3 Days in NYC Trip Report

My husband, my younger college-aged son, and I spent 3 days in NYC for Spring Break. Flew in on a Monday and out on a Friday. We are very interested in history, art, and museums—and we chose some good places.

Hotel
We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Midtown East—at 866 3rd Avenue. It was a great location. We were next to 2 subway stations and could take a variety of lines uptown and downtown. There were a ton of restaurants around and everything we wanted to see was within a 20 minute subway ride. The hotel was very clean, the staff were very nice. I booked a junior suite with 2 queen beds so we could have some room. I thought the room came with a small couch—it was just a chair. But there was plenty of room to put clothes in drawers and the closet. I do wish there was more counter top room in the bathroom but that was really the only issue.

Transportation
We took the Jamaica Air Train and then the subway to and from JFK. It cost something like $11.50 each way and was absolutely faster than taking a cab. We were going into the city at 5:00 so the trains were not crowded. The tap on/off feature is great. We did not experience significant delays, the trains were clean enough, and everybody was fine. We rode the subway at least 2x a day.

Breakfast and Dinners
The hotel was renovating the breakfast cafι/seating area. You could get grab and go and eat in your room—which we did once. The other times we ate at Cafι Joyeux, which was just around the corner. Good coffee, baked goods, and an amazing breakfast sandwich. This Cafι has locations in Europe—this is the first one in the US. The business provides vocational training to neurodivergent individuals-and produces yummy food. Easy breakfast choice!

All of the dinner places were within a 5 minute walk of our hotel—except for Wednesday which was near the theater. I made reservations for every meal just because I didn’t want to have to deal with finding another restaurant if we couldn’t get a table. We generally eat light for breakfast and lunch so we go for better food at dinner.

The first night we ate at Crave Fishbar—I liked that they have sustainable seafood. We live in the intermountain west so I always get seafood when I am on either coast. The food was good, the wine list was awesome, and the service was great.

The next night was Cafι Luca for some really good pasta. The wine list by the glass wasn’t the most extensive and the service was a bit delayed for such a teeny tiny spot. But the food….that was awesome!

On Wednesday, we went to see a play and I wanted something near the theater. I went with Cafι Havana. The mojitos were great. My husband and I got the red snapper and didn’t think the sauce was that great. Should have had the salmon. Very touristy-don’t know what I was thinking. But it was fun and different.

Thursday night, we ate at The Smith on 2nd Avenue. The service was great, the food and desserts were awesome. It was a cold night and some warm hearty food was very welcome!
Sight Seeing notes continued in comments

Sight Seeing
Day One: My son had never been to NYC and he really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It had been years since DH and I had seen either one so we made a day of it. I got 9:00 reservations for the ferry and we scrunched in with all of the subway commuters to get down to the Battery. I paid for the pedestal access—I don’t know that I would do that again. You can see plenty of NYC from the base of the statue. Also, the old museum that is in the pedestal has had many of its artifacts relocated to the museum that is near the ferry. That museum is really big and showier. The pedestal museum lets you take your time and read more but then you need to go over to the newer museum to see the good stuff—like the old torch. That took us maybe 2 hours max. Then we go the ferry to Ellis Island. Unfortunately, the big main floor exhibit was closed for renovations but there is plenty to see on the upper floors. We ate lunch at the Ellis Island Cafι—it was passable—I don’t have high expectations for food at such touristy places so we were fine. We were done with Ellis Island by 3:00 or so and took the Ferry back to the Battery. Then we walked over to the 911 Memorial. It’s worth a quick stop—we didn’t go into the museum because we were museumed out for the day.

Day Two: This was more laid back because we had tickets to the theater that night and I didn’t want to get too worn out during the day. We started with a visit to the Museum at Eldredge Street. Wow!! That place is truly incredible. So beautiful. There is a small museum in the basement that talks more about building the synagogue and then restoring it as well as some artifacts from the historical building. We did the self guided tour—they have a brochure. I would really recommend taking the guided tour. We listed to 2 tours while we were there and got lots of info from them. I think they might be 30 minutes long. And it is a good introduction to the Jewish immigrant neighborhood that was the Lower East Side in the early 1900s. We had lunch at Dudley’s, which was next tour our next stop- the Tenement Museum. The food was very flavorful and healthy and the service was really good. The Tenement Museum was really incredible. They have a ton of different tours. I booked our tour online a month or two in advance. We took the tour that featured an Eastern European Jewish family from the early 1900s and an Italian family who lived there in the late 20s/early 30s. The guide was great. The buildings are pretty much untouched except for the apartments that have been “recreated” as each family would have lived in them. Lots of info on various immigration waves, policies, how people got here, what they did, and where they moved later. This place has a really good bookshop/museum store!!! By that time it was 3:00 or so in the afternoon. We walked around Chinatown and Little Italy and then went back to the hotel. We saw the play, “Oh Mary!” and definitely liked it. Very funny. My husband doesn’t like musicals too much so this was a great/fun play to see. I got tickets online a month or so ahead of time via the Broadway website.

Day Three: We headed uptown to start our day at the Frick Collection with timed tickets for the first entry at 10:30. (I got them online 2-4 weeks ahead) It is a lovely collection and the house is incredible as well. I really enjoyed the Vermeers—we were in Amsterdam 4 months ago so it was fun to see Dutch paintings in the US. We walked up the street to the Neu Galerie—we really wanted to see the Klimpts. We had lunch there on the recommendation of a family member. The food and dessert were good but yeesh that was expensive!!!!! I am sure there were other more reasonable places nearby. The food is German/Austrian and the desserts are amazing. We ate in the cafι in the basement vs. the one on the main floor that had a long line. Same menu—just no windows. This is a very small museum. We all liked different artists and disliked others. The Woman in Gold was even more amazing than I thought it would be! Then we walked through Central Park to go to the American Folkart Museum. I swear I checked the website etc. But when we got there the museum was closed because they were in between shows (????) or renovating??? They have cute museum store and that was open. I was disappointed but that means I just have to come back!

All in all a short, focused visit. My son really enjoyed it and we love visiting big cities. We can come back next year!

Have you seen the movie, Woman in Gold? Highly recommended.

You might prefer to call the painting by it's actual name, The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Although it is indeed more of a mouthful.

Nice trip report. I think your hotel was perfectly located for taking the air train and subway.

Even as a local, I think The Tenement Museum and Oh Mary were two of the best choices you could have made.

if you stay in the same hotel next time, you will be very close to the Hugh, which is a large food hall with such choices as a Miznon.

Thanks for the trip report.
You did a lot in a short time.

This was a fun read! I agree about the Tenement museum, so well done. I can't wait to return to take a different tour. Regarding Neue Galerie, yes the cafe is pricey but the upstairs one is a lot more beautiful and the interior looks just like where you'd see in Vienna. Thanks for the report.

You certainly covered a lot of ground and sounds like a well-planned trip. Good area of the city to stay especially with the new Grand Central station, making the connection to get to JFK by mass transit very easy.

i would also recommend Crave Fishbar, nice menu and service. There are lots of pleasant restaurants in that area, especially as you head towards Second Avenue.

I had heard of that movie and now really want to see it!!! While that might the actual name, it doesn't have the same ring to it

Yes--Second Avenue was THE place for restaurants!

The Woman in Gold is the Nazi name for the painting. They did not want to acknowledge its Jewish roots, so they changed the name. You should see the movie.

Ugh--thank you for educating me!!!!!