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We took a family trip to New York City to celebrate our daughter's 13th birthday and it was magical! This was technically my 2nd time in NYC, but the first was a very short weekend over 20 years ago, so it was basically everyone's 1st visit and it did not disappoint.
Day 1 in NYC at Christmastime
Our flight was super late at night, so we arrived at our hotel after midnight. We took an Uber from LaGuardia Airport to our hotel in Midtown. We stayed at The New Yorker by Wyndham. The hotel was older, but well-kept and very nice. The staff was extremely helpful, especially after we had a noise issue and had to change rooms.
View from our hotel room
We started out Day 1 by picking up bikes (I used https://www.viator.com/tours/New-York-City/NYC-Central-Park-Bike-Rental/d687-5557BIKE) and riding around Central Park. This was a fun way to see the park. We visited the Bow Bridge, Belvedere Castle & Bethesda Fountain. We had the bikes for 3 hours, so we rode around and stopped to take in all things Central Park.
After 3 hours of bike riding, it was time for some ice skating. Thankfully the line was a little long, so it gave us a little time to rest and recover before skating. We skated at https://www.wollmanskatingrink.com/ and it was fantastic.
After ice skating, we headed back to the hotel, taking the subway! We were so proud of ourselves for figuring out the subway system. The first ride was interesting, but it didn't take too long for us to become pros.
We rested for a little while, took hot showers and changed into some warmer clothes before heading back out for some night-time fun. We walked up 5th Ave and took in the sights of Saks 5th Ave, Cartier and St. Patrick's Cathedral before turning and heading towards Rockefeller Center. I'd told the kids they were about to see the biggest Christmas tree they'd ever seen. My son, who is very literal, looks around and says "they don't look that big" and then they saw it. Eyes lit up and it was magical.
We took advantage of the New York CityPass. There are several passes that include many of the main attractions in the city, but we finally settled on the CityPass for us and it ended up being perfect. https://www.citypass.com/ The CityPass includes admission to The Empire State Building & American Museum of Natural History and then you get to choose 3 more attractions from a list of 6. One of the 3 we chose was Top of the Rock Observation Deck. It was cool to see the city at night and to see all the lights. The Top of the Rock has an indoor viewing area as well as an outdoor viewing area. My son and I even did the new Beam experience where you can recreate the iconic 1932 photo that shows 11 ironworkers having lunch on a steel beam, 69 stories high at the construction of the Rockefeller Plaza. Thankfully we were buckled in, but those men most definitely were not and I could not have done it.
Finally, it was time for some dinner. We ate at https://www.carnegiediner.com/
The food was tasty, but it was really just nice to sit down. Day 1 was incredible, but we were tired!
Day 2 in NYC at Christmastime
Today is our sweet girl's 13th birthday! The day started out with another subway ride to the southside of the city. We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Seeing the kids stare of Lady Liberty was special. They were both in awe. We did the pedestal tour, so we got to climb lots and lots of stairs to the top of the pedestal, bottom of the statue. It was very cool to see the sights from there. If given the opportunity, I recommend at least doing the pedestal tour. There were not any crown tickets available the day we went, but after climbing the stairs to the pedestal, I'm glad I didn't have to climb more. We spent several hours walking around and taking in the history. We had lunch at the Crown Cafe on the island and toured the museum, which houses the original torch. It was pretty interesting to see how big the statue really is.
Ellis Island was very interesting as well. To stand where so many stood hoping for a chance at a new life.
After a short ferry ride back to the city, we took a little walk around Battery Park. We walked past Wall Street and made our way to the World Trade Center Sites. It gets dark in the city pretty early in December, so while it was only shortly after 5pm, it was already dark when we arrived. Phillip and I, both understanding the magnitude of where we were standing, and the kids asking questions, it almost felt surreal. We stood at the pool of the North Tower for a while, rubbing my hand over the names lit up that lost their lives that dreadful day in 2001. We visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum, which I definitely recommend as another of the 3 choices on the CityPass.
Now it was time for dinner and to celebrate the birthday girl. We had an amazing Italian dinner at La Pizza & La Pasta at https://www.eataly.com/us_en/stores/nyc-downtown. It was delicious and the view was great. We then wanted to try to find the best cannoli in the city. Phillip is the king of research, so he found a bakery that reviews claimed to have the best cannoli, so off we went. Our search led us to https://www.ferraranyc.com/. It was kinda funny, because we were walking down the street in Little Italy and there wasn't a lot around. There were a few people, but not a ton and several stores were closed. Then all of a sudden we saw a line in front of us. We clearly were not the only people that had a mission to find this bakery. We got slices of cheesecake, chocolate cake, gelato, and of course cannoli. They did not disappoint! Best cannoli we've ever had and finally an end to day 2.
