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Well, if you read our post about a week in Rhode Island, which if you didn’t you can find it here, you would know that we tagged New York City on to the beginning of our move to Belize. “What? You are moving to Belize?”, you say. Well, it is only for about 2 1/2 months, but yes. If you want to read more about why or how that came about, you can read our blog post here.
Anyways, we traveled from Rhode Island to New York via bus to spend 2 1/2 days there before flying to Belize City from JFK airport.
While 2 1/2 days in one of the biggest and most iconic cities in the world is not very long, we will tell you how we made the most of it. What we saw, what we did, what we ate, where we stayed, etc. and most important of all, how we saved as much money as we could…. We are on a pretty tight budget these days what with quitting our jobs and moving to Belize. You know how it goes.
Arrival and Accommodations
So, like I said above, we traveled to NYC via bus. It was a pretty easy decision, as a bus ticket on Flixbus from Providence, RI to Manhattan, NY was only $10 per person, plus some fees. It was a cheap choice, while the bus was a little crowded and full of millennials, it was worth it.
For our accommodations, we looked at lots of places on Airbnb and Vrbo, and several hotel websites. In the end, we settled on using Hotwire to book a place since it was the cheapest, most realistic option. While we haven’t always had the best experience with Hotwire, we went for it again.
We ended up getting a place just a few blocks south of Central Park called Shoreham Hotel. The location was great! The room was just okay. I am convinced that it was just as good as a room from Airbnb, but about $100 less after the service and occupancy fees. It was also just a few blocks from two different subway stations, and about 10 minutes from an amazing bagel place, 10 minutes from Central Park, and about 15 minutes from Times Square.
Since we had all our luggage that we were bringing to Belize, it was a lot to lug around from the bus drop-off to the hotel, so we got a taxi. It was quite an experience! First and only NYC Taxi ride. It was quite a sight to see the meter tick up every minute that we spent sitting in traffic. It ended up being around $5 cheaper than an Uber would have been, so it was still worth it.
Day 1: Iconic Sites
Since we arrived at our hotel around 2:00pm, we decided to stay mostly near our hotel and see some of the sites. We started by visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral. It is a beautiful, Neo-Gothic style Roman Catholic cathedral. Although we couldn’t tour the inside due to our timing, it was still worth a visit. The outside was breathtaking, and even the doors were a work of art themselves. One of the doors had statues of several of the Saints cast in the door panels.
The tour itself costs $20-$25 depending on if you want to reserve a time, and it is self-guided with headphones and a tablet. To buy tickets, visit here.
After St Patrick’s Cathedral we wandered over to the NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It was fun to see, especially after semi-binging 30 Rock during the last year of Covid.
After that, we made our way to Grand Central Terminal, which was cool to see, although a little less spectacular than we were expecting. After seeing it in so many movies and shows, we expected it to feel more surreal, but in reality, it just seemed like a normal, albeit big, train station. However, I would still recommend a visit.
We then went to the Melt Shop for dinner. If you know anything about Rissy, you should know that grilled cheese is one of her all-time favorites. It’s right up there with cold cereal and popcorn. So, it was an easy decision to get gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. They did not disappoint. We even found our “spirit signs” inside the shop. It was meant to be.
After dinner we headed to Times Square. We spent some time watching some of the street performers, listening to a street preacher, and giggling at some people trying to do a choreographed dance for what we imagine was Tik-Tok. It was all very typical New York City.
The final thing we wanted to do on our first night was see the city lights from the top of a building. There are several options, with the two most iconic being the Empire State Building and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. We opted for a newer building farther south called The Edge. While all three of these buildings are WAY overpriced for a simple view of the city, The Edge was about $5 cheaper per person. No kidding, it was the most expensive thing we did in our time in the city…
We also passed this cool cathedral on our walk to the Edge. It reminded us of Hogwarts.
We rode the elevator up 100 stories before going out on a protruding ledge with angled glass walls. It would be a worst-nightmare scenario for anyone afraid of heights, but luckily that is neither me nor Marissa. We wanted to go during sunset, but since we are on a tight budget and there is a significant price-increase for “peak hours”, we opted to go after sunset at around 8:00 pm.
If you want to reserve tickets or see more about what The Edge is, here is their website.
Day 2: Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, and DUMBO
One of the things I was most looking forward to in NYC, was a good bagel. And boy, did it deliver. After some research the night before, we settled on a bagel place a few blocks away from our hotel. It is a NYC chain called Pick-A-Bagel. It was very busy, and for good reason! Marissa got a blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese and I got an onion bagel with chive cream cheese. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. They were perfectly soft and chewy, and the cream cheese was light and airy and melted in our mouths.
After breakfast we jumped on the metro and headed south to Wall Street. It had a very different feel from Midtown, where we were staying. It was much cleaner, didn’t smell as bad, and had a lot more suits and skirts walking around.
While at Wall Street we saw the New York Stock Exchange, Federal Hall (the place where George Washington took his oath of office), and the famous Charging Bull statue. We also visited the Bowling Green, which is a cute little park with a beautiful fountain just next to the Charging Bull.
When we were done walking around Wall Street, we made the short trek over to the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge opened for use in 1883, and is beautiful. It is a spectacular place to snap some pictures of the Manhattan skyline and, in our case, my beautiful wifey. 🙂
Once we made it across the bridge, we hung out in Brooklyn and Dumbo. Dumbo stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It is a cute area of town with yummy food, quaint parks, and great views. We visited Jacques Torres Chocolate shop and tried some of their world-renowned hot chocolate and a huge chocolate chip cookie. They were very good.
