NYC was a bit of a whim for us. We wanted to get to Toronto but were only able to get plane tickets to NYC on points. It turned out to be an awesome adventure for us. So much too see, so much to take in. I highly recommend NYC with kids. We stayed at a hotel in Secaucus, NJ. I’m positive my younger self would turn my nose up at my mom-self that I stayed in suburban New Jersey when visiting NYC (no offence to anyone who might be from Secaucus) and even more so because I actually liked it, but honestly it was an ideal home base to explore NYC with kids. We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel, one of these rare utopian hotels for parents of young kids where the rooms have a bedroom (so thankfully we’re not all sleeping in the same room), free amazing breakfasts (think omelette station, fresh fruit, pastries, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc.), a pool, and a bus right outside that took us directly to Port Authority bus station in 15-20 mins. So easy. What’s even better is that we were able to book the hotel on points that Brett and I had earned on work-related travel over the years.
We bought an Explorer Pass from Costco that was pricy but worth it. For the 5 of us, the passes cost a total of USD415 and gave us entry into 4 attractions of our choice. There were a long list of options and we picked the four that interested us most. The passes probably saved us $150-200 over buying tickets for each attraction individually.
The first day was probably the favorite for all of us. We packed lunches, took the bus in to town, walked from Port Authority to Central Park, rented bikes and spent the day biking around the park. What a treasure! And what a treasure to explore with kids. There was excitement in the bike ride itself (Riley and Iain seemed like the smallest kids on their own bikes navigating the park), there were playgrounds to explore, huge rocks to scale, trees to climb, places to picnic with striking views of the surrounding buildings, and lots of interesting performers to watch.
When we finished the full park, we walked back through Times Square to get to the bus. There’s just too much going on there, we were all happy to just pass through.
The second day we took an open air double decker sightseeing bus from Port Authority down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. Brett and I enjoyed the views, Iain used it as an opportunity to catch up on a bit of rest 😊, and Riley and Ronan complained mostly about being too hot.
From Battery Park we took the Staten Island Ferry (completely free!!!) that gives great views of the Statue of Liberty as it heads out to Staten Island. The round trip was an hour and we thoroughly enjoyed the views of the statue as well as the views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge from the water. When you get to Battery Park, there are dozens of tour operators that are very aggressively trying to get you to join their tours to the Statue of Liberty. Just pass them by. The Staten Island Ferry is the way to go.
Once we returned on the ferry, we walked from the ferry terminal north about 3 miles to Washington Park. Iain is very proud to have hit 20,000 steps that day (well he actually got to 19000 and then ran circles at the hotel when we got back so that he could get to 20000 😊). Along the way, we stopped at the World Trade Center and spent some time at the memorials for the twin towers, explaining as delicately as we could to the kids what had happened some 18 years ago, but still feels like yesterday to us. One World Trade Center was something Iain had really wanted to see and was happy that we got the opportunity.
We continued walking north through Tribeca, Soho, the West Village and eventually to Washington Square Park. We had fond memories of that park from when we’d been to New York with our older girls and Ronan about 8 years ago when Ronan was a baby. We weren’t there for long before the skies opened up and a rain began. Nothing more fun than being a kid in a summer rainstorm.
That walk gave us a good feeling for the city – the shops, the bars, the parks, the people, the streets, the energy…..something you can’t get from just going from one tourist attraction to the next. The kids did get tired near the end but the promise of ice cream at the park kept their spirits and energy up.
Reality set in on Day 3 and I spent the day working in the hotel to catch up on things. Here’s a photo of my glamorous work station (yes, there are cheese sticks and wine involved) along with Riley’s makeshift bed made from couch cushions – the hotel world is not set up for families with 3 kids. Brett and the kids did a bit of shopping and hung by the pool for a while. A good day to relax.
We were a bit too ambitious on Day 4. We took the bus in to town and walked to the Empire State Building. It almost seemed too good to be true that there was no line up at all and we basically walked straight onto an elevator – the perks of visiting mid-week before summer vacation officially begins. The kids loved the observation deck…for about 15 mins. We were starting to learn that we had to change the pace of how we experienced things – we could not stay for as long as we might have otherwise since 6-8 yr. olds have no interest in looking in detail at all the different buildings. They take it in and want to move on. We kept them there until it started looking like we were torturing them, then relented and moved on.
We took the subway (super-cheap and easy) directly from the Empire State Building to the Museum of Natural History. As always, that museum is incredible. There is just so much to see there it can be overwhelming for an adult, let alone kids. As the parents of young boys, we excitedly followed the arrows to the new T-Rex exhibit only to find out that admission to that exhibit was not included in the entrance fee and it would cost an extra $50 for us to go in. Very disappointing but we were able to see a T-Rex in the regular disasour exhibit. After watching Ronan’s fascination with T-Rex’s build since he was probably 3, this was a great moment, and this is one of my favourite photos from NYC.
On the last day, I worked all day while Brett and the kids spent a few hours at the pool. For dinner we met up with an old army friend of Brett’s that he hadn’t seen since they’d been stationed together in Germany over 25 years ago. It was great to see them re-connect and talk about what it was like back then and I really enjoyed meeting both Bob and his wife Lory.
One great thing about this long trip is that we can spend time just taking it easy. We were in New York (well…and New Jersey) for almost a week but we didn’t feel the pressure that we would normally feel on a one-week vacation. It’s ok if we don’t see it all. It’s ok if we spend a couple of those days re-grouping at the hotel. We got a good taste of the city and made some great memories with the kids.