Well, I can’t believe it’s already been 2 weeks since my trip NY and it’s already Christmas weekend! I will say it one last time, this year has gone by so quickly. Especially for being my first full year of working for myself, I feel like I still am just getting started lol. I got a lot of questions about my trip, while I shared a good amount to my Instagram stories, I wanted to give ya’ll the full breakdown of our trip, so here is my full NYC itinerary!
Pro Tip: 100000% make reservations for all the food spots you want to get in to. I started making them around 1 month in advance, and if that was too early (some don’t allow it until 2 weeks ahead) then I just checked back every other day or so until I got one!
WEDNESDAY
Our flight on Wednesday from HOU to LGA was around 8pm! So we landed around 11:30, had to wait for bags for a good while, I think we ended up at the hotel, HOTEL HUGO, around 1-1:30am! I let them know ahead of time that we would be arriving super late and gave them our flight info, so that they would be expecting us after usual check in time.
We Door-Dashed pizza from Joes Pizza, and not going to lie, it took over an hour to get to us and by the time it did it wasn’t very good lol. We heard from multiple people that Joe’s had great pizza, so we are just going to chalk it up to the delay in getting to us that made it not to great lol.
THURSDAY
10:00 AM- 9/11 Memorial + Museum Reservations
We got up bright and early the first day, I think we got like 4 hours of sleep lol. We decided to walk to the museum because it was only a 30 minute walk from our hotel so we took that opportunity to fully embrace the NY “lifestyle”. We stopped for coffee at our hotel then headed out. We did stop along the way for sights and pictures and enjoyed the morning air!
12:30 PM- BRUNCH @ BUBBY’S
This was our first real meal in the city! I found this spot via Instagram. I got the Huevos Rancheros, and my girlfriends got the Avocado Toast, and the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. We also split the Bacon Mac+ Cheese, which was to DIE for!!
After that we just did some more exploring, walking around the city. We made our way into Zara and H&M, a few other shops and just walked, walked, walked!
5:15 PM- DINNER @ BARBUTO
This dinner really set the tone for the trip. This place was so chic, so quaint, so NY. It wasn’t overly busy and the food was AMAZING! We tasted a couple wines before buying a bottle, our waitress was so accommodating and we actually let her choose our meal. We decided to split everything, family style, so we started with the Kale Salad and Meatballs. Then for the main course, we did the Brussel Sprouts and Seafood Risotto. Let me tell you, never in my life did I think I would be drooling over a Kale Salad…. but WOW, it was so delicious!!!
After dinner we tried to get into Rolf’s which is a popular Christmas themed bar, the line was insane. But luckily, on of you guys on Instagram told me about the 230 5th Street rooftop bar, which you didn’t a reservation for, or at least we didn’t lol. So we headed there and waited in line for about 10 mins. Let me say, I am SO GLAD we went there!! It ended up being such an amazing night, they had these heated igloos that you could go into, which we did after about an hour of waiting for our turn lol. They had wine by the bottle, yummy holiday drinks like Boozy Hot Chocolate, and an incredible view of the Empire State Building. I think we go there around 8pm and didn’t leave until at least 12:30a, we met people from all over the world and just had the best night!
FRIDAY
11:00 AM- LUNCH @ DANTE WEST VILLAGE
We decided to walk to lunch this morning and I am so glad we did! The walk from SOHO to West Village so so beautiful, quiet and quaint. I was just in awe of all the beautiful buildings. To me that is what I pictured when I thought of NY. Our lunch was also AMAZING and they even treated us to specially holiday cocktails, which was so kind! My girlfriend and I split the burger and potatoes, while another got the salmon bagel. We also shared a bottle of champagne, after each getting our own drinks to start. My girlfriend go the Manhattan and said it was the best one she had ever had, another got an espresso martini, and I started with just a double shot espresso and some oat milk lol. I WAS TIRED!
After lunch we headed down to the main attractions and do some shopping at Saks 5th Ave and Nordstrom, stopped to view St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and walked around seeing all the sights! The stores are all so massive so it’s easy to spend some time in there!
We didn’t have a dinner reservation this night, since we were going to see a show later. So we headed back to the hotel, got ready and just went to the hotel bar for light bites and cocktails. The food at our hotel bar, Bar Hugo, was actually very good! We got some chicken bites and fries. Sounds simple but so good!
8:00 PM- WICKED ON BROADWAY
This was my first real play, other than the high school kind haha. I was in awe of all the talent and ended up crying at the end! It was just so overwhelmingly beautiful! I already want to see Wicked again, it was so good!!
After the show we headed to Times Square and walked around before heading back to the hotel to change into and grab some food.
I found a little diner near our hotel called Soho Diner that was open late. I am SO GLAD I did because I am pretty sure I had the best pancakes of my entire life there lol. They were open super late until about 4am I think, so a good little spot for some late bites!
SATURDAY
We didn’t do any lunch/brunch reservations this day so that we could start bright and early. We had an Uber take us to Ralph’s so we could start the day with some warm coffee. This was by far the coldest and windiest day. We decided to walk from there to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and were going to attempt to ice skate, but it was super crowded so we just skipped out on that lol.
To be honest, the weather this day was miserable lol. So we decided to find a place to grab a bite and came across The Elgin close by. It was a cute and chic little pub and the food was really great! We all agreed we found a gem with this one! We decided to split the meatballs, salmon tacos and a pizza!
After lunch we did a little more sight seeing and checked out Macy’s where we got some hot chocolate, which was much needed lol.
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night and ended up stopping by a chic rooftop bar called Jimmy near the hotel for a drink before our dinner reservations. The vibes here were so good and the rooftop was beautiful!
6:45 PM- DINNER @ LE MERCERIE
This restaurant was beautiful!! We actually had to sit outside under some heaters as the indoor tables were full at the time of booking, but it was so quaint and the food was delicious! It is a French cuisine, so to be safe I got the braised short ribs, which were SO GOOD.
10:00 PM – THE ROCKETTES CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR
We took a car from the restaurant to the show, at this time of day it was an hour drive. However, traffic was soooooo bad, we ended up hopping out and walking the last mile or so because we had about 10 minutes until show time! I am actually glad we did though because we were able to see the Saks lights lit up and the tree up close and personal on that walk. The show was amazing and interactive, it was such a magical experience and definitely a bucket list item!
After the show we did a little more walking and stopped for some street hotdogs… not going to lie they were awful lol. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack our lives away since we headed out the next day.
SUNDAY
11:00 AM- BRUNCH @ RESTORATION HARDWARE ROOFTOP
We were able to leave our luggage at the hotel and head to brunch after getting some much needed rest that morning lol. This was my first time at RH, and it was beautiful and the food was great! I got the chicken Cesar salad, and we split the truffle fries and burrata. After lunch we went to a local coffee shop called Kobrick Coffee, and walked around Chelsea I believe was the area we were in.
We actually had more time on our hands than we anticipated, so decided to go get some foot massages at a place nearby… haha it was so sketchy, but super busy at the same time lol. This was actually my first ever foot massage, and well let’s just say it wasn’t an amazing experience lol. It hurt so bad lol.
Our flight home was around 4:30pm so we headed back to the hotel for our bags then the airport. It was such a fun trip and an experience I’ll never forget!!
I hope this post helps you plan your next trip and make sure to check out what I wore on this trip to NYC in this post HERE!
