New York City

New York City is irresistible - with world-class dining and shopping, museums, architecture, and incredible rooftop views, there is something for everyone here.

I visited New York in February 2023 for one week with my husband Paul. We based ourselves in Long Island City, a short subway journey to Manhattan and spent our days visiting different parts of this enormous city.

Quick Links: Midtown Lower Manhattan and Staten Island Chinatown and SoHo Central Park and Upper East Side

Chelsea Brooklyn Long Island City, Williamsburg and Roosevelt Island

New York was somewhere I’d been wanting to visit for a long, long time but had kept putting it off in favour of somewhere less expensive. After having a look at flights on a whim, I found some unbelievably cheap direct flights and some accommodation that wasn’t going to break the bank, and a couple of hours later, we had our trip booked!

Travelling in February meant everything was substantially more affordable, but don’t be fooled, it was certainly not cheap! Whilst the weather was definitely not warm, I do think it was quite a good time to visit – with mild temperatures comes tourist attractions without the crowds, we booked multiple things last minute and barely queued for anything – perfect!

I initially thought we would spend a few days in New York, and spend a couple of days on day trips – how wrong I was. I was not prepared for the sheer size of the city, I could have spent another week there and still not got bored!

We stayed in Long Island City, which was a pretty perfect location. We were one stop on the subway to Grand Central, surrounded by restaurants and cafes, and had a beautiful view of Manhattan from the waterfront, a stone’s throw away from the accommodation. All this for a fraction of the price of staying in Manhattan.

New York is HUGE. Like really, really big. We decided to split up each day concentrating on areas of the city that were close-by.

Midtown

We arrived into New York at midday and after dumping our bags we headed straight to Midtown to start exploring and catch a view from one of the many skyscrapers. There are lots of places in the city to get a panoramic view, but the most popular options are Top of the Rock, Empire State Building and the One World Observatory. They were all roughly the same price, so we headed to the Rock.

1. Rockefeller Centre (Top of the Rock)

We bought our tickets online and hopped on the subway. Stepping out into Midtown felt I had dived into a movie set – the tallest buildings I’ve ever seen, people rushing past and the iconic yellow taxis everywhere – we were well and truly in New York.

We bought our tickets online and headed to the Rock. It was well organised and we were soon in a lift darting upwards to the 70th floor.

Here there are several floors to explore – an inside (and warmer) floor with huge glass windows, an outer 360 floor with a higher section in the middle. We wanted to see New York by day and by night, so timed our visit with sunset so we could get the best of both worlds. The view was incredible with so many landmarks to spot.

New York by day

New York

New York by night

2. Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station is enormous, and as the name suggests, very grand. We walked around the station popping into shops and looking at the countless cafes and restaurants – there’s even an oyster bar here, and an enormous Apple store.

Grand Central Station

3. Times Square and Broadway

After sunset we headed to Times Square – with glitzy lights, huge flashing billboards, street performers and Alicia Keys’ blasting from speakers left right and centre, it’s a bit of a sensory overload but incredible to see and walk through.

Broadway

4. Empire State Building

It was time to head on to a well-deserved cocktail in one of the many rooftop bars – we headed to 'Dear Irving on Hudson’ and slowly sipped our exorbitant cocktails whilst taking in more views – we had a prime spot overlooking the Empire State Building.

We didn't go into the Empire State Building but enjoyed the views from various points in the city.

New York Rooftops

Cocktails

We returned to Midtown in the day to see more of the sights.

5. Chrysler Building

I loved the art deco Chrysler building.

6. New York Library

We stopped by the New York Library for a look around. The building itself is very grand, and the inside is filled with beautiful reading rooms, the most famous being the Rose reading room.

New York Library

7. St Patrick’s Cathedral

The famous grand Neo-Gothic cathedral in New York.

8. Museum of Modern Art

It started raining, and so we thought this was probably the time to head to the museum of modern art. I really enjoyed this museum, it was huge, spanning over several floors – you can’t come here without making sure to see Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Warhol’s Campbell soup, but there was a lot more to see too.

Andy Warhol's Soup

9. Broadway

We were keen to see a musical and so headed to the TKTS desk at 3pm to see what discounted tickets for available. There was quite a decent list of shows to see, but in the end we went with one I was sure to know all the words to, Aladdin.

