I recently visited NYC again with my mom and sister for their first time and wanted to share everything we did in our New York City 3 Days Itinerary.
I recently visited New York City with my mom and sister. I have been three times before, but this was their first time! While I mostly enjoy spending my time out in nature, there is just something so fun and exciting about New York City that has me continually coming back. (It also helps that I have multiple friends who live there that I love to see).
SInce it was my mom and sister’s first time in NYC, I wanted to make sure we did a variety of things and saw as much as we could on our short trip there. Mind you, I was 33 weeks pregnant, so I was a bit nervous about all the walking I knew we would do.
We were actually technically in New York for 4 days, but we really didn’t do much the last day so you could definitely do all of this in 3 days!
We had a great time in New York, so here are is what our New York City 3 Days Itinerary looked like:
New York City 3 Days Itinerary
Tuesday – September 24, 2024
I took a red eye flight and landed at JFK around 6:00 am. It worked out that my mom, flying in from Las Vegas, landed at the exact same time. We met up on Airtrain and took that into the city.
I have taken an Uber, Taxi, and the Airtrane in from JFK and while a taxi and Uber are much simpler, the Airtrain was exponentially cheaper. We probably paid around $15 total.
We took the subway to my friend’s house where we relaxed and took a nap on her couch. Then when my sister landed a few hours later, we met up with her at our hotel. Our room was ready so we dropped our stuff off and then headed out to go walk around Central Park.
Before taking the subway to Central Park, we grabbed a quick slice of pizza from one of my favorite spots, Made in New York. Their vodka slice is to die for.
In Central park we headed to Bethesda Fountain which is in many movies: Enchanted, The Avengers, Home Alone 2. And the archways just behind it are iconic if you have ever seen Gossip Girl. We listened to the live music that was playing and had fun chatting.
We saw a few people rowing it boats on the pond nearby and decided to rent one ourselves. It was pretty inexpensive (I think less than $30) and they didn’t give us a time limit. We rowed around and it was so fun to be on this beautiful pond, surrounded by trees, with these huge skyscrapers in the distance.
After we returned our boat, we decided to walk over to Ladurée which sells authentic french macarons. I had these when we were in Paris and it was one of my favorite treats. We all had fun trying the different flavors, raspberry and lemon were my favorite, and then took a train over to the High Line at Hudson Yards.
The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure running from Gansevoort St. to 34th St. on Manhattan’s West Side. There’s benches to sit on along the way and just some cool views of the city. We hopped off at Chelsea Market and went inside to look around.
I love all the shops in Chelsea Market but we didn’t buy much. We bought some fresh fruit from a stand and candy at this fun candy shop that has old, vintage candy. My sister and I were sitting at a table and my mom walked around some more. She saw a bunch of people eating just fries from a restaurant called Dicksons Farmstead Meats so we decided to try them. They’re fried in lard and were excellent.
It was around 5:15 pm at this point and we were going to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway so we headed to dinner. We walked over to our subway which was delayed about 20 minutes so we were a little stressed on time. When it finally did come, we had to cram inside a cart with too many people.
We got to dinner and ate at Los Tacos which is a place I always eat when I’m in New York. My friends who live there say it’s the only good Mexican food in the city. They have a small menu but it’s always crowded, especially around 6 before the broadway shows start. I got my usual 2 carne asada tacos and devoured them.
Luckily the restaurant is right across the street from Harry Potter, so we were able to just hop on over right before it started.
This was my second time seeing this show and I loved it just as much. The special effects are so cool and it’s actually a really funny story to watch. I read the book and didn’t like it at all, so if that’s you, don’t write off the show!
After the show, we popped over to Time Square just to see the hustle and bustle before walking back to our hotel and going to bed.
Wednesday – September 25, 2024
The next day we slept in until a little after 10 am! I was exhausted from our 10 miles of walking the day before and with the time change, that’s about what time my mom and I would have woken up at home. We got up, got ready, and took the subway to one of my favorite breakfast spots, Daily Provisions. They have delicious breakfast sandwiches and are famous for their crullers (they’re kind of like donuts).
After breakfast we walked over to the American Museum of Natural History. This museum is huge and is also the museum featured in Night at the Museum. We walked around the exhibits for a couple of hours.
We were seeing a matinee broadway show so we took a train over to that. We skipped lunch because we had such a late breakfast and an early dinner reservation. The show we saw was & Juliet. It was my first time seeing it and it was very cute and fun. It had a lot of Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears songs which we loved.
I booked us reservations at Shuka, a nice Mediterranean restaurant so we took the subway over there. I got the steak kabob and it was to die for. All of their dips are good as well!
After dinner, we took a train down to the 9/11 Memorial and walked around there for a bit. There is a museum as well but it was closing within an hour so we didn’t go in.
We wanted a sweet treat so took the train back up near our hotel and went to Magnolia Bakery to try their famous banana pudding. It was incredible and I don’t even really like banana pudding. 10/10 would recommend. We were exhausted again and went to our hotel and straight to bed.
Thursday – September 26, 2024
It was raining when we woke up which worked out okay since we were already planning on spending most of the day inside. We went and got bagels at a little place called Bagels & Schmear. It was so good, toasty bagels and plenty of cream cheese- just how I like it.
Then we headed over to The Met. We had a great time walking around and then finding all the really famous pieces it housed. I was pretty exhausted so I decided to go to my friend’s house to sit on her couch and put my feet up for a few hours and just catch up. My mom and sister went and walked around Central Park and relaxed back at our hotel.
After our break we met up for dinner at Dim Sum Palace. We loved everything we ate! We asked for their recommendations and they did not steer us wrong.
We saw our last show of the night which was Six! I think this is my favorite Broadway show I’ve seen and it did not disappoint. The energy is really fun, it’s an all girl cast and band, and they are incredible singers. It’s only an 80 minute show as well which is kind of nice, especially on our last night.
We headed back to our hotel to get some packing done since we were all flying out the next day.
Friday – September 27, 2024
We all flew home on Friday so we woke up early and checked out. Luckily our hotel was able to hold onto our luggage for us so we didn’t have to drag it around the whole city.
We all decided we wanted to see the Statue of Liberty so we took the subway south and hopped on the Staton Island Ferry. It’s totally free and you don’t need a ticket or anything. When we got on, everyone hurried to the upper deck where it got really crowded. We stayed on the main level and had a great, unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty.
The ride to Staton Island only took about 25 minutes. Everyone has to disembark but you can just walk right over and hop on the ferry that’s about to leave. There is a ferry that takes off from both sides every 30 minutes.
After our boat tour, we walked through Central Park again. We walked over to the Balto statue (justice for Togo, iykyk), saw the carousal, and just enjoyed the time outside before we had to leave.
Then we headed back up towards our hotel and grabbed another slice of pizza from Made in New York. We chatted and airdropped pictures to each other.
I only had about an hour before I needed to be on my way to the airport so we went back and got my luggage from the hotel. I decided I wanted to get some Ladurée macarons to bring home. So we walked to the nearest spot which ended up being a huge hassle because it was a little cart inside Penn Station. It took us forever to find it and their options were limited, but I still secured the goods.
Then I hopped on the subway to the Airtrain back to JFK. My mom and sister had later flights so they hung out for a couple of hours.
If you enjoyed this New York City 3 Days Itinerary post, be sure to check out my other posts!