For dinner, we headed a few streets over to Brooklyn and ate at Juliana’s Pizza. I had seriously high expectations for New York City pizza, and Juliana’s far exceeded them. We went with a traditional half-margarita half-blanca pizza. I would go back to New York City just to get another bite of that pizza. It was soooo good.
After dinner, we took the short 4-minute ferry ride across the water and back to Manhattan, then made our way home. The ferry ride itself was really fun, very affordable at just $2.75 per ticket, and had some great views of the bridges with the skyline behind it. It was definitely worth the trip.
Day 3: Central Park, The Met, 9/11, and Lady Liberty
For our last day in New York City, we decided to start out by exploring Central Park. For one, it is HUGE. Everyone tells you that it is really big, but I really didn’t expect it to be as massive as it was. We explored for about 2 hours, and only saw a small portion of it. Part of that however, was due to the way we explored it.
When we were in Washington, D.C. a year and a half ago (you can read about that trip here), we used a bike rental program, Capitol Bikes, to tour the monuments. It was perfect! Basically, you pay a fee for a day, $15 in this case. They have docking stations scattered around the city, so as long as you dock the bike within 30 minutes, the rides are free. New York City has something similar, Citi Bikes. We thought this would be a great way to tour Central Park, but boy were we wrong.
When we go back, we will definitely just walk the park. First off, we found out quickly that there are no bike docking stations located within the park. So, since the park is huge and a lot of the iconic places are near the middle, we had to time our 30 minute increments so we could un-dock the bike, ride in to take some quick pictures, and then ride out to a docking station so we wouldn’t be charged more. Secondly, pretty much all of the paths in the park are walking only. There are roads that wind through the park that bikers and cars can use. Just beware, they do not lead close to any of the statues, fountains, buildings, etc. It just did not work out like we wanted.
So, in hindsight, we would recommend to everyone that they just plan on walking everywhere in Central Park. If you insist on riding a bike through it, we suggest getting a daily rental from one of the nearby places, and plan on walking that bike throughout the park, since cycling is not allowed.
After visiting Central Park, we headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is located on the east side of the park, and doesn’t open until 10:00am. We got there just before 10:00, and waited in line for about 20-30 minutes to go through security.
Here is a tip: if you have a student ID that is not expired, even if you are no longer a college student, bring it to New York City. We used ours for both the Met and the 9/11 museum we visited later. For the Met, we got both of our student tickets for less than a single non-student adult.
The Met is huge, and very overwhelming. It is divided into two levels and lots of different sections. We loved visiting the Egyptian art, the Medieval art, and the Asian art sections. We spent about 3 hours there, and although it was a little rushed, we saw everything we wanted to.
Then we headed outside for some NYC street food, and ate it on the steps while it started to rain. I got my hot dog NY style, Rissy got her hot dog with ketchup, as per usual, and we tried a knich, which was “d-lich”!
Following the Met, we jumped on the subway and headed south to the 9/11 memorial and museum. We also peeked our heads into the Oculus, a super cool train station and mall that is just next door. It has a very futuristic feel.
Then we visited the 9/11 Memorial. They are giant fountains that are located in the foundation of the twin towers that were attacked 20 years ago. Metal plaques listing all the names of the victims surround the fountains. Workers will place a rose in the victims’ names on their birthdays.
After that we visited the 9/11 Museum. It was a somber experience, but we are really glad we went. The museum details the times and events of that fateful day. It has stories shared about the victims by their close relatives and friends. It also explains the aftermath of the attack, the war on terror, and the hunting and killing of Osama Bin Laden.
After the museum, we headed south to catch the Staten Island Ferry and see the Statue of Liberty. While there is a tour that takes you to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, we had neither the time or the money to spend on it. So, we opted for the free ride to Staten Island, New Jersey. The ferries usually leave every 30 minutes, but during rush hour it is every 15 minutes. We hopped on, rode the ferry and got some awesome pictures, then rode it right back to Manhattan. While you don’t get as close as you would traveling to Liberty Island itself, it was well worth the trip since the ferry is free. Plus, you get to ride the same ferry that Spider-Man does in Homecoming. 😉
Before retiring for the night, we went to a great Mediterranean restaurant near our hotel called Kashkaval Garden. It was delicious and so fresh.
Off to Belize
The next morning, we got up suuuper early, and rode the metro to JFK. From what I read, JFK is the easiest airport to access using mass-transit. JFK lived up to the expectation of being rude and over-crowded, but I won’t get into those details here. Just expect everything at JFK to take 5 times longer than it should, and take your chill-pill before arriving, because it is very easy to get frustrated.
Anyways, we had a great time in New York, and are excited to go back and spend some more time exploring in the future.
I’ve put together our full itinerary below.
Day 1 (half-day):
- Visit St. Patricks Cathedral – Advanced and non-advanced tickets available here
- Check out Grand Central Terminal
- See the hustle and bustle of Times Square
- View NYC from above. We opted for The Edge – Advanced tickets recommended, purchase here
Day 2:
- Breakfast at Pick-A-Bagel
- Visit Wall Street and see the landmarks
- Walk the Brooklyn Bridge
- Visit DUMBO and get pizza at Juliana’s
- Catch the ferry ride back to Manhattan
Day 3:
- Bike or walk Central Park
- Tour The Met
- Visit the 9/11 Museum and memorial – Advanced tickets recommended, purchase here
- Take the free Staten Island ferry to get views of the Statue of Liberty
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