How To Do New York in 4 Days

I’m not a travel expert, I’m not a regular flyer and I’ve never been to America before. But I did go to New York for 4 days, and this is what I did . . and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Keep reading for food tips, cheap eats and instagrammable spots with my guide on how to spend 4 days in New York.

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How To Do New York in 4 Days

So rather than doing a lengthy post on the ins and outs and trials and tribulations of our trip I wanted to make a quick bullet pointed post that’s easy to follow so if you are headed to the big apple any time soon and you are also going for 4 days then maybe, just maybe, you might know what you want to cover in New York in 4 days. It’s definitely long enough!

The Tourist Spots

CENTRAL PARK

I have to admit I wasn’t blown away by this but we only really went to one small section for a small amount of time and I’ve heard you can spend a whole day there as there’s so much to do. It has a frickin zoo! I can imagine that either in the snow or in the summer Central Park would be magical and we do plan to go back at summer time so I can’t wait to re visit and let it wow me.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

Now we didn’t go to the statue of liberty as such. We got a free ferry to Staton Island which goes directly past the statue of liberty. Then we got off of one ferry and onto another, and when right on back to Manhattan. I don’t regret not visiting, the queues of tourists, the waiting around, the business . . not for me. I got a great view and a little free ride to go with it. It was also really nice to look back at manhattan from the ferry!

TOP OF THE ROCK

OK. So we went to get our tickets at 3pm only to be told we wouldn’t be able to go up until 5pm when it was dark . . major fail. So we bought tickets for the first trip the next day – 8am FYI which worked out pretty perfect. Only 4 other people went up with us which meant a clear deck for picture taking (yes I’m that girl) and I don’t know about you but I also  just think taking in the view without hoards of people surrounding you is just so much more special!

As we went in winter there was also the famous ice rink at the bottom of the Rockefeller Centre underneath the big christmas tree from Home Alone! I mean how can you not? It was a breathtaking $40 each to skate but as my sister would say YOLO! It’s worth mentioning that the Top of the Rock tickets are also around $40 so together it’s pretty pricey but New York was somewhere we went knowing we’d come back empty handed so we just went for it and did everything we could!

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

I couldn’t not include this but we didn’t do it. Controversial I know. I definitely want to go up next time because yes there will be a next time but after careful consideration and lots of advice we went for the Top of the Rock instead. Firstly because they’re the same height, secondly because you can see the Empire state building from the Top of the Rock which if you look at my images is an incredible site! And finally because the Top of the Rock is a 360 view whereas I’ve been told the Empire State Building is not.

If you have the time and money then I would definitely do both! My friend Laura did the Empire State Building at night and said it was incredible!

THE BARCLAYS CENTRE

If you like basketball or not, it’s so much fun. Honestly I have seen nothing like it, every 2 minutes there’s an interruption to the game whether it’s shooting a giant t shirt gun into the audience or 10 year olds dancing to a ramped up version of the hokey pokey you’re going to be entertained with a capital E. You need to go. We got the nosebleed tickets which had my palms sweating we were so high up but they were $10 and like I said, we’re not into sport so it was more for the experience and entertainment. Tickets go up a lot once you get further down!

THE HIGH LINE

I was told to do this. I did it, I wasn’t overwhelmed. As it so happened I was in one place and wanted to go to another and this was one of the routes, I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to do it though. It’s kind of a park on a bridge and it has amazing views running from the meat packing district to West 34th Street with multiple points to get off along the way.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Beautiful and worth a walk over, even if you just get a pretzel for the walk and turn around and walk right back again! But then again Brooklyn is a pretty cool place to spend the day you know?

Where To Eat

For food we didn’t want to determine our schedule too much by where we wanted to eat. So although we did book some places (essential if you want to eat well in the evenings) for lunch, coffee and breakfast we wrote a list of places we would like to go and what area they were in so if we found ourselves in a neighbourhood and hungry, we could check what we were close to rather than just stumbling on to places! This actually worked super well for us as we always ate well but never found we were going out of our way for food!

TIFFANYS

I heard about this on the instagram grapevine. Tiffany’s in New York have opened a new cafe called the Blue Box serving breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea so you can actually have breakfast at Tiffany’s!

Tiffany’s itself seems to have become an iconic spot to visit anyway in New York so you may as well have lunch whilst you’re there right!? We spent a while trying to get a booking as it’s super small and they only take reservations 2 weeks in advance so you have to have your laptop on and signed into your Resy account (very important detail that lost me a booking) when the clock strikes midnight in New York. 5 am UK time.

Food wise I wouldn’t write home about it, but it was the experience if you know what I mean? I would definitely recommend the afternoon tea or breakfast if you do go as I had lunch which I wasn’t impressed with but the others looked amazing! If it’s your birthday, anniversary or just a Tuesday, basically if you’re celebrating! You can buy the celebration cake which is a little blue tiffany box cake! So cute!

