Our GayTravel.com experts explored the GEM Hotel properties throughout New York City to give readers the down and dirty exclusive GT scoop t

By Ashley Garza

The first hotel we stayed at was The GEM Hotel Soho.  It was the smallest of the 3 hotels, but what it lacked in space it made up with hospitality. New York is a crazy city and those bright lights and traffic jammed streets are very intimidating for two San Diegans. Derrick and Keisha are just two of the amazing staff members that work at this hotel. They recommended a few different tourist attractions near their location that we should go take a look at. 

 By the time we were done talking with them we felt confident enough to go explore the streets of Soho. The great thing about this GEM Hotel is that it is walking distance to some awesome food and shopping in Little Italy and China Town. I don’t know about you, but when I think of New York I think of pizza. So of course our first stop of the day would be in Little Italy. We took a moment to visit our good friend Yelp and ended up at a pizza joint called Lombardi’s. This place is pretty well known in New York and man was it delicious! If you want to save some money, go here for lunch and order their large pizza. We could only eat half the pizza for lunch so we had the other half for dinner and didn’t have to worry about spending an arm and leg on dinner prices at another restaurant. Plus, cold pizza is THE BOMB.

After lunch we waddled over to China Town. I have been to China Town in San Francisco but New York’s is so much more authentic. We walked through busy streets filled with booths full of edible goods. I am not going to lie, I had no idea what half of the things were but you could literally buy ANYTHING here!  You want some awesome knock-off purses, shoes and watches? This is the place! Zach had to pull me away from a few shops so we could go see the rest of the area. We spent the rest of the day walking, shopping and doing this:

A day well spent, I’d say.
 
We woke up on our last day at the Soho location very well rested. Our room here was the largest of the three hotels we stayed at and their beds didn’t feel like we were sleeping on rocks. I got way too excited to see snow falling. You definitely get the full holiday effect when you see that white dust on the ground.

Keisha and Derrick had suggested we go see the 9/11 Memorial while we were staying there. The Soho hotel is the closest to this attraction. We decided to get bundled up and go buy a metrocard for the week since we knew we would be using it quite often. There is a subway station only a few blocks away from the hotel so it worked out perfectly for getting around the city. We got to our subway stop and saw a cool church across from it. St. Paul’s Cathedral to be exact.

They have a lot of beautiful churches around New York but most of them are fenced and locked off when they are not having a service. Luckily this one was open! The inside was just as beautiful as the outside and had different displays set up from when 9/11 occurred. The church was used for injured victims since it was so close to ground zero. In the back of the church was a large cemetery. Some of the tombstones we saw were from the 1700’s! It was very interesting to walk through andsee something so historic.

The 9/11 memorial was right down the street from the church. It was an easy walk to get to and the best part about the memorial was that it was FREE! Something very rare to see in New York City. They just ask for a small donation when you enter and for every $10 you donate you get a free bracelet. The process to get into the memorial area is pretty crazy. They have a TON of security before you can walk through those gates but it is so worth it. The fountains are incredibly beautiful and you can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of pride for our country when you see them. There are two fountains and a museum that you can see while you are there too. 

I highly recommend that you go check out this memorial. Overall, we could not have had a better welcome to New York!  We are so thrilled to be here taking in all this city has too offer. Thank you to The GEM Soho for our wonderful stay. Off to The GEM Midtown for our next adventures!