New York, New york

Big City of Dreams

My fourth trip to NYC and it gets better every time. NYC is such a big city and most people, like me, just visit it for a few days. Chances are you focus on some highlights (which are still very cool) and go back home. Which will leave you with plenty of great impressions, but NYC is much more then the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Bulding.

To get the most out of your NYC trip some preparations and tips might be helpful. So I thought I share my experiences with you about my NYC trips. The do’s and dont’s from my point of view. I’ll sum up some things from our experience that might be helpful for your own NYC trip. Enjoy this post and have lots of fun in the big apple!

#1. Get your own apartment

As said this was my fourth time visiting NYC and for me it was the first time I booked an AirBnB. Our goal was to live in NYC rather then visiting it. Experience NYC by staying in an apartment rather then a big hotel. This was a very good choice and tip#1.

Advantage of staying in an apartment is that you can get up early and don’t necessarily have to leave the house to enjoy breakfast or get your early morning coffee. And since the time difference you might get up earlier then your fellow New Yorkers.

This time, we stayed in East Harlem “el barrio” on East 102nd street. Since NYC is big but the subway is an excellent way to travel this was good enough for us, but if you have the chance you might want to get a place more downtown.

Do yourself a favor and bring some earplugs. You’re in NYC and there is some noise..

#2. Get off Manhatten!

Sure, Manhattan itself is great fun and offers great stuff, like the park, the Guggenheim, Museum of natural history, lots of buildings to see etc etc.. But New York is much more then just Manhatten and you should do yourself a favor and treat yourself that little more..

Visiting the Brooklyn Bridge is probably already on your to-do list. As it should be.. But not only are there are more bridges to explore. Those other bridges as the Brooklyn Bridge itself go somewhere and some of the best places to visit are actually on the other side of these bridges.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the things you have to do when you’re in NYC. One of my favorites actually. But be early to get the most out of it!! Visiting the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise is really beautiful and you’re actually getting the chance of enjoying it by yourself instead of sharing the experience with too much other visitors.

But other than that, also visit the Williamsbridge or the Queensbridge for a change. A lot more quite and also great views on the city from there! One of my favorite things we’ve done so far is to rent a bike for a day and cross the Queensbridge. There are some really cool parks along the East River with great views on the city.

#3. Prep yourself

I hate it to visit a place, get back home and find out something cool was just around the corner of where I drank my coffee. This happened to me once when I was in Los angeles, had a hotel at Santa Monica Boulevard and found out the Eames House was a 10 minute walk away. It was a great holiday but that one thing kept nagging..

So if you have the same state of mind (some people just don;t mind and that’s ok too) do yourself a favor and prepare yourself. NYC is large and there are lots of cool spots you just don’t know about yet or are of some distance from each other.

So a great way to prepare yourself is to use Google maps and just save your points of interests. At least that’s what I did and it worked for me. Only thing that didn’t really worked out was the battery of my iPhone in combination with the really cold weather. So keep a physical map with you at all times 🙂

A great help also was youtube. The channel life with Lorenzo helped me finding some cool spots in Bushwick. There are channel for everybody’s interests, but this one worked for me.

Again, NYC is big and with just a couple of days visit it’s really advised to plan your trip in advance en knowing what places you want to see and what area’s you want to cover. Just hangin’ around isn’t going to help you a lot.

#4. Get yourself the 32 dollar subway pass

Your legs are going to thank me later..

As told earlier. NYC is large. On a map it might be looking smaller because all the nice and orderly presentation of the blocks. And your destination only being 20 blocks aways is easily said. But reality is that the first is going to be great and the other days will be going to be tuff. So get the card.

Not only will your legs and feet be very happy, but also you get the chance to experience the subway in NYC. And without have the experience of the subway, you haven’t been completely in NYC. So go and enjoy the 32 dollar weekpass.

#5. Experience rooftop bars

We were there in wintertime, so it’s more difficult to find a nice rooftop bar. But hey, it’s NYC. We found Mr.Purple in the Indigo Hotel at the lower east side. Great cocktails with great view. You do need some extra change in your wallet because good things don;t come cheap in NYC, but it’s really worth it. There are more bars and maybe cheaper, but this one was a great add-on on our trip.

Our trip in motion..

Check some more pics behind the click..