Welcome to New York

New York has been a bucket list place to visit of mine for years now – ever since I read Lindsey Kelk’s ‘I Heart New York’ and fell head-over-heels in love with her descriptions of the city that never sleeps. After having travel plans put on hold due to the dreaded C word over the past few years, back in February we thought it was about time we got something booked, and why not New York?

New York in the fall

I’ve always wanted to visit in the fall (You’ve Got Mail is one of my favourite films) so we booked the trip for the end of September, giving us enough time to save up and plan. I can’t believe how quickly the trip rolled around, and before we knew it we were on a plane winging its way to the Big Apple.

We had the most incredible five-ish days in New York and then spent the remainder of our trip visiting Niagara Falls, with a whistle stop tour of Toronto. I have so much content to share from our trip that I’m going to split the posts up by day, to save inflicting the world’s longest blog post on you. 

Arriving in NY 

We arrived at JFK on a Friday afternoon, and after battling our way through Customs (I think we waited a delightful 2-3 hours – apparently this is normal!) we headed into the city. I’ll admit when we first stepped out into the noisy New York streets I felt a tad overwhelmed. I think the chaos of the city is a lot to take in when it’s your first trip there, especially when you’re lugging a suitcase around and feeling exhausted after a 7-hour flight! It took us a while to get our bearings but once we’d checked into our hotel and had a freshen up we were ready to see what the city had to offer. First stop: a sunset slot at Top of the Rock. 

Moxy Hotel Times Square

We stayed at the Moxy Hotel Times Square, and I’d definitely say it’s unlike any hotel I’ve stayed in before. Owned by Marriott, Moxy feels like the cool younger sister of their traditional hotels – it’s energetic, trendy and perfect if you like to party. It almost felt like you didn’t even need to leave your hotel to have a good time – they have a cool bar/lounge offering free coffee in the morning, an extremely Instagram-worthy rooftop bar and events and activities going on all the time. If you’re looking for a quiet retreat, this definitely isn’t it, but then again, a trip to NY is always going to be anything but quiet. 

Top of the Rock

We knew we wanted to see the iconic NY skyline in all its glory, complete with view of the Empire State Building, so we decided to visit the Rockefeller Center to experience Top of the Rock at sunset. We’d pre-booked a 6pm slot, but thanks to the delays at the airport we missed it. Luckily, we were able to move to the next available slot (on the same day) so we didn’t miss out. 

The views at the top were amazing (I recommend heading to the highest level for pictures as it’s nice and open without glass in the way) and despite the crowds it was lovely to see New York as night fell. The view everyone cares about is obviously of the Empire State, so this side gets particularly busy, but from the other side you get to see Central Park which I thought was pretty cool. The whole experience cost us $44 each (none of the skyscraper viewing platforms in NY are cheap) and it’s worth mentioning sunset is one of the busiest times so getting out was a bit of a slog. I’d definitely recommend going though, for quite possibly the best view in New York. 

Have you visited any of the skyscrapers in NYC? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Keep an eye out for my blog post on our first full day in NY, where we explore Brooklyn.