Father-Daughter (10) Amazing Trip Report (warning: LONG)
Advance TLDR – Had a wicked, awesome trip. Did a crazy amount of stuff with my daughter. Itinerary probably not right for everyone but appreciated all of the helpful posts here and wanted to share my experience for future planners
Hi all,
You may remember me from my previous post about a father-daughter trip (here)
This sub was so helpful in my planning of the trip that I wanted to leave a trip report for future planners. (Dear Future planners, I hope this is helpful!)
A few things you should know about trip. It was just me my daughter (10) and I for 4 nights. My daughter is like me and she likes to move and browse and not stay in places for too long. This meant that we saw and did A LOT of things and also crisscrossed in an inefficient path some times, but for many other travelers our itinerary would be far too busy. We averaged 30k steps per day and 200 pics/selfies and had a blast, but were exhausted by the end.
Hotel
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Financial District and it worked out great for us. Super close to a ton of subway lines; easy walks to Wall Street, Battery Park and we got a screaming good deal. My biggest tip would be that unless you’re paying for a specific view, get a low floor. There are only 3 elevators for 50 floors, so at busy times there can be quite a wait. We were on the 9th floor and chose to take the stairs on a few occasions.
Food
Right beside our hotel was Siena Pizza and it was delicious. That was our usual late evening, post activities snack before settling in for the night. The classic cheese was fantastic, but I also really enjoyed the Buffalo Ranch.
Other highlights were:
- Los Tacos No 1 (Time Square) – long lineup moved pretty quickly and the tacos were great!
- Shake Shack & Chick Fil A – Yum!
- Random bagel shops – we would stop for breakfast at whatever shop was near where we were going for the morning. My daughter particularly loved the rainbow bagel from Liberty Bagels
- Serendipity3 – Overpriced, but my daughter loved it (so was worth it). Frozen hot chocolate was delicious and the setting was fun. Caution, there is a $17.95 minimum per person; we had planned on just getting a frozen hot chocolate, but had to order more to hit the minimum.
- Shu Jiao Fu Zhou – Wandered into Chinatown to find some dumplings. The pork and chive ones were delicious
- Levain Bakery – Giant cookies were delicious; pretty expensive, though
- 7/11 - our first stop every morning for some fruit and yogurt until we got to our destination bagel shop and then back in the evening for cookies (2/$1) and a slurpee, lol
Activities/Sites
- My daughter’s #1 highlight was the Harry Potter Store. We ended up there 3 separate times because she kept wanting to go back. The merchandise is top notch, the decor is perfect and the Butterbeer Bar was fun. (note, we only enjoyed a couple sips of Butterbeer before we decided it was too sweet, but $12 for the experience and a souvenir mug was well worth the cost)
TIP – get there at opening. The difference in crowds between 10am and 11:30 am was dramatic.
- A close second was Aladdin on Broadway. It was her first show and this was the perfect one. Fast paced dancing and singing, lots of magic and special effects, and it was way funnier than I was expecting. I would highly recommend for kids. We sat 3rd row mezzanine and it was perfect.
- She loved checking out the typical specialty stores (American Girl, Disney, Lego, FAO Schwartz, Nintendo, M&M, Hershey)
- St George/Staten Island Ferry – kudos to u/fox--teeth/ for the suggestion of taking the NYC ferry to St George. $5.50 for the two us was well worth it for a closer ride past the Statue of Liberty. We got off at St. George, shopped for a bit and then took the Staten Island Ferry back, which still had nice views but felt 2nd tier after the first.
TIP – the Hudson can be rough and our first Ferry was a bit bumpy. If you’re prone to motion sickness you may want to make sure it’s a calm day, or take the Staten Island ferry.
- Museum of Natural History – Loved it; we didn’t dwell but wandered and explored.
TIP #1 – book your time to go first thing in the morning. Crowds and entrance line only get worse.
Tip #2 – use the side entrance off 81st; this saved us probably 20 mins compared to the crazy line out front
Tip #3 – make sure to watch ‘Night at the Museum’ before going. My daughter’s highlight was looking for the main characters from the movie (T-Rex, Teddy Roosevelt, Easter Island statue, etc.)
- Roosevelt Island Tramway – Loved it; such a fun ride and so scenic. It was very crowded, but we got a good window spot with great views. Hopped off at the other side and got back on to go back. We were able to use our Metropass here, so no cost 😊
- Times Square – my daughter loved going at night to see it all lit up. It’s obviously super crowded, but was still magical each time for her.
- Top of the Rock - views were incredible and made for great pics. My daughter got bored well before I did and was ready to go.
- DUMBO/Brooklyn - really nice in the morning; wish I had spent more time here but my daughter was anxious to do some other stuff
Here is my more detailed itinerary in case you're wondering (note that this does not capture the amount of walking and exploring we did between each location)
Day 1:
- Arrive in afternoon; hotel room not ready
- Explore lower Manhattan (battery park, sea glass carousel, wall street, museum of American Indian, bull statue [insanely busy], Oculus, memorial pools)
- Dinner at Xi’an Famous Foods
- Times square at night
Day 2:
- Washington square park with bagel breakfast
- Subway over to Harry Potter store for opening
- Subway up to Empire State Building to see
- Walk along 5th avenue, stopping at NY Public Library and Grand Central Terminal
- Subway to Rockefeller Plaza and check out St. Patrick’s, American Girl, Lego, Nintendo, FAO Schwartz, Top of the Rock, Magnolia Bakery + food stand
- Back to Times Square, including wandering surround area to see theatres + Disney, Line Friends, Hershey, M&M
- Back to Harry Potter store again
- Mid-afternoon snack at chick-fil-a
- Break at hotel
- Dinner at Siena Pizza
- Aladdin
Day 3
- Start at south-east corner of Central Park and grab bagel breakfast
- Wander through Central Park, checking out playgrounds, The Mall, Bethesda Terrace/Fountain, Strawberry Fields
- Exit Central Park and go to Museum of Natural History
- Light lunch at Shake Shack and grab snack at Levain Bakery
- Subway to Roosevelt Tramway and ride both ways to Roosevelt Island
- Mid-afternoon desserts at Serendipity (stomach hurting from too much food)
- Late afternoon break at hotel
- NYC ferry to St George to see skyline and Statue of Liberty
- Browse stores at Staten Island and then ferry back to Manhattan
Day 4
- Subway to Brooklyn
- Check out DUMBO and take usual tourist pics
- Explore Brooklyn waterfront and stop for breakfast at Clinton St Baking (had pancakes – were overrated IMO)
- Walked down to Pier 2 to see Pickle Ball courts and massive bootcamp class taking place
- Walk across Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan
- Subway up to Harry Potter (again)
- Subway back to up to American Girl Store and Lego (again)
- Subway back to Times Square and Disney store (again)
- Lunch at Los Tacos No 1
- Subway to Hudson Yards to see Vessel and walk The Highline
- Walk to Chelsea Market; break for milkshakes
- Back to hotel for well needed break
- Wander through Chinatown & Little Italy (walked and ate; dumplings + more dumplings + cannoli)
- Back to Times Square for one last time at night and grabbed pizza from John’s
- Back to hotel and watched ‘Enchanted’