New York City has been on our family bucket list for ages, and we finally had the opportunity to visit this summer! We were overwhelmed by the amount of things we could do (in a good way), so check out this episode for our guide to NYC with kids.
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Transcript
Jess: Welcome to the Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast. I’m Jess. And I’m Rod. And today we’re talking about the beautiful city of New York.
Rod: New York City. I don’t think we can do the city justice in a 20-to-30-minute podcast. And especially since we were only there for like five days, but we’re going to try.
Jess: Every time I It’s like, think about the intro to this podcast. I just want to sing: in New York, concrete jungles where dreams are made up. I’m a horrible singer.
Rod: Empire State of Taylor Swift fan in the house, our daughter, Nora, she has been singing the Taylor Swift songs. One of which is welcome to New York.
Welcome to New York.
Jess: So many songs about New York, but we had an incredible few days there. I would say first off tip number one is we didn’t have enough time there. So, New York is huge. It’s vast. I feel like even if you had a month, it wouldn’t be enough time, but we only had four days. Right. Four days that were jam packed.
So much fun. We saw a lot. But I think that seven or eight days would have been like less rushed.
Rod: I think so. I mean, you need to manage your expectations, right? There, there is definitely 100% going to be more to do than you have time for. So, you have to really take into consideration every member of your family.
What is it that is their one thing in New York? And then. Plan those and whenever you have gaps to fill in, fill it in with other activities because yeah, the day just goes by so fast. The city is so fast paced. You’re going to figure, oh, shoot, I’m walking down the street and I see this cool thing. Let’s stop here for a little bit or, oh, look at the store.
Look at this restaurant and before you know it, it’s the end of the day and the lights are on and it still doesn’t feel like it’s that late just because everyone is still out and about. And there’s still so much more to do in the nighttime.
Jess: But let’s start off with some of the iconic New York things that I feel like if you’re a first timer, you have to do.
If we go back again, we might not take the time to do, but it was one of those kids must see the Statue of Liberty the first time they go to New York. It’s like a requirement.
Rod: This, I think this is also because when Jess was young and visited New York City, that was one of the things that they did as a family.
Went on the ferry, went to see the Statue of Liberty, then went to Ellis Island afterwards. So, I think this was also, it’s like for me. I didn’t necessarily need to see the Statue of Liberty from up close. It’s like I’ve seen it in movies countless times. I didn’t feel like, oh, I have to be in the island where this, the statue is right.
Jess: The kids need to see. To me, it was like the kids’ first trip to New York. This is like such a symbol of our nation and our country and I just, they needed to be there to see it. Was it the most exciting thing we did in New York City? I will say. Like, say, like, when you’re on the ferry, because when you go to the Statue of Liberty, you’re going to get on a ferry, and it’s going to do typically two stops.
It stops at the Statue of Liberty, and then after that, it goes to Ellis Island, and then back. I believe it leaves from Battery Park? Is that where we left off?
Rod: Right, Battery Park on the south end of Manhattan. Yep.
Jess: I mean, it is really cool when you’re on the ferry and you’re getting closer and it’s just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and you see like the magnitude and you think in your head, which I mean, the kids probably did not think this, but I think of back when Ellis Island was open, I had and like my great grandmother came through Ellis Island as well as my great grandfather, like thinking of them being on the ship for a long time and this being the first thing they see and like kind of trying to put myself in their shoes.
It’s a really a powerful moment. I think for the kids, I thought it was very important for them to see it from a history perspective, from an American perspective. I think it’s just well-known around the world. Is it the most exciting thing? I will say the Statue of Liberty itself, I mean, it’s on a tiny, tiny island.
It’s like a cement island. All there is the Statue of Liberty, a little coffee shop and a gift shop. We chose not to go in it. You can climb.
Rod: You have to buy separate tickets to either go on the pedestal. So, it’s like the main floor of it, the base. Or you have to have a separate ticket to go up to the crown.
And we didn’t do that that time.
Jess: They do sell out early. So, if you do want to go in and climb up it. I remember doing it as a kid. And just remember going up so many stairs and being exhausted getting in the crown. And I remember they said like, I’d like two seconds to look out the window and the guards like move.
And so I think since I had a negative experience, I’m not saying that would be yours, but since I have like a negative recollection and being like, I did all those stairs and I couldn’t even see out the window, I was like, Nope, we’re not doing it. But it was still cool. Even if you just take the ferry and don’t get off at the Statue of Liberty and continue on Ellis Island, I think Ellis Island itself is just way more of an, like, I guess, an educational experience. And there’s a lot more to see and do there because they have the museum.
