NYC at Christmas

New York City at Christmas time is magical. When a friend's 50th birthday celebration took us to Cape Cod in December, we couldn't resist tacking on a NYC trip to it.

Getting There

We added NYC to the end of our Cape Cod trip- which was awesome too by the way:

My parents flew in just ahead of us and we met up with them upon our arrival.

We flew into LaGuardia from Boston and grabbed an Uber to our hotel (there is SO MUCH honking in NYC!). Flying out, we flew out of JFK. Both flights were with American Airlines.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at the Radisson Hotel New York Midtown-Fifth Avenue. I think it is now a DoubleTree by Hilton. I thought it was the perfect location. It was very busy at check in. We dropped off our luggage to start walking around- after all, we only had 2 days here! The location was close to all the main spots.

We had a great view from our hotel room.

That's Rockefeller Plaza right there!
One morning we heard Alicia Keys singing while she was at the Today Show (I'm kicking myself for not getting up early to head down and watch closer).

To Do 

This trip was focusing on the Christmas in NYC. That was our goal- all the Christmas things the city has to offer.

Rockefeller Christmas Tree

We were located essentially right across the street from the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. It was beautiful! We were able to see this tree a lot during our short stay.


Christmas Lights and Bar Hopping

My husband and I have a tradition of Christmas lights and bar hopping every year. This year, we took it to NYC. There are a few websites you can find off a quick Google search that maps out the must see Christmas lights in NYC. I used that and then just found some bars along to way. Of course, you pass by some general sight seeing spots as well.

We started the night at Subway Inn for a drink to kick things off.

We walked around and saw a lot of Christmas lights, including the famous Christmas windows in the stores.
We walked through Times Square.

Sight Seeing

The next morning, we took the subway to the Financial District and saw the NYSE, some famous statues, and wandered over to The Battery Park for a view of the Statue of Liberty.

We then walked over to the 9/11 Memorial where we had reservations for a tour. Such a somber visit, but a must do.

We took the subway back towards our hotel (and saw someone famous- Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his husband) to get ready for the night.

The Radio City Rockettes

What is a NYC Christmas vacay without the Rockettes?! We went to their show which was awesome! It would be a great family event.

No pics were allowed during the show, but it's everything you imagine it to be.

Bryant Park

Following the Rockettes, we wandered down to Bryant Park which offers a pretty awesome Holiday Market. It was fun hanging out at their pop up bar and watching the ice skaters. They had some cool igloos you could rent out for the night if you wanted too.

Empire State Building

We checked out the Empire State Building after dinner around 8 pm. There was very little crowd! I think this was a great time to go. It was beautiful seeing all the lights of NYC at night from up there. 

That second night, we had a night cap at a bar on our way home before calling it a night.

I would absolutely recommend a Christmas time trip to NYC- even a super quick one like we had. We fit a lot of the must dos on our short stay and I would absolutely go back!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Page, AZ

Image
I am a born and raised AZ native. And this state is quite beautiful with lots to offer. I've made it a point of late to see more of it. So for spring break this year, I planned a trip up to Page. It's a great base for lots of sights- Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon. You can even tack on the Grand Canyon and go look at dinosaur tracks too (which I'm kicking myself for since I didn't add it to our drive)! We kept this trip to a minimum, but I'd definitely head up there again and explore more than we did this time.   Itinerary   Remember how I've mentioned I'm a true believer in itineraries? Well, here's a classic Stacy Itinerary.    The one I shared in the Girls' Trip was extra fancy since we were celebrating an occasion. Typically, I just create one in Google Docs so that I can access it anywhere with my phone. Next to the dates you'll notice some numbers in parentheses. These are the high/low temps for the day. Helps me with plann
Read more

unBelizeable!

Image
For my birthday this year, I decided I wanted a passport stamp. A passport stamp from Belize, specifically. Last year for my big 4-0, I stayed home and partied 80s prom style with family and friends. I loved being able to celebrate with all those I love, but this year, I felt the need for a trip. Getting There We flew into BZE (Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport) from PHX. We used airline miles and flew American there, and I don't think you can find a direct flight. We had a short layover in Dallas on the way there, and Houston on the way back (we paid money and took United on the way back). The flights didn't seem too long and the quick layovers helped break it up.  Once we arrived in BZE, we took a 15 minute island hopper flight with Maya airlines to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (the other airline that flies there is Tropic; just make sure you book to/from BZE and not the city airport).  Our flight getting into BZE was delayed, and we technically missed our flig
Read more