Even in one of the most densely populated and developed cities in North America, we all need to get out side in nature and even exercise from time to time. Here's where we enjoyed the classic sights of New York out of doors. 

Central Park

Central Park was one of our first stops in the city, especially since we had to redeem a Groupon for a bicycle rental!

With some help from an employee holding a sign on the corner, we found the Rental Bike NYC office after walking right past it. We redeemed our Groupons and accepted a free lock with our bikes, then schlepped them up Fifth Avenue to Central Park. Once we arrived at the park, we wandered around for a long time, but after help from a pedicab driver and an official Central Park Volunteer (and about 30 minutes), we found the road where bikes are allowed to drive and cars, mostly, are not. Then we (finally) had a pleasant ride through about half of the park. It was very nice to have the breeze, even if Sarah's bike had a tendency to complain and we discovered that neither of us really understand how you're supposed to use bike gears.

We returned to Central Park for picnics, pictures and peace whenever we were in the area!

Highline Park

A former elevated train line converted into a walkway with greenery, Highline Park is a respite from the streets below. Note that there are benches to rest. Keep in mind that you can only enter and exit the park at certain places, and look for attractions near those exits.

Brooklyn Bridge

With its iconic gothic arches, the Brooklyn Bridge is a New York staple. We rented bikes from a kiosk nearby--note that there's no dedicated bike path, so bikes take the pedestrian path. Do NOT attempt to bike on the road!

It also has great views of the skyline!

Thank you, stranger, for taking this photo

I am a museum person. The only thing I don't like about museums is feeling pressure to see absolutely everything in a limited amount of time.

Lucky for me, my best friend is also a museum person, so we made a point of visiting at least a few museums and memorials in New York City!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sarah and Jordan at the Met

One of our very first stops our first day in New York was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Little did we know that the following year, we'd be cowriting a historical romance series set in the Revolutionary era. I even wrote a story set during the crossing of the Delaware and the battle of Trenton. It didn't look like this.

We explored the European galleries, American modern artists, Egyptian artifacts, furniture and other material goods, visible storage and more, but we were unsuccessful in our quest to find a certain unknown young man in a yellow waistcoat (AKA our boyfriend). We did, however, get the closest we got to seeing Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton. His name is Alexander Hamilton.

If you go
Go! If you're a New York resident at the time we went, the Met was free, which is a pretty sweet deal. We paid $25 for tickets that were good for two days, but we had too much to see and do (and eat) the second day. There is definitely enough to fill two days here, but you have to reeeeally be a museum person to want to do this. We didn't have our kids, so we can't vouch for how kid-friendly it is, but we didn't think they would have enjoyed the same things we did.

The Met at the Cloisters

Cloistered courtyard at the Met at the Cloisters

The Cloisters is another location of the Metropolitan Museum that specializes in, among other things, religious and medieval art. While the Met is in Central Park/Midtown, the Cloisters is way, way up town.

A path to the Cloisters

Jordan and Sarah at the Cloisters. Actually in a nice dress.

Finally, two stops before the Bronx, we disembarked from the Metro and climbed way, way up the hill in Fort Tryon Park to the Met at the Cloisters. The Cloisters was designed to evoke European monasteries, and it definitely did that! The European religious art was perfect for the Sabbath, and the peaceful atmosphere and lovely gardens and views made us both wish for the cloistered life. We could also probably draw better lions than 98% of medieval artists.

Unicorn tapestry at the Cloisters

Artist's rendition of a *checks notes* lion? in tapestry

Also a lion? Y'all...

Apparently also supposed to be a lion.

Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial

We didn't actually visit the museum here, but we did visit the memorial. It was very touching and solemn. 

Roses at 9/11 Memorial

New York City is the theatre capital of the United States, and arguably the English-speaking world. For us, seeing Broadway shows was a priority, and we made time to see two in one day. 

Jordan and Sarah at the floral display in the lobby of My Fair Lady

Tips

Keep in mind that in general, Broadway shows are put on nightly, except Mondays. There are also matinee shows on weekends and sometimes on Wednesdays. This doesn't mean that every show plays every night (the big shows do), but that there are shows every night except Mondays.

Consider the season you're traveling: fall is a big time for new shows to open. By about Christmas time, they're on "winter break," meaning they won't open new shows for a couple months, but the December holiday season is often the busiest time of the year in terms of ticket sales. The rest of the winter can be a good time for serious plays (dramas, tragedies, nonmusicals) to flourish. Spring can see new shows preview and premiere. With the Tony awards in June, ticket sales get a big bump, and tourism drives sales through the summer slump where new shows aren't opening.