Rod: Yeah, it was a National Museum of Immigration is there. And one of the things that is really great about it is you can pick up a free audio tour guide and our kids.
I was surprised because they’re generally not the ones to like put on the headphones and listen intently to what they’re saying, but this time, both of them were very, very like immersed in this audio tour, because it’s taking you through the different stations of the Ellis Island Immigration Center as it was back then.
So then the main room where. All the immigrants came in through to all their medical inspections to their status checks to the portions where they had to pay.
Jess: And the museums, the actual building. So you’re actually in the rooms that all these immigrants came through. So it’s not like a separate.
Constructed building. It’s the actual, sorry, it’s the actual building. So it’s cool to be like, I’m sitting on a bench that like how many other hundreds of people back, you know, when they were coming through Ellis Island came through, yeah.
Rod: And every room that you go into, you put in this little code on the phone, the that’s for the audio tour, and it’s going to give you.
Some special commentary on what was happening in that room itself. So out of most museums that we’ve been to, I think just the fact that having this audio tour was so easy for them to get, you just pick it up, put it on and start walking around. I think the kids were like very engaged in it. Maybe they, they tapered off a little bit towards the end when there were still just a bunch of rooms to go and they’re like, okay.
Jess: But I thought that was really worth the stop. There’s also the audio tour at the Statue of Liberty stop. We did not do it. But that’s another option. But I think if you had to, if you were on a crunch of time, I would at least. Get off at Ellis Island and see the museum and maybe just not get off at the Statue of Liberty, but at least the ferry takes you right close to it and you still get that picturesque view.
But that to us was, I think for Rod, the day could have been skipped, but for me, it was a non-negotiable. The kids are going to Ellis Island and to see the Statue of Liberty.
Rod: Yeah, I mean, in reality, Jess’s relatives came in through Ellis Island at some point. So one of the other cool things that they have, there is a record search center.
So you can hop on a computer and start looking at like digital records of all of the entry logs from Ellis Island. They’ll also, they also have that online. So if you’re curious about whether you have relatives, if you have their names, you can search for them and you’ll see all the different pages where they had to sign in.
We’ll post that on the show notes. So then you can go check that out too.
Jess: Yeah. So I thought it was a super powerful day. It was really, really just a unique experience to share that with the kids. When we got off the ferry, because it starts and ends at battery park. That’s actually close enough to where the World Trade Center used to be.
And so we were able to grab lunch and then we walked over to see the memorial. And that was just, to me, it was, it was very, it was beautifully done. It’s very beautifully done, but it’s just so many emotions standing there. Cause I think, you know, most people can remember where they were that day that are, that were old enough on September 11th for our kids who weren’t alive.
Santi was born, you know, way after that. So it was Nora, but they still hear about it. They learn about it at school and to stand there and. Tell our kids, like what happened. It’s hard because they’re young and it’s so tragic, but they did a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful job. It was more beautiful than I anticipated it to be to be able to stand there and see, you know, all of the names etched on the stone and the waterfall or fountains.
Rod: Yeah, and it’s a, it’s a huge contrast to the rest of the city where there’s just. In the rest of the city, there’s always honking and it’s loud and there’s people walking around and there was a distinct like mood shift in the 9 11 memorial space where it’s more muted, people are quieter, all really that you hear is the sound of the water that’s falling into the basis of where those buildings used to be, where that memorial is now.
So, it really does like give you a really nice space for reflection. If. That’s what you want, or you’re looking for a kind of quiet rest from like the hustle and bustle of the city, then that would be a good place to go.
Jess: Yeah. So, I think that was another one of those places that was a must see on our list.
And it was a quick walk from battery park. So definitely you could easily do those two in one day.
Rod: Yep. Speaking of hustle and bustle moving northward up Manhattan, then. You have Times Square. We actually stayed at a hotel in Times Square. And it’s funny because we had differing opinions about the Statue of Liberty.
And I think we have different opinions about Times Square in general. So, here’s my take on it. It is hectic as, as hectic as you can possibly imagine the masses of people walking through all of the billboards, the noises, it, its sensory overload, it is sensory overload. There’s certain smells. I don’t, I wouldn’t say it necessarily smells great.
