I’ve been to New York City three times in my life, yet this upcoming trip will be the first that I get to actually plan.
2005: Visited with a church choir group. Did some classics like Statue of Liberty and saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
2012: Visited with Emily, a good friend in college. We stayed with a previous designer of The Daily Beacon where Emily and I met. We saw Elf and Chicago on Broadway, ate at Serendipity’s 3 and walked down 5th Avenue window shopping during Christmas season
2017: Visited with my husband and stayed with his family in New Jersey. Only had a half day to visit what we wanted so we opted for the MoMA and had lunch with my friend at World Trade Center
2018: Visiting with my mom for girls weekend to see Hamilton!! Planning 3 full days of non-stop fun
The trip was a bit sudden as I was at work and got notification for ticket sales for Hamilton had opened. I found a random Saturday the following year and called my mom. She was down and after the tickets were purchased (all this in a 10 minute time frame) she called back saying it happened to also be President’s Day weekend so she had an extra day off work!! All this almost exactly 11 months ago.
Mom and I talked back in forth for a few months “What about this hotel? What times are you planning on flying in? How do we get around?” Luckily I have good luck with learning transportation in new cities so I’m comfortable with the MTA from my past visits. As for planes and hotels, I was a procrastinator for once.
I debated for weeks of what hotels we should stay in. Searched for flights for months. But all that matters is in January we finally picked everything.
- Flights: Delta
- Hotels: IHG & Marriott
Why these? Well since Trey and I have been playing the points game, we have status and points with several companies, so I’d rather spend a few points and have excellent lounge access with Delta and splurge on a hotel in Manhattan that we wouldn’t otherwise pay for.
What about the what to do’s?
This is where Google has been my friend over several days off work. I’ve been scouring Pinterest, Yelp, Trip Advisors and recommendations from friends. I’d love to experience things we can’t back at home and eat things I can’t easily get.
What we end up doing will depend a little more on the weather when we are there but I have a good idea. I asked mom what her top 5 things were to do and I then worked around that. We plan to do
- Top of the Rock
- 9/11 Memorial
- Hamilton
- Shopping
- New York Public Library
- The Met
While researching costs I found that CityPASS would be the best option for us, so now we also get to do the Empire State Building and a Circle Line Cruise Tour around Manhattan.
Overall I’m very excited for our trip. Expect lots of Instagram and Facebook checkins. It helps me recall what we did months later when I actually attempt blog posts or videos!
Traveling TnT 