Day 3 in NYC at Christmastime
Day 3 may have been my favorite day. Abbie Rae and I got up and left the boys sleeping and we made our way to Radio City Music Hall to see Christmas Spectacular | The Rockettes.
It was UGH-MAZING. Major bucket list check-off.
While the girls were getting our Rockettes on, the boys took off to find the best pizza in the city. They visited a couple different places to compare and the results were split. Walker liked 2 Bros best and Phillip liked Joes best.
After the show, Abbie Rae and I got pizza too and then went back to the hotel to change clothes. One place I wanted to visit was Bryant Park. My aunt told me before we left that this was her favorite place in the city and then I'd read there was a Holiday Market going on there, so I thought it would be great to check out. I was wrong lol OK, let me explain. For some people, it's probably a great place. There were shops, cafes, lots of food and even ice skating, but with all those places were also A LOT of PEOPLE. Like a lot, a lot. Now, I'd prepped myself knowing going to New York at Christmastime would be crowded, but up until that point, it really had not been too bad. The only other place where there was a large crowd was at Rockefeller Center viewing the tree and we got in and out of there pretty quickly. But this place was a different kind of crowded. It wasn't fun to wonder in and out of the little shops because there were just so many people around. Needless to say we left about as quickly as we arrived. On the next block we found the New York Public Library. Phillip and Abbie Rae loved looking at the old architecture. Walker and I were just along for the ride. It was very cool to see, but I'm more of a "I came, I saw, lets go" kind of person and Phillip & Abbie Rae are more of "soak in all the history and read all the details" kind of people, which I can't be mad about.
From there, we took a quick subway ride uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Again, Phillip & Abbie Rae took in all the details and exhibits while Walker and I rested and watched a movie about Blue Whales, that was actually very entertaining and interesting. We closed down the museum and headed back towards Midtown because the next thing on the itinerary was a Holiday Lights Cruise. We sailed down the Hudson and got to see the city and the lights from the water. We had some snacks on the boat and poor Walker fell asleep for most of the ride. He was not only tired from all the adventure, but he was also fighting a cold. This was the 2nd of the 3 choices on our CityPass.
After the cruise, we were hungry, but also tired and it was after 9pm, so we had dinner at the diner connected to our hotel, The Tick-Tock Diner. The food was really good and again, we ordered desserts and took them to our room to enjoy in our PJs.
Day 4 in NYC at Christmastime
On Day 4, I was brave enough to order my coffee from the Starbucks across the street and bagels from Liberty Bagels, which was also very close, and go pick them up by myself. I had my first New Yorker experience at the bagel place. I forgot my phone when I headed out, but I'd ordered and already paid for everything. I walked right into Starbucks and picked up my drinks with my name on them and left, but I got to the line at Liberty bagels and the man working the door (because there was a long line of people waiting to get in) asked for my phone. I explained I didn't have it and in his gruff, New Yorker tone he basically told me I was out of luck unless I went back and got the phone so I could show him that I'd ordered from that location. I explained I knew I'd ordered from the right store, but he said he couldn't find my order, so I clearly must have ordered it from a different location. I finally left and went back to the room and got my phone. When I returned and showed him, he literally said "get outta here, that's not the name you gave me, oh fugetabout it" and handed me my order. We both laughed as I said "Thank you" in my best southern accent.
Once everyone was up and moving, we took a short stroll past Macy's to The Empire State Building. Since we did Top of the Rock at nighttime, we wanted to make sure we went to the top of the Empire State Building during the day. Again, it did not disappoint! There's just something about looking out over so many buildings, so many people and so much diversity all mixed together in 1 city. While we were there, we heard so many different languages. We wanted to just take it in where we were and what we were seeing.
From there, we went back over to Macy's just to say we went inside the largest department store in the world. There were a few too many people inside for me, so I found a spot to rest while Phillip and the kids looked around.
We then walked over to Times Square. The kids were hungry, so they got some chicken from Raising Cane's. Newbie tip do NOT take a picture with any characters wondering around. They come around QUICK once they see you take a pic and then they ALL want money.
