Only have one day? How to spend 24 hours in New York City

OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve always spent longer than 24 hours in New York City.

However, it’s totally possible to see and do a good amount of NYC living in that amount of time. Even if you only have 24 hours in New York City, you can have a fantastic trip including touristy sites and visit off the beaten path haunts. All you need to do is start the morning with a strong cup (or five) of coffee.

Let’s do this.

9am

I’m generous. You can even sleep in on your morning in the city. Yes, we’re calling 9am sleeping in. I won’t judge you because 1) jet lag is a bitch and 2) beauty sleep.

9:30am – Breakfast at Cookshop

Breakfast at Cookshop on 10th Ave.

New York City is FAMED for the breakfast/brunch concept. It’s a miracle people even make it into work with these kind of options.

We started our morning at Cookshop, which I randomly stumbled upon on Time Out (thanks pals). You must order the Kale breakfast bowl, because breakfast is truly best in a giant bowl. And a heap of the pancakes. The coffee is also essential. It’s strong, which I loved. We sat outside, munched on our brekkie, sipped warm coffees and loved life.

YEP. This is probably filed under the definition of foodporn.

The weather while we’ve been in New York City has been fantastic. We LOVED spending the morning @cookshopny sipping on coffee and eating the best breakfast of American pancakes and a kale breakfast bowl with eggs sunny side up. ????????????

A photo posted by Kelly Prince-Wright (@kellyprincewright) on Jun 1, 2016 at 3:43am PDT

11am – The NYC High Line

Leave Cookshop and head down the street, less than a block to visit the High Line. It’s an old subway line that’s disused/turned into a beaut garden. TAKE ME BACK THERE.

There’s loads of activities on this summer, so if you’re visiting the city, take a peek at these babies for your ‘things to do’ idea board.

So High Line time.

While it might have been the hottest days in New York City, I still opted for wearing my Banana Republic denim dress, paired with my tourist friendly and fashionable white Converse.

I’ve been loving my vacay wardrobe a little too much lately.

So much pretty.

Back to the High Line. Starting from 10th ave, we took the path up towards midtown because I wanted to visit the Top of the Rock afterwards. Not that it’s necessarily near where the High Line let us out, but it was close.

Here are some sights you’ll see on the NYC High Line.

The High Line ends by taking you down near the water and the tracks.

The High Line is such a cool juxtaposition of green meets the city. Plus, visiting the High Line means that you get to spend a little time walking above the extra hot city streets.

Once we popped out of the High Line, we beelined it for Rockefeller Plaza.

12pm – Top of the Rock

Perfectly decorated for Memorial Day Weekend. We went inside and bought tickets to go up to the Top of the Rock.

Continuously being mistaken for a tourist in NYC because I was carrying around my giant camera, means we HAD to do some touristy things. ????????????

A photo posted by Kelly Prince-Wright (@kellyprincewright) on Jun 1, 2016 at 7:00am PDT

We’ve been up before, but never with an epic camera for all the phototaking.

Tickets to go up will cost a cool $32. Not the cheapest, but hey, the views are certainly worth it.

The thing is, despite the steep ticket price, I wouldn’t recommend staying too long. I think we were up for a total of 45 minutes before getting back onto ground. Firstly, because I’m terrified of heights (don’t let the photos fool you) and secondly because it was our last day in NYC. We have places to go! Only 24 hours in New York City means that you’re on the move. Go, go go!

1pm – The New York Public Library

Stop to see the New York Public Library. You’ve seen it in films like the Day After Tomorrow, and now is your chance to see it in person. It’s free to go in, and there’s usually never a queue. I’d never been in before and was dying to see the great library room.

Except.. it wasn’t open. They are currently reconstructing part of it, so it was closed to the public. I’m sure in a few weeks (or months) time it will be up and running again for visits, so I’d recommend it. It looks beautiful and it’s only about 30 minutes of your time! Whoop!

2pm – Salvation Taco

It’s time for tacos and margaritas. And if it’s sunny add a rooftop bar into the mix.

Joe has this obsession with rooftop bars, and since we never went to one while we lived in NYC (I know), I had to make his dream come true and visit a cool one this time around.

Let me taco bout Salvation Taco. A cute little place located in Pod 39 Hotel, it’s a ground floor restaurant. But if you go to the hostess and say, hey, we’d like to get drinks at the rooftop bar, they’ll let you right up. I’d recommend arriving sometime around 2pm so that you can snap up one of their awesome seats.

Immediately order the Margaritas, they kick ass and are strong as hell. If you’re more of a beer kinda guy or gal, then the Modelo is for you.

Then proceed to order chips and guac and tacos.

You won’t regret it.

At this point in time, you could probably limit the alcohol purchases at one each. And refrain from ordering another round of chips and guac. But we didn’t. It was relaxing, the sun was shining and we had the best seats on the rooftop (PS. a panorama shot of the rooftop that Joe took, because that’s the only kind of photo that he likes to take on his phone these days).

But you know, if you’re doing the whole 24 hour thing then CRACK ON and pop into Macy’s or visit the shops along 5th ave for an hour instead.

4pm – Flatiron Building

Another site that I’d never seen, the iconic Flatiron building in New York City.

Just on the other side of Madison Park sits the thin building that’s been there since 1902. I’m not entirely sure if you can go up it or not, but we decided to sit in the park and admire it from there.

5pm – Big Gay Ice Cream

YUP. I’ve been dying to check out the Big Gay Ice Cream shop in New York City. Everything about it is fantastic and the branding so much fun. We stopped in for cones because well, it was necessary. And after margaritas and tacos it seemed like a BRILLIANT IDEA.

I’m a simple kind of girl, so the vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles was all I needed.

All we really need in life is @biggayicecream am I right? ❤️????????????????

A photo posted by Kelly Prince-Wright (@kellyprincewright) on Jun 3, 2016 at 7:44am PDT

SO GOOD.

At this point, our stomachs were bursting at the seams. It’s probably a good idea to sit down and relax. BUT NOPE.

6pm – Go riverside

We walked with our cones down to the water, where a cool breeze hit our faces and we saw a TV production crew setting up with a fake police car.

Intriguing. I hoped it was Law and Order, my favourite, but in the end we didn’t find out.

7pm – FOOD

More eating and drinking. You read that right. Go find a dive place and go in for whatever the speciality is. We ended up going into a wine bar and then a little Columbian place where um, we had more tacos, beans and rice. Theme of the day you guys. This is also the part in the day that we’d now walked 26,000 steps, were covered in sweat, and couldn’t be bothered to photograph another thing.

By 9pm you should be back at your hotel room ready to crash out.

I know I said it was 24 hours in NYC, but hey, the other 12 you need for sleeping. After all, with that kind of day, you deserve it.

Also, we had to get up at 4am for a flight leaving Newark at 7am to California. So, I was completely for going to bed early and crashing big time.

So, what do you think? How would you spend a quick 24 hours in New York City?

Kelly xoxo