New York Travel Diary

Going to New York has literally always been a dream of mine and this trip was just that! I was able to experience so much and see so many amazing parts of New York that I feel incredibly blessed!

I will be including everything I did separated by Day 1-Day 4! I’ll add some tips and what I would do differently at the end of each day! Our last day will not be included as it was more of a wrap up day  If you “$$” next to the name, it indicates that the experience was not free.

At the very end of the post I’ll also include tips on where you can stay in New York!

This is a sponsored post by @bookingcom. This post reflects all of my own opinions and all suggestions are my own! 

Well here is my New York Travel Diary, enjoy!

Day 1:

Morning:

Radio City:  Radio city hall is an entertainment venue located at 1260 Avenue of the Americas! Many tourists love to take pictures in front of it and it’s great to see for yourself! It’s more of a photo place and we didn’t spend much time here!

Rockerfeller Tree:  The tree is located at Rockefeller center in Midtown.  It was so amazing to see the huge beautiful tree! You can see the taping for the Today show there, the ice skating rink right next to the tree, and the famous Shuartz toy store! If you have time to eat at the Rock Center cafe, I would do it because you have the view of the ice skating rink!

Central Park $$: We booked a bicycle cab tour and we were able to see so much around the park! I would definitely recommend a tour like this versus walking the park on your own!

Evening:

Comedy Show  $$: We booked a comedy show at Caroline’s and saw Mo Amer. He has a Netflix special which Cesar and I really enjoyed! The comedians before the main act were pretty weak but Mo Amer was funny! They have several places where you can catch a show and I would recommend to do this one of the nights!

Horse carriage Ride $$: The minute I saw the horses and how magical it looked I knew that I wanted to do it! It was pretty cool and you can tell the person where to go! A plus is they also have blankets so you can keep warm through out the ride!

Light show on Saks 5th Ave: We saw this when we were in the carriage and it was absolutely magical! They have such a pretty show displayed on the side of the building, it’s definitely a must see!

Tip 1: Do a bike cab tour around Central Park! Our tour guides were fun and pointed out so many amazing things around the park! The tour guides also doubled as photographers which is a major plus to get those great pictures! This tour was definitely one of my absolute favorites! You could definitely opt for the free version and just walk around yourself or rent a bike!

Tip 2: See the Rockefeller Tree both during the day and at night! It’s just pretty that you gotta see it twice!

Day 2:

Morning:

Flat Iron Building: This building is triangular and located at 175 fifth avenue! This building is honestly so cool and it’s a great place for pictures!

Madison Square Park: It’s an urban park with free wifi and has public installations by artists like Sol LeWitt.  The original Shake Shack is at this park and it’s such a beautiful location!

Little Italy: This is located in Lower Manhattan and you can find traditional Italian eateries and bakeries! We ate at this really cool restaurant called Gelso & Grand! Really good food and I got the Rose Sangria which was bomb!

New York City Hall: This is one of the nations oldest city halls and is in located in Lower Manhattan. I was so impressed by the architecture that I just had to take a picture!

Evening:

Zuccotti Park: During the holidays this park has all of their trees decked out in Christmas lights and it’s honestly so gorgeous!

Wall Street & New York Stock Exchange: These were more of something we saw in passing! After the Zuccotti park its all on the same street!

St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church: This church is the oldest church in New York city! It is a beautifully designed church filled with so much history! You can definitely see this if you’re just in the area!

Charging Bull: There was an extremely long line of people waiting to take a picture with the charging bull! I just waited for no one to be around to take a quick boomerang. When I see the bull I think of one of my favorite movies, Hitch which is why I wanted to see it!

Broadway in Time square $$: We went to go see the Lion King and it was amazing!! The Lion King is one of my favorite movies and I thought the musical was great! I did get emotional in some scenes but it also had really funny scenes as well! Great for both adults & kids! After the show you can walk around Time square and just know that it will be super busy and packed! You have to experience it at least once!

Tip 3: Use an Uber/Lyft to get around or wear comfortable shoes to walk.  We walked a lot this day and if you’re not wearing comfortable shoes forget it, you might not make it! We had purchased tickets for those “on & off tour buses.” I don’t think we would purchase again and would probably just go on our own.

Tip 4: Several places are more just for sight seeing & taking pictures versus other locations where you can shop/eat/drink. When you plan out your itinerary for the day have a balance to make it more well-rounded!

Day 3: 

Morning:

Brooklyn Bridge: This bridge is massive and runs about 1 mile long. Since we were taking pictures along the way it took us about a little over an 1  hour to get completely across the bridge! There were tons of people on the bridge so if you want a shot with no one around you either have to go super early or wait for the right window! We started on the Manhattan side and walked over to Brooklyn. If you don’t want pictures on the bridge you can just uber across to Brooklyn!

Dumbo, Brooklyn: Trendy little area where warehouse buildings are now home to boutiques, restaurants, and trendy cafes! There is also a special part of Dumbo where you can see the Manhattan Bridge in between two buildings! This is a pretty popular location where there are several and I mean several tourists trying to get the exact same shot! This proved to be a little difficult because there was way too many people in the background of the pictures. Also, its still an actual street so cars still need to get by and they angrily honk their way through.  We ate a really late lunch here too!

Statue of Liberty $$: We took a boat tour to see the Statue of Liberty during sunset and although it was freezing, it was INCREDIBLE! We finally got to see Lady Liberty and although the photos were not amazing the experience was the most important!

Evening:

The Oculus: It’s a huge shopping mall and it’s probably the prettiest one I have ever seen! My neighborhood mall sure doesn’t compare! Just take a look!