Broadway is not a single theatre nor even a single street lined with, but a collection of the top-tier theatres. They're located pretty close to one another in Midtown, but be sure to check the location of your specific theatre.

Broadway shows can run for years if they're popular (think Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and Hamilton). They typically run at the same theatre for their whole run, so some theatres become known at the home of certain shows.

While we typically think of musicals and Broadway as synonymous, there are also plenty of "straight plays"/non musicals.

Every season you're likely to find popular shows, revivals of classics (often with a new twist), and brand new shows.

Finding good shows

If you don't know what to see, here are a few ideas for finding good shows:

Know what you want to see. It's easy to fall into the fallacy of thinking that you should see what's popular--but nobody wants to sit through two hours of a show they hate. If you hate musicals, see a nonmusical play. If you prefer a show where the characters learn and grow, look for a drama. If you need a happy ending, don't see a tragedy. If a classic show is your favorite ever, check to see if this revival has changed the things you love. If you realize you're not a fan of live theatre, it's okay to skip Broadway. There is also amazing live music, opera, and other shows!

Check reviews. Google and even bloggers (gasp) can be your friend here.

Ask your friends. You probably have at least one theatre-loving friend who's heard the buzz about this year's hot shows.

Look at recent awards. Shows that have recently won a Drama Desk or Tony Award are often a good pick. 

Read synopses. If you aren't sure whether a show would be your cup of tea, do your research beforehand and read up on the content and subject of a show.

Consider whether shows are touring. If you live somewhere that you can see national tours of shows, if any of the shows you're thinking about seeing in New York are currently or about to go on a national tour, consider seeing those shows at home and saving your time in New York for more exclusive shows. Simply search for your show plus "national tour" to find out about plans and dates. 

Getting cheap or last-minute tickets

Broadway tickets can easily top $300 per seat. If you're traveling on a budget, or if you decided to wing it like we did, here are some ways to get discounted tickets as late as the day of the show.

TKTS booths are located around Midtown. They sell unsold tickets to shows that day, often at a discount. Popular shows will likely not be available here. If you just want to see any show, you want to see a long-running show, or you're looking for tickets in an off-season, this can be a good option.

TodayTix app: We didn't want to settle for whatever hadn't sold, so we bought our orchestra seat tickets for My Fair Lady for about $100 a seat here and picked them up in person before the show. We were pleased with our seats.

Ticketmaster: this is an official retailer. We also got side orchestra tickets to Wicked for about $100 a seat here. Our seats were okay.

Lotteries: many shows, prominently including Hamilton, offer daily drawings for tickets as cheap as $10. For Hamilton, you enter on their app or website. Search for the show you want to see plus lottery to see if they have one. Only rely on this option if you are on an extremely tight budget or if you can make alternate plans, as the odds are not in your favor. 

Broadwaybox.com offers discount tickets and came recommended to me.

Standby line: in slower seasons especially, the standby line can still get you into a show!

Sales: in off seasons, there are often sales (see August when tourism is beginning to decline).

We saw these shows

We loved the intimate size of the theater at the Vivian Beaumont theatre--we felt like we were right there by the thrust stage. As we perused the playbill, we discovered Henry Higgins was played by Harry Hadden-Paton, AKA Michael Charteris from seasons 1&2 of The Crown! Eliza was played by her understudy, Shereen Ahmed (who, a week later, was cast as Eliza in the national tour). Mrs. Higgins was played by Rosemary Harris, 2019 Lifetime Achievement Tony winner (and mother of Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Bennet from the BBC Pride & Prejudice).

Sarah & Jordan at My Fair Lady

The show was absolutely wonderful! Although it had been years (decades?) since we'd seen the 1964 movie, we really loved it. The choreography, the sets, the full orchestra and especially the actors' talent were just breathtaking. The chemistry between the actors and the humor from the secondary characters (especially Col. Pickering and Mrs. Pearce) were delightful. The staging and the ending gave us much to discuss and tease out for weeks afterward.

We also got to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater. The performances were excellent and the parts were very challenging. The show was great, but we had pretty much fallen in love with My Fair Lady, and it remained our favorite.

