3 Days In New York City

I'm currently planning a 3 day break in New York City as part of an unexpected visit to see our Daughters art work exhibited in a gallery there. She's only 16 and we're so proud we can't begin to say and we can't wait to share more about her work and on the upcoming trip to New York. I'll be adding where we'll be staying in New York over the 3 days and all the general scoop to help you plan your own trip. All from an angle of doing it with kids too - our little boy turns 9 in New York so it's a pretty cool experience to turns 9 in an amazing city. He turned 8 in Bali (I mean come on how cool is that!)

But NYC is overwhelming me right now. In fact Barcelona has and is overwhelming me. You see we've been living a very different life these last few months living in SE Asia and coming back to Europe and now heading to NYC is frazzling, overwhelming. All of the above. And it's understandable. I'm trying to be kind to myself because these are big life changes to be adapting to. I'm always aware of how lucky we are to be living this life too (and there comes the guilt... how dare you moan) and yet I find myself like a lost soul in the harsh energies of Europe. Now planning to go even further into NYC. Literally all over the place right now. Doubting every single thing we've decided to do. Are doing. And spending so much money that the savings are dwindling. Argghhhh.

If you're a regular around here you'll know that in June 2024 we left the UK on one way tickets to Bali. And are probably thinking WTH! New York is on the other side of the world!! And that's exactly what we thought when we found out the news. And let me tell you getting 4 lot's of flights tickets around the world that you were not budgeting for is a pretty costly event. But it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's not every day your Daughter gets into something s prestigious.

It's now almost 12 months since we took those brave steps to move from UK and start a life as digital nomads and we're still full time travellers based in South east Asia, building our home in Bali and whilst that happens we're travelling around South East Asia, world schooling and earning online to fund it. We're most definitely on a budget and hope our online earning grows so that we can continue this journey because it's actually been way more expensive than we planned, budgeted for or thought it would be (especially with 2 kids). And when we got the amazing news that Lil had won an art competition and part of that prize was to have her work exhibited in New York we knew we had to go.

And so I'm currently sat here typing this blog and planning 3 days (may turn into lnger) but 3 days in New York. And that feels weird saying that as I've never been to New York and never thought I would. But everything happens for a reason and we're going.

New York Things to Do obviously theres loads. Because we are only there for 3 days we are limiting ourselves on the number of 'touristy' activities we do with a preference to enjoy soaking in the atmosphere, exploring neighbourhoods and parks (and obvs a legendary picnic or two) and we're actually there to see our daughters exhibition and so activities will revolve around that. We want to be relatively free to be able to attend things for that. Had we had longer to explore n NYC we'd definitely look at getting an NYC Explorer Pass to cram away and keep costs down.

So the general NYC 3 Day plan is as follows:

To help get our bearings on day 1 we're going to take a Hop on Hop Off Bus Tour

Top of The Rock Observation Deck Tickets. New York City has a LOT of observation decks, and I think Midtown has the best concentration of them given the impressive concentration of tall buildings in the area. But rather than go up the empire state building go up to Top of The Rock where your views will have the iconic Empire State in the background rather than being in the building itself. We found this with Paris that a trip up the Arc Di Triumph was a much better view than the trip up the Eiffel Tower, because if you're up in the main event then the star of the show is not in the skyline. You are part of someone else's sky line!

Take a Stroll at Central Park - The most visited urban park in the world - 843 acres! From 110th Street all the way down to 59th Street, between Central Park West and Fifth Avenue.

New York’s Upper East Side and Upper West Side are divided by the park and flank each side of the park with some of the most beautiful and quintessentially New York neighbourhoods. So much to do there, with a castle, zoo, restaurants, 30 bridges, waterfalls, a carousel, a nature sanctuary, playgrounds, boat rides, theatre! And mostly all free. I hope we can go swimming at Lakser Pool.

Have one of our legendary picnics on The Great Lawn is a must at NYC Central Park because... it's the most famous park n the world and the two go hand in hand. From 79th St. to 85th St

Because we always try to hunt out the BEST COFFEE shops whenever we're in a new place, we're planning on sipping pretty floral coffee's surrounded by pretty flower and plants at Remi

+ then eat these creamy baked cheesecake at Bibble and Sip (because when in NYC!)

