Traveling to New York City

Trip: 5 days; Month: November 2021; Weather: Winter(🌤️, 🌧️); Itinerary: Downloa d

Things you should know before the actual itinerary

When should you buy tickets?:
My siblings (TheSibLims) and I purchased our tickets on Expedia for $400/traveler in June and with the fluctuation of COVID, prices dropped about $350/traveler in October. That's a huge price drop! I recommend to wait to get your tickets around that month; however, it isn't guaranteed that the prices will be around the same and you're cutting it really close if you're planning to travel a month later! Opting for insurance might be an option where you pay a premium and gamble that there might be a price drop, but you're taking the risk of IF.

Metro Pass for NYC:
Luckily all the metros and subways appear the same to me. There's a Kiosk at every subway station you can purchase your Metro Pass. It cost about $33/pp if you do 7-day Unlimited Metro Pass + $1 fee for a Metro Card. I think its worth getting the unlimited if you're staying the 5 days. They offer 30-day Unlimited Metro Pass too if you're planning on staying longer than 5 days. One tip I can tell you about using your Metro Card is to swipe fast! If you swipe slow you'll get an Error message on the screen.

What should you wear?:
Depending on how long you stay and whether or not you're a male or a female. During the month of November, I packed a lot of long sleeves, jeans, sweaters, light all-weather jacket and one pair of shoe. If you're planning on doing a lot of sight seeing, a lot of the places if you enter will have the heater on so if you're briskly walking you're gonna get hot staying in the buildings.

Musicals:
If you're a fan of musicals like my whole family. You could potentially buy same day tickets if you go early in the morning when the box offices open. The seats aren't the "best", but I think it's still worth it; if you get lucky. If you are lucky, you'll get to sit somewhere in the front where you can feel the actors spit! That's a souvenir that you'll never be able to forget.

Mapping around:
Google Maps, City Mapper or Apple Maps is your friend!

The Met Museum:
If you're planning on make a stop here to check out this beautiful museum. I recommend buying tickets online so you don't have to go through the hassle of purchasing tickets when you get into the museum.

Travelling to NYC is definitely one of my favorite states I’ve visited. I haven’t gone to THAT many, but it’s by far on my top 5 states. California being #1 🤣.

The Things We Did When We Landed

The High Line Park
Chelsea Market
This market has a lot of food places you can try. We tried The Lobster Place and Los Tacos No.1 (definitely try this taco place its the best! You can find it in other places in New York cause its a chain).
Time Square
Starbucks Reserve
The Starbucks Reserve is so nice here and if you like Coffee AND Alcohol this is the place! They have one in Los Angeles that opened up. TheSibLims have NOT ventured there yet, but we’d like to. Maybe one day. We definitely recommend this place to get some tasty coffee and alcohol. You can also see how they make the coffee too! If you don’t like alcohol they also serve virgin drinks as well with tasty variety! We recommend going with a friend or a group and finding a spot to sit. Alcoholic drinks wont be served unless you have a table and its a first come first serve.
Flat Iron Building

Things to do at Midtown Manhattan

Rockerfeller Center
If you want to skate on ice
Lego Store and Nintendo Store!
A must go place! The Lego Store because only in NYC can you create your own Lego ME! Its so cute! I love it. See my silly stop motion video I made there.

Bryant Park
You can eat around here or also do ice skating! They have a lot of eatery places here.
New York Public Library
The library is so big lol it was fun to see all the books and just check out the neat-o stuff there.
Grand Central Terminal
If you’re interested in seeing where a lot of people film in NYC.

Tempura Matsui
We celebrated my sister’s birthday and went to Tempura Matsui cause it was a Michelin Star Restaurant it was pretty pricey but all the food here was amazing! Tempura Matsui is a pre-fix dinner course with 15 items. Their seaweed salt is soooo amazing! If you have the money I definitely recommend to try this place. Its totally worth it!

Things Things To Do In Lower Manhatten/Soho/Chinatown/Little Italy

9/11 Memorial
Visiting this memorial was really emotional. To see it in person was just…

Oculus Shopping Mall

Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Roasting Company

Things Things To Do In Upper Eastside

Met Museum*

*NOTE: Met Museum has a $25 entry fee and they check your bags upon arrival.  You can purchase tickets online or at the front desk.  Be aware that since the pandemic there has been an increase of wait times.  There is also two ways to get to the Met Museum.  Unfortunately, my sister led us towards Central Park back area to head to the Met Museum which led us to the streets of unknown territory and we got splashed on by incoming vehicles because we were walking next to the streets that weren't really...streets...

Central Park
Unfortunately, it was raining when we went to Central Park and wasn’t able to really check it out 😦

Musicals We Watched

Hadestown at Walter Kerr Theatre
I listened to this musical before watching it and its definitely much better in person to watch. Its a fairly new musical, so a lot of the cast are original cast! It’s so great! Definitely recommend! The music is amazing! I spend 2 months or so listening to it AFTER I came back from NYC.
Six at Brooks Atkinson Theatre
This is not your typical musical. Its more like a concert and it has fun exciting songs that make it so great to watch. You wouldn’t regret watching Six! You can learn the history of Henry! You can buy tickets the day of too if you go early in the morning to purchase. You can get standby tickets.

Eatery Places We Suggest

G a laxy Diner or Edison’s Restaurant (to use their voucher)
I thought the Galaxy Diner was good we had breakfast there and was able to get a taste of breakfast! I got a cream cheese bagel with coffee and it was yummy 🙂
Cote
If you love Korean BBQ like us definitely check this place out. It’s totally worth to eat at! Get the Butcher’s Feast for $65/PP! If you plan on going here for dinner please make sure to make reservations!

Russ & Daughters
For some yummy bagels for breakfast!
Kats Delicaesse
You have to try the pastrami sandwiches here at least once!
Joe’s Shanghai for Soup Dumpling
I don’t particularly look for Chinese food, but this place was pretty good! My sister was super excited to eat this and to be honest, I did miss eating the Green Onion Pancakes! The wait is a bit long but if you want some good Chinese food. This is the only place I visited, so I can vouch to say it was good!
Mamoun Falafel
My brother’s friend told him to check out this place for Falafel. If you like it definitely check it out its so good. It’s kind of in a sketch neighborhood but totally worth it to get it. We got the food to-go and ate it at the house.
Julianna’s Pizza
Juliannas is closer to Brooklyn Bridge and it was a bit of a walk to get there, but the pizza is one of the dishes you HAVE TO TRY!
Caregie Pizza
Ichiran Ramen*
We’ve been to the one in Japan and loved it so much and so awesome to see a chain in New York! New York is so lucky to have that there. It was so good and definitely worth the wait! We were fortunate to have it before our flight back home!

*NOTE: If you love Ramen... this is the spot to really try Ramen from Japan!  There are other locations in New York as well.  With a help of Yelp you can identify the one closest or near you!