The stage at Wicked

Getting there: flying

With several major airports, New York is easy to get to via plane. JFK is one of the most trafficked airports in the country, while LaGuardia in Brooklyn is getting busier. We found cheap tickets flying into Newark (which was good because we were staying with relatives in New Jersey). When you're looking for tickets, search the area rather than one specific airport to find good deals.

Getting there: busses, boats, trains, etc.

New York transit

New York has one of the most extensive public transportation systems in the United States, with many subway lines and busses throughout the city. A rental car is not necessary for a trip to New York--many New Yorkers don't even have a driver license.

When we finally gathered the courage to take the subway

Transit from New Jersey was a different system, so we had to pay for both of those. We realized if we'd sprung for a 7-day pass for New York subways, we would have saved money on our subway fares. I spent $55 on fares and Sarah likely spent about the same and at the time, a 7-day pass was $33.

If you come from a place without strong transit, BE BRAVE. It is 100% worth it to use the transit. We walked 35 miles in 4 days on our trip, and that was with (eventually) using the subway.

Google transit can be good at finding routes, although it will not always know whether the train is running or on time. In 2019, not all subway stations had WiFi, so it was key to determine our route before going underground.

Pay close attention to which direction the train is going. You will not get where you want to go if you get on headed the wrong direction. It's not a big deal; get off at the next stop, cross the platform (safely!) and wait for the train going back the other way. 

We didn't mean to go to Brooklyn

If you're seeing anything a significant distance (say 5 blocks or more) away, use public transit.

Staten Island ferry

Taking pictures with a big difference in lighting is a challenge.

Thank you, stranger, for taking this photo

If you've read our round ups of New York pastries, doughnuts in New York, New York cheesecakes, New York ice cream, and other desserts around New York, you'll understand exactly why we needed to eat plenty of savory food, too!

Tings

Goat curry, mac & cheese and Jamaican jerk chicken at Tings in Chelsea Market

Food trucks: shwarma

Shwarma mmmm

We found many food trucks swarming around Midtown in the general area of Central Park. We tracked down one in Lincoln Square and ordered shwarma sandwiches, which were massive and delicious. Perhaps not the best choice on a hot day, and really we could have split just one, but we were happy with our choice.

Shwarma food truck for lunch

Pizza Rollio

Tucked in a corner of the shops at the Plaza, Pizza Rollio offers pizza on a super thin, almost crispy crepe-like crust, which they cut in strips and then you roll up when you eat. It appears they're moving to catering and/or CloudKitchen now. We ordered a the Godmother: fig, gorgonzola and mozzarella. It was tasty and we managed to finish our full pizza. 

Fig, gorgonzola and mozzarella rolled pizza, the Godmother from Pizza Rollio

Joe's Pizza

We knew we wanted to eat at Joe's Pizza for an authentic New York slice. With locations throughout the boroughs, we found a location on our way back to Penn Station and finally braved the Metro. At Joe's, I got a regular old cheese pizza and Sarah got a slice of white pizza and margherita. The flavors were excellent, and the crust was the perfect balance between crisp and chewy. Unfortunately, a hot tomato burned Sarah's tongue, so be careful.

Eat at Joe's

White pizza and margherita pizza from Joe's

 If you haven't already hit a full sugar overload by visiting our New York pastries, doughnuts in New York, New York cheesecakes, New York ice cream, and savory foods in New York picks, we have a couple sweets left for you to try!

Rice to Riches

Rice to Riches

Close to Dominique Ansel Bakery you'll find Rice to Riches, which makes flavored rice puddings. Although I'm not normally a fan of the texture of rice pudding, I was tempted to try Sarah's French Toast flavored pudding--and was surprised to find I liked it! Short grain rice for the win.

French toast rice pudding from Rice to Riches

Levain

Levain is a renowned bakery, and you could definitely argue that they belong in the pastries and other baked goods article, but when we visited, we were after just one thing: their trademark giant cookies.

Cooooookies

Nestled in their box

We visited their original location on 74th Street, but they also have shops around Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Washington, DC. At Levain, Sarah had a spiritual experience with the oatmeal raisin cookie and I was quite partial to the double chocolate. We had a hard time comparing them to the oversized cookies so popular in Utah, however. Both are made with about 3/4c of cookie dough, but Levain cookies are much taller and are baked to create more of a difference in texture between the crunchy crisp exterior and the tender inside. Utah cookies (including Chip, Crumbl and others) are designed to spread and remain fairly gooey. Apples and oranges.