We have to Visit MOMA The Museum of Modern Art (on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue) for Lilly as she's the artists of the family and this will open up many topics for our world schooling topics. And take a look in the MoMa Store.

Visit Museum of Natural History for Bertie again as part of his world schooling activities

Walk the Highline Trail - from Gansevoort to 34th St. above the Whitney (open year round). Climb the steps to walk along the public park created on the historic freight rail road tracks above the streets of the west side neighbourhood. Along the trail you’ll find art, nature, and design. At the end, you’ll come upon the famous Vessel structure at Hudson Yards.

Whilst at the Highline head to little Island. A man-made Little Island created in the Hudson River, along the Chelsea Pier 55 with art and views.

Take a Statue of Liberty Cruise. So we're not sure of the time of day for this yet. Do we want to see the statue from a boat or get off at Staten Island and climb back on the boat to return? Do we want the boat to go from Battery Park to Liberty Island, see the statue, maybe climb to the pedestal, maybe climb to her crown? Go to Ellis Island, explore the Immigration museum, grab some food? Orrrrr Do we want to see the Statue of Liberty all lit up at night and take a boat to see the magical New York City skyline at sunset? Arghhh too much choice. Or for all my budgeters out there! Here's my top tip for you: There is a Free Staten Island Ferry that runs every 20mins between Staten Island and Manhattan and gives you excellent views of the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline for Free! Which takes 25 mins there and then 25 mins to get back. Can we get a whoop whoop all my cheapskates.

Departs from: Whitehall Ferry Terminal on Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.

When: Every day. 25 minutes each way, plus transition time getting off and back on the boat in Staten Island.

Tips for the Return: You have to get off the boat in Staten Island at the St. George Ferry Terminal. You can then get back in line to board the boat for your return to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal.

The Pedestal that the statue stands on is actually a museum dedicated to the statue. With an elevator, or 215 steps to climb up to the top of the Pedestal viewing area on the 10th floor with spectacular views of the harbour and city. Then to go up to the crown there is an additional 162 stairs from the Pedestal (no elevator, you must climb the narrow spiral stairs to get to her crown). Once there, there are 25 windows in the crown in between the 7 spikes which represent the 7 continents. Which you can view through each of the windows. Seeing as though we're only going to be in New York once in this life time, I think we might want to climb to her crown. But to do so you need to request access to the Pedestal when you purchase your ferry tickets and get the Crown entrance wrist band that you must show to enter. Tickets to the Crown won't cost extra BUT must be Reserved and Purchased in advance, online, and picked up at the Will Call booth BEFORE you board the ferry. Tip: WILL CALL is WINDOW  #6 at Castle Clinton.

DO NOT BUY TIX from people on the street or in line or at the subway trying to sell them to you. This is a SCAM!

Sit outside while on the ferry boat – The wind and water are part of the experience!

Then we've all really missed the cinema on our travel life and so in taking in the sights of NYC, we plan to be in Midtown NYC and see a movie! A movie within a movie because this whole trip is going to feel like one big movie anyway. There are two major theatres located in Midtown — the Regal E-Walk Stadium and RPX, and AMC Empire 25. Or, for a more unique film viewing experience, the Rooftop Cinema Club Midtown is literally located on a rooftop on West 37th Street. So we haven't decided exactly on the exacts at this point.

We plan to do a lot of walking BUT for experience we'll take the subway to conserve our energy on your NYC itinerary 3 days. Each subway ride is $2.90 and you can conveniently pay with your card or phone, so we will mostly get around by train.

Times Square

Picnic at Byrant Park

Picnic at Central Park

MIDTOWN

Next on the things to do in Midtown NYC list is to visit Bryant Park. The park spans a little over 9 acres and is between 40th Street and 42nd Street and between Fifth Avenue and the Mall of Americas. With plenty of outdoor tables and seating, it’s the perfect spot to sit and people-watch. The park also has a large lawn area, ping pong tables (it’s always fun to watch people play!),

Museum of Modern Art

VISIT AN OBSERVATION DECK

GO SEE A MOVIE

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