Like the city in general, I don’t think smells great, but it has this.
Jess: No, the smell of Times Square. I will say I loved our time in New York City. I think I enjoyed it more than I ever have and want to go back for a longer period, but something I hated, I will say this was a huge negative to me. And this is coming from a very open-minded person, but Times Square smelt like marijuana, like.
It, that’s what it was to me. I was not, I’m not bothered that it’s legal or whatever, but the fact that I never realized you could smoke it publicly in New York. And when you get on these crowded street corners in Times Square and everyone’s smoking marijuana, it’s like my kids were walking through clouds of smoke.
I was like literally at some points, like I hope they don’t get high on this walk. And that did bother me. It was the only thing of Times Square. I think I love it. It’s like an iconic place, but like I can only handle short bursts in Times Square before I’m
Rod: overwhelmed. Yeah. Yeah. And in terms of those bursts, I think, so the activities that we did there, first one was, it was kind of cool. There’s a billboard right there in Times Square where it says, you know, go to this website and you can buy your own billboard for 15 seconds.
Jess: I think it all started with, we were the first moment we walked in Times Square, Santi’s eyes lit up and it was really cool because it was the one moment, like way more than the Statue of Liberty.
Santi was like, whoa, like this is epic nor being like, man, how cool would that be if we were on a billboard? And then later in the day, we saw this, this ad that Rod’s talking about. And I was like, what if we surprised the kids with our family photo on a billboard in Times Square? And I think Rod didn’t, I guess maybe now, you know, whenever I bring up an idea, I’m pretty like,
Rod: Oh yeah, yeah.
I mean, you, you went straight for it and that was fine. You got to the website, designed the ad. And what is it they give you? So, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with this, but you can actually do a specific
Jess: minute, right? No, you get 15 seconds every hour for 24
Rod: hours. Right. So, they’ll give you the minute of the hour in which your ad will show up.
And during that minute, then if you happen to be standing, you Close to it, then you’ll be able to see it. And I thought it was 24 times
Jess: Super affordable compared to other things in New York for a cool experience in the sense of it was 150, which isn’t cheap necessarily, but it was pretty cool as a family to stand there and see like our photo up on time square.
And I don’t know, it was a moment next time we’re up on time square. I want to earn it through a job, but it was pretty cool. That was a really fun moment. I wouldn’t necessarily, I love the hotel we stayed at, but if we went again, I’d want to stay closer to central park. It was just, it’s just loud to come out every day and it’s just so chaotic.
It is. Yeah. But right outside the hotel, I mean, it was literally, there was time square and then right below us, like in the lobby almost was Broadway. Um, and it was, Santi is obsessed with, I wish he would sing for you guys. He can sing like so many songs from Hamilton. And he’s in love with the soundtrack.
It plays all the time and he’s just always loved it. So, my parents surprised us all with tickets to see the Hamilton show on Broadway. And it was, that was really cool to see live. I felt bad for Nora. Next time we go, she gets to pick the show. Cause she was confused by the story. It probably wasn’t age appropriate for her.
She was picking up on like the infidelity piece. Cause she’s like, isn’t he with her? I thought she was married to her.
Rod: She was very intrigued by the relationships that were happening and unfolding in that show, more so than the things about the revolution and forming the country and all the political struggles that Santi was really engaged in.
Yeah, Santi loved the history. Oh, and you know, there’s, there’s a part, I don’t know if you’ve seen the show yet or know much about it, but there’s two different, like in the first half and the second half, the actors play different roles. And I think Norah got a little bit confused by it because some of the women that were playing one character in the first half, they played another character in the second, but some of them were the same character.
So then, like, figuring out and tracking who’s who, I think that’s where she got a little bit lost. But I think she was able to, like, at least get the basic plot.
Jess: Yeah, but it was fun. We took them to that; Rod and I loved it. Santi was very excited. Nora, next time we’ll go to like Lion King,
Rod: But yeah, I mean, there’s tons, tons of shows.
One of the things that we did see, we already had tickets for our show, but there are a lot of kiosks in Times Square where we would see people were lined up. For like the last-minute tickets of the day that were unsold for different shows. So, if you have a show that you’re not necessarily or like you don’t necessarily want to see a specific show, but you want to catch something on Broadway, you can go to these last-minute ticket kiosks and you can get discounts.
Sometimes they’re pretty steep discounts on those tickets to go see a show.
