On Saturday, St. Bonaventure University offered a day trip to New York City. The bus left at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning and left the city at 9 p.m. giving us about 12 hours to spend freely in the city. With so much to do and such a big city, we were overwhelmed and debated on what to do in the days leading to the trip. To get everything done that we wanted, my friends and chose one thing that we wanted to do while in the city. This allowed us to have the flexibility to do more and we didn’t get upset when we didn’t get to everything. Here is what we did for twelve hours in New York City:
At 9:30 a.m. we arrived in the city and started off our day exploring Times Square but after the long bus ride, we were determined to find a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. Upon being dropped off in Byrant Park, we walked to Best Bagel & Coffee on W 35th Street. I truly think this might be the best bagel in NYC. I ordered a plain bacon, egg and cheese with avocado lime cream cheese, and I definitely recommend it.
We next decided that we wanted to head towards the Soho area. From Times Square and the bagel shop, we mapped that the walk was a little over two miles. We started walking and passed a farmers market, Washington Square Park, and the NYU campus which made the walk worth it. While walking around in the Soho area, we were hoping to see a celebrity and ended up seeing Peyton List! We did some shopping at Pacsun, Glossier, Target, H&M and Uniqlo. I stopped at a small street stand for a smoothie to refuel and as lunch.
After debating what we should do next, we decided to take the subway to Central Park. The sun was starting to come out for the first time all day so we walked a little around Central Park and saw how big it truly is. We sat on one of the rock features for about an hour and laid out in the sun to rest our legs. We talked about the other things we wanted to do for the day and also took some cute Instagram pictures with the city in the background. Central Park is the perfect place to people watch and it is amazing how many people are there and just doing their own thing.
When our legs were ready for more walking, we decided to go to the Met. We read that the Met was a discounted cost for students, and it was the perfect opportunity to visit the beautiful museum. We walked up the steps of the Met Gala and saw the artwork of all the different time periods. We were able to take some cool Instagram pictures with the artwork, and I definitely recommend that students visit the Met when in NYC.
Then, we walked down Fifth Ave in Upper East Side, Manhattan, where we recognized a lot of the buildings and landmarks from shows like “Sweet Life of Zack and Cody,” “Jessie” and “Gossip Girl.” There were so many enormous hotels and apartment buildings with doormen like in the movies. It started pouring so we decided to find a place for dinner. We ate at Chipotle, which I might not recommend to other travelers since it’s a chain, but we were so hungry and wanted to be guaranteed something we liked.
After dinner, we took the subway again back to Times Square and Bryant Park. We sat in Bryant Park debriefing about our day before deciding what to do with our last two hours. It was starting to get dark so we headed to the heart of Times Square and went to the new Krispy Kreme store which was so cool. If the sign is lit up, they give out free donuts! We walked up and down Times Square just absorbing the lights and all of the people. This was definitely my favorite part of the day and I recommend going to Times Square at night to anyone visiting NYC.
Nine p.m. crept up fast on us and we headed back to Bryant Park, where the bus dropped us off. We boarded the bus and headed five and a half hours back to campus.
If your university or college offers day trips like this, take the opportunity! Getting out of your comfort zone and exploring a new place can teach you so much about yourself and other people, and it’s amazing how much you can accomplish in one day!