Here’s a little walk through of how I spent a long weekend in the beautiful New York City with my favorite travel buddy. ❤️
Also it’s a little half assed just like how my planning process went so y’all New Yorkers (and transplants) out there, don’t come after me!
Budget breakdown: divided into 2 unless otherwise stated
- Flight (direct SFO-JFK) – $240 each, roundtrip
- Hotel – $570 for 3 nights at Shoreham Hotel (partially redeemed in points, but feel free to check out some hostels from Hostelworld if that’s an option you want to explore) #affiliate
- Transportation – $69.50 each
- $33 each for a 7 day unlimited metro card (for the subway)
- $25 for 10 AirTrain trips – valid 30 days and only on AirTrain, we got to share this between both of us
- $24 each for Liberty/Ellis Island ferry tickets
- Food – questionable
- Activities – $37 each
- $25 each for ARTECHOUSE
- $17 each for MET entry (student pricing)
DAY 1
Arrival to JFK – 7AM
Yes. We took a red eye flight. Yes. We came off that plane feeling miserable and very slightly dead inside. (tip: don’t do it. Even if you think it’s a good idea, don’t. I was humbled real quick by that flight)
Hopped on the AirTrain to get away from that airport and onto the subway.
Manhattan Bridge view point from Dumbo
Our first sleep-deprived stop was the ever so popular tourist spot which unsurprisingly was not packed, considering it was about 8AM and normal people were either still asleep or at work.
Location: Washington – Plymouth street intersection in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn
Brooklyn Bridge Park
A 12-ish minute walk from the last spot located under the Brooklyn Bridge. Came here to walk around, enjoy the scenery, and try to regain our mental sanity from lack of sleep.
At this point we ended up calling the hotel at around 9AM to beg for early check in consideration, didn’t care that we had to pay extra. Ya girl was about to fall over and/or lose her mind.
Checked into Shoreham Hotel very much #gapangmode (crawl in english?) and took a good ole 4-5 hour nap before finally starting our day.
Rockefeller Center
Now that we were no longer walking zombies, we freshened up and subway’d our asses over to Rockefeller Center to check out the famous complex with the Christmas tree and ice skating rink. Too bad it was October and people were still focused on Halloween. Oops!
Ended up also stopping by the Nintendo store. It’s always great seeing your childhood gaming devices behind a glass window while standing next to a kid telling his dad how amazing these antique devices are and how times must have been so tough back then. *dies inside*
Little Italy
Made our way over to Lombardi’s Pizza for a late breakfast/lunch/honestly we started so late it might as well have been dinner.
Ordered the Margherita pizza and IMO it wasn’t life changing, but it was pretty alright. The crust was pretty good.
Tip: Bring cash! They don’t accept card, but they do have an ATM (with a fee) inside if you need to withdraw.
Chinatown
Making our way over to Chinatown to continue our food trip into dinner!
We were supposed to go to Joe’s Shanghai for some XLB’s but the wait was insane and we ended up going to Xi’an Famous Foods 西安名吃 right down the street. Also had pretty long wait (about 20-25 minutes for us) but we didn’t mind since the line seemed to be moving pretty quick.
Meal of choice: spicy & sour lamb dumplings, hand ripped beef noodles
Would I recommend? Hell yeah. 11/10 would go back for their noodles. This meal was as life changing as earlier’s pizza was not. ❤
Next stop for dessert: The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
Flavors of choice: Durian and Rose Lychee
Would I recommend? the Southeast Asian in us say 10/10 hell yeah smother that durian all around my body. But durian is also not for the weak willed.
Next stop for 2nd dessert: Alimama Tea for a Yuzu Cream Puff
Would I recommend? Not if you’re allergic to egg! But we pick our battles in this house!!!
Times Square NYC
The sheer hustle and bustle of this area is something you would not be able to fully understand until you experience it for yourself.
Between all the neon lights and and billboards, this truly is the city that never sleeps. You’ll find a bunch of bars, stores, theaters, and people here.
DAY 2
Dunkin’
For breakfast pre-game we decided to stop by the Dunkin’ right next to the hotel since everyone raves about East Coast Dunkin’ being superior. As someone who has lived in the Philippines with Dunkin’ Donuts being everywhere, I just had to figure out what the difference was.
So we ordered a matcha latte and iced coffee. Couldn’t figure out what made it so special.
