Concrete Jungle Exploration Tips

It goes by many names. The Concrete Jungle, The Big Apple, The City that never sleeps, The Empire State and even Gotham, but most people call it what it is. New York City. On my Bucket List I had a few things I wanted to do. These where:

#12 Go to New York – Duh?

#46 Go to Central Park – A must

#65 Go to the Statue of Liberty – Got to be done

#234 See Grand Central Station – It’s quite impressive

#245 Eat a Hotdog in New York – On a lot of peoples lists

#395 Museum Of Illusions – I didn’t get a chance to do this, but hey, now I have a reason to go back.

However, rather than Yabba on about what I did, this time around I’m going to be extra helpful and give you five tips you should know before you go on your own NYC adventure. (According to me).

1. For the love of god wear comfortable shoes.

We visited the city for five days, and there wasn’t a single day that I did not hit 20,000 steps or more. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, taxis and Ubers can be quite expensive, both as one offs and when they add up (for example it was $60 for a one-way trip to the airport, and $12 for a 4-block ride.) Secondly, the Subway is great, but the stations can sometimes be hard to spot, or you might stupidly think to yourself ‘it’s only 5 blocks away I can walk that’. In any case, you end up walking for a large portion of your city break in New York, so make sure your shoes fit properly, you have foot care products to hand, take regular breaks and as I discovered more than anything else – decent, thick socks are essential. One of the reasons why I still have things on my Bucket List that I want to do in New York is because my feet couldn’t do it!

2. Make sure you have them dollar bills

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was way more expensive than I imagined. Of course, you expect prices to be a little higher in a major city, but when we’re talking $16+tax for a single bagel and even $3+tax for water and $30+tax entry to certain museums, you start to think your spending budget isn’t going to last. You might be thinking, yeah but I won’t eat at fancy restaurants, I’ll just get street food and sandwiches – Yup good plan, but still budget for more than you think. For what I would consider a Meal Deal (crisps, sandwich, drink, bar of chocolate) you’re still talking around $12+tax and for a traveller on a budget, every penny counts. There are some little gems, like the 99c pizza slice, so just do some research or where to find them.

3. Set your alarms.

It’s called the city that never sleeps, but in my brief experience, I would say the city sleeps from 5:00-8:00 AM as that’s when the attractions and streets aren’t as busy. We got up extra early most days and because of that we basically got the Brooklyn Bridge to ourselves and we could breathe in Times Square. If you don’t like a lot of people but still find yourself in New York, go to bed early, and get up before everyone else. Check out some of the snaps we got because of it!

4. Plan… but also don’t.

You’re going to New York, so instantly you know you want to do things like Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Central Park (like me), but if you over plan, you’ll find you have no time to explore and find things you had no idea about. For example, we stumbled upon ‘the Museum of Sex’, the ghost busters fire station and some great shops like Macy’s and It’s Sugar! I would say plan two or three things for a day and leave a few hours in between them for just experiencing what New York has to offer.

5. Navigation

Get yourself an App like City Mapper. Without this, I would probably still be lost in central park or got on the wrong Subway train. New York is massive, and although in theory it’s an easy grid system to navigate, finding the nearest subway station or even the building you want can be difficult, especially when they are all covered in development advertisements and scaffolding. If you can, travel with someone who has been in New York before or make sure as part of you research you plan routes and make notes of the directions.

I hope these tips help you on your next trip to New York, but if you have any questions on my trip, please get in touch. Those five tips again:

1. For the love of god, wear comfortable shoes

2. Make sure you have them dollar bills

3. Set your alarms

4. Plan… but also don’t

5. Navigation