BATTARD

This is a Michelin star restaurant Jack had been excited about visiting since we first decided we were going to New York. He’s a foodie. The food was incredible and the bar lady was super friendly, I’d recommend going for a drink beforehand! We specifically  went on a Monday as there is no corkage fee on a Monday, so you can take your own really nice bottle of wine to have with your meal which reduced the cost a lot!

PIZZA BEACH

Another place we went for dinner one evening. Super chilled out this time though with incredible pizza. It’s like LA vibes in New York which we loved and the food was so good I would 100% recommend it. It was also way more affordable than some of the other places we visited whilst we were there and if you have children it is super kids friendly! We saw lots of families and parties whilst we were there, but not in an annoying kind of way if you don’t have kids you know what I mean.

WENDYS

3 words. Chilli Cheese Fries. My friend Kellie told me to go here for the chilli cheese fries and honestly I wish she hadn’t because I can’t stop dreaming about them. They’re incredible. Why don’t McDonalds do things like this?! AND they had Dr Pepper in the serve yourself coke things! Not just coke, sprite and fanta . .  dr pepper!

THE STANDARD GRILL

So I had a lot of recommendations for New York food, I had to get it right do you know what I mean?! Lorna told me that this was the best burger in New York so naturally we had to go and give it a try. Mine was quite dry but my own fault because I went for well done, Jack loved his at Medium. Definitely worth a try if you’re in the area!

DOMINIQUE ANSEL BAKERY

The inventor of the cronut and oh so much more! When we finally made our way there the cronut of the day had actually sold out as this tiny little bakery was queued out of the door! I had a little cup make of cookie and filled with milk, literally my childhood dreams coming to life, and Jack had some Madelines. Food, glorious food.

CHEFS CLUB COUNTER

This is actually somewhere we just stumbled upon that wasn’t on our list but it was the last day, we were hungry and the list was out of the window! It’s a super cool diner style restaurant that serves different burgers that were each designed by a different famous chef. As it so happened there was a Bobs burger, burger which had just launched that day so it was like a little Bobs burger pop up which was fun. The burgers were amazing (better than the standard grill but don’t tell Lorna) so definitely worth a visit and it’s in the soho area!

JULIANAS

This was our first meal in our 4 days in New York and we had to queue for over half an hour, I was starting to worry that this would be a regular thing! Jack had read about how incredible the pizza here was and the queue kind of confirmed it to me so we stood, we waited, and then we ate the most divine pizza. Also the biggest pizza. Please only order one to share, you’ll thank me. Also it takes them like 5 minutes to make one so you can always order more!

THE BUTCHERS DAUGHTER

Ok, I have to admit to only seeking this one out for instagram purposes. As it so happens I didn’t even get the shot and instead I fell in love with the food. I had an acai bowl which was amazing and always is, my favourite breakfast. Jack had eggs and soldiers and oh my I was jealous, his looked incredible! It’s also in a really nice area in the meat packing district so a great place to start the day.

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Shopping Spots

5TH AVENUE

5th Avenue is to New York what Oxford Circus is to London. The busy, hectic street with all of the tourists and shops and madness going on. The department stores are all here and it’s basically the number one shopping spot for central New York. Particularly if you’re looking for more high street pricing though there’s plenty of Chanel, Gucci and Prada to go around.

If you’re on 5th Avenue make sure you take a visit to 2 places. 1, the cupcake ATM, it’s 2 minutes away on Lexington Avenue. 2, the flatiron, I know there’s not much to do apart from look at it but believe me you, it’s worth a look.

SOHO

We actually stumbled upon the shops in Soho on our last day. Lots of the trendy instagramer shops are there like Supreme, Glossier and Reformation along with the more mainstream stores and even Chanel. If I was going to go choose a place to go  shopping for the day this is where I would go 110%.

BROOKLYN

Now we didn’t really do our research on Brooklyn as much as we probably should have because I’ve heard amazing things. We found loads of really cute coffee shops and quirky independent stores.

Where We Stayed

CITIZEN M

I think we paid around £150 a night for the privilege of a 5 minute walk to Times Square and a 2 second walk to the nearest subway station. Plus Check it out here! there’s a rooftop bar with incredible views on New York at night. I would recommend it to anyone!

Getting around …

FLY NORWEIGEN

We flew with Norwegian Air because . . make sure you’re sat down for this . .  it cost us £250 return. You don’t get a meal included but you can add one on if you want or just buy food on the flight or at the airport beforehand! Other than that I would say it’s no better or worse than even British Airways.

UBER

Uber in New York is way more reliable than Uber in The UK. Plus the drivers are super friendly and give you great tips on food etc from people who live in the city!

SUBWAY

The Subway is SO much easier to use than the tube. Firstly there are no where near as many lines. Secondly all of the streets are numbered so you know if you get off at 40th then its 2 blocks to 42nd. Plus if you can’t negotiate it, download city mapper. I only realised 2 days in that you can change city and it works out your subway route for you including the quickest route and how much an uber would cost.

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PS – You Might Like This

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