Ample Hills Creamery

Ample Hills Creamery at Gotham West Market

The location we visited was in Gotham West Market, but it's now closed. There we ordered a sundae with a scoop of ooey gooey butter cake ice cream and butter pecan brittle ice cream on a slice of warm ooey gooey butter cake with hot fudge and whipped cream. After that description, we probably don't need to elaborate on how good it was, but everything melded together into a buttery, sweet, creamy, chewy, warm, cold ball of amazingness. (I know, I should be a food writer.)

Ample Hills Creamery ooey gooey butter cake sundae

L'Arte del Gelato

Started by a Sicilian immigrant to bring joy to people, L'Arte del Gelato creates authentic Sicilian gelato with Italian flavors.

gelato selection

For our final dessert in the city, we headed over to L'Arte del Gelato in Chelsea Market, one of several Manhattan locations. I had half mascarpone, half panna cotta, and Sarah got half biscotti and half amarena variegato (sour cherry). Four halves made more than two thumbs up on both flavor and texture. We particularly enjoyed how well our pairings went together.

Amarena variegato and biscotti and mascarpone and panna cotta gelato

Shake Shack

Shake Shack FiDi Fudge concrete

At this point, Shake Shack had not reached our homes, so we sought out the chain and settled on two shackburgers and a small FiDi Fudge concrete (which supposedly didn't have cocoa powder because they were out, #weird, but seemed fine?). The chunks of chewy, dense chocolate truffle cookie dough in the creamy frozen custard were a rich, chocolatey treasure! The crispy crinkle fries were also quite good.

The Doughnuttery

The Doughnuttery has closed the location we visited in the Plaza's shops, but they still have several Doughuttery locations in Chelsea and Midtown. Their trademark is sugared mini doughnuts, which is exactly what we got: cardamom and rosemary sugared doughnuts. 

Cardamom and rosemary sugared mini doughnuts from the Doughnuttery

The doughnuts were airy and tender with just barely enough golden brown and delicious goodness on the outside, and and the flavorings were subtle: present without being over powering.

Doughnut Plant

With locations in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, the Doughnut Plant is a New York trademark where they emphasize good ingredients and pure flavors--and they're the birthplace of the creme brulee doughnut. Here was the selection on our visit:

Doughnut Plant selection

The Doughnut Plant

Naturally, we had to get one of their signature invention, as well as a Valrhona chocolate. The filling of the creme brulee doughnut was so sweet and perfectly smooth (definitely a giant step up from the usual "cream," aka canned vanilla pudding) with the bruleed sugar coating a caramelly contrast.

Valrhona chocolate doughnut from the Doughnut Plant

Créme brûlée doughnut from the Doughnut Plant

 New York cheesecake is one of the city's signature, eponymous dishes. Famously deep and tart, this savory sweet dessert is a classic!

Eileen's Special Cheesecake

Yes, there really is an Eileen who originated Eileen's special cheesecakes, almost fifty years ago--and yes, her cheesecake is pretty special. Her cheesenoli, a cannoli-inspired cheesecake, has won awards. 

Where could this place be? You have to play your cards right to find it--every year they develop another flavor. But at least 25 flavors are on the menu at any time, available as whole cheesecakes, slices or mini cheesecakes as you can see here. The shop is easy to find!

Eileen's Special Cheesecake does not care if you are impressed.

The interior is small and eclectically decorated. There is a counter large enough for a few people to eat.

Eileen's special cheesenoli and brulée salted caramel cheesecakes

We ordered two mini cheesecakes: the award-winning cheesenoli and the bruleed salted caramel. The texture was perfectly light and smooth, and the flavors were innovative. The cheesenoli really captured the spirit of both desserts and the salted caramel had a great balance of salt and sweet with the crackle of the burned sugar layer on top. Definitely recommended!

Junior's

Junior's is a New York institution. We visited because we had to have an egg creme.

I had long sought the elusive Egg Creme, finding great success in Texas once upon a time and even making them at home. Google eventually indicated that the nearest egg creme to be had was not too far away at a restaurant my friend Sally loves: Junior's. So we headed down for an egg creme and a slice of New York cheesecake, of the cherry variety. It was taller and thicker than Eileen's version, but both were pretty amazing. The egg creme was good, if not everything we hoped and dreamed. But now we can say we did it!

Junior's cherry cheesecake and egg creme

Source of the orange lighting

We were lucky to get seats at the bar, because as soon as we did, a long line formed at the hostess stand.