New York City in 13.5 Hours

Hello everyone! Happy July! 

I hope you had a Fourth of July yesterday. Although, I was working, I still enjoyed time with family and some good grilling and fireworks too! It was a great way to round off America’s birthday!

These past few weeks have been so busy with trips, time with family and work, so I’m a little behind with sharing about some recent trips, so today I’m catching you all up about them. 

My boyfriend surprised me with a day trip to New York City for my birthday, but there was a slight catch. We did NYC in 13.5 hours and were up for about 24 hours to make it happen. If you are planning to do the Big Apple in a day, it is possible and affordable and here’s how we did it. 

We both have been to New York City before (I’ve only been in the city in the winter at Christmastime so this was my first time in the in the summer), so we have seen the big sights, but we wanted still to hit all the big stops together. 

We left at 1:30 in the morning to drive to a bus station about four hours away, from there we took a bus into the city (where we caught a few hours of sleep) where they dropped us off in Midtown at 9:30 and then we hit the ground running (literally).

All I had with me was my Lululemon Cross body which was a huge lifesaver and truly all I needed. I packed a lot in there, from glasses, chargers, sanitizer, chapstick, a little body spray and then cash and credit card and I used it all through the day.

I also can’t recommend enough wearing comfortable shoes and clothes as we walked a lot (I’ll show you my final stats at the end of the post). 

The weather was perfect for our day in the city with temperatures in the 70’s and partly cloudy, not too sunny or hot, we truly couldn’t have asked for a better day. 

We made a list of all the top things we wanted to see and added to it throughout the day. 

Here’s a look at our completed list.

We started the day with a walk-through Central Park, we took our first subway of the day to get there and then grabbed a classic New York Style bagel as we made our way to 30 Rock and NBC News.

Then we headed to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Time Square. 

After taking in the sights, we hit the New York Public Library (where I had to reminisce about Carrie and Big from Sex and the City).

Then it was off to the iconic Macy’s where we checked out every floor (but didn’t buy anything). 

We made a stop to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.

By this point we were hungry, so we got some classic New York Style pizza and ate in Herald Square and people watched for a piece.

I had my Serena Van Der Woods moment in Grand Central Station and then we decided to take a subway to catch the Staten Island Ferry.

This was one of our favorite parts of the day since we both have never done it before and you got to see the city from a different perspective and spend some time on the water. We passed the Statue of Liberty on our way back. 

After we were back in the city, we stopped by Battery Park and saw the 9/11 Memorial.

As we made our wayback to Midtown we walked along the Hudson River which was a scenic way to make our way back to the city.

We also stopped by the Highline, which is a park above the city which offered the most beautiful views, we popped into Chelsea Market to see all the vendors, shops and restaurants.

One of my favorite things about walking through the city is seeing all the different restaurants and stores and shops and how unique they all are tucked throughout the city. There were so many cute neighborhood spots I would have loved to check our if time permitted.

 By this time it was around 5:00 and we knew our time in the city was coming to a close so we grabbed ice cream and plotted the next few hours which included stops to both Chinatown and Little Italy (which we took the subway to get there too).

We then took a subway to get back to Midtown, however, we ended up in Brooklyn, so after a little bit of a longer subway ride (which felt great to sit after lots of walking), we caught the sunset as we made our way back to the city for dinner at a 24 hour diner.

After dinner, which was breakfast for dinner, we made a final stop in Times Square to see it in its glory at night, before it was back to the bus station to catch our bus back home.

Our bus was delayed which made it not so fun after being up for hours with dying phones. Thankfully, it arrived, and we made it on and caught some sleep as we bussed back. 

Here’s a look at my final stats according to my Apple Watch…over 18 miles and close to 50,000 steps. My legs definitely were tired by the end of the day.

This was such a packed full day, but the absolute best gift and surprise from my boyfriend! Truly one of the best gifts he has ever given me. We have been doing more experiences rather than gifts for holidays and birthdays which we both enjoy.

The biggest things we learned from this trip is that you CAN do NYC in a day and hit all the top spots, almost everything we did was free! The only things we paid for were food, a few subway rides and then our bus and a few souvenirs (those were for me). Make sure you wear comfortable clothes and shoes especially if you plan on doing lots of walking which we did.

I loved our time in the city from sunup to sundown. If you are on the fence about doing a day trip to a city, I highly recommend it. Just make sure you have a plan in place, you know your city (my boyfriend knows the city very well) and be open to going with the flow.

I’m already counting down to the next time I am in the city!

Tell me: what questions do you have about my trip? Let me know in the comments below! See you back here on Friday for a new edition of Friday Favorites!