New York City…the city that never sleeps.
I am simply going to walk you through my most recent trip itinerary (3 full days of FUN) and help you see how you can pack a whole bunch of fun into a short timeframe!
At the end of this post, I will give other recommendations for those wanting to visit NYC and link you to a post of what to pack if you decide to go! This is my 4th trip there, and it was the BEST YET!
Let’s goooooo!
DAY ONE
We flew into Laguardia airport, and grabbed a taxi. It is a decent little amount of money to take a cab into the city. I also think cabs seem to run a little higher than an uber, but I might be wrong. That is my opinion, though.
The cab took us straight to the hotel, where we checked in and changed clothes to go exploring (and most importantly EATING) before our New York City Harbor Lights Tour that evening!
We ate at West Side Steakhouse…it was a nice little steakhouse that was VERY GOOD. The prices were decent, and we had zero wait! Everyone was friendly, and like I said the food was very good. I got the filet, and Hannah got the cheeseburger! YUMMMMMY!
After eating, we walked to the harbor to hang out for about an hour before our cruise. It was beautiful there…and so peaceful.
The tour itself was AMAZING. It was perhaps the best thing we did on this trip, and I do highly recommend it. Here is a link to the exact tour we took! NYC HARBOR LIGHTS TOUR
We came back and went to bed early (every single night by 7 LOL)
DAY TWO
This was a fun-filled day for sure…and quite interesting in some ways (you will see what I mean soon)!
We called an uber to pick us up at our hotel to take us to Hoboken, NJ to the original Carlo’s Bakery. I am a HUGE Cake Boss fan (or I guess my kids are, and I have come to be through them!), so I really wanted to see his original location. If you don’t want to go all the way there, there are other locations in NYC!
Carlo’s had ZERO line when we got there, and we bought lots of goodies. For breakfast, I got a cannoli and OMG it was absolutely amazing. I truly wasn’t sure if I would like it, but it is their specialty, so I had to give it a try.
I also got a piece of rainbow cake and some cookies to go!
If you love Cake Boss, you would enjoy seeing his original location, but don’t get too excited…it is simply a small little bakery with nothing there. It is nothing over the top at all. The only thing that drew me there was the nostalgia and being such a fan.
We also just walked the streets of Hoboken for a little while, and it was a super cute and quaint little town. I enjoyed seeing it. Was it worth the trip? I don’t know…just depends on what you are looking for. I knew what it would be like, so I was glad we did, but you only need to go if you have the right expectations.
After Hoboken, we came back into the city for our bus tour! We took the HOP ON HOP OFF tour, and it was FANTASTIC! We rode on the top, and let me tell you…this is the way to see the city. Awesome views and great commentary (they give you little earbuds to listen as you go).
We really enjoyed that and would 100% recommend it. It can be a tad confusing knowing where to catch the bus, but they have an app that is also good to use that helps! HERE’S THE APP!
After our bus tour, we headed to Central Park for a horse and carriage tour. This is where things got crazy LOL
First of all, we really did enjoy the carriage ride. The carriage was nice and comfy…very pretty…and the park was beautiful.
I always tell you I will be honest with you, so let me just be honest and say that we may have had a fluke, but….on our carriage ride, our driver literally jumped off the carriage to go fight a man who was harassing another carriage driver. There were TERRIBLE profanities by the man on the bike and by our driver. We were left alone on the carriage for maybe 5 minutes. I guess we would have rode the horse back if he hadn’t returned??? HAHA.
When he got back on, he acted as though nothing had happened and continued with the tour. It was bizarre and unprofessional to say the least!
Ray’s Pizza for Dinner was AWESOME! Just a little hole in the wall type of joint, which are always the best. It is well known, and it was delicious!
WHAT A DAY! We went back to the hotel after Ray’s and RELAXED the rest of the night and watched a movie!
DAY THREE
This was a really fun and FULL day.
We started the day at Andrew’s Coffee Shop, and it was delicious. The people were kind, and it was some of the fastest service ever. We even commented on how quick they got our food to us!
Once we walked back to our hotel, our driver came and picked us up!
We did a 7 hour tour of all of the NYC boroughs. If you are not familiar with NYC and how it is set up, there are different parts of the overall city that they call boroughs. You have Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. They are pretty much cities/counties within NYC.
This tour was a private tour, so it was just me and Hannah with our driver. He drove us around alllllll day showing us sooooo many things and explaining many things about each place. I learned SO MUCH. I would highly recommend this. We saw SO MUCH MORE than you would typically see in a day doing it this way. We also saw many parts of NYC that a tourist would never see, and we stopped at several places to get pictures and look around…so we were not in the car the entire day.
I am not sure what I would say my favorite part of this tour was, but I just really enjoyed getting to see ALL of NYC…tourist/non tourist…It was very interesting.
We also went to Coney Island on this tour, but I was not impressed at all. I had always wanted to see it, but it was very dirty and sketchy.
We ate at the world famous Nathan’s Hotdogs…and while we had to wait an hour in line, it was worth it. That was the best part of Coney Island! I was glad we went!
After our tour ended, we were too tired to go anywhere else, so we got some PF Changs delivered to the room and crashed!
DAY 4
We got up at 4am to get ready and head to the airport to go home!
THINGS TO KNOW:
We stayed at the Stay Pineapple An Artful Hotel.
I DO highly recommend this place. It was perfect. The location was fantastic, the people were incredible, and the beds were AMAZING.
See WHAT TO PACK FOR NYC for all of my must haves!
Links to the EXACT tours we took:
PRIVATE NEW YORK BOROUGHS TOUR
MAKE SURE TO PIN THIS!!!
Last Updated on May 26, 2021
I’m so glad you got to see my NY! I used to live on Long Island and used to go the “the city” when I got bored with the North Shore (where I lived). Now I live in Florida. I laughed when you talked about the carriage ride. I quite agree, that was unprofessional, to say the least. NYC has changed a lot since when I used to go. Anything can happen. Glad you had a safe journey Brooke and that you had a good time. ❤️😘👍
Looks like a great visit! I live here and still enjoy seeing posts from people who visit. BTW Carlos had the best cheesecake around!! That’s my go too. 😋
OMG! You went to NYC and didnt eat cheesecake at Junior’s? Next trip, make sure to do it.
My favorite city! Next time I’ll try to stay at Pineapple Hotel, liked your photos from there!