As wonderful as you thought it would be (Times Square)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Times Square
Date:	07/04/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bright lights, huge signs, hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants, never sleeps

Disadvantages: You won't want to leave

This is the most exciting part of New York. The part that you can't wait to see. You've seen it on so many films and TV programmes and can't wait to see it in real life. And yes, it is just as amazing in the flesh.

This was the first proper sightseeing part of our trip we did and as soon as we caught a glimpse of it, it was like, wow we're in New York. You can see it from way up the street where our hotel was and as we gradually became closer and closer to it, we could feel our hearts beating faster and faster, our smiles getting bigger and bigger and the spring in our step getting more and more bouncy with excitement.

The main attraction is all the huge signs and lights that make it so bright and colourful and it is absolutely jam-packed full of these, all over every single building, advertising everything from hit Broadway shows to Sean John's latest aftershave; the newest pair of sneakers to a cold pint of Budweiser; a popular bank to a recent cinema release. The amount of photos I took just of all the signs was incredible! It really is like what you see on TV.

Around Times Square there are many things to keep you occupied. In the centre of the Square is TKTS, the discount theatre office, which offers top Broadway show tickets with up to 50% off. You can find out what time the office opens each day on the signs outside but you need to get there early as the queues end up circling round the square. You can climb up the stairs that take you onto the top of the TKTS office to get an even better vantage point for those precious photos. You can take a seat and watch all the going-ons around you at the bottom of the steps, although it was too cold to do this when we were there.

You will be completely overwhelmed by the amount of shops, bars and places to eat which cover anything and everything you could possibly think of. sbarro is a tasty and good value place to eat which does mainly pizza and pasta. A small taster of some of the other places to eat are TGI Friday, ESPN Zone (see my other review on this), all the usual take away places as well as some more upmarket eateries and the typical American diners. There are literally hundreds of shops including M&M World (oh my god I can't believe there's a shop full of M&M products!) and Toys "R" Us with its 60ft Ferris Wheel inside. If you're lucky enough you might catch one of the occasional visiting attractions to Times Square - the Naked Cowboy - a hunky and muscley Yank who walks around the Square wearing just a pair of Y fronts and playing his guitar. You get the privilege of having your picture taken with him and he's so funny and nice. He picked me up and pretended to walk away with me while my husband was taking the picture!

At night it is an even more amazing sight when all the lights are lit up with hundreds of different colours and you just can't take your eyes away. We found that the Square is slightly smaller than we thought, a bit smaller than what it looks like on TV, but in no way does this take away from the fascination of it.

Times Square is at the heart of the theatre district with many theatres on the Square and Broadway only in the next street. A few blocks north of Times Square is Central Park and a short walk south will take you to Macy's, Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.

The famous newspaper the New York Times used to be located at the main intersection of Times Square at the New York Times Tower. This is where the crystal ball drops at midnight every New Years Eve, as it has since the building opened in 1906.

"The city that never sleeps" - of Times Square, this is true.

Summary: Simply amazing