All of NYC in 3 Days

Today I’m going to share how to see everything in New York City in 3 days and not feel overwhelmed! The first time I went to NYC was with my husband when he proposed.

It was a great trip but I was also distracted with being newly engaged and my new ring. 😉

This time I went with my mom and we had a great time!

Day 1

We landed at LaGuardia really early and then took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at Hampton Inn in Times Square.

The location of this hotel is perfect, I highly recommend this hotel!

After dropping off our bags we went to pick up our tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour.

If you have read my past travel entries you know how much I love and recommend these tours! They are the best way to see big cities at your own pace! You can get on and off at all the big stops while enjoying the views from an open double decker bus. I bought the 3 day pass that included: Uptown Route, Downtown Route, Night Tour, ferry ride around the city, ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and tickets to Top of the Rock. This also included the Brooklyn Route and Harlem route, we didn’t do these two because the night tour covers Brooklyn and the Uptown Route covers Harlem.

This is what the routes look like! It covers everything!

The first day we did the Uptown Route.

We love sitting on top of the double decker bus. You can see things from here that you can’t from a car let alone the subway.

The first stop was Strawberry Fields in Central Park. This section of the park was named in memory of John Lennon.

Imagine circle

The bus then drove through Harlem. We didn’t get off anywhere but we did see a few cool things such as the Apollo Theater. This is the famous theater where the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and many others started their careers.

Then we went inside the Plaza Hotel.

They had an Eloise store! I was so excited because I LOVED these books/movies as a child.

We then got tickets to go inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). We saw a lot of famous pieces.

Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Our next adventure was a subway ride to the Brooklyn Bridge. You have to ride the subway at least once while in NYC.

It was a long walk but the views are breathtaking.

The final stop of the day was Times Square. Day 1 ended earlier than Day 2 and 3 because we were exhausted from waking up at 3 am!

Day 2

On Day 2 we did the Downtown Tour, took a ferry around the city, and the Night Tour.

The first thing stop on the Downtown Tour was the Freedom Tower (the new 9/11 building).

This is now the tallest building in NYC and it is beautiful!

The two 9/11 memorials are right next to the Freedom Tower.

They did a great job designing the memorial fountains.

Then we took a ferry ride around the city.

Such a big city!

We took a little stroll through the Waldorf Astoria. What a gorgeous hotel!

I have to admit I got lost once during this trip and it was trying to get to Grand Central Terminal. We made it though!

We finished the day by taking the Night Tour. Isn’t Times Square beautiful at night?

The views were fabulous and we had a great tour guide!

We loved this part of our trip!

Day 3

Our final day consisted of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Top of the Rock.

Trying to take a selfie at the Statue of Liberty.

The views of Manhattan from Liberty Island were gorgeous!

We were a little disappointed in Ellis Island. They need to make this place a lot more interesting and bring back artifacts that are currently in storage.

Our final stop of the day was the Rockefeller Center. We had tickets to the top which is called the Top of the Rock. This is my favorite place in NYC (and one of my favorite places in the world) for two different reasons: my husband proposed here and the views are to die for!