We all know the struggle of planning a short trip. This past weekend I took a 3 day trip to NYC which is a SHORT amount of time to spend in the city. I spent a summer studying there the summer between first and second year and still didn’t get everything in. SO. With that struggle in mind, I’m going to walk you guys through how I planned the weekend.
Hotel:
I booked the hotel right after I booked my flight down to Boston, I knew wanted to stay between 20th and 57th Street.. aka midtown or the areas directly south of midtown. Midtown is the perfect location to tourist from because it literally is the centre of the island. You aren’t biased either South or North and it gives you the flexibility of being close to transportation. If it’s your first time to NYC or if you are only going for a short trip, you want to stay within close proximity to everything that you want to do.
I ended up booking The James New York – Nomad. Conveniently located 2 blocks north of Madison Square Park which borders Flat Iron, Gramercy and Midtown, while being a quick walk or cab to the West Village and Chelsea, and a short cab or subway from Soho and the Upper East Side.
Restaurants:
I would highly recommend booking your restaurant reservations prior to your planning of any sort of sightseeing activities. Here’s why: short of getting Hamilton tickets, getting the reservation at the restaurant you want and at the time you want is arguably the most difficult task in NYC if left to the last minute. Stick with me here guys… really groundbreaking information but book restaurants in areas you are going to be sightseeing in that day, you don’t want to be running all over the city just for a meal.
I’ll put up a post with a detailed itinerary ASAP.
I would recommend booking a late breakfast/brunch and then a late dinner, so you have time to either leisurely make your way over to brunch or be a keener and wake up early – grab a coffee and hit the sites before everyone else gets there.
Where to Go:
There is an endless possibility with NYC. If you have only a weekend, I highly highly highly recommend planning neighbourhood by neighbourhood and realize that some places are closer together than others.
I would group your site seeing as follows:
Upper East Side + Central Park + Mid Town
Flatiron + Gramercy + Madison Ave
Greenwich + Chelsea + Meatpacking
Noho + Soho + Financial
Dumbo + Williamsburg
You can mix and match as you choose, but I’m a huge believer in hiking out somewhere (either subway or cab etc.) and then walking around through the neighbourhoods until you want to head home, so you maximize your immersion into the neighbourhood and you tend to stumble across hidden gems.
To Museum or Not To Museum
I would always suggest going to at least one museum if you are going purely just to see the city. If you are a content creator or looking to hit up the photo spots, spending valuable time in a museum may not be the most time effective for using your three days for content creation.
Where to Find The Coolest Spots:
I found most of my shoot locations through Mapify and Pinterest.
I do have a post upcoming all about how to use Mapify to plan your trips, so I’ll go into more detail there. Pinterest is where I find all my inspo. All the poses, outfits, editing etc. is 99.9% Pinterest mood board driven hehe.
I hope you guys enjoyed my guide to planning a weekend in NYC. Stay tuned for my itinerary and lots of other NYC Content!
xoxo Steph