Then when we got home and I told my coworkers about it, I quickly realized my mistake was I should’ve bought… a donut.
Best Bagel & Coffee
Located along 35th street, we got bagels for our main breakfast.
Meal of choice: New Yorker on an Everything bagel
Would I recommend? if you have the time during the breakfast rush, I would def recommend this spot. Best and thiccccest bagel I’ve ever had and there is no going back from NY bagels.
Empire State Building
We made the executive decision that we were too broke to go up the actual building (I’m also afraid of heights and just had a heavy meal) and therefor we only ball on a budget. It was a stunning sight to see in person.
From here, we made our way over to the High Line which is a cute walking park with art installments 30 ft. above street level.
Chelsea Market
Cute indoor market with actual groceries (like produce and stuff), shops, and a fantastic food hall. Kind of reminded me of Pike Place in Seattle a bit.
- ARTECHOUSE NYC
The exhibit that we went to was called Machine Hallucination. Our main reason for going is because Don is all about that NFT life and this specific exhibit featured an exclusive location drop of immersive experiential NFT art composed of 1,000 unique NFTs from Anadol, the creator.
You can check out more about different exhibits and locations here.
- Los Tacos No. 1
A busy taqueria also located inside Chelsea Market. It was an absolute flavor bomb!
Grand Central Terminal
A super busy cultural hub for the city that you might have seen before in a movie. I was surprised to see how grand this terminal was with all the shops and restaurants located within the building. There was even an Apple store!
The MET
All I can say is 1 day is not enough to tour this museum. There’s a reason why it’s so famous. Wear good walking shoes! Unless you enjoy suffering- I don’t judge.
And once you’re done touring this place for the day, there are lots of food trucks right outside! Not joking, I shed a tear eating this chili dog because of how hangry I was getting inside. It was the best street dog I’ve ever had in my life.
Dinner: this place deserves no clout from me. 10/10 appearance, 0/10 flavor. I refuse to name it. At least it was semi-pretty.
My redemption dinner after this was a bag of chips, a block of cheese, and wine from a random bodega.
DAY 3: Liberty & Ellis Island
I’m pretty sure we just had leftover chips (#HealthIsWealth) for breakfast since we were on a time crunch to get to the ferry for our tour.
Battery Park
We bought our ferry tickets online HERE for $24 each assuming online tickets would mean a quicker line to get through security check and onto the ferry. Nope! Everyone still gets in the same line and despite us rushing to make it to our 10:00 slot, it probably took us an additional 30 minutes to get to the front of the line.
The ferry departs about every 25-30 minutes, so plan accordingly.
Liberty Island
Once you get on the island, they do offer self paced audio tours with historical information. I thought the Statue of Liberty was pretty cool.
Ellis Island
From Liberty Island, the next ferry stop is Ellis Island. As a first generation Asian-American, I found the history of Ellis Island the most interesting as back then it was the nation’s premier federal immigration station. In other words, it was where immigrants went to have a chance at living the “American Dream.”
After this, we hopped back on the ferry to return to Battery Park
Wall Street
Wall St. was okay. Lots of tourists, lots of finance bros in suits. The bull was kind of underwhelming to see. Worth going just to say you’ve been to Wall st.
Central Park
The famed urban park located smack dab in the middle of a city. I did not realize how enormous this park would be, and how easy it would be to get lost in it. Watching the sun set from here felt like a dream. I could spend hours just wandering around this park.
Slainte Bar & Lounge
On our journey to find a bar that was showing that night’s UFC match, we ended up here. Great vibes, great conversations, great little beer belly!
Prince St. Pizza
IT WAS SO GOOD.
Would I recommend? has late night pizza ever made me cry??? yes?? was it worth waiting out in the freezing cold for like 20 minutes??? YES!!!
Again, IT WAS SO GOOD.
DAY 4
Honestly we didn’t too much for our last day aside from relax and spend some time with my good ole college pal, Austin the ISA legend! #ISAmeansone #IYKYK
Walked around Central Park again, explored the University area, and really just spent the day having good conversations and enjoying our surroundings.
Oh and there was also a bomb threat and a faculty hostage situation while we were wandering around Columbia University and got evacuated. That was…cool.
side note: I wish for nothing more than for a middle aged Italian man working at a random $1 pizza shop to just yell at me endearingly
travel blog, minus the bull$hit 
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