It was fantastic!

10. Union Square

We headed here to see the famous flatiron building – alas it was covered in scaffolding! Luckily we had visited on a day the Union Square Greenmarket is on and so we looking through the different stalls, before popping into the enormous Wholefoods that was nearby.

11. Ellen’s Stardust Diner

We wanted to see another show, but even at the discounted rates, theatre tickets were not cheap. Instead we headed to Ellen’s Stardust Diner one evening. This is the famous all-singing diner where budding performers will work whilst trying to break into Broadway. We queued up outside (they don’t take bookings) but thankfully it didn’t take long to get inside and before we knew it we were sitting watching the performances with a burger and fries in hand. It was SUCH a good evening.

Lower Manhattan and Staten Island

There was a lot to see in lower Manhattan – we started off bright and early and headed to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

1. Statue of Liberty

We had already decided not to go to the statue itself, but instead to view her in full glory from the water. From the Whitehall ferry terminal you can hop on the free (yes, free!) Staten Island ferry. The ferry departed every 30 minutes so after devouring a pretzel we hopped on and headed to the upper right side of the boat – this was the perfect place to gaze out for the journey.

We stayed on Staten Island for around 30 minutes and then headed back over to explore more of Manhattan.

2. 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Outside the museum are two huge reflecting pools which sit on the footprints of the previous Twin Towers. Around the outside are inscribed names of those who died during the worst terrorist attack to have occurred on American soil.

After looking around the area, we headed into the 9/11 museum. We weren’t too sure what to expect, but it had very good exhibitions and was very sensitive and felt dignified. The first part of the building was dedicated to remembering the victims through photographs, personal items and recordings from family members. It felt deeply personal, and was probably the quietest place in New York. Following this there was a separate section with trigger warnings surrounding the doors – inside an enormous exhibition depicting a timeline of events leading to the attacks, the aftermath and the world’s response.

Statue of Liberty

9/11 Memorial Pools

After the museum we headed to the Oculus Center to walk around and have some food.

There is lots more to do around this area, and so we walked around, looking at more sights.

3. New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street

There are lots of grand buildings around the Financial district, unfortunately the rain started bucketing, and so we didn't stop for too many photos.

After this, we headed over to Chinatown

Chinatown and SoHo

Chinatown and SoHo are sort of etched into each other. We followed our noses and walked around before heading into Xi’an Famous Foods for some well-deserved hand-ripped noodles and lamb dumplings – delicious! So delicious infact that we ended up going back a second time.

Lamb Dumplings

A very rainy Chinatown

Central Park and Upper East Side

As we were visiting in February, we weren’t sure what to expect from central park. Certainly, it wasn’t as luscious and colourful as it would be later on in the year, but it was still beautiful. We picked out the day that looked the warmest and made a plan to rent bikes and cycle around the park.

We had a look online and found that most of the bike hire shops were pretty pricey, so we thought we would have a check of Groupon and were thrilled to find a $20 4-hour bike rental for two – perfect! We purchased the Groupon and headed straight over to pick up our bikes.

1. Central Park Bike Ride

Central park is really set up for cycling, scooting or running around, with designated lanes and very few vehicles. A loop around the park is around 10km, so we decided firstly to do a lap of the whole park, get lunch, and then go around again, this time stopping to look at sights along the way.

Central Park

Under the Bethesda Terrace

It was a really lovely cycle and this was a great way to take in all the sights and sheer size of the area.

It was however, a bit hillier than I had expected. I cycle with an electric bike at home and so I had definitely got used to having a little boost whenever there’s an incline. This did not happen here, but hey, it’s good exercise.

After our first lap, we headed out of the park and to a local deli for a soup and sandwich.

On our second lap, we stopped by the many sights – Central Park Carousel, Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, the Mall (where we got some photos with Burns), Belvedere Castle, and Strawberry Fields.

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Both the MET and Guggenheim are located in Upper East Side, but we decided we would pick one to visit – we chose the MET. I’d been advised before going that it really is huge and you could probably spend weeks here without seeing everything, and I can confirm, it is gigantic. We decided to pick out a few exhibitions we definitely wanted to see, and then spend time looking at others afterwards.