Jess: Yes. So, I mean, it’s really cool. I’m super glad we went and we did those things. But there was also just staying in Times Square, I thought it was just harder to get sometimes to and from places, even though it’s a central location, like, it’s just harder to get a cab because it’s just packed there.
But it’s a cool experience to see. From there, we were able to also walk to shopping. Hold on.
Rod: Hold on. So yeah, we’re talking about cabs. There, there is one specific cab that we happened to take that you should just not do. So, you’ll see these all over the place. They’re the pedicab. So, they’re like the, the bicyclists with the little seat on the back.
Jess: You see them mostly like sitting. This is where we got in the pedicab. It’s like right when the Broadway show exits, like they’re lining Broadway. They’re like waiting for these shows to come out to just have one of these lovely, calm tourists hop in the back.
Rod: Yeah. Yeah. And I think. Our, it was our mistake to not really verify what the price of it was.
That was a mistake. Number one mistake. Number two, we had, I think it was like a 12-minute walk to our restaurant.
Jess: And my mom, I will put this on my mom. God love her. She’s like, let’s make it more fun for the kids. Let’s get in the bike. Let’s do this. I was like, okay. And Rod kept saying, I feel like this is a bad idea.
Rod and my dad.
Rod: I don’t think these are very cheap. And we also happened to be lined up in the wrong direction of like the road we were at. So, it’s all one-way streets. So, for the pedicab to go in to the direction where we needed to go, he needed to make like three right turns in a square to get to the right direction.
And that in itself was already like eight minutes and all of us, it was the four of us. And. My two in laws, Jess’s parents, we had to take two pedicabs so you can start doing the math now. So, we ended up writing this pedicab for 15 minutes and it costs 8 for every minute. So, if you take those 15 minutes.
The 8 for those 15 minutes and then I think that ends up being 120, but then we took two pedicabs of 240 of a 15-minute ride that we could have done walking in 12 minutes.
Jess: I mean, it was such a scam. It was such a rip-off. My 150 billboard all of a sudden sounded like the steel of a century. Like, I don’t know.
But we did it. I would not recommend that. Do not get in a pedicab. Unless you like set a fixed price or something prior to sitting in it, because if not, you will be paying an astronomical amount. So, but from that hotel, it was called the Marriott Marquis, Times Square. We were able to go to Broadway.
We were able to walk a lot of places, but we were able to walk to fifth Avenue. So we took the kids over Nora’s list. Like everyone had a list of things they wanted. Nora really wanted to go to the famous FAO Schwartz.
Rod: Yeah. At the Rockefeller center.
Jess: And so she wanted to make a slime cause there they have that, the slime. She’s obsessed
Rod: with the crazy putty, the Aaron’s, crazy Aaron’s, putty,
Jess: Crazy Aarons, you can make your own. And so she got to do that. The kids loved the store. Then they had a Nintendo store across the way that Santi wanted to see, and he wanted to go to some Pokemon shop. And so , right. The kids got to do, not a lot, but a tiny, tiny bit of shopping on Fifth Avenue, we got to go to the Rockefeller Center. It was actually interesting. They had. It’s famous for ice skating and I do want to go ice skating there, but in the summer, it was roller skating, wasn’t it? I think it was roller skating. Yeah. They still had it open. It was nice. We did not do that, but it was nice.
And then one of the highlights for me was kind of unexpected because we teetered back and forth. Should we do it? Should we not? Should we do it? And so at the last minute we did it and it was called Summit One Vanderbilt and it was amazing. So Summit One.
Rod: Yeah. So in terms of skyscraper views of the city, right?
I think there’s the Empire State Building you can go to. I think you can go to the New World Trade Center and get a viewpoint there. We ended up going to this summit one, and I think we, we knew about it because of Instagram, I think, and the way that they structure, like your journey to the top of this building and the views, I think it was very.
It was very well done. Very artistic. There’s a lot of cool places and spaces to see. And it was very large. And I mean, for the amount of people that were going through from the very beginning, like starting off in that elevator and the elevator itself is an experience where there’s like lights and sounds and it feels like you’re going up into space and all of a sudden you open the doors of the elevator and this like red light room and corridor comes through. So I think it’s, it’s not just, you know, you go to the top and you get to see the views. It was more of an experience where there’s three different rooms.
One of the rooms had balls, like metallic balls that you can toss around. So it made it really. Like photo worthy, I guess, spots. And once you get to the very top, the terrace, they have drinks, they have a little restaurant there. And we timed it right when we were at the terrace, we got to see the sunset up there.
