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Top 5 Things To Do In New York City With Kids
New York City is one of my favorite weekend destinations! NYC is a great place to get away with the girls or with your significant other for a few days. Recently, my husband and I traveled to NYC with our kids, ages 7 and 17. We packed in a lot of sightseeing in our four days there (pro tip: take comfortable walking shoes!). Below are our top five favorite kid-approved activities in NYC!
#1 – Statue of Liberty
Visiting the Statue of Liberty is a must with or without kids. You will want to make sure you allow yourself enough time to explore Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty Museum and Ellis Island. The last entry to the pedestal is at 3:30, the last ferry from Liberty Island is 4:00 and the last ferry from Ellis Island is at 3:35. Make sure to note the ferry schedules when making your plans to visit.
There are four different ticket options. All ticket options include round-trip ferry service, access to the Statue of Liberty Museum and the grounds, and access to Ellis Island and National Museum of Immigration. General admission tickets do not allow you to go inside the Statue of Liberty. Pedestal Reserve tickets allow you to go to the top of the pedestal of the statue. There are 224 steps to the top (just ask Andrew, he was not happy about the number of steps we made him climb)! If you have little ones or mobility issues, there is an elevator available to access the top of the pedestal. The Crown Reserve ticket allows you to go up to the crown of the statue. Crown Reserve tickets are not currently available. There is also an Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour. It includes a 90-minute guided tour of the unrestored Ellis Island immigration hospital building but does not include inside access to the statue. Reservations in advance are recommend for all ticket types.
#2 – 9/11 Memorial & Museum
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is home to artifacts and stories surrounding the events of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center towers in 2001. The museum and memorial honors those that perished, their families, the heroes, and the survivors.
The museum is open Thursday through Monday from 10 am to 5 pm. The memorial, two reflecting pools in the place of the original towers with the names of each person that was killed in the terrorist attacks, is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm. Advance ticket purchase is recommended. We spent three and a half hours in the museum and didn’t finish all of it. Make sure to allow yourself enough time to experience each exhibit.
#3 – Empire State Building/One World Observatory/Rockefeller Center
If you asked five people which is the best observatory in NYC, you might get three different answers. On our recent trip, my youngest son’s goal was to go up the highest that we could go. The observation deck at the Rockefeller Center, the Top of the Rock, is 70 floors high. The Empire State Building observatories are on the 86th and 102nd floors. The One World Observatory is 102 floors. We had never been in the One World Observatory so for this trip, we chose this one. You can’t go wrong with any of the three options for seeing the NYC skyline, especially at night.
#4 – American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History is the largest natural history museum in the world. Exhibits include halls on biodiversity and environment, birds, reptiles and amphibians, earth and planetary sciences, human origins and cultural, and Andrew’s favorites: the fossil and mammal halls. The fossil hall includes a stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurs rex, allosaurus, apatosaurus, and a 122-foot-long cast of a Titanosaur (Andrew’s favorite exhibit). If you have a dinosaur or fossil loving little one, they would love to wonder around this hall.
#5 – Central Park
At 843 acres, Central Park has a lot of options for things to do. We took a pedicab tour of the park and our tour guide pointed famous landmarks and movies sites, such as where Buddy and his brother had a snowball fight in Elf and where Kevin met the pigeon lady in Home Alone.
Other options for enjoying Central Park include fishing, biking, boating, running trails, and lots of green spaces to spread out for baseball games, yoga, picnics, etc. We took a bike ride through the park but next time we are renting a canoe and fishing! Spending time in Central Park is a great escape from the lights and sounds of the city without leaving the city.
These are the top 5 favorites voted on by my family, but we loved everything about our trip. Runners up for both of my boys included the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and Yankee Stadium. For more information on our family’s vacation to NYC, you can listen to the podcast I recorded with both boys here.
If you are considering a family trip to NYC and would like more information, please email us at info@pineappleecapes.com.
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