New York has always been a bucket list destination that I had dreamed of visiting, so when the opportunity came to visit The Big Apple for Thanksgiving, I was ecstatic! So much planning and research started taking place as I had to plan where to stay, where to eat, what to do, and how to get around the city for 4 days! Lucky for you, I have planned out a detailed itinerary for 4 whole days spent in New York over Thanksgiving including all the sight seeing and tourist attractions I could think of! (If you are planning to visit in the winter months, come prepared with winter clothing! We wore heated coats and beanies almost everyday visiting at the end of November!)
Getting around the city
New York City is known to be a very walkable city and was fairly easy to navigate where we needed to go by foot, this plus Apple Maps helped us navigate this huge city all while managing to walk around 10miles a day. Phew! Luckily the subway system is also very user friendly and cost effective if you want to save yourself from wearing out a brand new pair of shoes (plus, how can you visit NYC and not ride the subway?)! Apple Maps also came in very handy when we decided to use the subway and helped us to know where to go to get down to the subway, what line to get on, and where to get off depending on where we were going. Just enter your destination into Apple Maps and then change your travel method to “transit” and the subway and bus lines will come up.
The subway is very cost effective as it costs just $2.75 per ride. If you use a contactless form of payment when going on the subway (i.e. ApplePay) the subway system has a contactless payment system that they call OMNY that automatically starts working just simply by using your contactless debit card or smartphone to tap and go. Through OMNY if you take 12 paid trips using the same device or card starting at the beginning of the week, you will automatically ride free the rest of the week after your 12th ride. You are also able to buy a 7 day unlimited pass for $33 that offers unlimited swipes on the subway and local buses, you would have to ride at least 12 times for this to equal out to just paying the base fare of $2.75. Regardless whether you decide to explore the city by foot, subway, or taxi, subway is most always fastest and saves you from sitting in loads of city traffic and paying more money.
Where to stay
There are so many options when researching where to stay in the big city including hotels and AirBnB depending on what you prefer and what your budget is! We decided to stay in Manhattan at the Hyatt Grand Central. This hotel was soooo convenient because you don’t even have to go outside to access Grand Central Station and ultimately access the subway. We enjoyed our stay here, and the hotel itself is relatively central to some of the big tourist attractions only being a few blocks away. My sister accompanied my husband and I on this trip and this hotel was perfect for us! If you are traveling alone or traveling as a couple, I would recommend checking out the CitizenM and the Arlo hotels, these are perfect, simple, minimalist hotels designed specifically for 1-2 guests per room.
What to do
If you have dreamed about going to NYC at all, I am sure that you have also dreamed about all the attractions you would want to see too! I started by listing out all the places we wanted to go and things we wanted to see, and then grouped together attractions that were close to each other that could be visited in the same day. I would recommend buying any attraction tickets in advance to ensure you get to see and do everything you want to! Here is what our itinerary looked like for each day we were in the city:
Day 1: Grand Central Station, Central Park, The MET, The Rockefeller Center, Times Square
Our first stop of the morning was Grand Central Station as we dropped off our bags to our hotel room and then went into the station to explore. Many iconic movie and TV scenes took place at Grand Central Station and its architecture is a huge appeal! There are plenty of shops and restaurants to also explore!We then walked from Grand Central to Central Park, we saw the horse carriages, the hotel from Home Alone, and then started our beautiful walk though the park. The park is huge and offers great skyline views, and lots of landmark sight seeing. We saw two areas of the park that are featured in Home Alone, one being the Bethesda Terrace and the other being The Arcade, both are beautifuland very close together.Our walk through Central Park continued upto the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These are the famous stairs that were always sat on in the TV show Gossip Girl. While we did not pay to walk through the museum, it was enough for me to have my Gossip Girl moment on the front steps, and enjoy the beauty of the museum from the lobby.General admission into the museum starts at $30 for adults.In true New York Christmas fashion, we obviously had to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Center. This is where the famous Christmas tree is displayed every year. Unfortunately for us, the tree was still being decorated (as you can see in the first picture) and the officialtree lighting was scheduled for the week after we were visiting. On the last day of our trip, we were able to see the tree uncovered, just unlit. This will definitely be a memory I have forever, we felt like we were in a movie. Ticket costs for the rink change depending on the time of day, we ended up paying about $45 a person with skate rentals included in that cost. We then headed up to the Top of The Rock for sunset, this was so gorgeous and worth the couple extra dollars for a sunset ticket. We got 360 views of the city and got to see it come to life as the sunset made it glow.We made sure to purchase our tickets in advance so we could ensure we would get a spot during sunset! Tickets to visit the Top of the Rock Observation Deck start at $40 for general admission adults and then depending on the time of day you choose to go, your ticket may cost more, for example, going at sunset is a prime time to go, so it is an additional $15 per ticket. The New York CityPass is also a great option for trying to save some money and bundling the cost of 5 popular attractions.We ended our night going to the brightest block in the city, Times Square! Be prepared to be rubbing shoulders with so many other tourists (here and most attractions in New York) and just we wary of your belongings to make sure nothing gets stolen.