I love spent a long time gazing at the Van Gogh and Monet paintings. We then headed to the Islamic art section, the American wing, Greek & Roman art, and African art. Finally, we headed over to Egyptian Art which was interesting but somewhat underwhelming after visiting Egypt, let’s be honest.

By this point my feet were sore (understatement), and so we headed off for some food and rest.

Chelsea and West Village

1. Chelsea Market

We headed straight for Chelsea Market, a huge undercover market filled with multiple food stalls, art shops, delicatessens, fashion and homeware stores and a small artisanal market. We headed to ‘Lobster Place’ for (you guessed it) lobster, and lots and lots of oysters.

2. High Line

This is a 1.5 mile park built high up above street level and it was a great way to spend some time outdoors without dodging cars.

In February, there wasn’t a huge amount of greenery out but looking at photos of the area, it’s clear that in spring and summer, it would be stunning.

3. Hudson Yard Vessel

After coming down from the high line we headed to the Hudson Yard Vessel, an unusual honeycomb-shaped building which was impressive from the outside but sadly closed to climb up.

The High Line

Hudson Yard Vessel

4. West Village

We came to West Village for the jazz – namely to come to Mezzrow, a cosy jazz bar with refined cocktails. It was more expensive to book in advance, and so we opted to queue up at the door at 7pm, hoping to get a seat, which we thankfully managed. I can’t profess to exactly being an expert in jazz (in fact I know very little about it), but it was a really nice night made even better paired with a delicious old fashioned.

Brooklyn

1. Brooklyn Bridge

We headed to city hall and after a bit of time trying to navigate how to get on to the pedestrianised section, we had made it onto Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most photographed sights in New York. It took around 30 minutes to cross, mainly because we kept stopping to look at the view (and to take many, many photos)

Brooklyn Bridge

2. Time Out Market

After arriving in Brooklyn we walked around Time Out Market, which had a similar vibe to and found a Chelsea market.

3. Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a fairly hipster neighbourhood with lots of restaurants, bars and interesting shops – and so we spent a few hours just walking around and browsing. Paul had found a brewery (which thankfully did cider too – although it was here I discovered that you have to ask for “hard cider” if you want it alcoholic, as “cider” is not more like a sparkling apple juice.

View from Brooklyn

Williamsburg, Long Island City and Roosevelt Island

1. Long Island City

This is where we had chosen to say, mainly because we found a cheap Airbnb close to the metro, but actually the area was pretty perfect to stay in.

Right on the waterfront, it was the perfect place for a morning run – and even better, there was a coffee cart serving Paul-approved flat whites which we chose to mark our finish-line.

2. Roosevelt Island

I was intrigued by this small island sitting neatly between Manhattan and Queens, and after initially seeing if we could run to it (this turned out to not be a realistic option) we decided to get the ferry over from Long Island City which was very easy and quick, (but annoyingly paid separately to our metro tickets). I booked a table for cocktails at a rooftop bar ‘Panorama Room’ which had million-dollar views across the Hudson.

3. Williamsburg

We were staying pretty close to Williamsburg, and so we left this area until our last day to explore as it was close-by to retrieve our luggage! Our flight was leaving at night so we had the whole day to explore.

I loved Williamsburg, it’s definitely where I could imagine myself living if I ever moved here. With excellent brunch spots, bars, quirky vintage shops and street art on every corner, it was easy to spend a day perusing shops and café-hopping.

We walked along the waterfront, hoping to grab a bite at Smorgasburg, but unfortunately this had clearly shut for the winter period.

We stopped by a few different flea markets – Artists & Fleas was my favourite.

We had yet to have one of New York’s famous boozy brunches, and so headed to ‘Sunday in Brooklyn’ for a seat. I opted for ‘biscuits and gravy’ which was nothing like what I was expecting, but delicious.

Places to Eat

I had SO many restaurants starred on my map – but realistically it would have taken well over a month to get through them all, so we had to narrow down our selection. Here are some of the best places we ate and drank:

1. Xi’an Famous Foods

So good we went twice – serving food from the Xi’an region of China, I loved the hand-pulled noodles, the sour lamb dumplings and the cumin lamb burger.

2. Katz’s Delicatessen

A true New York institution, Katz’s is a must-visit – the pastrami on rye was delicious! There was a bit of a queue outside but it moved quick enough.

