Welcome to the Big Apple!

According to published reports The Big Apple is biting back from a recessionary slump, drawing 48.7 million visitors last year after slipping in 2009 for the first time since 2001.

The Travel Professor counted as one of them as I ventured there in Nov for a wonderful experience.

New York City tourism officials announced that 39 million visitors were from the U.S. and 9.7 million were from abroad. Both numbers are records, and help put the city back on track for reaching Mayor Michael Bloomberg's goal of 50 million visitors by 2012.

Tourists came to New York despite a well-publicized spread of bed bugs, weather-related snafus following a Christmas weekend blizzard, and rising tabs for theater tickets, restaurants and hotel rooms. The average rate paid for a hotel room in Manhattan in 2010 was more than $250, the New York Times reported, but the occupancy rate still increased to more than 85 percent, according to figures compiled by Colliers PKF Consulting USA

I paid a lot less more like $100.00 a night! My comfortable lodging was mid town across from Penn Station. Options down here include the Herald Square and Pennsylvania Hotel. There not 5 star deluxe properties rather they’re functional ones that fit the bill and budget.

I rode the train to NYC but that is a whole new tale.

Happy travels!