linear park and greenway on the west side of Manhattan. Along the way, there are numerous gardens and sculptures. There is a full list of accessible entry points and the elevator status (whether in service) on thehighline.org. We gained access at the ramped entry point on 34th Street.
In the evening, we headed out in torrential rain (a break from the blistering August heat) and ate an impromptu shrimp taco dinner at the Brooklyn Diner. The tacos and the service were top notch. Don’t be put off by the steps inside the entrance. They have an accessible entrance through another building and they were very accommodating, friendly and helpful.
Day 3
We visited the 9/11 memorial located at the World Trade Center. It was a fitting memorial to the 2,977 people who died on September 11th 2001 and is well-worth a visit. After that, we caught the subway uptown to Brooklyn, home of the Yankee Stadium, where we took in a baseball game. The atmosphere was electric. It was hard not to get carried away with the enthusiasm of the crowd and to lose all of our British reservedness. You can pre-book accessible tickets on Ticketmaster before you leave the UK.
In the evening, we took a sunset cruise to photograph the Statue of Liberty. It was wheelchair accessible and we pre-booked online.
TIP! … Don’t use your UK mobile data! Buy a US SIM card for your smartphone before you leave the UK. Activate it the day before you arrive so that you can use Google Maps to navigate around and to get information online whenever you need it.
Day 4
Before leaving for the airport, we made a 4-minute trip on the aerial tramway (cable car) to Roosevelt Island. This offers views of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, running every 7-15 minutes from 59th Street and Second Avenue. Roosevelt Island is about 2 miles long, with an area of 147 acres. The greenway is a flat 3.8 mile loop that enables you to walk/wheel around the island.
Access-wise, my anxiety is always around toilets. However, every building we entered had accessible restrooms and, as a wheelchair user with a powered device, I found NYC easy. I have visited 35 countries now and I would say that NYC was the most accessible city I have visited to date.
This story featured in Forward Magazine
