Aaron and I were blessed with a whole week off together for spring break. After a crazy series of events involving two planned trips and a big basketball game, we ended up taking the trip that we planned to the Northeast. We've been adding states to our list with state sign photos (and have now successfully seen almost 35 of the 50 states together). First on our list for this trip? Flying into Baltimore and driving to New York City. If you're like us, and trying to see several Northeast states and cities in one trip, then you may be a little pressed for time. New York City is huge and there's so much to see, so where do you start? Here's a guide to the top things to see in NYC, and how we saw them on a budget in only a few days.
DAY ONE:
We stayed on the Jersey side of the Hudson because we had
free nights at the Jersey City Hyatt Regency. It was amazing, with a beautiful view at night of Manhattan, and the PATH station was literally right outside the hotel door. We paid $5 a person total per day to ride the PATH over to Manhattan and back, and didn't have to purchase any other transportation at all in the city. Because we were on a big road trip and seeing several northeast states, we did have a rental car, and parking was considerably cheaper on the Jersey side.
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| Our hotel at night on the water: the Hyatt Regency Jersey City |
World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial and Museum
We took the PATH over to the World Trade Center stop and found ourselves in the middle of one crazy looking transportation hub: the Oculus. Neither one of us had ever seen the
9/11 Memorial or Museum, so we knew it was worth paying the money to do it ($24/person). After grabbing a couple quick, cheap slices of pizza at
Pronto Pizza, we headed over to the memorial: reflecting pools where the towers used to stand. Pretty unreal.
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| Some serious slices from Pronto Pizza |
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| One Reflecting Pool and Memorial (free to see outside the Museum). Names of all victims are on the sides. |
The museum was amazing, though several parts of it were a little hard emotionally. As a married couple in our twenties, we had the realization that we'd never really been to a museum before that was about something we actually remembered happening. We also recognized that people a few years younger than us don't remember 9/11 happening, which is crazy to think about. Overall, the museum was well worth it, with a whole bunch of wreckage and artifacts that everyone should see at least once. We spent about two hours there, and could have spent longer.
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| Artists painted the canvases to depict what they remember the sky to look like that day. |
Brooklyn Bridge
Since we were already on the southern end of Manhattan, we decided to go ahead and walk over to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Some folks continue all the way over to hang out in Brooklyn, but we didn't for the sake of time. Pretty awesome to see a bridge that's so old and still structurally sound (and pretty too!)
Little Italy/Chinatown
If you're already over near the Brooklyn Bridge, Little Italy and Chinatown are only a hop, skip, and a jump to the northwest. We walked through both neighborhoods, and grabbed some delicious gelato at
Mo il Gelato on Mulberry St in Nolita. It was seriously about as good as what we had in
Italy last summer!
Soho/Noho
If you're looking to save some money and forgo metro passes, be prepared to walk when you come to NYC. We just kept right on walking through Soho and Noho, mainly spending time window shopping and finding a place to charge my phone for a while. There are lots of unique shops and boutiques here.
Greenwich Village
This area was very trendy, crowded, and a lot of fun. There were several really great food options and lots of comedy clubs. We saw a nice man walking his dog on the street and asked him for restaurant recommendations. He told us we needed to go to
Monte's, so we did. And boy was he right! It was packed and delicious, and we watched some March Madness while we enjoyed Chicken Parm and Ravioli before calling it a night and heading back to Jersey.
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| The view from our hotel each night (insert heart eyes emoji here). |
DAY TWO:
After heading over on the PATH again, we did a daytime walk through Times Square. I found a
Groupon for Open Loop Bus tours, so we headed over to the redemption center to board the bus. Our day one walk had covered a lot of the bottom half of NYC, but we knew if we wanted to see Central Park and a lot of the other northern sights, it would be nice to rest our feet on a bus for a while. It was chilly, so it was a little cold up top, but we bundled up and made it work. Open Loop wasn't quite as glamorous as Big Bus Tours, but it was way way cheaper and we still learned a lot from our tour guides and drivers. You can get unlimited downtown and uptown loops for $39 for two, so we hopped on and got a tour of the rest of the city.
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| View from the Open Loop bus. Apollo Theater in Harlem |
Central Park
Just as beautiful as it looks in the movies. The area includes a few small lakes, a zoo, and lots of area to roam and explore. Both the west and east side of the park are pretty "swanky" areas with expensive homes and lots of fun museums to visit!
Empire State Building
I had been here once before, so we didn't go this time. But you can go up to the viewing deck and get some pretty amazing views of the city!
Rockefeller Center
As featured in the popular movie Home Alone, this is a really cool area. We saw a few people ice skating, or doing some shopping. You can also be an audience member on shows like "The Tonight Show" here!
Broadway
We hopped off the bus here and grabbed a bite to eat at a small diner just across from
Ellen's Stardust Diner. Ellen's had a line a mile long, so be prepared if you're heading that way! It seemed pretty cool, we were just too hungry to wait. Broadway is full of lots of fun restaurants and of course all of the theaters where you can see Broadway musicals! We thought about seeing a show, but they were all pretty much sold out. (I did see
Phantom of the Opera and
Chicago on Broadway back in 2007- both were amazing!) We settled for a piece of NYC cheesecake and a Dr. Pepper to go, which we later enjoyed along with the gorgeous view from our room.
Times Square
After dinner, we walked back through Times Square and saw all the lights in all their glory. There are some fun shops to check out like the Hershey Store, as well as lots of chain restaurants. Several movie theaters are just blocks away.
