three days in NYC

Hello all! I am super excited to be writing this post. Although being home is a tad bittersweet, I am beyond grateful I was able to travel to New York City at all! It was such a great way to start off 2021.

I’ll admit this trip was quite a large effort. I originally planned and booked it in August 2020 for the last week of December with a couple friends. Needless to say, with all the uncertainty surrounding COVID, our plans changed.

After hearing about our shift in plans, my mom and I talked and decided to convert what was supposed to be a girls trip to a mother daughter to NYC! Below I will share all the details of the trip along with my FULL ITINERARY!

Y’all… my family and I do not usually travel with full itineraries but with COVID, it was crucial to plan and know all the necessary measures that must be taken. I think I am forever changed because having this itinerary made things so easy! We were able to change what we wanted but weren’t pressed to plan things last minute. I thought it would be nice to share with you guys 🙂

ALSO A FEW THINGS:

If you prefer watching to reading check out my NYC VLOG!

LINK | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQdxq7TiFM&t=742s

This is the fourth time my mom and I have been to NYC so the things we do aren’t the most ’touristy.’ I recommend going during a safer time if you want to do these things!

I will be uploading a separate post with all of my outfits from the trip!

ABOUT THE TRIP

COVID

One of the ever-changing parts of our trip to New York was the government mandated precautions for COVID. The quarantine has changed many times so your best bet is to check the NY government website to see the details! When we went, only outdoor dining was allowed which made eating a little difficult in such extreme temperatures, but restaurants are making great efforts to keep their customers happy and warm!

STAY

The place my mom and I stayed at was a previous accommodation from years before. It was a VRBO that I do not believe is accepting new renters at this moment! Since I can’t share my actual stay, I will share the places my friends and I had booked along with the place my mom and I were looking at before we reached out to the VRBO!

Moxy Times Square - My friends and I had originally planned to stay at Moxy! This is a cute boutique hotel in the heart of Manhattan. It features reasonable prices, a killer location, and a stunning rooftop bar. They also have two other locations in Chelsea and the Village.

1 Central Park - When looking for hotels, my mom and I wanted to stay close to Central Park. 1 Central Park offers just that. The hotel features a luxury and sophisticated vibe with a killer view of Central Park

RESTAURANTS

There were a few restaurants my mom and I ate at while in NYC. Dining is so different right now since its strictly outdoor dining. This made reservations and YELP a key factor if we wanted to dine comfortably (meaning in a warm environment and not in 30 degree weather.) We learned after our first meal outside without a dining shelter that proper dining accommodations were important. (Check out my vlog to see the different types of dining experiences!)

One thing to note is that my mom and I also did a lot of DoorDash. Since the dining was a little colder than desired, we wimped out a lot of the nights and ordered in! When we DoorDashes, we usually opted to buy chain restaurants like Chick-fil-A!

Via Quadronno - This was the first place my mom and I dined out outside of our apartment! It was a cute Italian restaurant nestled in the heart of the Upper Eastside! My mom and I shared the bruschetta (one of my faves) and another dish which I believe was the Crostino Centro Nord. For my main dish I got the Carbonara which was divine.

Ruby’s Cafe - This was probably the best place we ate out at during the whole trip! It was definitely my favorite! Located between Soho and Little Italy, Ruby’s Cafe offers a variety of entrées. We started off the the truffle fries and for my main dish I got the hotcakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about omg. They also offer a variety of pastas which looked amazing but I knew I had an Italian restaurant scheduled for dinner so I didn’t try one of those!!

Cecconi’s DUMBO - One of things I really wanted to do was see the city from Brooklyn. In past trips, my family and I had never been so my mom and I made it a point to visit. On the water was Cecconi’s, and Italian restaurant. Although the waterfront was cold, the food and view made the temps worth it!

Serra by Birreria (Eataly) - Serra was another restaurant that I had seen on Instagram and really want to go to. Serra is located right across from the Flatiron building on the 14th floor of the Eataly building. It’s a rooftop restaurant that has a very cozy dining atmosphere. Their decor game is truly UNMATCHED!! Oh… and the food was also delicious!!

TREATS AND SNACKS

There were quite a few snacks and treats my mom and I picked up during the trip! Here is everything we got and that I reccommend.

Magnolia’s Bakery - This was the first taste of New York my mom and I got when arriving in the city! I am not usually a fan of Banana Pudding but this bakery KNOWS how to make this dish and I highly suggest it!!!

Lauduree - These are my FAV macarons!! They are so amazing and taste like a tiny bit of heaven.

Baked by Melissa - Talking about tiny bites of heaven… Baked by Melissa was AMAZING. I regret not buying more of these mini cupcakes. I highly suggest you try them!!

Eli’s Zabar - My friend highly encouraged me to find a shop that sold pastries and Eli’s did just that! My mom and I would stop by this small shop to grab water and pastries and they were delicious! I don’t have any pictures but for-sure wanted to add them in this list.

ITINERARY

After quarantining, we had a full three days in addition to a half day before we flew back home!

One of the biggest struggles throughout our trip was the temperature and sunset. During our stay, the sunset was at 4:30 pm and the temperatures were in the thirties. This meant that there was only a short amount of time that we could do stuff in each day!

The following is the scheduled we followed. My mom and I definitely had a more relaxed approach to our trip which you can see in my vlog. If you wanted to do more in each day, you could easily be more strict with waking up and making more use of the night!

Arrival Day

• Arrive in Newark

• Arrive at the Apartment

• Dinner Ordered In

• Quarantine

• For details on the current NYC mandates visit https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-travel-advisory

Day 1

• Morning Walk in Central Park

• Breakfast in the Apartment

• Pictures in the Park

• Lunch at Via Quadronno

• Dinner Ordered In

Day 2

• Late Morning

• Breakfast in the Apartment

• Shopping in Soho

• Lat Lunch at Ruby’s in Soho

• Sunset in Brooklyn

• Dinner at Cecconi’s Dumbo

Day 3

• Morning Walk in Central Park & Visited Met Steps

• Early Lunch/Late Breakfast in the Apartment

• Lunch at Serra by Birreria in the Flat Iron District

• Shopping at Hudson Yards

• Desserts Picked Up from CBM & Laduree

• Dinner Ordered In

Departure Day

• Last Morning Walk in NYC </3

• Pastry Run

• Depart!

And that’s all folks!! I hope you enjoyed this post recaping all of my short trip to New York. This was already a lengthy post so I’ll go ahead and end it quickly! Until next time!