During spring break, I checked off a huge item on my Hopkins Bucket List with my friend Jennifer: visiting New York City. I said I would report back with all the details, so here’s how my trip went!
4:10 a.m. Board the Bus
The two most common ways to get to New York are taking an Amtrak train or the bus (e.g. Greyhound or Megabus). Jennifer and I opted to take the Greyhound because it would get us there a few hours earlier. Sadly, that meant we had to get up insanely early—but it was totally worth it. We took a Lyft to the bus station, fell asleep, and woke up in New York four hours later.
8 a.m. Bagels & the Statue of Liberty
Our first stop was finding the nearest bagel place and getting situated. We walked to Heaven’s Hot Bagels, which was pretty good, but not the best. After that, we took the subway over to Staten Island so we could see the Statue of Liberty. The Staten Island Ferry is free and gets you what I’d call a ‘good enough’ view of the statue, so we chose that instead of paying to see it. The ferry is ginormous. It can hold thousands of passengers and even has a Dunkin’ on board. Although we saw the statue, I was more fulfilled by the amazing bird picture I took on the boat.
We hung out in Staten Island for a little bit and visited the nearby Empire Outlets shopping center. I checked another must-do off my list and got my first-ever hot dog from a cart.
1 p.m. West Manhattan
Before our trip, I consulted the biology students I TA for recommendations. They absolutely pulled through with some great suggestions, and West Manhattan seemed to cover a lot of their advice.
We started at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery—a very elaborate take on traditional Starbucks locations. Inside, there are sculptures, bars, a cafe, and even a roasting area that allows customers to see how the coffee is made. I don’t even like coffee, but this was a really interesting place that I recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area.
Almost directly next door was Chelsea Market, a large indoor marketplace filled with a bunch of different vendors. Although we didn’t buy anything, we took a lap around the place and looked at all the different things people were selling. There was gelato, seafood, candy, gifts, and so much more.
A few blocks away was Little Island, a free public park and art experience. The artificial island was designed to repair Pier 54 after it was damaged by Hurricane Sandy and ended up being a nice place to take pictures. It wasn’t crowded when we went, but I think it’d be better to visit later in spring when plants are blooming.
We also explored Pier 57, an indoor spot with lots of food and community spaces. Although this was a really quick stop, the bathrooms were clean, so I give it a 10/10.
3 p.m. Central Park
Central Park is a New York staple, so I knew I had to cross this one off my list. Since it was cold, the plants didn’t look very pretty, but we had great views of the skyline.
The Met was close by, but since we wanted to spend the bulk of our trip in Times Square, we skipped this one. We did make sure to see the building from the Disney show “Jessie” before we left though!
4 p.m. Times Square
Since Times Square is right by the train station, we saved this stop for last. We had a big list of places we wanted to go and food was number one. After a quick Google search, we discovered Los Tacos No. 1—a place with really cheap and tasty Mexican food. This was easily the best food item we got all day. Since it was extremely crowded inside, we took our tacos and ate them at a nearby Taco Bell. This was a risky play because all the businesses are strict about loitering and bringing in outside food. Lucky for us, a guy happened to be leaving when we got there. He gave us his table and the rest of his cinnamon twists. So, when a worker told us we couldn’t have outside food, we proudly showed him the “purchase” we had made. Thank you, Taco Bell stranger!
After that, we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral—the site of many famous weddings and funerals. The building was huge, and the architecture was definitely worth the stop.
Just across the street was Rockefeller Center. Surprisingly, the ice-skating rink looked smaller in person than it does in pictures. Sixty minutes of skating ranges from $22–$124, so if you plan in advance, you might get a good deal.
There were tons of souvenir shops around, but I chose to exclusively buy food on this trip. All day, I was looking forward to the 99-cent pizza place Jennifer had previously been to. Unfortunately, two years had passed since her last trip, and it was now a $1.50 pizza place. I was a little bummed, but the pizza was well worth the price.
Since I grew up watching “Cake Boss” on TLC, visiting Carlo’s Bakery was a must for me. We got a brownie and a cupcake, which lived up to the hype!
Our last two major stops before heading to the train station were the M&M store and Hershey’s Chocolate World. Times Square felt pretty similar to the Las Vegas Strip; there’s lots of walking and places to go. It’s really easy to burn a lot of time here!
9 p.m. Train Station
We had a lot of time to kill here because our train kept getting delayed. Although there are direct train routes from New York to Baltimore, on the day we went, the direct routes didn’t work with our schedule. We decided to take the Amtrak to Philadelphia, then the Greyhound back to Penn Station. From there, we called a Lyft back to campus. We got back at 4:30 a.m., making our trip a full 24 hours. It was exhausting, but absolutely worth it!
