New York City
After many years we finally made it to New York! We heard a lot of good about New York so we went with high expectations. Often that leads to disappointment, but not for New York. The city more than met all expectations. New York is a vibrant, clean and safe city. There are plenty of things to do or to visit. The only downside is that like the rest of the United States, drinks and food are expensive compared to European standards.
Practicalities
We booked direct flights from Brussels to JFK and returning to Brussels from Newark. This resulted in the best hours. We departed in Belgium around 10:00 am and arrived after a 6 to 7 hour flight just afternoon on JFK. After security check we took an Uber to our hotel. We wanted to use our afternoon as efficient as possible and avoid losing time by looking to find the right train, metro and then maybe walk to the hotel, all having our hand luggague with us. As we were with 4 people the Uber (106 euro, tip inclusive) was the best choice to us. After an 1 hour drive we were at our hotel, located at 35th Street between 5th and 6th avenue. The hotel location was superb as the metro entrance was only 50 metres away from the hotel entrance. It is important to not be in an isolated location and paying a little more to be right in the centre is worth it. After a couple of days we were familiar with public transportation, hence we took the train from New York-Penn Station (under Madison Square Stadium) directly to Newark airport. This was 16$ per person and very convenient.
Times Square
World famous Times Square. Heard so much about it. Every time we celebrate New Year it’s mentioned with the ball dropping at midnight. We saw the ball. From what I got from television it’s a huge ball, but when we observed it, if it was the correct one, it isn’t that huge at all. The area is so crowded. If you go with kids, make sure you don’t loose them out of sight. We were with 4 adults and even that was already a challenge to not loose each other. It’s worth to visit the square during day time and night time to spot the difference. Be prepared for plenty of incentives! The lights keep on flashing, commercial after commercial, the place is loaded with people and plenty of dressed up folks want to take a photo to get some bucks from you. Every night, just before midnight, the screen reset and it’s a moment to be around. It seems sometimes the screens turn pink. When we attended, all screens were showing some people that were looking at us. I wouldn’t skip my sleep for it, but after our Broadway Show it was only a beer away so we attended this “magical” moment.
Central Park
Central Park can’t be missed when visiting New York. When you would do the entire park it will take around 10 km. We started near Billionaire row and headed north. We didn’t went till the end and turned after the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in the direction of the tennis courts. There is plenty to do in the park. In winter you can find a skate rink, but in summer the area was taken by several Pickleball courts. There are plenty of people walking, biking or just hanging around. Expect musicians, kids in the grass areas, and many more. We had a great time and you’ll forget the busy city when inside the park, even though some roads are crossing through (beneath) the park. We quickly left the park to check out the Guggenheim and the American Museum of Natural History where you can explore a Dinosaur Skeleton.
From Central Park you will be able to observe the famous Billionaire row, a group of ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers. I can advise to look for some movies on internet about the apartments in these buildings, overlooking Central Park. They are for the ultra rich on this world and cost several millions. In 2024 the internet states that an apartment in 432 Park Avenue is worth $169 million.
Wall Street and Finance world
New York Stock Exchange. It’s well known and during our trip we spend some time chasing some famous areas. Obviously you can’t miss Wall Street and the Charging Bull. Next to the notorious Stock Exchange Buildings you have many famous others ranging from the Salesforce tower to the Bank of America, … It is the heart of the financial world and we enjoyed getting a grasp of it.
9/11 Museum
When you look around on our blog you will quickly notice we are into sports and nature. We don’t invest much time into museums. However, for 9/11 museum we made an exception as we heard great comments about this place. I can more than confirm this. In the end we spend around 4 hours in this museum!
It is really touching and the museum is well build. You see they have thought about it. You will see the Slurry wall, collapsed metal, memorabilia and a lot of sadness which in a way shows strength. There is a timeline of the day which takes you per minute what happened on that day. I remembered some highlights, but after more than 20 years I forgot a lot of details. There were even a few things which I think I never knew, like the movie they play about the evacuation via vessels and ships. One thing which really struct me was seeing the metal which collapsed due to extreme heat. When you plan your trip you might foresee enough time for this museum. I would suggest minimum 2 hours, but you can easily spend 5 to 6 hours if you really want to see everything.
