NYC: Day Four

Day four and the final full day of our trip, buckle in a for busy day of exploring!

Our morning was Brooklyn morning so we headed out bright and early. We got on the subway and navigated our way over and started with brunch. We had plans of where to go, but unfortunately it wasn’t open but thankfully we stumbled over the Time Out Market. It was a perfect spot!

Had a really good brunch here and it was a fairly quiet spot as not all the restaurants were open for brunch or breakfast. This was really nice as it wasn’t super overwhelming first thing in the morning! We all really enjoyed our food, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the stand we had our food from.

After, we strolled around Dumbo and located the famous photo spot – we had to make the most of the perfect opportunity. It was really quiet, which I did not expect – I’ve seen tiktoks of it being rammed with influencers and tourists but whether it was the time of the day or the weather, we had plenty of opportunity to get a good shot!

As we’d used the subway to get over to Brooklyn, it was time to stroll over the bridge back. This was a main character moment for me! The sun was breaking through the clouds, we’d purchased the cutest souvenirs just before walking across and it really sunk it that we were actually in NYC!

After we walked the bridge, we were still a while away from the Staten Island Pier pick up point so we used the subway to get there and then hopped on the ferry to see Lady Liberty herself! Tourists are not allowed to climb Lady Liberty anymore, it caused a lot of damage, so it felt a bit pointless doing the tour that stopped at Staten Island and allowed you to disembark. Also – our ferry ride was another attraction on our Sightseeing pass. We just cruised round the island before heading back but the captain made sure both side of the ferry had a decent look at her. This was definitely the best option in my opinion, as on the island you can’t really Lady Liberty but also, we had a tight time schedule today so a whistle-stop tour was needed.

The ferry stopped at Battery Park so we hopped off here instead and headed on the subway over to Katz Deli. We couldn’t head to NYC and not get a pastrami and rye. It was easy to get to and 10/10 so definitely add to your foodie list!

Katz Deli is super popular so be prepared for a bit of a queue. It’s pretty busy inside but there is a system, so you just have to trust it and go with it. We decided to take ours out of the deli as we were time restricted but I would definitely sit in, if you can. It really adds to the whole experience!

Pastrami and Rye secured, we headed back to Hudson Yards and devoured our sandwich on some benches. We were on our way to The Edge, so stopping here worked perfectly for us.

The Edge was another attraction we used our Sightseeing pass for. I had seen people recommend this viewing platform for many reasons, but one of the highlights is the glass triangle in the floor of the viewing platform that allows you to stare down on to the streets below. This gave me the worst vertigo tingles so a quick peek and video later, I stuck to looking out over the city instead. It is cool to see the city from this angle – Hudson Yards location shows the whole city view so you can see all the iconic locations. It’s also the highest outdoor platform in the western hemisphere (pretty cool, eh!) so I did think it was worth going to.

After soaking up our views of the city, we had to get going again – today really was full on! We headed over to Rockefeller Centre to join the time slot queue. It will be long, whenever you join, but it does move quickly. We were hopeful for a sunset time, but the first availability was 7:30pm. In the queue, there are signs of what the next available slot is, so you don’t have to waste time waiting to get to the desk to find out what the next available slot is. As I mentioned, we were on a strict time limit now so we just took the 7:30pm slot!

We had a littleeee bit of time to kill, so it was of course time for another starbucks – why are they just SO good in America! Then we rejoined the queue for our time slot and zoomed to the top to look out over the city. It wasn’t the time slot I would have chosen, but seeing the city lit up was super special and was a lovely way to round of our final full day! Definitely recommend doing one of the viewing platforms in the dark, just to see how lit up the city is.

Our final dins was at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. If you’ve read my blog on what we got up to in our 5 days, you’ll know that this was not worth the hype. I won’t go into details, I don’t want to be moaning, but I will say – if you do go, I hope you have a better experience than we did!

Anyhoo, no one wants to finish on a sour note, especially as we had a fab day! So whilst it had a disappointing end, the rest was incredible and we were absolutely savouring our final few hours of the NYC buzz.