I still can’t quite believe I’ve now ticked off NYC from my bucket list! My boyfriend and I spontaneously booked the trip about a month ago and just got back. It was sort of a holiday but I also shot a lot of content out there for you all, so watch this space! I’m kick starting the content off with my NYC itinerary; this is something I chose to put together because I know before we went I was googling itineraries and what sights to do each day. And if I was researching that, I thought others might be too; so I hope this is really useful for those who haven’t been before.
DAY 1
We flew with British Airways from London Heathrow to JFK and hopped on their 8.50am flight. This was a perfect time to fly because we landed at 11.30am NYC time and was at our hotel by 1pm. We just jumped in a yellow cab from outside the airport and they offer a fixed rate of $50 which was pretty cheap and convenient.
We stayed in Chinatown at the Wyndham Garden hotel which we booked via booking.com. We’re so glad we picked this hotel and the king size room with empire view as we had stunning views over NYC and the biggest, comfiest bed ever! (Review coming soon on the hotel!). Chinatown was a really cool place to stay and it was only a 5 minute walk into Soho, which was our favourite neighbourhood. We couldn’t check in until 3pm so we left our luggage in the hotel’s storage and headed straight to Black Tap – the restaurant instafamous for their freak shakes. We had to queue for a little while for here, but it was well worth it! We didn’t want to do too much on the first day so after lunch we strolled around Soho and looked around a few shops.
We headed back to our hotel to freshen up before getting an Uber to Times Square. We’d pre-booked a table at Carmine’s via Opentable which we’re so glad we did otherwise it was over an hour wait! Instead we just walked right in. Once we’d eaten, we headed out into the lights and spent some time looking around the shops and taking some cool snaps!
DAY 2
We were up early and headed down to Battery Park to get the ferry across to the Statue of Liberty. We paid for pedestal access which meant we were allowed up to the middle section where you had amazing views over the city. We were glad we got this sight out the way first thing as it started to get quite busy when we left.
After getting off the ferry back at Battery Park we walked for about 15 minutes to the 9/11 memorial, we didn’t stay here for too long as it was quite sad to think of how many people lost their lives that day. We were then about to hop on the subway up to East Village, however Robin kept noticing this really tall, new building and when we discovered what it was, the new One World Trade Centre which only opened June 2016, we thought as we were there, we’d go up. We were offered tickets outside for $54 which gave us entry into the building and also another sight in NYC. The views from the One World Trade Centre were unreal. We were so glad we went up!
After this, we decided to walk all the way to East Village as we wanted lunch at the famous Katz Delicatessen. It took about 45 minutes to walk there but it was nice strolling through the city. After lunch we did a spot of shopping again and treated ourselves to an afternoon ice cream snack at Milk Bar. Again, we went back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner. We got an Uber to Beauty and Essex on Essex St for dinner and spent the whole evening there. We were pretty exhausted after day 2 so decided to call it a night early.
DAY 3
We set off early for Central Park today via the subway for the first time. I couldn’t believe how old the subway was and the trains don’t come very often like London; however it was very cool that it had a vintage feel. When we got to Central Park we were bombarded by these men who owned a Rickshaw sightseeing business. We didn’t really listen to them at first; we hadn’t really thought about what we were going to do in Central Park so we were a bit flustered. However after hearing them talk and mentioning lots of sights from films and celebrities, they actually knew a lot and because we’d stood there not really listening for a while they took the price down from $245 to $100 for an hour on the rickshaw doing a tour of the park. We said yes and we were so glad we did! It meant we could sit back under a cosy blanket and enjoy the views and sights and save our already aching feet. Our tour guide was lovely and he knew so much we didn’t. We would have been clueless about where to walk in the park, but he knew all the key spots.
Once our tour was up we headed for some lunch at Five Guys just off of 5th Avenue. Once we’d got some energy back into us, we headed out onto 5th Avenue and strolled up the street, popping into a few shops here and there. Our aim was to walk down to the Empire State Building via Grand Central Stationt, although it wasn’t looking promising as the weather was rather foggy. However by the time we’d got to the Empire State the sun had come out and the weather was perfect to go up! It was different to how I thought it was going to be when we reached the top. The views were stunning but the actual platform looked different to photos I had come across. Not in a bad way though!
After the amazing views, we headed to a market Robin wanted to check out called Dover Street Market. It was a very sleek, cool store featuring designer goods. Slightly pricey for us but a very cool store to go and see! We headed back to our hotel after this as we’d walked for miles and wanted some downtime before heading out for the evening.
