Empire State Building. Central Park. Time Square. Yankee Stadium. Broadway. Statue of Liberty. Brooklyn Bridge. Wall Street. You’ll probably hit some, if not all of those major New York City attractions should you visit The Big Apple. And you’ll probably get family and friends tell you to ‘go here’, or ‘do this’, and ‘be sure to check out that’. But there’s only one truly unique New York experience that you need to enjoy (and no, it’s not mastering the New York City subway system).
I’ll be honest, blunt, and get to the point, New York is no big deal. It’s a city. A big one. With buildings, stuff to do, stuff to see, stuff to buy, and stuff to eat. The pizza is pretty good, I mean who doesn’t like a crunchy crust. And there’s something for everyone, that’s for sure — be it a play for artsy type, a museum for the history buff, or a game or two for the sports fanatic.
I guess we’ve been putting off New York City because we didn’t want to be disappointed. But I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the city by any means, though. Of all the stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph, we did them all, and then some! We even took in some recommended places like visiting a pub on Stone Street (I highly recommend a charcuterie board and a bottle of wine at Vintry Wine and Whiskey).
We were also able to take in a Mets baseball game and a museum — complete with guided tour (I highly recommend the Irish Outsiders tour at the Tenement Museum).
We walked across Brooklyn Bridge with countless other tourists and laughed at those who decided to rent a Citi-bike as they too ended up walking across because of pedestrian traffic (I DON’T highly recommend the Citi-bike across the bridge). We did, however, rent Citi-bikes for a ride through Central park.
It was a very unique time during our visit — it was Easter weekend AND Spring break. The city was bustling with tourists. Lineups for the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock were out the doors and around the corner.
The New York Yankees were also having their home opener on Monday at 1pm…at least they thought they were.
Monday morning we were treated to 6 inches/15 centimeters of snow. Wet snow. The kind that sticks to everything. That heavy snow nobody wants to shovel so you pray it’s going to warm up and melt so you don’t have to break your back shoveling that heavy snowy mess. And it did melt, but not before the Yankees postponed their game, and not before we were dazzled with some amazing snow-covered scenery in Central Park. We couldn’t have asked for a more picturesque setting (I highly recommend seeing Central Park like this if you can).
Oh, and we walked. A LOT! We knew we were going to walk a lot too, so my ever-so-smart wife booked us a Jacuzzi suite. Every night we were in there enjoying a few drinks and soaking our barking dogs. Our last night was the best as we shared a bottle of wine as we soaked, then finished our own unique New York experience with some fine sushi from Izumi Sushi (I highly recommend their Volcano Roll — that fresh avocado on top was amazing!)
The thing is, we did a lot of the regular mainstream tourist stuff, but there’s one thing we did that everyone else needs to do when visiting New York. We made it our OWN experience. As mentioned, people will tell you to ‘go here’, and ‘eat there’, and ‘do that’. But everyone has their OWN unique New York experience and a tale to tell about it, so take recommendations for stuff all you want, but when it’s your turn to visit NY, you need to create your OWN unique New York experience (I highly recommend it).
Now go sell all your stuff and create a unique New York experience of your own!