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ABOUT NEW YORK

New York City, the Big Apple, the City That Never Sleeps, Gotham—no matter what you call it, NYC is a vibrant metropolis bursting with energy, culture, and endless possibilities. Planning a trip to New York can be exhilarating, but with so much to see and do, it's essential to make the most of your time. Whether you've visited New York before or not, this blog contains the best of NYC in just five days.

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WHAT TO DO IN NEW YORK

Some notes:
- A great accommodation if you’re on a budget: Pod 51. Located in Midtown Manhattan, it’s a 5 min walk to Central Park. You’ll be very close to all the highlights of the city, as well as a central MTA (subway) point (Lexington Av/51st). We recommend taking the subway to most highlights, since New York is quite big. You can download the subway map here.

Day 1: Exploring Manhattan
Depending on your residence, we recommend starting your New York adventure by immersing yourself in the heart of the city—Manhattan. Begin your day with a visit to Central Park, where we did a morning walk after a long flight, in the midst of skyscrapers. Around Central Park there are different breakfast spots or coffee to go places, which is a perfect combination for a morning like this.
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 - Breakfast on the go: H&H Bagels 
 - Coffee on the go: Chalait UWS
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Manhattan view from Central Park

There are a lot of close by options to sightsee. We went to see the Plaza Hotel (famous from Home Alone), passed by Rockefeller center and the Empire State Building, and went to the Vanderbilt Summit in the afternoon. This is a quite new viewpoint, which offers a full experience instead of just a view of New York (which is ofcourse amazing by itself. Make sure to book your tickets beforehand.

Manhattan provides amazing rooftop views. Some are more accessible than others ;)

In the evening, we went for on the go (a lot of food options feel on the go in New York) Mexican food from LOS TACOS No. 1. The food was really good, but you probably have to stand in line for at least 20 min. Another famous spot here is Joe’s Pizza. This is also quite popular. Expect a big slice of quite decent pizza, and head over to:

Times Square. One of our highlights, by far. Times Square is such a surreal spot to be at. It feels like you’re in a movie. Like the center of the Western World, where everything comes together. Something you definitely don’t want to miss!

Day 2: Brooklyn baby

New York City is divided into 5 boroughs. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. The second day we decided to visit the second borough on the list, Brooklyn. Brooklyn isn’t as dense as Manhattan, and shows New York from a different perspective. If you’re staying in Manhattan, you have the option to either walk the Brooklyn bridge and/or Manhattan bridge, or take the subway. We chose the latter, since this is also an experience itself! A lot happens on level -1 in New York.

Our first stop in Brooklyn was DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass). A famous spot where you can see the Manhattan Bridge from a cool perspective. A coffee (to go, again) at Joe coffee company for your walk along the water, with the best views of Manhattan, is something we highly recommend.

For lunch, we went to Lucky Rabbit Noodles, which is pretty much right under the Manhattan Bridge. Even though the place is tiny, the food is amazing. It really has an urban feel and therefore makes a great lunch stop when in Brooklyn.

Afterwards, we walked around in Brooklyn, just exploring and seeing whatever. Sometimes its a good idea to not have a plan, but just see where the day will take you.

Day 3: Further down into Manhattan

Since Manhattan has so much to offer, we decided to explore Manhattan a little bit more. We started off with brunch at Café Habana, which offers delicious Cuban food. After, we walked around and went to Chinatown, Wall street, the WTC Memorial and FDNY Ladder 8 (Ghostbusters!). Via the High Line, which is an old railroad transformed into a walking area, we had a late snack at Chelsea Market, which offers food from all over the world.

These are just a grasp of what Downtown Manhattan has to offer!

New Yorkers, always in a hurry.

Wall st.

Day 4: Walking around with no plan

As mentioned before, New York is one of those cities where there are some highlights you definitely don’t want to miss. But on the other hand, New York is also a place where you can just walk around and let it all happen to you. There really is something going down on every corner of the street. Whether it is people performing, pretty architecture or a nice spot for food or a drink, it all happens in the city that never sleeps. Fun fact: NYC has so many bars and restaurants that it would take you almost 23 years to eat in every place that offers food (one a day) !

Well, not all are in a hurry.

Day 5: Staten Island ferry & back home

There is one major New York thing missing on this list. The Statue of Liberty. With little time, we went on the Staten Island Ferry (which is free!) which passes the Statue of Liberty. It takes about 25 minutes to reach the other side. You can take the ferry back from here, and see Lady Liberty once again, with NYC behind her. A pretty cool experience to see something like this in real life, as are so many other things in New York.