After our Times Square experience, it was the moment Phillip had been waiting for the whole trip. A quick subway ride to the Lower East Side and a little walk, we arrived at Katz's Deli. Phillip had been dreaming of this pastrami for weeks. We waited in a decently long line, but it moved quickly. We opted for the sit-down service, just so we could relax for a minute and not have to stand and eat. The server came over and said "I recommend the pastrami, it's what we're known for" and he said it in a way that I don't think we even had an option to order something different, not that we were going to. I heard another table ask for ketchup and he said "no, you can't put ketchup on our pastrami, that's a crime." He wasn't wrong - it was FANTASTIC!
So, I'd had 2 slices of different chocolate cakes so far, but neither one impressed me. I was determined to find a great chocolate cake, so I started my search. I found the Little Cupcake Bakeshop which had a chocolate cake that had been voted "Best Chocolate Cake in the US" by Food & Wine magazine. Once again, there was a line, but we had to check it out. We each picked a dessert and the place was fairly small and all tables were taken, so we decided to take our desserts with us and go enjoy them on The Brooklyn Bridge. I can't say that it was the best chocolate cake in the US, but it was definitely better than the other 2 and it was good. Abbie Rae had more cheesecake and Walker got a Nutella bar and they said those were fantastic too.
Once we were stuffed with cakes and sweets, what better idea than stroll through Chinatown? Phillip didn't get to eat his way through Chinatown, like he'd hoped, but it was still fun to visit. I could do without the animals hanging in the windows, but Phillip said that meant the food was probably even better lol.
After Chinatown, we headed back towards Midtown. We took a quick stop at Grand Central Station. It was really beautiful and quite impressive.
We got back on the subway and went uptown again. It was time for a little 5th Ave window shopping. Bloomingdale's, Dior, Bergdorf, Tiffany's, and a quick stop into The Plaza.
We thought this ended our trip. We were scheduled to leave at 2:30 the next day, so we were going to sleep in, pack up and head towards the airport around 11am. That's not quite how things went.
Unexpected Day 5 in NYC at Christmastime
I woke up around 9:30ish and I had an alert on my phone. Our flight was delayed. Instead of leaving at 2:30, we were now leaving around 5:20pm. OK, no big deal. There was a bakery I wanted to visit, so we thought we will run up to the bakery for a quick cookie and come back and go. As the morning went along, about every 30 minutes, I'd get a new alert that the flight was delayed more and more. We packed up our stuff and had to check-out by 12pm and by this time, we weren't leaving until 7pm. We checked our bags with the hotel and we set out for some more exploring. As much as the delayed flight was frustrating, I am very thankful that we knew it was delayed before we arrived at the airport. We took a subway ride (by the way, we all got the MetroCard Unlimited week and we definitely got our money's worth!) back to the Upper East Side where I'd found a bakery that had the best looking cookie I'd ever seen. As with all the other places that were worth the wait, there was a line. But when I say it was worth it, oh boy I mean it. This was definitely the best cookie I've ever had. Definitely visit https://levainbakery.com/ on your next NYC trip! Since we had extra time, we had more pizza and decided we would visit a few more iconic places, like FAO Schwarz (holy crowd - it was Christmas Eve after all) Rockefeller Plaza again and stroll past the Midtown 5th Ave stores again. Since it was now the weekend AND Christmas Eve, the crowds had practically tripled from when we were there earlier in the week and you know what that meant for me - time to get out! Since by now, our flight wasn't leaving until 8pm, we still had time so we headed south of the city again to Hudson River Park. It was a bit colder down near the water, but way less people. The kids had fun in the rolly chairs & playing giant jenga. We walked through Chelsea Market on our way back to the subway to head back to the hotel. Finally around 5pm we got our bags and headed towards LaGuardia Airport. Once it was all said and done, our flight left 7 hours later than it was originally supposed to. Also causing us to welcome Christmas Day somewhere in the sky. We arrived home shortly after 2am and then it was time to prep for Santa and Christmas morning. While this part did stress me out a little, I wouldn't have traded this trip for anything.
This trip was certainly a bucket list trip for us and oh, so worth it. I recommend it 10 out of 10! Just do it. Make the plans, save the money and do it. You will not regret it.
My Top Attractions:
Of course, the Rockefeller Tree
Ice Skating & bike riding in Central Park
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
Top or the Rock or The Empire State Building (not necessary to do both, unless you want to do like we did and visit one during the day and one at night for different perspectives)
The Rockettes!!
These were my favorites, but I'm glad we did all that we did.
Top Places to eat:
Katz's Deli
Levain Bakery Cookies
Tick Tock Diner (convenient to our hotel and decent food)
Ferrara NYC Bakery Cannoli
Merry Christmas from The Olsons
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