Jess: And it was gorgeous. I would definitely recommend Summit One. I mean, I haven’t done all the other ones I did the Empire State Building and the original World Trade Center as a kid. And so I do have some vague memories of that. But Summit One to me, if you have kids is the best in the sense that each room so interactive, like our kids had such a good time going through the different levels of summit one.
And then if you don’t have kids, they do have a bar at the top. And it’s like so many people you could tell were on dates, like watching the sunset go down, having their drinks. And so that’d be really cool as well. But we did get to see the sunset from the top and it was incredible. And it was so nice because I feel like we got to the first floor when the sun was fully out, the second floor was starting to get dim.
And then at the top, we got to see the sun go down in the light, the city light up. And so you do have to pay a little bit extra. To go during that sunset time. I forget how much; I think it was like 10 extra a person. Maybe it was five. I’m not, I don’t remember exactly, but there is an extra fee to get those sunset timeframes.
But I think it was well worth it. It was beautiful. And even my parents, it was like a multi-generational day. Everyone from Nora to my dad, like really loved Summit One. And it made like the top of their list of things that we did well in the city. So that was really cool. Another part of New York City is, of course, Central Park.
Rod: Yeah, and Central Park, we wish we could tell you more about what to do there, but we can’t because we actually did not have enough time to go to it.
Jess: I love Central Park, and it’s like Rod’s dream to live like within a couple blocks of Central Park.
Rod: Yeah, I want to go running there. I want to go like just people watching, you know?
Jess: It’s, it’s beautiful, but we didn’t make it this trip, which only means we have to take the kids back.
But New York city is just packed. I feel like the beauty of it is there’s a little bit of everything. I mean, I feel like it can feel like you’re in so many different cities in 1 day just because New York City is so diverse. And there’s little pockets and there’s so many different restaurants from around the world.
Rod: I mean, sporting events. You can go see the Yankees. You can go watch a basketball game, you can go to Brooklyn, I mean.
Jess: And there’s so many museums that I would love to go back and just have, like, a Central Park Museum week from MoMA. Yeah, the
Rod: Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim’s there.
And, man, we already have a list of like, here’s what the new things that we would do the next time that we go, I did feel like this first trip for us, we did do a lot of the touristy things like, you know, Statue of Liberty, going to see a skyscraper view, going to do some shopping on 5th Avenue, Times Square and all that.
So I think the next trip for us would be. We definitely stay at a different part of the city and we’d spend a lot more time in Central Park. We’d spend more time in the
Jess: museums. I don’t know about Rod. I’d still go pay for the Summit One again. Yeah. I loved it. I feel like it’s beautiful. I might skip the rest in that sense.
I mean, it was cool. I would like to see it next time we go. I like agree with Rod. Stay in a different area, do more museums, maybe see a different Broadway show. But I would still go back to Summit One. I thought it was cool. Yeah. But yeah, New York was magical.
Rod: It is. And it’s great with kids. I think, you know, just generally there is more traffic.
There’s a lot more people walking around. So in the actual walking the city or figuring out your way through the subway, then you do have to pay a little bit more attention to make sure that, you know, your kids don’t get hit by a car or something, you know, but yeah, city life. The subway was really impressive.
We took it for a stretch of our trip there. And then the rest of the time we’re either walking or we were overpaying for pedicabs, but yeah, transportation there is super easy. So no matter where you stay or where you are, then you can always, I’m pretty sure find a subway station within a few blocks.
Or if not, then just hail a taxi or schedule an Uber.
Jess: So, yeah, but overall, our trip was amazing. We’re already trying to figure out when we can squeeze another trip back. This year is a little hard for us because since the main goal is for our kids to learn Spanish, we’re trying not to pull them from school as often and really explore locally, but you never know, maybe in the spring we can squeeze a New York trip in and explore more because there is just, I feel like we need months there.
Rod: Right? Yeah. So if you have any recommendations on where we should go on a next trip, or you just want to reach out in general, you can always find us on Instagram @thejetsettingfamily. If you enjoy this podcast, we do have, you know, would love one favor, if you can send us a review. On whichever podcast platform that you’re listening to.
That would be great. But yeah, thank you once again for being a great part of this community. We are really enjoying sharing our travels and as always feel free to connect with us, whenever you want. So until next time, Happy Jetsetting!