9/11 Memorial: Now this one of my favorite parts of the trips as well. It made me feel really emotional to see the memorial in person and think about everything that happened that day. I also learned that when ever you see a rose place on someone’s name, it means it’s their birthday on that day. How amazing and such a sweet gesture right?

One World Trade Center: This is the main building that was rebuilt and is the tallest building in the United States

One World Observatory Deck $$: The views from the 102nd floor are pretty amazing! The elevator ride is 47 seconds to the top and it’s not just your ordinary ride! You have to experience it for yourself and if you’re scared of heights, it really isn’t that bad! The whole experience was amazing and we experience it at night. I feel like night is cool but daytime would have been nice too!

Eataly $$: This is an Italian marketplace that features a variety of cafes, counters, restaurants, and a cooking school! We had some pasta here and let me tell you, AMAZING!! You can visit without buying or eating anything but then that would be pointless in my opinion!

Tip 5: Head to Dumbo Brooklyn early if you’re trying to get that perfect shot!

Tip 6: Buy tickets to see the Statue of Liberty online. You can see tour times and exactly what you want to do. We did everything very last minute and just went with the flow. We probably could have saved some money if we would have planned it out better.

Day 4:

Morning:

The high line: It’s a park that is 1.45 miles long and former a railroad track. The park is elevated and was so gorgeous! The day we went it was raining so it would have been nice to experience with better weather!

Greenwich Village: The Greenwich Village  is referred to by the locals as “the village.” It is in Lower Manhattan and has little shops, cafes, and of course great restaurants as well! There are several movies hat were filmed in the iconic village and I loved seeing all the homes here! The building below was used as the “Friend’s” building!

Washington Square Park: This park is home to the Washington Square Arch which is pretty iconic! We popped in to take some pictures and listened to an Acapella group for about 10 minutes!

Union Square Park/Holiday Market $$: There are more than 100 booths of food, desserts, and small shop owners selling their goods! It’s a really place to get some shopping done and get unique items from small business owners! Also, there is so many options for food you won’t know what to get!

Grand Central Station: A world famous landmark that has shopping, dining, and it’s just an incredible experience. I was hoping that a flash mob would breakout when I was there but it didn’t LOL!

Evening:

Museum of Modern Art $$: This museum is located in Manhattan and was included in several travel guides as a “must do.” It’s identified as one of the largest most influential museums of modern art in the world. Check out my tip below for my thoughts on the museum! They do have the original Starry Night though which is cool!

Macy’s: It’s not just your normal Macy’s, this one is HUGE! If you want to do some shopping then you should definitely come here!

Empire State Building $$: We did not pay to go up to the observation deck but we were right in the area! We decided to opt out since we went up to the observation deck at One World Observatory.

Foot Massage: We found a random foot massage place and this was absolute heaven! We walked so much in NYC that our feet felt so bruised!

Time square: After dinner, dessert, and having some drinks we headed to Time square for a synchronized show at 11:57 pm. I found out online that this happens everyday from 11:57-12:00 am and that all the screens in Time square would be synchronized. It sounded super cool but it was a total flop!!

Tip 7: Plan out what activities you want to do in the evening! Depending on who you travel with this might change so it’s better to have an idea then to try and plan something every night. I wish we did since after a long day of sight seeing we end up being too exhausted to even look things up!

Tip 8: I would totally skip on the Museum. Yes they have some good art pieces but I would rather have spent my money somewhere else.  It totally depends on you’re individual interests though and what you would consider to be fun or cool.

FINAL TIPS:

1. If you are going during the holidays you need to dress very warm! I’m not going to lie but I was freezing my little butt off! I wore fleece leggings under my jeans, and wore compression socks to keep my feet warm. Just layer as much as you can and bring coats/jackets that will keep you warm!!!
2. Plan out what you want to see & do in advance! I wish I would have done a full itinerary for every day along with how much money everything would cost. Many of the cool things to do in New York are not free so I would decide which ones you really want to do before!
3. Wear comfortable shoes! If you want to look cute then plan on bringing a backpack with extra shoes to change into. I did this a couple of days for content purposes but you don’t need too. Your backpack will get heavy from walking around all day so just keep that in mind!
4. Look for more cost effective places to rent like apartments/homes via Booking.Com. I’ll tell you more below!

Renting apartments & homes via Booking.com

Before we booked our trip to New York, I did some research on travel guides. Most travel guides included places to go and see but nothing really about where to stay. We decided we were going to New York and booked it within 2 days which made everything really rushed.

For our next trip I will certainly do more research to book the best option for our needs . The hotel that we stayed at was nice but also pretty pricey due to the location in Time square. We also booked our hotel through Booking.com because we love ability to bundle with flights as well. When looking online you can that they also offer apartments & homes, which next time I can try as it might me a nice alternative. There are so many different types of travelers and you just have to find what works for you!

I would also look into their apartments and homes HERE in addition to looking at hotels! You can find a place that’s closer to majority of the things you want to do, how many people are traveling with you, and what you need for your vacation stay. 

Looking at New York, here are some areas to look at: 

-Chelsea

-Greenwich Village

-Flat Iron District

-Midtown ( might be pricier based on location)

If you are a frequent traveler you can also list to rent your own apartment/home and you set up your own prices & availability. Booking.com does not charge any additional fees and the prices listed on their site is the price you set! This is totally an extra way to make some cash for the holidays! If interested, click HERE.

Well guys I hope you enjoyed my New York Travel Diary and let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for stopping by!

It’s been real.

XOXO,

Liz-Laugh-Love