Hey everyone and welcome back to my next “Being a Tourist in…” post! I added to my list of summer trips by going to New York City with one of my best friends this past weekend and I’m so excited to share with you what we were up to in this incredible city! Let’s get started!
My friend lives about an hour outside of New York City, so we spent Friday night in her area and then took a transit bus from her town into the city on Saturday morning. We left around 8:45am, so we arrived at Port Authority, which is right near Times Square, at about 10am. When we went to the city together a couple years ago, we ended up walking a ton more than we thought we would, so this time, she had the wonderful idea of getting tickets for one of the double-decker, hop-on hop-off buses! We used a Groupon, so the tickets were only about $18 per ticket and we were set for the whole day! The only walking we had to do beforehand was walking from Port Authority to the Visitor Center to redeem our tickets and our feet were thanking us for that.
Basically, the bus makes a huge loop around the city, taking about an hour or two in total! If you take the downtown loop, it hits all the touristy areas, like Soho, the Empire State Building, and China town. We got on and rode until we were near Chelsea Market and the bus driver made a special stop just for us so we’d be a little bit closer to where we needed to be! Once we were off the bus, we walked about eight blocks or so to Chelsea Market. It was so cool! They have all sorts of food vendors and there are even some little shops inside with books and cards and toys. After Chelsea Market, we went up on the High Line. I had heard great things about it, but I’d never been so I was thrilled to see what it had to offer! Essentially, it’s an elevated space where a train used to run, but it’s been renovated to be a walking space above the street with greenery and great views. We were there on such a beautiful day so it was a perfect spot to hang out for a bit!
After we left that area and grabbed a quick lunch, we headed back to a bus stop to hop back on the double decker. Our next stop was the Top of the Rock! In all the times I’ve been to the city, I’ve never done the Top of the Rock so that’s what I was most excited for during this trip. The tickets to get to the top were around $35, so not a terrible price to see such an awesome sight. At the top, it wasn’t super crowded, especially for a Saturday afternoon, and two couples got engaged while we were there! It was cute to see that in person – I’m sure they have proposals happen there every day! When it was time to go, we decided to walk back to Port Authority through Times Square instead of taking the double decker because it wasn’t too long of a distance. When we were walking through Times Square, there was a Christian band playing and it was just incredible to see the love they were sharing in the middle of such a high-traffic, busy area!
We made a quick stop at the famous Magnolia bakery to get a few cupcakes and then we were on our way! We made the transit bus back with about two minutes to spare and couldn’t of been happier with our day. I love New York City and I’m so thankful that I am able to take day trips there! If you’ve ever been to the city, let me know what your favorite thing was that you did during your trip. See you next week!
Top of the rock is my favorite spot, but next time I go I really want to go to high line!!
Fantastic post! Now I want to go!! Sounds like the bus was the way to go!