I had come across Chelsea Market on Instagram and really wanted to go and check it out. It’s open until 9pm and we thought it would be less busy then. We didn’t realise it was mainly a foodie sort of place; but like delicious looking food. We decided to eat there for dinner as we were so full from Five Guys and wanted something light. After this we had planned to go bowling but when arriving at Bowlmor Lanes in Chelsea, there was a 2 hour wait… We thought it was too long to hang around for as it was already 9pm so we randomly decided to walk all the way from Chelsea to Times Square, about 45 minute walk and go to Ripleys Believe It Or Not. LOL!!! It was hilariously bad. Neither of us had ever been to one before or even knew much about it. But my god, it was awful, but so funny at the same time. Day 3 had pretty much come to an end and back to our hotel we went!
DAY 4
We’d heard about an Opening Ceremony Sample Sale on Instagram that was happening in Williamsburg, so we headed there for about 10am, an hour before it opened as we knew there’d be queues. Thank god we did because by 11am the queue was ridiculously long! The sample sale was amazing though, so many designer products with up to 90% off! Robin and I found a few bargains and spent about $500 but everything added up to over $2K! We had heard Williamsburg was cool to stroll around in, so we went in search for some lunch and came across Joe’s Pizza which we heard was a must try. So glad they offered a type of pizza with no sauce as I can’t eat tomatoes.
After lunch we strolled about a little more and might have gone to another Milk Bar… Their ice cream was just too good to not eat again and we also tried their crack pie – you need to taste it! Because we had lots of bags, we jumped in an Uber to the start of Brooklyn Bridge so we could walk across back to Manhattan island. By this point the sun was shining, there were blue skies and it was hot! So it was great to walk across the iconic landmark in such beautiful weather. Our hotel was close by to reaching the end of the bridge so we dropped off our shopping and because it was only 4pm we went back out to look around Soho.
For the evening on day 4 we got an Uber to midtown and headed to STK for dinner. I didn’t realise how pricey it was so if you’re thinking of going just make a note! We couldn’t find any prices online but the steaks are around $50 each. After this we walk to the Rockafella Centre as we had pre-booked a table for cocktails at the Rainbow Room bar. There was a viewing platform at the top which was a bonus so we got to head out and see NYC at night! We both got a cocktail each, which was a bad idea as it basically put me to sleep! So straight after this we headed home.
DAY 5
We’d pretty much done everything we’d wanted to do in NYC by Day 5, which was great as there was still lots of shopping we wanted to do. We also hadn’t actually eaten breakfast yet the whole time in New York so we kick started day 5 with that. I had come across a cute instagrammable cafe called Cafe Henrie not far from our hotel in Chinatown, so we went there for brunch! And OMG it was delicious!
After brunch, we ventured out to Soho again, our favourite place and shopped… A lot! I even popped into Bang Bang NYC to enquire about getting a tattoo, but when they told me their prices started at $400, I was a little bit gobsmacked, so decided against that! Robin found a cool shop he wanted to go to sort of east of Soho, so we trekked out to there and ended up walking around some parts we hadn’t been to yet. It was coming to late afternoon by that point and we wanted to find somewhere to eat. Someone on Instagram had told me to try out Pomme Frittes a chip restaurant, and we were quite close by so we headed there. OMG it was so delicious! I’m a huge chip fan and it was chips with lots of flavours of mayonnaise that you could pick from.
After lunch we went for a walk again and stumbled across Washington Park, which was really cute. We just sat on a bench in the sunshine and watched all of the cute dogs in the dog park. We were missing Luna you see… Because we had Luna on our minds, we went to seek out puppy shops and came across one selling toy puppies. OMG I can’t even tell you how cute they all were. But it made me so sad to see them locked up, they obviously weren’t being looked after well… I nearly asked whether they shipped to the UK!
We got an Uber back to our hotel after the long day as our feet were killing and we chilled for a few hours before dinner. The weather suddenly turned horrible and there was actually a storm with severe weather warnings which were scary. We thought we wouldn’t go too far for dinner, so stopped off at a cute pizza place in Little Italy called Sal’s. It was actually so good and they even made me a special pizza with no sauce!
DAY 6
Today was our last day, boo!!! Our flight wasn’t until 9pm at night which was great as we had pretty much a full day still in the big apple. We decided to keep things chilled today as our feet couldn’t really take us much further, so we stayed around the Soho area, going down side streets we hadn’t been down before. We had breakfast at Starbucks to keep things cheap and then lunch at a cute pub style restaurant. We also shot a little bit of content for my blog and YouTube and then by the time we’d done that we needed to head off at half 4. We had to go via Robin’s sisters old flat to pick up some of her things on the way to the airport.
6 days in NYC was the perfect amount of time to see, eat and shop everywhere we wanted to. There’s still a few more things I wanted to see but it’s more summertime things I want to experience like Coney Island. So NEW YORK… I’ll be back!
I hope my itinerary has given you a few ideas for yours or inspired you to book NYC! What a cool city. More content coming soon…!
Peace
x
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