NYC IN 24 HOURS ITINERARY
After the last year we’ve all had, we decided to make a conscious effort to travel (safely) any chance we get! A weekend presented itself where we found cheap flights and cheap hotels in New York City.. the kicker – we had 36 hours total trip time. NYC in 24 hours it was then! Never have we ever traveled for such a short time frame, but we were up for the adventure!
WHAT WE DID FRIDAY NIGHT:
To kick off our 24 hours in NYC, our plane arrived in NYC’s LaGuardia airport around 10:30pm. We just had carry on luggage so we didn’t waste any time waiting at the baggage claim. Immediately after we exited the airport, we requested an Uber! There are cheaper ways to get to the city, but we really didn’t want to waste anytime trying to navigate that. We decided to stay at The Jewel because of it’s central proximity.
After checking in, we went straight to Times Square! From our hotel it was about a 10-15 minute walk. I’ve always loved the magic of Times Square at night. Fair warning: it was not Matthew’s favorite. We didn’t stay for very long, but there’s definitely a lot to take in – especially if you haven’t been before. For us, it was a box checked! When Broadway opens back up, I think it will be even more special.
OUR SATURDAY SCHEDULE IN NYC:
Saturday Morning:
6:30am: left our hotel & requested an Uber to City Hall Park
7:00am: arrived to City Hall Park and started our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge stopping for lots of pictures! The perk of going so early in the morning – hardly anyone else on the bridge!
8:15am: arrived in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn! Stopped for some Starbucks and walked through the streets a little. Be sure to stop by Washington & Water Street intersection for a great photo op! You will likely see MANY people there because it is a popular spot. At this point in the day, the lighting is great and don’t have to worry about too direct of sunlight.
9:30am: took some time to enjoy the Hudson River views from The Pebble Beach area! There are some great benches to sit and take in the NYC Skyline.
10:15am: started our walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge!
10:45am: after arriving back in Manhattan, we decided to begin the 5 mile walk back to our hotel and see the sites along the way! You could definitely take the Subway or request a Lyft/Uber for part of it, or all of it depending on your preference. We took Broadway all the way to W Fourth Street. If you take this path, you could easily detour into Little Italy or Chinatown if you’d like! We decided due to lack of time not to, but definitely an option. W Fourth St allowed us to cut through Washington Square Park, and continue up Fifth Avenue where we passed right by the Flatiron! You could continue up Fifth Avenue and come right to the Empire State Building, but we continued up Broadway to get us closer to where Matthew wanted to eat lunch..
Saturday Afternoon:
12:00pm: Joe’s Pizza at 1435 Broadway for lunch! Matthew had a lot of friends recommend Joe’s and so that was his one request. I got the white pizza and Matthew got cheese- we both loved!
12:30pm: back to our hotel to freshen up! You could continue up Broadway if you want to walk through Times Square during the day, but Matthew had his fill. We decided to walk back to our hotel near Rockefeller by taking Sixth Avenue!
1:00pm: it was perfect because we walked right past my favorite.. MAGNOLIA BAKERY! It was a quick 5 minute walk back to our hotel after that.
2:00pm: After taking a quick break to freshen up, we walked from our hotel to Central Park! It took us about 15 minutes to get there. We spent time walking around to see the Bethesda Fountain, The Lake and the Bow Bridge.
3:00pm: We headed back to our hotel to get another little break before we headed out again!
4:45pm: After our break, we requested an Uber to take us to the Hudson Yards area. You absolutely could take the subway, but again with us being short on time, we really wanted to use our time efficiently (as neither of us are super knowledgeable on the Subway system). We spent about 45 minutes walking around the area. The Vessel is a new-ish structure and has a lot of higher-end shops that are fun to browse!
Saturday Night:
5:40pm: Our reservations for the Edge at Hudson Yards! It is the highest open-air observation deck in the Western Hemisphere at 100 stories tall! You can walk out over portions of the glass floor as well. You definitely need reservations! Your arrival time is an hour long, but you can stay as long as you’d like. We probably could have spent much longer up there, but we had dinner reservations!
7:00pm: Requested an Uber to take us to our dinner reservation at The Smith. We got the mac & cheese starter (highly recommend). For dinner, I got the Ricotta Gnocchi and Matthew got The Rigatoni Alla Vodka. Both were amazing but we both agreed that mine was better 😉
9:00pm: After dinner, we walked back to our hotel which wasn’t far! We stopped by the Radio City Music Hall lights at night and took in our last night in NYC.
SUNDAY SCHEDULE:
4:30am: Our plane left EARLY and we were off, back to Nashville after the quickest, but best trip!
Highly recommend taking a quick trip! It’s fun to see how much you can fit in with such a short amount of time. NYC in 24 hours is totally doable, of course you won’t see it all.. but you can see a lot!
