This was our 7 day stay
Hi everyone,
Me, my wife and daughter visited New York 3 weeks ago. Since this is a popular place to ask for itinerary checks, I’d reckon to go the opposite route and share our 7-day program with the idea this hopefully can be of some help to future visitors.
Before getting to our itinerary I’d like to point out a few things about New York that stood out to us as first time visitors:
-We expected New Yorkers, solely based on silly assumptions and maybe also how they sometimes like to describe themselves, to be somewhat rude and unfriendly. This could not be farther from the truth: every interaction we had was fun, polite, spontaneous and genuine! So much that I wish we’d have the same culture over here (The Netherlands)
-I’ve felt at least as safe strolling the streets of New York than walking around my hometown, maybe even safer. If safety concerns are the only thing holding you back from visiting, just book that flight and hotel and have a great time!
-Risking to sound like Captain Obvious: New York is a city with amazing history and it shows. There are so many epic spots in the city with a tie to (recent) history or simply majestic views that it’s impossible to not be impressed by it.
-For those who need to hear this: expect to walk. a. lot. Luckily the New York subway is easy to use and cheap, so you can still move around the city if you don’t feel like walking a lot.
Anyway, here is how we roughly spent our time in New York:
Day 1:
Arrival at JFK around 5pm, taxi to our hotel (in only 45 minutes!) situated close to Rockefeller Center. Check-in, quick fresh up and our first stroll in the city to Times Square and a quick bite afterwards.
Day 2:
Early wake up (thanks jetlag), coffee and bagels to go, metro ride to Jay Street and walk to DUMBO from there. Went to the rooftop of Time Out Market for awesome views of the NYC skyline, East River, and both the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge. Walked the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan, past City Hall to Oculus and the 9/11 Memorial. From there a short walk to the Charging Bull and some shopping at Century21. Metro back uptown to Bryant Park, spent some time there before walking back to the hotel.
Day 3:
Basically a shopping day (what else to expect when tagging along with 2 women lol) combined with checking out landmarks like The Plaza Hotel and Central Park. From Central Park walked through UES and went back to the hotel. Shorter list than the day before, but shopping with a jetlag is twice as demanding as it usually is lol.
Day 4:
A bit of a Taylor Swift themed day, having a 13 yo daughter who is a huge fan of hers. Walked to Grand Central Station, took a metro to Tribeca, walked the Tribeca Boardwalk and then went to SOHO, Joe’s Pizza (my expectations were too high), West Village (Cornelia Street), Greenwich Village (Electric Lady Studios), and Washington Square Park. Amazing atmosphere there on the sunny day it was. From there walked to the Flatiron Building (great to see the scaffolding getting removed), back to hotel by metro.
Day 5:
Shopping (yes, again…) but this time at Macy’s, followed by a walk to Madison Square Garden, The Vessel / Hudson Yards. Metro back to Bryant Park, one of our favorite spots in the city. Visit to the New York Public Library. Walk back to our hotel area to make sure we were on time for our Top of the Rock visit. Stunning experience, one of the absolute highlights of our stay! Were up there for almost 3 hours and saw the city change from day to evening with all it’s lights. Awesome!
Day 6:
More Fifth Avenue shopping (sigh lol) but also visited St. Patricks Cathedral and took a metro to Canal Street to balance things out. Walked around Chinatown and Little Italy. Metro to Grand Central, picked up some sweets at Magnolia Bakery. Easy laid back day with lots of walking again.
Day 7:
Morning walk to Times Square. Metro ride and short walk to Pier 79 to take the NYC Ferry St. George route to see the Statue of Liberty from the water. Can’t recommend this option enough, waaay better than the free Staten Island ferry since it’s less crowded, only costs a few bucks and has a route that is more fun. Last ferry stop was Wall Street (Pier 11) , so I was able to check out the Cocoa Exchange (John Wick anyone?) and Stone Street as well. Metro to SOHO for a second visit (we liked the vibe) followed by a short metro ride (we were done with walking by then) to West Village for L’industrie Pizza. Great pizza, worth waiting in line for. From there back to the hotel.
Day 8:
Early morning stroll. and our last one for this trip unfortunately. Times Square. Bryant Park. Rockefeller Center. The inevitable moment of needing to check out of the hotel and grab a taxi to JFK. 50 minutes this time, which also isn’t that bad. Promised ourselves to definitely come back. New York, we love you!
While writing this all down, I realise it seems we focused a lot on shopping (which isn’t entirely wrong) but I still feel we also saw and did a lot. We knew up front that it would be impossible to check everything off the list that we made prior to visiting (didn’t get to visit any museums for instance), but that’s just another reason to visit again.
In hindsight day 2 and 7 felt the most efficient and might be a nice blueprint for others. The other days were less structured but this added to the charm of just wandering and experiencing the city. Lastly, what really helped in putting our schedule together is watching some of the many YouTube walking vids to get a better grasp of distances and things to do.
Apologies for the wall of text (in which I tried but feel I didn’t fully succeed in conveying our thoughts and enthusiasm - harder to bring across in a language that is not natively mine), but I still hope this is of use to someone.