Explore Your Radius: New York City

Written by: Brenna 

So back in August we booked a spur of the moment weekend trip to NYC to fulfill our childhood dreams of seeing Anastasia on Broadway and it was AMAZING. You're never too old to chase your childhood dreams. Before I lay out our entire weekend for you, I'd like to note that our intentions were NOT to do touristy things. Hopefully you've figured out by now that we are women who like to pave our own way when it comes to doing things.  So without further ado, I will now show you how easy it is to do New York in literally two days. 

Friday:

Find a nonstop flight that lit.er.ally leaves before the sun comes up so you'll arrive just in time for lunch. I swear we aren't crazy, we are just very committed when it comes to quick trips. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT book a room at the Manhattan. No matter how promising the pictures look of their "renovated hotel" you will get a room that looks like something out of a horror film and you will pay a ridiculous amount to upgrade to a room like the ones we saw on Yelp. #majorfail Lucky for us, Callie and Kenzie's mom came with us and made sure we ended up in a good room. After we got settled in, we headed to Times Square for pizza at Ray's and Junior's Bakery for black and white cookies. Honestly, nothing beats a black and white cookie and I'd be lying if I said I didn't recently pull my last one out of the freezer for a late night snack.  Oh and the people watching in Times Square is truly hard to beat.

We then headed over to Grand Central Station to see what the "Whispering Wall" was all about. For starters, Grand Central Station is a work of architectural magic. Every little detail awed me and I loved all of the arches, long hallways and the giant murals on the ceilings. If you've never been before, I highly suggest checking it out. Even if you don't take a train anywhere like we did. Our plan for that night was to see Anastasia so we headed back to the hotel and got ready for a show that may or may not have brought tears to our eyes. It was AMAZING. However, we didn't think about the fact that literally every other Broadway show would end when ours did so to avoid crowds we slipped into a cute little Irish bar for drinks and food.  Perfect ending to a nonstop day. 

Saturday:

We promised we weren't going to sleep in but we all did and it was so worth it. I want to say we were out the door by 11ish and decided that buying tickets for the city tour buses would be the cheapest way for us to make our rounds throughout the city. Yes, that's extremely touristy, but hey when you're balling on a budget you suck it up. Honestly though, it was absolutely worth it because you can hop on and off whenever you want. Our first stop was in SoHo for Macaroons at Laduree. They were DELICIOUS. Afterwards, we walked around and eventually found ourselves inside a Paper Source store. If you've never been inside a Paper Source store you're missing out, especially if you love anything that has to do with stationary or greeting cards. After leaving SoHo, we hopped back on a bus and rode it to the stop near our hotel. We could have hopped off at a few more stops like Chinatown,  Statue of Liberty or Rockefeller Center but we opted out. 

Next we were off to Central Park for a late lunch at the Shake Shack. However, not before our bus broke down and we were forced to walk through a farmers market so we could re-hydrate with smoothies because I forgot to mention that it was hotter than hell. We made the executive decision to take an Uber there because we were worn out from walking and being in the sun all day. #shamelesswimps Shake Shack was seriously the perfect pick me up, if you've never been you're missing out. Their fries are AMAZING and the burgers are hard to beat. It was packed though, so we walked across the street and had a little park bench picnic. By the time we finished, everyone had caught their second wind and we were off to explore Central Park. 

Central Park is just one of those places you have to experience for yourself. It's seriously so lush and full of activities. We saw it all! From dogs, runners, cycling teams to picnics and wild children running around. I think we could have all stayed there all day if we had the choice. We decided to walk back to the hotel once it got dark and made a pit stop at this cute little bar for Sangria and Long Island Iced Teas. Once we made it back to the hotel, we laid low for a couple of hours before heading back to the cute Irish pub for Happy Hour. However, the Happy Hour drinks that night weren't as good as the night before so we didn't stay as long. We did however, make sure to walk back through Times Square for some last minute people watching. 

Sunday:

We figured out Saturday night that we had walked about 10 miles that day and rewarded ourselves by sleeping in extra late. Our flight left around three that afternoon so we took our time getting ready and packed up to head out. 

We had a blast and would do it again in a heartbeat but probably stay in a different area just to explore more and get away from all the tourists. If you have any other questions feel free to drop a comment below! 

Take Aways:

Give yourself plenty of time to get from Point A to Point B. New York is unbelievably busy 24/7 and the traffic is a constant nightmare. Remember that. 

Don't feel like you have to jam a whole bunch of things into one day. We purposely went with no plans other than to see Anastasia and I don't think any of us regret it.

 You should definitely consider the cheesy tour bus ride because it's worth every penny. If you tried to make every stop on a subway you'd spend way more. 

It's extremely humid there in the Summers, so be prepared to wear your hair up and to rock some cut off shorts! 

Don’t forget to soak it all in!