Day 2: Starbucks Reserve, Flatiron Building, The Vessel @ Hudson Yards, Chelsea Market, The High Line, Friends Apartment Building, Washington Square Arch
We started off day two by walking from our hotel to the Empire State Building to visit their brand new Starbucks Reserve, these are so fun to visit and offer so much more than a regular Starbucks store. There is another Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York as well that is closer to Chelsea, we stopped by that location too. The drinks and food were amazing!We continued our walk from The Empire State Building down to the Flatiron Building, this is a uniquely shaped building thatdraws a lot of attention from tourists. Madison Square Park is right by the Flatiron Building and is beautiful to walk through as well!Day 2 consisted of mostly walking, so we made our way back up to midtown headed towards Hudson Yards. On our way we got to see the famous Macy’s where the Macys’s Day Parade is, and Madison Square Garden (a famous concert venue)! We arrived at Hudson Yards and visited the Vessel that is pictured above, it is a very unique structure that you can walk inside of, and you can supposedly walk up in it! (we were able to walk inside, but not up the sides). HudsonYards is also the home of the Edge, another great attraction with breathtaking city views. We did not reserve tickets for the Edge so we did not go, but ticket prices start at $36 for adults. Lastly, The Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards is a gorgeous mall that offers great shopping and dining just behind the Vessel!We started to head towards Chelsea to visit the Chelsea Market, this is a very cool food hall and shopping center that offers a hugearray of food options that are fun to explore and try! The Chelsea Market was actually built in the former Nabisco factory where the Oreo cookie was first invented, how cool is that?! When leaving the Chelsea Market we made sure to make our way up to The High Line, a lush walk above the city streets! This public park walk offers great city views and is open to the public from 7am-10pm.We ended our day of adventuring by making sure we stopped by the iconic “Friends” apartment building to relive some of our favorite scenes. We then made our way to the Washington Square Arch Monument. This marble arch towers over the Washington Square Park and was beautiful at night. The park was very lively and and I’m sure is even more gorgeous when the fountain is on!
Day 3: One World Trade Center, 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, Helicopter ride, Museum of Ice Cream
Day three started off by taking thee subway down to the Financial District. Here we explored the One World Trade Center, this building is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and we also took in the fascinating architecture of the World Trade Center Oculus. We then made our way to the 9/11 Memorial site. This heavy memorial was breathtaking and an honor to visit, there is also a museum here that you can visit with a general admission ticket that starts at $29 for adults. This is truly a sight to take in and a beautiful memorial.Obviously we had to make a stop by Wall Street and take in all the views here! At this point we had the option to go get on the free Staten Island Ferry to take a scenic ride to Staten Island and see the Statue of Liberty on the way, but we opted not to do this because we were about to see all those views from a helicopter!My husband surprised me with a sunset helicopter ride over the city, so from the Financial District we headed into Jersey City where the helicopter company was and took the ride of a life time! This was a phenomenal way to take in all the city views and also get to see the Statue of Liberty! The company we went through is no longer doing rides, but there are so many great options when looking into NYC helicopter rides, I have heard that FLYNyon is a good company to go through!Our night ended the perfect way, SO much ice cream and fun at The Museum of Ice Cream! Admissions into the museum were $36 and this included the multiple times we got ice cream throughout the museum. This museum brings out your inner child and was so much fun to explore from the giant slide to the huge sprinkle pit that you can jump into!
Day 4: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Brooklyn Bridge, DUMBO, Pebble Beach, Pier 35
Our final full day in the city started by watching the Macy’s Day Parade! I will have a whole other blog post all about the parade and things I would do again, and what I would change if I go again!After the parade we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge! As you can see, it was very crowded midday, but we were able to snag a couple pictures that weren’t infiltrated with other people. The walk across the bridge was very pretty and there were some tables set up of some NYC merch being sold too!When we crossed the bridge into Brooklyn, we wandered down to DUMBO, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that offers a very unique view of the Manhattan bridge. And if you love Gossip Girl like me, the apartment of the right side of the picture of the bridge was where Dan Humphrey’s apartment was! Then we walked down to Pebble Beach, this was one of my favorite overlook spots. You could see the whole city and both the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridge, it was gorgeous and peaceful. Our last day ended watching a gorgeous sunset overlooking the city and the Brooklyn Bridge on Pier 35. This pier was so cute and even had swings you could sit on while taking in the views, I could have sat here all day!
I would absolutely go back and visit New York City again, there is so much to see, do, and eat! Here is my complete “Guide to The Macy’s Day Parade“!
Sweet Happenings Travel 
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