5 Days in NYC for NYE: A First Timer's Guide

For a girl who has diligently followed NYC vloggers and bloggers since high school, or for anyone who has seen all the movies and tv shows centered around it, there is no better city to visit for the first time than New York City.

My dad very graciously offered to take me on this trip to celebrate my graduation from college in August, and suggested that we go during the holidays, of course I was ecstatic to go and we settled on New Year's weekend and booked the trip to fly in on Friday and out on Tuesday.

Sitting down to plan this trip usually ended with me feeling overwhelmed with all of the choices and deciding to try again next week but, reading blogs with titles like "3 Perfect Days in NYC" really helped me narrow things down and get an itinerary together a month before the trip that I was really happy with. We packed in the sightseeing from start to finish but still had time to fit in a few restaurant stops and even a nap or two. I hope this post will help someone else with planning their own trip.

DAY 1

We flew into La Guardia airport around 5 p.m. Dec 30th and took a car to check in to the Sofitel, only a few blocks from Times Square. It was a great area to stay for a first time trip because of it's proximity to so many of the places we wanted to see. Dad booked the flight, hotel, and transportation from the airport to hotel through Expedia.

{you can see the Paramount building peaking out of Times Square at the very center of this shot}

Our first night, all without stepping foot onto a subway, we had time to check out Times Square, Grand Central Station, and Bryant Park, which turns into the city's largest Christmas market during the holidays, complete with an ice-skating rink and Christmas tree.

{Set up for NYE had already begun and there was a crew and cameras filming an area by the stage while Silento's "Watch Me" played over the speakers and his voice would occasionally start talking about how he would be at NYE the next night and people were crowded around holding their phones up filming what I thought must have been where he was standing but, after never seeing anyone, I've come to the conclusion that they were all filming air}

{I really wanted Mila Kunis to appear as " Closing Time" blasted through the room and a flash mob began ending with Justin Timberlake shouting to her from the top of the steps but sadly, had no such luck}

{This shot of Bryant Park's Christmas Market is borrowed from Time Out because I neglected to get a good one of my own}

We grabbed dinner at Pret A Manger, one of my favorite grab and go cafes in London, that also happens to have locations dotted all over New York City. Poor starving dad had to wait 10 minutes after he picked out his food for me to select the perfect combo of butternut squash mac n cheese and a falafel power pot.

DAY 3 NEW YEAR'S EVE

11 AM: Using Google Maps as our trusty guide to getting around NYC by subway and foot, we headed to Jack's Wife Freda in Soho. We bought a 7 day unlimited metro pass for the trip at the first station we went into, which happened to be Grand Central.

The Londoner was one of the first blogs I starting reading religiously back in high school and this post from 2014 was the first time I'd heard of Jack's Wife Freda. Now so many of the people I follow frequent it for brunch. @katiesbliss , @jessicawhitaker , & @fleurdeforce to name a few!

There was an hour wait and we ended up getting seats at the bar. I'm so glad we did because the bartender was all for letting me take pictures of him making lattes and slipped me a free cantaloupe juice on our way out!

I had a latte with matcha and the rosewater waffle with lebanese yogurt and fresh berries and dad had the chicken kebabs.

2PM: We walked the entire Brooklyn Bridge starting from the Manhattan side, and stopped at the first cafe we spotted after exiting the bridge for bathrooms, which resulted in buying dessert and resting before heading to Chelsea Market.

4PM: Chelsea Market was my very favorite thing we saw during the trip, but that's coming from a die-hard foodie. We only walked through this time, since it was an odd time to eat, but decided on a Mexican-Japanese fusion restaurant, Takumi Taco, to come back to later in the trip.

{this huge bakery at Sarabeth's in the market stole my heart, just look at all those croissants}

4:30 PM: We took the entrance to the High Line nearest Chelsea Market. The highline is an old elevated train track that's been recycled into a park. The Whitney Museum at the end looked like it would have been cool to see. I wish I had known about its existence before the trip, maybe next time!

5PM: We walked along Hudson River Park, taking pictures and walking towards the World One Center until we got hungry and headed back to the High Line exit for dinner at Bubby's.

7PM: I opted for a bowl of the vegetarian chili, keeping my eye on the grand prize, a slice of Bubby's famous pie! Dad had the pink lemonade and a salad. All of the food was good and the pie was great, I'd love to get to go back for brunch one day. And again on a night when the creamery connected to Bubby's, Ample Hills, is open so I can get a big fat scoop of ice cream on top of my pie :D

I picked this restaurant after reading Love Taza's post about their blueberry pie, and then my boss actually reinforced the decision by telling me her husband's sister was once married to the owner and that I had to go and get a slice of pie! Small world, right?

8PM: We headed back to the hotel where we put on as many layers of clothes as possible and took a small break before heading out to the madness that is Times Square on New Year's Eve.

9PM: Even though our hotel was just two blocks away from Times Square, we weren't within the barricades flanking 7th Street, so we had to walk down until we found a street where people were being allowed to enter, it happened to be 9 or 10 blocks down and once we made it onto 7th, we were very literally corralled into gated areas, where we waited until a NYPD officer would open one of the gates and pat us down one by one, granting us access into the next gated area. And repeat, until the area in front of us was full and there we remained until the ball dropped at midnight. We counted down the very last minute and waved our light up gloves around while fireworks exploded in front of and behind us as the confetti from the square made the long treck to where we stood!

If you are serious about being part of the Times Square action on NYE, dawn your most absorbent adult diaper and get there much, much earlier than we did!

Other options include watching the fireworks show over Central Park and watching Ryan Seacrest host the show from the comfort of your own bed.