MOSA: Museum of Street Arts
MOSA is not an actual museum as it’s located in the CitizenM Bowery hotel. It’s free of charge and what is unique is that the artwork is located in the stairway going down from level 20 to ground floor. During your walk down you’ll cross plenty of nice street art. We just walked in to the hotel and asked if we could access the museum. The front desk worker guided us to the lift and used his badge to activate the lift to go to level 20. When we were about to start our walk down we noted their awesome rooftop bar with an incredible view on the New York skyline. Eventhough the weather wasn’t great, we could see very far and plenty of skyscrapers. When you are in the bar, make sure to go to the toilet. When you enter the toilets, go left behind the corner and take the door in front of you. I’ll keep it as a surprise, but I’m convinced you’ll be amazed by the experience.
Broadway
A must do experience when visiting New York is going to a musical. The tickets aren’t cheap, but it’s worth it. We paid just below 200 euro for 2 tickets half way the audience. We were a little reluctant to pay more as we didn’t know what to expect and better places were expensive. While finding an affordable show we came to Moulin Rouge which plays over 10 years on Broadway. During our visit, Boy George was temporarily part of the crew. The show was very good and entertaining. Be once again prepared for expensive drinks compared to European standards. It goes 10$ for a soda and 13$ for a beer, without tax and tip (2024). When the show was over we left via the parterre and realised that next time we would definitely pay more for front seat tickets. So if you only go once to New York and attend a Broadway show, I strongly advise to take top seats as I’m convinced the experience is worth the money, even if it costs a rib out of your body.
One World Observatory
There are 5 observation decks from which you can overlook New York
- One World Observatory
- Edge NYC
- SUMMIT one Vanderbilt
- Empire State Building
- Top of the Rock
We selected for the One World Observatory as you can see Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, Hudson River and the city towards the direction of Central Park. We doubted if we would want to do more than 1 platform, but sticked only to 1. We learned from our trips to Hong Kong and Dubai that in the end it looks all quite similar. Don’t get me wrong, you should definitely visit at least one of those view platforms, but I’m not convinced that multiple on a very short time frame bring a lot of added value. We had reservations but went earlier and changed our tickets to make sure we had a clear day. During our visit it was not a problem to change time slot. We were lucky as on Sunday, our initial slot, the weather was bad and the platform even was closed. When you have only a few days in New York, I advise to take your chance as soon as possible when there is a clear evening. We went just before golden hour, so we could overlook the city by daylight, experience sunset and then observe the city by night. It means we have spend 1 to 2 hours on the 102nd floor. Be prepared for expensive drinks.
Cool shops: Lego, M&Ms, Tesla, Nintendo
When strolling around New York you might run into several famous shops. We really enjoyed the Lego shop close to Fifth Avenue. You find a great collection of Lego constructions. The real taxi variant is impressive, and what about the Hulk, which consists out of 62,677 bricks, weights 274 kg and took 300 hours to construct. Next to these you will find a Blues Brother creature, One world & Rockefeller building, and a great imitation of Times Square. Make sure to go and visit this one!
At the end of The High Line walk, close to Chelsea Market, you have a Tesla store. No something special you might think at first, but for European people it’s a great way to see the Tesla Cybertruck for yourself. I don’t think that car will be on the European road soon. The car is huge! Whether it’s a beautiful car or not, I leave up to you to define.
On previous trips we really enjoyed the M&M store, like in London, but the one we crossed close to Times Square was a disappointment. Same goes for the Nintendo store close to the Rockefeller centre, of which I don’t think we have them in Europe. You can play some games, even on big screen, but the shop isn’t really impressive. You can easily skip it.
New York by bike (hosted by Baja bikes)
We heard a lot of positive things about Baja bikes, a franchise that delegates rides to local organisations. Advantage is that you often have local guides and when you do that upon arrival, you get a good grasp of the area. Later on you can then check out things to which you want to spend more time. Mostly this is joining a group. The experience was good, but I’m not convinced we’ll do it again in the future. Although we biked to some great spots, I would have enjoyed going to the left, to the right, or whatever that caught my attention. Sure, the city explorations aren’t about speed, but in our group we had some people who were not used to ride a bike, which made us go quite slow. Next time I think we’ll do again a bike tour on our own. Ah, one more thing… New York isn’t the best city to bike. There are plenty of traffic lights, traffic and tourists to look out for.
