Wanderlust Series #6 City Break - New York, USA

Hey!

This is an exciting post to have written. I was lucky enough to travel to New York in October this year with my lovely uni friend, Lydia. New York has been on my wish list for years and years but it always seemed a little out of reach. So being given the opportunity to go, I jumped at the chance. 

Lydia and I travelled from London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic for 4 nights. We got early morning flights out and this was perfect as New York are 5 hours behind the UK so it meant that on arrival we could still go and explore for a few hours. Our return flight was a night flight, 22:30. This again, was perfect as we got a whole day in the city.

I found that 4 nights/5 days was actually a really good amount of time to explore. You may already be familiar with some of the attractions available, however there is so much more. I'll break this post down into sections to make it easier to guide you through the trip...

Eats & Drinks

Personally, I found food hit and miss in New York. I love food, I especially love fast food but by day 3 fast food had got to me and I lost my appetite! If you're from the UK and visiting the US, the first thing you'll notice when you get food is the portion size...like OH MY GOD. So much food. By the middle of the trip we were sharing meals because they were just too big for one of us to finish. 

We started each day with a good breakfast, of course we had to got for the iconic waffles! But when that novelty wore off (after just one time), we stuck to basic breakfasts such as breakfast burrito and bagels. As breakfast was generally pretty hearty, lunch didn't really occur...but snacks were welcome! There's a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or café on pretty much every corner. Coffee is the drink of choice, everyone and their dog practically had a coffee cup attached to them as they were walking through the streets. Tea on the other hand is a no-go. I love a good old Yorkshire cuppa and to be frank, America, your tea is terrible. Tea lovers beware...

A few places that we ate and enjoyed:

- Tick Tock Café: this is where we enjoyed waffles with bacon and maple syrup

- Sammy's House of BBQ: we got a sharing platter of BBQ meats, corn bread, onion rings and sweet potato fries. This was awesome!

- Little Italy: I can't, for the life of me, remember what the restaurant was called but we had the most amazing Italian. The area itself is packed with them, hence the name...you should go for sure!

Attractions & Things to Do

I like to explore and not so much into the organised attraction thing, however we booked a couple of places and then YouTubed the rest.

So on our first afternoon, we went to Times Square. Being a weekend, busy doesn't even cover how many people were about! It was crazy. Times Square is full of shops, restaurants, bars, entertainers and all kinds of weird crazy things. It was pretty awesome to see and the bright lights certainly made me feel like I was really in New York. I no longer needed to pinch myself.

As we both kind f like the quieter life, our second day was spent exploring the lower city. We walked from our hotel in Times Square down to Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Chelsea is in the Meat Packing district and we visited the market. That was pretty cool, with lots of artisan traders selling unique pieces that would be perfect for keepsakes or gifts. Inside the market was a food hall area which smelled amazing. It was Halloween weekend when we visited so the whole place was well OTT with decorations but I loved it! 

Greenwhich Village was a quieter, upmarket area close to Washington Square. The streets were pretty and inviting with tall apartment buildings lined with trees and expensive shops. This is the area that you'll find attractions such as Carrie Bradshaws' apartment from Sex and The City, and the Friends apartment. We continued down to Washington Square, which was pretty cute and where the iconic arch lies. The park was packed with people and there was entertainers drawing in the crowds. Overall the atmosphere was pretty chill.

Of course we had to visit Central Park. To really take in everything it probably would be a good idea to hire bikes and spend the day there. There really is a lot to see and it is massive! We spent around 2 hours on foot exploring and then found the American Museum of Natural History which was a great place to visit. So many dinosaurs <3. Central Park is where you'll find attractions such as the Ghostbusters Towers, Friends Fountain and Strawberry Fields. 

A visit to Brooklyn was well worth it, in fact I'd quite happily say that this was my favourite district. We took the Subway, which was approx 30 minutes from the Times Square vicinity and visited the Dumbo area of Brooklyn. It was such a chilled vibe, full of vintage stores and graffiti, there was an outdoor market/boot sale under the bridge that we strolled around. 

We managed to book tickets for the Rockefeller Centre, this was actually one of those moments that took my breath away. The view was incredible and coming from someone who is afraid of heights I didn't want to leave. The Rockefeller, I think is a better view over the City as you can see the Empire State, whereas if you go up the Empire State you don't see as much and the Rockefeller isn't as pretty to look at. Tickets were approx $30 per person from the website, time slots required.

New York was amazing.  I would absolutely recommend it, it really does cater for everyone.

Have you been? Do you want to go?
Leave your comments below with any further tips/suggestions for readers

For more photos, please visit my Instagram page - @stcy

Stacey 

xo