The first thing that hit us when we stepped off the plane was the heat.

The East coast was having a heat wave it was 100f (35c).

During our stay the weather never changed. Even at night the temperature remained in the high 70’s aided by the heat given off by the buildings after standing in the sun all day.

The second thing to hit us was the airport. It felt as though thousands of people had just arrived in JFK airport and assembled in the arrival lounge at the same moment we had.

Definitely not for the feint hearted.

We picked up our luggage and joined what seemed a never-ending queue for a taxi. We didn’t have to wait long it just felt like we did.

We hadn’t been in the taxi long when we both experienced a feeling of Déjà vu. It was one of those occasions when you see something you know you recognise and seems very familiar. You momentarily think it’s in the wrong place, and it shouldn’t be here, yet you know you have never been anywhere near it before.

We were passing the observatory towers of the worlds fair held in New York in 1964 used in the film Men in Black and the ride in Universal.

What we hadn’t accounted for were the images (left from watching TV and films) that had been placed in our memory.

Just on that journey to our hotel we ‘remembered’ buildings, bridges and other structures we had never before seen in real life. Then the real challenge, naming the film, program or series we had seen them in.

It happened on many occasions during our visit, the giant floor piano in the toy shop (F.A.O. Schwartz) in the film ‘big’ with Tom Hanks, The fire station used as the headquarters in the film ghost busters and grand central station bombarded by asteroids in the film Armageddon to mention only a few.

We also had what we would describe as reality checks during our visit.

Seeing the sight of the twin towers, the damage to the surrounding buildings and the narrative given to tourists by an employee of one of the banks who witnessed the events as they unfolded on the day.  

Outside the Dakota building were John Lennon died and his Imagine memorial a short walk away in central park. All truly unforgettable experiences.

 New York is well named as the city that never sleeps. It feels as though every building is illuminated. Even the police station in Times Square is brightly lit with large neon lights letting you know it’s the NYPD.

 I could write pages on our experiences of our short visit. If you have never been New York I would very much recommend you include it as one of your must see places to visit.

Generally we book to fly from our local airport and return in to a London airport.  We find that this is usually the cheapest combination.  We then take the train home.  For the cheapest train tickets, book them 12 weeks in advance (or just less).  If you are taking the train in both directions, it is usually cheaper to get 2 x single journey tickets, rather than a return ticket.  Sometimes cheaper train tickets can also be obtained by splitting each journey down in to two parts (ie say from Leeds to Peterborough, and Peterborough to London Kings Cross, rather than Leeds to London) – it’s just trial and error if you have the time to do this.  Train tickets can be purchased at www.thetrainline.com  

With departing and returning to different airports, this will generally mean changing planes at an American airport.  We have found it costs no extra to leave the plane as it touches down in America, and catch the same plane a few days later.  We stopped over in New York for 3 nights at Christmas, with no extra flight costs by doing this.

We have also booked different returning flights to England, to the flights we booked to Orlando.  Recently we flew to Las Vegas for 4 nights (via New York), before flying down to Orlando (via Memphis).  We then returned to London via Memphis.  We were able to do this combination of flights by booking through www.expedia.co.uk and using the multiple-destination option.

We have also found cheap charter flights by booking the night before, although this option is usually outside of school holidays, and means set durations of 7, 14 or 21 days.  Also, when taking this option, it usually means that baggage is charged extra, but the upside is that these flights are usually direct flights, although in to Sanford Airport and not Orlando International Airport.

We have also found it to be an advantage to be a member of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, register at www.virginatlantic.com . We have acquired numerous airmiles both with Virgin and their network of partners, such as Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Dollar Car Rental.  These airmiles entitle members to reward flights (look out for the special offers) and for miles+money flights, which means reduced flight prices in exchange for 2000 of your acquired airmiles.  Airmiles do not expire as long as you earn or spend airmiles every three years.

1 Cost

2 The duration of the flight including the number of stops on route.

3 If people have experienced bad flights either due to the weather or the airline they flew with was poor.

Because we are frequent visitors Carol (my better half and is the one that makes all our flying arrangements) usually has a good idea when she see’s a flight advertized if it’s a good, bad or indifferent price.

As well as being able to judge the cost she can also equate in the additional time taken for potential stop over’s, the experiences we have had with the different airlines (if we have flown with them before), the time of year we intend to fly which in turn dictates how close to our departure date before books the flight.

She also takes into account the differences between chartered or scheduled flights.

This is all way over my head so my input is usually limited to a whine if the flight is delayed, there is not enough leg room or we don’t have our own headrest TV’s but credit were credit is due Carol usually says ‘I am a great help’ when I make one of my observations.

When we are asked for ideas from people it usually boils down to 2 main areas depending on individual circumstances.

During high season especially for new visitors to Florida, people who are not frequent flyers or if they are flying with very young children we would suggest a direct flight. Not always the cheapest but you get on a plane 8-9 hours later you get off.

If lowest cost is the main aim then chartered flights with stop over’s can usually be the cheapest way to travel. The main disadvantage is the time it takes to get to your destination.

We once took 24 hours from taking off at Orlando to landing at our local airport Durham Tees Valley. I can’t remember my exact words at the time but in a nut shell I stated I wouldn’t be doing it again in a hurry.

I think that was an occasion when Carol mentioned that I was ‘a great help’.

We have had a number of odd, interesting and unplanned experiences using scheduled flights. If you are interested I will put some of our experiences on the articles site.

 Brian Pearson