3. Lexington Candy Shop

This was one recommended by my brother – a traditional NYC luncheonette serving lots of sodas and the famous ‘egg cream’ drink.

4. Sunday in Brooklyn

An apt name as it was indeed on a Sunday in Brooklyn that we went – delicious brunch and tasty wine selection.

5. Momofuku

The place for ramen, oddly in the middle of a shopping centre – but don’t let that put you off, it’s utterly delicious.

6. Dear Irving on Hudson

This was our first rooftop bar, situated inside a hotel, this had unusual cocktails with incredible views.

7. Panorama Room

This was an indoor rooftop bar with a balcony – perfect to enjoy the view in winter.

8. Ellen’s Stardust Diner

Ok so the food is mediocre, but the entertainment is fabulous. The milkshakes were pretty good.

9. Pizza slices

There are pizza slice joints constantly, and they all varied considerably. It was the perfect lunchtime go-to. We started off in Joe’s Pizza which is pretty famous – I was underwhelmed, sorry. Vinnie’s was the best in my opinion. Although I would have to admit I still prefer a Napoletana pizza.

Joe's Pizza

Momofuku

Lexington Candy Shop

Pastrami Sandwich at Katz

Shopping

New York is a fantastic place for shopping, although since the £ has plummeted you won’t see as many bargains here as you did a decade ago. I still managed to find some bargains in TJ Maxx (which is the same as TK Maxx, but they have a lot of different brands), and loved looking around Sephora and The Ordinary.

There are so many good clothes stores too – from vintage/flea to multi-level department stores.

I headed to Bloomingdales to buy own “little brown bag”, like every other tourist.

I really wanted to go to a sample sale while I was here, and I tracked down a few with brands I liked – but sadly the queue was LONG, like seriously long, and I didn’t want to spend hours in it, so decided to give it a miss.

It was probably a good thing on reflection as we had only taken hand-luggage with us!

This marked the end of our trip to New York. It was such a good holiday, and I felt we covered a lot of ground, and although there is always much more to see, I feel we got to explore a huge amount of this exciting city.

Top Tips for New York:

We visited in February – this is definitely ‘off-season’ with very few queues and cheaper flights & accommodation, I enjoyed travelling during this month – but you never need to balance this against some sights being shut, and parks not quite in bloom yet.
The metro is an easy way to get around. Even better you can now tap with your contactless card, no need to buy a ticket. It automatically calculates your journey, and once you have paid for 12 journeys in 1 week, you won’t pay for anymore! Note however that the week goes Monday-Sunday here.
We didn’t have any roaming mobile data here. I would normally buy a sim in the airport but actually the easiest thing to do was to buy an e-sim. Cheap, easy, and you don’t have to remove your SIM (and risk losing it!)
Splitting up our days into area of New York was essential. It’s easy to underestimate just how big this city is.
Book in advance if travelling in peak-time. This includes restaurants and bars too.
Buying discounted tickets for Broadway was really easy. The actual cost for the tickets was similar to what we saw online for seats in the very back – but by booking here, we got much, much better seats, in the front section, so it was definitely worth it.
Tipping is expected, and essential here – 15-20%.
One thing I had forgotten about was that tax doesn’t get included in the total price, and so if you see an expensive cocktail at say $18 – you have to add on the tax and the tip, so it ends up being even pricier. Beware!
New York is expensive. There are a few things to do that are free, but you will spend lots of money here. It’s best to just accept this. We made sure to stay in an Airbnb with a small kitchen and we ended up having breakfast in every day, and had 2 dinners in.
In the metro pay attention to the entrance signs and the direction of the subway – whether that’s ‘Uptown’ or ‘Downtown’ in Manhattan, and simply the name of the area otherwise. Often the entrances don’t link up and you can end up paying to go in, only to have to leave and pay to enter a different entrance.
Check your electronics before going – the US use a different voltage, which for the majority of electronics is not an issue as they are designed to switch between the two. As it turned out, the dyson airwrap is not designed in this way, and I couldn’t use it at all. After googling it seems this is a common issue. It wasn’t exactly the end of the world, but given we had only taken hand luggage, it was a rather annoying use of space.