Statue of Liberty
The world famous Statue of Liberty. We doubted whether we wanted to take the effort to queue to see… well… a statue… Tickets for the ferry to the Island go at the price of 25$. If you are in time, and book your tickets 5 to 6 months up front, you can even get tickets for the crown at the same price. We decided to save ourselves the effort and to go for the free Staten Island Ferry. Yes, free. You’ll pass on viewing distance from the Statue, but it will still be 200 meters away. Certainly with a regular iPhone, you shouldn’t count for great pictures. But as said before, it’s a statue. The ferry takes about 25 minutes and when you are on the front line to get off the boat, you can run around and get back on the same ferry back to Manhattan. It will take you roughly an hour. When leaving Manhattan, the best view point is at the back of the ferry. Go there early, as you’ll get a great view on the Manhattan skyline.
Awesome buildings
Throughout New York you have several impressive buildings. The first you can’t miss is the Oculus Transportation Hub around the World Trade Center. After the 9/11 attacks the ground zero was changed with a museum, One World (Observatory) and The Oculus which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The cost topped $4 billion and took 12 years to be constructed. Above the ground it’s already impressive, but once inside you realise how big it is.
Grand Central Terminal, located at 42 Street and Park Avenue is maybe not the most impressive building from the outside, but make sure to go inside. You’ll recognise the building from movies like John Wick (Chapter 3), The Commuter, Armageddon, Godzilla, MIB II and many more. Take a moment to observe all the people passing by and how majestic the main hall is.
On 5th Avenue you will find the Apple Store of which then entrance is a huge glass cube with a mirror stairs going down inside the shop, which is fully underground. Don’t go to fast on the stairs as with all the mirrors you can have some fun and really look behind the corner. The elevator is a big tube with a glass ceiling. However, when possible, focus on the stairs, which is way more impressive than the elevator.
New York varia
It’s not that often that we collect so many impressions, experiences, sights and many more on such short amount of time. It would almost lead me to write more on a 5 day trip to New York compared to a 2-week road trip in Thailand. So I decided to make a masonry of pictures and will summarise them.
A magical point is the place where you can spot the Empire State Building through the Brooklyn Bridge. We passed this point during our bike trip with Baja Bikes. At the start of The High Line walk you can visit The Vessel. A bizar “building” with endless stairs. During our visit The Vessel was closed for reparation works, so we couldn’t visit it. During our hike on The High Line we saw quite some interesting spots ranging from Little Island, just nature, insane massive buildings and many more.
New York has many statues and while strolling around the city we crossed many of them. A world famous one is the charging bull of Wall Street. The legend says that it bring luck when you rub the testikels of the bull. Near the Oculus you can find several sculptures from A Wild life for wildlife. There are some awesome statues and the bike with all kinds of wild animals is so beautiful. There is a spot left for you to get on the bike amongst those big animals. A hidden gem is the Glass Waterfall Tunnel near The Rockefeller centre. Next to it you find a paparazzi statue of a dog and a rabbit and Marie-Claire use it as a gym device which led to an incredible picture!
In the collection of pictures you can find a view from One World Observatory deck during sunset, which shows how awesome the view is. You also see the 9/11 monument (fountain) with the One World tower in the back. This place is really impressive and will make you silent.
A little disappointment was The Flatiron building, known from the John Wick movies as the building is under construction and was in scaffolding. Sometime I enjoy making pictures which were used in magazines or in The Lonely Planet, hence we headed to the New York Public Library and Marie-Claire has to prentend being a visitor while I was shooting the image from the magazine.
Our hotel, The Herald by LuxUrban has a famous rooftop bar, The Monarch which we visited during one of the evenings. A great vibe where plenty of young people were hanging around, which led often to a queue at the ground floor elevator. Luckily we got a table and had some drinks.
The last picture worth mentioning is one from my childhood. We visited Firehouse Company 8, which is the GhostBusters headquarter. The even have the sign above their gate!