DAY 3 NEW YEAR'S DAY

11AM: From Battery Park, we cruised to Liberty Island with Statue Cruises to see the Statue of Liberty. We had tickets with Pedestal access so we were able to access the museum and walk up the stairs in the pedestal of Lady Liberty.

{in case you were under impression that the Statue is small, maybe this nut and bolt in the stairwell will give you some perspective}

{up close and personal with Lady Liberty}

After taking pictures around the Island, we cruised over to Ellis Island and went through the museum before heading back to Battery Park around 5 pm.

{You can pay $7 for a 30 minute session to search for family descendents that came through Ellis Island, we had no luck finding anyone but it was fun anyways}

Statue Cruises is the only company that gives you access to Liberty and Ellis island, and when they suggest allowing most of the day to see both islands, they aren't kidding!

6PM: We grabbed dinner at Europa Cafe in the center of Times Square on our way to our Broadway Show. I wanted pasta from Little Italy but we were short on time and they had a large "create your own" pasta sign in the window. It was crowded and busy just like the rest of Times Square but we were able to get our food and find a table and eat with enough time leftover to make it to the St. James theater for our show.

7:30 PM: Finding a Broadway show that was playing over New Year's weekend while we were there was a challenge at first but after reading this review, I finally settled on "Something Rotten!" and we ended up getting to see the final showing! It was a great show for my dad and I to see together, hilarious and light-hearted. The theatre was full of Something Rotten! fanatics who clapped after every scene was performed for the last time and after the final curtain was closed, the producers gave a heartfelt speech, thanking everyone and sharing a little bit about what it took to make their idea of a play a reality. The show has already started their national tour and I definitely recommend it!

DAY 4

8AM: We started our last full day extra early. Like before the sun early. Wait, I thought this was vacation? But, alas this city doesn't sleep so neither will I!

8:30AM: St. Patrick's was our first stop. The old cathedral seemingly plopped in the middle of all of those skyscrapers isn't one to be missed.

{the photo I have does not do this cathedral justice so I'm borrowing this epic shot from The Boy from New York City blog}

9 AM: Our next stop was Central Park. We headed to the Met, took a few pictures on the steps (xoxo ;)), and entered the park where we headed to the Loeb Boathouse and over to the Bow Bridge before exiting out the opposite side.

10AM: We visited the 9/11 Memorial and went through the museum.

It was especially difficult for me to go through the museum because I can remember watching the towers fall on the tiny, chubby TV mounted in the corner of my first grade classroom 16 years ago. And now here I was, standing in that exact spot. To spend time thinking about all of the pain and fear that so many people were made to feel that day was mind-numbing. It was a lot and it left me feeling as grey as the day but, it was a special experience to have with my dad and I am glad that we went and were able to spend time in reverence of that day.

12PM: Back to Chelsea Market for that mexican-japanese fusion place I told you of, Takumi Taco! Their food itself was just okay, but sitting at the bar of that restaurant, surrounded by so many other restaurants and watching people scurrying around with so many different types of food in their hands, well, it was a dream, and an experience not to be missed by any self proclaimed foodie.

2PM: We came up from the subway at Union Square in the Flatiron district, where we walked to Madison Square Park to see the architectural gem that is the Flatiron building.

{Stumbling upon a pair of these wings in both Little Rock and New York really makes me want to stumble upon the pair in LA}

Then we walked down to Dough for an afternoon snack of artisanal doughnuts and coffee.

{Boston Creme and Lemon Poppy Seed paired with a latte and milk that dad claims tasted like milk from the old days of his childhood :P}

3PM: We had just enough time for a quick nap in the hotel room before heading out to the Rockefeller Center for Top of the Rock observation deck at 4pm.

Upon arrival, we were told that the visibility at the top was at a 0 because of the grey and rainy weather that day. We were able to exchange our tickets for the latest time slot of the day at 11PM, in hopes that they sky would clear up.

I purchased tickets for our time slot weeks in advance but there is also an option to buy a ticket that you can use anytime, and I would recommend doing that instead, and not trying to go on the last night of your trip, so that you have a little wriggle room if the weather decides to act up.

I definitely want to give Top of the Rock another shot on my next trip to NYC.

I chose it over the Empire State building because it would've allowed me to capture the iconic building itself in my photos.

We spent our extra time people watching across the street in Saks 5th Avenue and buying NYC souvenirs in the I heart NYC souvenir shop on 5th Avenue.

6PM: After seeing that a ticket to skate at The Rink at Rockefeller Center with skate rentals rang up at $40 a person, and realizing that there was no way to buy a ticket before hand unless you bought one of their packages, I booked the Dine & Skate. It included skating and rentals, plus a 3 course dinner at the Rock Center Cafe, where you can watch the ice-skaters while dining, for $60 a person.

What I didn't do was read my confirmation e-mail closely. Then I would have known that the Dine & Skate only included General Admission and rentals to skating, instead of VIP which allowed you to skip the line to get on the ice. And I also would have noticed that skating was scheduled to happen before dinner.

On top of all that, our reservation didn't show up in the system. A few helpful managers, a cranky waiter, and a line pushing situation later, we were fed and on the ice. I only almost knocked dad down once!

After all was said and done, it was well worth dealing with a few stressful situations to be skating on the iconic rink, under the iconic christmas tree, under the towering buildings of New York City, and all with a view of Saks 5th Avenue's holiday light show.

We even got to witness a few proposals on the rink!

11PM: We went up the 67 floors to the Top of the Rock observation deck in their speedy elevator and saw that it did ,indeed, look like we were staring at a wall but got to dance in the motion sensored room of lights at the top before going back down.

We ended the night ,and the trip, with Ben & Jerry's. What a sweet, sweet ending to the trip of my dreams.

You were good to us NYC. Until next time!

-Ellen