Over spring break, two friends and I went to New York City! This was my first time in New York and these were my highlights.
- American Museum of natural history (AMNH)
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This was my favorite part of the entire trip. I absolutely loved coming here, we spent three and a half hours going all over the museum! I watched Night At The Museum on the Amtrak ride into New York so it made me even more excited to see AMNH. There is a $24 entrance fee with a student ID unless you are a New York state resident. There are four floors full of things to do! We just did big loops following the natural course of the museum, having a map in hand is a MUST! Some of the highlights include: The elephants in the Hall of African Mammals, the Easter Island statue, and the Fossil Explainer Steve in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs who answered all the serious and silly questions we had about fossils and dinosaurs.
- China town food crawl
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This was a major highlight in terms of food we ate during this trip! While some spots might take cards, I recommend bringing cash. I had $40 in cash and ended up only using less than half of it on food. I spent most of it on souvenirs for friends and family. We found all the spots we wanted to hit by searching through TikTok. We started at Mei Lai Wah to get steamed pork buns and pineapple pork buns. After that, we walked over to HeyTea and grabbed grapefruit boba. Once we had boba, we went over to a rice noodle cart. For our last food item, we got dumplings at Shu Jiao Fu Zhou.
- Broadway
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Even if you aren’t a fan of musical theater, Broadway is a must-do! You don’t need to go see a show, just walking around all the theaters and seeing everyone dressed up and excited is magical. I am a big musical theatre fan so we ended up seeing two shows, Chicago and Redwoods. For both of them, we purchased tickets on the day of by rushing the box office 90 minutes before the show started. This was such a fun experience as we got a discounted rate for Chicago, the price was originally $149 and we got them for $89 for orchestra seats. Redwoods starring Idina Menzel, is a newer and not as well known so the tickets were pretty cheap at $68.
A piece of advice for rushing shows: Review the rushing policy for the shows you are interested in as some do a lottery process and some might not do rushing in any form.
- Central park
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We got so lucky on our first Central Park day! It was such nice weather so we ate lunch in the park after we went to the AMNH. We ate Shake Shack on the first park benches that we found. Once we finished our lunch we made our way down to the Central Park Boathouse through the Ramble and the Gill. I am a huge rom-com fan so a major must-do for me was going to the Central Park Boathouse which is the set of so many iconic scenes in so many iconic rom-coms. We later continued walking through the park towards the Bethesda Terrace & Fountain, where my friend Emma got a cart hotdog. On our way out of the park, Emma also got typewriter poem.
The second time we went to Central Park, we mainly just walked through it to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took the subway up 86th and continued walking the edge of the park until we got to 90th. Entering through the park again, we found the Shuman Running Track, which is a gorgeous walking path that runs right along The Reservoir. We exited the path at the South Gate House and followed signs towards The Met. I highly recommend this path if you want a simple but pretty view.
Overall Central Park was one of my favorite stops of the trip!
- soho
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We did a little bit of walking around in SoHo and it was so fun! We saw Chappell Roan promo posters, got free ice cream samples from the Museum of Ice Cream, and did some window shopping. We attempted to do some thrifting but the pieces were priced much more than we were willing to pay. This was just an easy day activity to do for a couple hours.
- Rockefeller center
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This spot was a last-minute addition that we did to fill our time out but turned out to be fun! We started a block away at Lenwich and got Chicken Caesar wraps which were so good. Once we got to the actual Rockefeller Center, we went to the iconic ice rink and watched people skate. We went into the FAO Schwartz toy store, and ended up getting some candy and looked at the Jellycats. We also went into the NBC building just to walk around and see the building where they film SNL as well as late night shows. After that we stopped over to Radio City Music Hall, the iconic venue. Our final stop in Rockefeller was the Rough Trade music store to experience their photo booth. This place was so cool as so many artists I love have sat in that seat and taken their photo after doing an SNL or late night show performance. I highly recommend this spot as a fun souvenir!
- Statue of liberty
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I think this is something that everyone needs to do at least once in their life. My mom loves the Statue of Liberty so she encouraged us to go. The tickets are roughly $26 for a round-trip ferry trip from Battery Park to Liberty Island and Ellis Island if you want to go there too. We got pedestal passes so we got up to the pedestal Lady Liberty is on. We didn’t end up going out to Ellis Island but seeing the Statue of Liberty was still a very cool and surreal experience.
- Roosevelt island tram
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If you need a quick night activity, this is the one for you. During commute hours I would say to avoid this spot but once it’s nighttime and the city lights are sparkling, hop on the Roosevelt Island Tram. It costs the same as a subway ride ($2.90) and is a great way to see the cityscape and the Brooklyn Bridge at night.
- Little Italy
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This was our only real sit-down dinner for the entire 5 days. We went to Peasano’s on Mulberry Street. It was a cute restaurant that wasn’t too busy and had a welcoming atmosphere. Little Italy as a whole has some great hidden gems, and even though it is a pretty touristy spot, it’s the perfect area to find a reasonably priced dinner. It’s also a great spot to get some knick-knacks and souvenirs. The Little Italy sign at night is the perfect spot to take cute pictures!
- The met
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Our last full-day activity was spent here. The cost of admission is $17 with a student ID. I didn’t realize how easy it is to just stare at art until I got to this museum. The range of art that is curated there is magical. I was in awe of all of the pieces that I came across. We spent three hours walking around and seeing as much as possible but I still feel like I didn’t see anything because there is just so much art. My favorite areas of the museum included: The Greek and Roman art, The Egyptian art, and the stained glass that is in the American Wing on the wall to the European Paintings
Overall, I loved my experience in New York City. I would go back anytime. It was so much fun to be there and experience the true rush of city life. It was a fun break from the slower pace of Amherst, Massachusetts. I recommend these spots to anyone and everyone. If you love a fast-paced city, museums, and amazing food, then NYC is the place to be.
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