24 hours in New York City - AIMINGFORAWE.COM

Being the GF of a sports fanatic means your Sunday nights are now “for the boys” (that’s code for Sunday night football btw). Actually you know what? You might as well write off your whole Sunday, because Formula 1 racing will be on the TV first thing - no doubt. OH! And don’t forget Monday and Thursday evenings - there’s football on those days too. Being the GF of a sports fanatic also means that “date nights” are sometimes wing nights at the pub because the hockey game’s on. And don’t get me started on baseball. Did you know there are 162 games in a baseball season? A HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO. All this aside, being the GF of a sports fanatic also means mini vacays to actually watch these games IRL. And this my friend, is worth it all. Trust.

Because not only will you get to immerse yourself into the big vibes, high energy, and magic of sports events (I’m not being sarcastic here), but you’ll also get to tour around cool new cities. It’s really just an excuse to travel more, you know? So I’m here for it, baby.

Dallas Cowboys vs New York Jets game at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey.

Which takes me to my very first trip to New York City. Crazy, right? In all my 29 years, I had never been to NYC until this fall. And to be totally honest, it’s never really been on my “list”. Though I would never say no to a little vacay! So when Kev asked me what I thought about driving down to the Big Apple for a Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Jets game, I gave him a “HELL YASS”.

Having never been to NYC and only having 24 hours in the city, I crammed as much as I could into a day’s worth of touring around. But DAMN there’s a shit ton of things to see in NYC. Like an overwhelming amount. And there’s literally no way you’d be able to see it all in a day’s time. So I just threw a bunch of landmarks into my trusty Google Maps app and routed a walking route. Yes, a walking route - because we knew we were gonna eat our faces off and didn’t wanna come home 500 lbs heavier. And honestly, we were able to fit SO much into our route! We didn’t get to everything we wanted to do, but in 1 day, we did 35,000 steps and saw a butt load. YA - 35K STEPS. I didn’t stutter. But our hips sure did the next day. Though if you’re not interested in exerting your gams the way we did, the subway system is hella convenient to use. Sure it’s confusing AF, but just holla at an attendant at the information desk and tell ‘em where you wanna go. It’s cheap and fast.

We stayed in Times Square and found it was pretty easy to get around - on foot or by subway.

Here are the checkpoints we were able to knock off our list:

Central Park: Stinky near the south entrance. Spend some time wandering deeper if you have the time.
Ess-A-Bagel: We waited in line for TWO HOURS and though the bagel was tasty AF, the wait made me cranky AF.
Rockefeller Center: Go to the Top of the Rock, a 70th floor observation deck where you’ll get to see a 360° view of the city.
Grand Central Terminal: As seen in like, every movie.
Chrysler Building: I’m gonna be honest here, I have NO idea what the significance of this building is, but Google Maps has a picture icon on it so I thought we’d add it to the list.
Empire State Building: Also featured in like every movie.
Flat Iron Building: That famous flat building 🤷🏻‍♀️
Gramercy Park: That prestigious private park that Zach Efron sneaks into in the movie “That Awkward Moment”.
Joe’s Pizza: Recommended to us by like 5 different people AND featured in “Spiderman 2”.
Mi Tea: BUBBLE TEA. I’m obsessed with it at home, so why not indulge in NYC too? And lemme tell you - these bbts were 💣.com.
Ground Zero: A quiet memorial where you can pay your respects to the victims of 9/11.
Brooklyn Bridge: Just a really cool looking bridge.

Start your day in New York City at Central Park and make your way south, stopping along all the checkpoints and snapping all the pics.

After your little lunch break at Joe’s Pizza, continue on and finish off the route at Ground Zero and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Places we were hoping to see but didn’t have enough time for:

The Vessel: A super futuristic honeycomb looking building.
The High Line: An elevated linear pedestrian park built on an old railway track, filled with gardens, art, food, and performances.
Charging Bull: That famous bronze bull statue, also known as the Wall Street Bull.

Tips to take with you for your first time to NYC:

Manhattan is laid out in a grid format so it’s super easy to navigate. And this is HUGE coming from me because I’m legit the Queen of the directionally challenged. But I was navigating us like a friggin BOSS, just ask Kev. Something I found handy was knowing that “streets” run east to west and “avenues” run south to north.
The Subway is not as scary as it seems. Give it a go.
Buy your tickets for Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Center online beforehand. The lineups are frustratingly long.
If the lineup at a bagel shop is through the store, out the door, and around the corner down the street, it’s going to be a 2 hour wait. And by the time you actually get your bagel, you’ll be hangry like you’ve never been before. Maybe just pick a different bagel shop instead and start your day off on a not-so-cranky foot.
Bring more cash than you’d expect to use. A lot of street food vendors only take cash. And honestly, some well-established restaurants also only take cash.
If you happen to be attending an event at the Metlife Stadium and you don’t have an American ID, bring your passport. They refuse to serve alcohol to anyone carrying a non-American piece of identification. You can imagine our outrage when that happened. We found a few loopholes to get us by, but you’ll dodge a headache if you just bring your passport with you - 🙄as silly as that sounds.

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24 Hours in NYC