Tween travel in NYC! (part one)
All you need to know about our 4-day itinerary in the big apple
Indy and I recently did a girls long weekend in New York! Memories were made, laughs were had and this one will go down in history as a fantastic time together. I felt so completely present and at peace on this trip, we truly had a blast. Here’s my travel notes for anyone interesting in plotting their own NYC city break. Enjoy and have a wonderful day!
The logistics
We did 4 nights departing on a Thursday morning which got us into NYC around midday and got to the fun straight away! We flew back Monday morning. This felt like such a great amount of time, not rushed and we packed loads in. We stayed at the Moxy on Lower East Side. I really liked being in this area, it’s cool and less hectic than the areas like Times Square.
We booked this trip pretty much entirely on avios points. We have an Amex and use the BA exec shopping portal which you can get extra points with, but we spent less than £800 on flights and hotel by cashing them all in. We travelled at the end of Feb which was very off peak so if you’re using points there’s a lot of availability. This is also a time of year when hotels in NYC are at their lowest price. It is chilly and there is risk of it being very very cold, but there is also sunshine if you get lucky which we did. If you just want to see the city on a budget and aren’t fussed about summer days this is a great time to go when it’s cheaper and quieter.
Thursday
We walked from our hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge and snap some awesome pics as the light was incredible! We went over to Dumbo to check out some street art and walked alongside the river park. It’s so chill down there and the views are stunning. We popped into the Time Out Food Market which are always great before heading back across the bridge.
Friday
This was our jam packed, out all day till you fall over day! We did so much!
We had brekkie round the corner from our hotel in Seed Bagels. Indy is obsessed with bagels so she loved this place!
I booked us in at the SlooMoo the slime institute! This a lot of fun and just pure colour and playtime. You can make your own slime and get really hands on with all the different kinds of slimes. We went at the first slot of the day and it was quiet and fun. The staff were all so nice and such interesting quirky people!
Ben had made us a photo challenge list so we started heading to tick off a couple of spots from it - the Bean sculpture and the Ghostbusters HQ which we were delighted to discover is an actual working fire station and they had the doors open and engines coming in!
We carried on walking to the Hudson River to check out a new park there which was stunning! Built by Monstrum my favourite playground designers it features 2 giant sturgeon fish play sculptures for exploring inside and climbing all over. Inside the fish are full of facts about the fish and you literally crawl through all the insides. It perfectly combines high play value with great imaginative design.
We spotted a lot of ‘eye-bombing’ all around this area - the act of adding googly eyes to inanimate objects. Once we’d seen one we couldn’t stop finding them and set about a hunt for as many as we could spot. We starting taking pics of them all and this was a lot of fun, we giggled so much doing this!
We then went to the biggest the flagship Miniso store and had to pry ourselves out of there! What a fun and amazing store!
After this we did a big old walk all the way up to Times Square pausing for more photo stops along the way.
We were in need of a sit down and food so we went and had lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. Indy absolutely loved it here! All the waiting staff are broadway actors and they take turns to sing. It was a lot of fun and a unique experience!
After a brief wander around Times Square to take a pic on the famous red steps we went into Line Friends and enjoyed being silly in the photo booth before jumping onto the metro to go have rest at the hotel and get changed for our evening! We went to see Six! and it was absolutely brilliant! The talent was incredible and we sang the songs all of the rest of the trip!
What a magic trip to do together Emma!
I thought that playground style looked familiar!! There’s one near my parent’s house about an hour north of Santa Barbara. We love it, but it’s on the smaller side. I think it has one whale a few smaller things and it overlooks the pacific. Anyway thanks for enlightening me! Had never heard of them. Great tip recaps too!