Our 24 Hours Exploring New York

The challenge: You’re breezing through New York for one night and need to catch a flight to London the very next day. Can you see all the major sights and get a good feel for New York in the next 24 hours?

This is actually a real-life scenario we faced a while back and essentially had to cover a huge bit of sightseeing over this period. It was really tough and. Oh, who am I kidding?

The only thing better than 24 hours in New York is 24 days in New York… or even 24 weeks; but I digress.

We’d spent quite a bit of time in Canada and on the West Coast of the US before this (which was relaxed as there was enough time to do everything at a relaxed pace) and so we had to make every minute in New York count. Here’s how it went and in the order in which it went.

Base Camp: The Andaz on Wall Street – an amazing hotel! We’ve stayed there every time we’ve been in New York since then! Loved it every time. Location, decor, wine and snacks reception in the evenings and free minibar.

This is always an easy yes!

First things first, explore the immediate neighbourhood by popping down Wall Street to see the NYSE and other sights.

Next: Hop on a boat to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island but before any of these, pop into a local coffee spot for a LARGE cup of joe as hadn’t slept on the red-eye flight in and had to deal with a time difference of 3 hours.

Then: Hotfoot it to a taxi to take us to the New York Public Library (which we explored in more detail upon alighting from said taxi)

Then made our way to Times Square where lots of gawking at signs and photos were taken.

In addition to grabbing a coffee! Not sleeping on the red-eye flight into New York was slowly starting to get its revenge.

Followed by a brief trip to Madison Garden Park (in truth, stopped for a coffee again here.

I actually fell asleep on the chair at Dunkin Donuts – only for like a minute or two; can’t tell you how refreshing it was though.

Then gawked at the Flatiron building (which I personally find quite impressive).

Got a cab to Central Park…

Walked into The Plaza Hotel (had to see where Home Alone and other great movies were set!)

Then walked down Fifth Avenue, stopping briefly at Saks Fifth Avenue and a couple of other stores for a mini-shopping break…

Stopped to check out St Patrick’s Cathedral

Then walked across to the Rockefeller Centre at 30 Rock! (I can’t say 30 Rock without the theme of the TV show playing in my head! Hehehe!)

Checked out Radio City…

Headed over to Grand Central station (again, a scene of many-a-movie)

Took a taxi back to base camp (i.e. the Andaz Hotel) and had a quick 2-hour nap!

It had to be done, Lloyd was so cranky at this point! 😉

Post nap, checked out more of Wall Street (after some wine at the hotel of course!) and took the mandatory photo next to the Wall Street Bull.

Then headed over to the Empire State Building for a great view over all of New York (which looked so amazing at night!).

Then walked to Times Square to get a taxi to back to Wall Street (i.e. my new home now, I was really starting to settle into New York waaaaaaaaay too easily)