Part 1
We’ve been to New York City many times and will return many more. Because, it’s New York!! But our latest trip was special. We met our youngest son Seth and his significant other Chelsea for the weekend. It was Chelsea’s first visit and she had a surprise coming! More on that later. The Youngers (or Elder Millennials) were driving up from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to meet us at our AirBnB apartment in North Bergen, New Jersey.
New York City Planning Considerations
When planning this trip, we had to consider several things.
- We wanted to stay somewhere we could all be together. An apartment made sense. Seth and Chelsea were driving up so free parking was a necessity. Parking in NYC is crazy expensive!!
- This was Chelsea’s first trip to New York. Gotta be sure to cover all the highlights!
- There was a surprise planned for Chelsea on Day 4…shhhh! Seth had a plan for that to be special and secret!
Where to Stay
Karen loves to stay in Times Square, something about those lights! Sadly, rooms are small and two rooms on a holiday weekend was too much money. No suite options, either! Again, parking prices makes one cry a bit. We searched other parts of New York City without much luck. We booked two rooms in the downtown area that could be cancelled without penalty while we explored other options as a backup plan.
When we turned to our old friend AirBnB, we discovered that New York City has changed the law on short term rentals. Here’s a good article in the New York Times about the change. So we looked at New Jersey. What a great choice! Times Square in 25 minutes, a wonderful 2 bedroom apartment with free parking for less than a single room in The City! Score!
Note: We will post an article on how we choose locations as well as an article on how we choose an AirBnB soon!
New York City Itinerary Sites
So, we all made it to the Big Apple! Since this was Chelsea’s first trip, we wanted to be sure she loved it as much as we do. We had an itinerary with a sampling of the city ready to go:
- Site-seeing river cruise
- Iconic Neighborhoods
- Midtown
- Greenwich Village
- Upper East Side
- Little Italy
- China Town
- Iconic Sites
- Statue of Liberty
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Empire State Building
- Times Square
- Chrysler Building
- Grand Central Station
- Penn Station
- Central Park
New York City Part 2 (coming soon) of this post will look at how we spent Days 1 & 2 with a River Cruise, visit to Times Square, and the Midtown from Columbus Circle to Radio City Music Hall
New York City Part 3 (coming soon) of this post will will cover Days 3 & 4 including the remainder of Midtown, Greenwich Village, Little Italy, China Town, Central Park, and the Upper West Side. Plus Chelsea’s surprise on Day 4 in Central Park! The pics are amazing!!
