Very early last Thursday morning, Miss Frugal and I set off on our long awaited adventure to New York. We’d spent months researching what we wanted to do and saving up to be able to afford to do it all and we’d pretty much scheduled the majority of our time while we were there to make sure we didn’t miss a thing.
We were so well organised that we knew exactly what we were going to be doing each day, how to get there, how much it would cost, what was nearby and even where we would be eating! It was all detailed in our trusty New York notebook that we’d been scribbling in since we booked our trip and to us, it felt like our little notebook was the key to a great trip.
The first thing we had planned was a walk to Times Square to have a quick look at what all the fuss was about. We’d planned not to spend too much time there beause the next thing on our list was Shake Shack for tea as that was on Miss Frugal’s ‘must eat at’ list.
The thing is, we got there as planned (thanks to an iconic Yellow cab) and we were simply overwhelmed. It wasn’t the place itself but the sheer number of people there that did it and whilst we weren’t overly bothered by the flashiness of Times Square itself, we were fascinated by the people there.
We ended up getting a drink from Starbucks, sitting on the famous steps and just watching the world go by – albeit a different, more colourful and energised world that we’re used to. We never made it to Shake Shack that day as we ended up grabbing a sandwich before heading to Madison Square Gardens to see the New York Knicks play but I knew how much Miss Frugal had wanted to go so before I went to bed that night, I got out our schedule and tried to rework it so we could fit a trip to Shake Shack in without having to miss out any of the other places we’d chosen to eat and without the need to have two meals one night. 😉
I didn’t get very far into my rearranging before I realised that I didn’t really want us to be tied to a schedule because otherwise we’d be too busy keeping to schedule that we’d not have time to enjoy the things we were seeing or doing. I chatted it over with Miss Frugal and we decided that all the planning together had been fun but now that we were actually there we’d rather just do whatever, whenever and not be restricted by a schedule.
So the next morning, our first full day in New York, we went and used our New York City Pass to get some hop on, hop off bus tickets and started randomly exploring. We listened to the guide and got on and off wherever sounded interesting and explored whatever was in that area. It did mean that the money we’d spent on the City Passes wasn’t as good a deal as we’d thought they were going to be as we’d planned our trip to get the most out of them but ended up not using them nearly as much as we thought but I think we had a much better time doing it our way!
We missed out on a lot but what we did see, we took the time to enjoy with plenty of people watching and fun in between. This is a quick idea of what we ended up doing….
Thursday – We sat in Times Square then did some shopping around there before heading off to Madison Square Gardens to see the New York Knicks at Madison Square Gardens.
Friday – We did the whole shopping on Fifth Avenue thing with visits to the iconic Tiffany’s and all of the shops that Miss Frugal had been saving up for. We had a look around the very beautiful New York Public library, had a Starbucks in Trump Tower and then went to Madame Tussauds for a wander around.
Saturday – We had a look around Grand Central, went shopping in Soho, took photos of the flat iron building, braved a visit to the Top of the Rock, visited the 9/11 memorial, saw the beautiful Freedom Tower and drank frozen chocolate at Serendipity 3.
Sunday – We walked across Brooklyn Bridge and spent time in Dumbo where we found the most amazingly pretty little cake shop and wandered around the flea market under the Manhattan Bridge. Then we hopped on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, had a cannoli in Carlos’ bakery and did some more shopping.
Monday – We had a quick look at the Lincoln centre, wandered Central Park, found the fountain they used in the friends opening credits and bought a hot dog to eat in the park. We drove through Harlem before heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags and leave for the airport.
We might not have stuck to our plan but I think we managed to fit a lot in our short visit – we saw so much more that I haven’t listed as well thanks to the op on, hop off buses that we paid to extend from the one day we got free to last the whole time we were there. We saw famous people’s houses, famous and important buildings that we recognised from films, places where TV shows are based, historical sites and lots of museums and other sightseeing favourites along the way. We also had great fun in shops like the Hersheys and M&M stores as well as famous department stores like Bloomingdales and Macys. Even small local shops like the seven 11 and CVS pharmacies we went in were fun to us!
I’m exhausted now but I will share some of our trip in more detail with you when I get chance. For now though, I have the soup maker on making me some homemade veggie soup and I’m off to have a steaming bowl of that while I contemplate unpacking!
*PS – We don’t usually schedule our trips like this but New York has such a lot that we didn’t want to miss that we thought this would be the best way to make sure we saw it all. I just thought I’d mention this so you didn’t think I was THAT much of a planner. 😉
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