Manhattan’s the borough that’s most recognisable to non-New Yorkers—it’s the part of the city with all the skyscrapers, Central Park, Broadway, Times Square and more. One day might not be quite enough to cover all of the island, but in this itinerary, we're still going to try anyway! Let's get started.
7AM: Breakfast
In the late 19th Century to the early 20th Century, New York saw a huge influx of Jewish immigrants, making them a significant part of the city’s population even to this day. Like most immigrants, they brought with them their culture and their food, and one such food has become an iconic part of New York’s culture—bagels.
Made from a yeasted dough that’s been shaped into a ring, boiled in water and then baked, bagels are a staple of New York food. They’re eaten pretty much all day, but especially for breakfast. From food carts to brick-and-mortar shops that have been around for years, you can find bagels all over New York, wherever you’re staying, and they make for a perfect breakfast, whether you’re sitting in or on the go. Go super simple with a plain toasted bagel slathered with salty butter, or go sweet with a poppy seed bagel smeared with blueberry cream cheese, or savoury with an everything bagel with jalapeño cream cheese—here are hundreds of combinations to try.
Top tip: smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel is divine, but it’s not the kindest to your wallet at an average of $10 a pop! If you’re craving for it though, you can ask for a lox cream cheese spread on your bagel—that’s cream cheese mixed with bits of smoked salmon, so you can all the flavour for a fraction of the price.
8 AM: Central Park
When you think of New York, there are a few names that immediately come to mind, and one of those is probably Central Park. A massive in-city park that spans 3 avenues and 50 streets, Central Park is a great place to explore. You can spend anywhere from a few minutes to an entire day just wandering around the park. From the North Woods and the Great Hill, to the large expanse of Sheep Meadow, the baseball diamonds to The Lake, the Conservatory Gardens to the Central Park Zoo, Central Park is a place you’ll need to keep visiting again and again to see it in its entirety.
10 AM: Window shopping on 5th Avenue
New York is a great place to shop, especially on the famed 5th Avenue but let’s be real—not everyone can afford the kinds of prices you see there. However, it is free to window shop, and there’s a lot to see and admire. Of course, if you might still end up walking away with a lighter wallet, but retail therapy is good every now and again.
11AM: New York Public Library Main Branch
Beautiful, historic and guarded by the iconic pair of stone lions nicknamed Patience and Fortitude, the New York Public Library’s Main Branch—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building—houses one of four research libraries in the library’s system. Four floors open to the public to visit, and visitors to the building can opt to wander around on their own while listening to the audio tour available on the NYPL website, or go for one of the docent-led tours that start at 11am and 2pm, Mondays through Saturdays, and 2pm on Sundays. It’s worth a visit to admire the building’s interior, from the Astor Hall that serves as the first floor lobby, where names of major donors to the library are inscribed onto the walls, to the wood-panelled reading rooms with mural-covered ceilings. For a shot of nostalgia, you could even make your way to the Children’s Centre to visit with the original Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends.
1PM: Lunch
New York has lots of great food, but like bagels, there are just some things that are more iconic than others. For lunch, we’ll turn to the food brought over by one of New York’s first groups of immigrants—the Italians and their pizza.
A good New York slice should have a slightly chewy but still firm crust, a tangy tomato sauce, ample amounts of cheese and all the toppings you want. Like bagels, you can find pizza all over the city, and there’s a theory, known as the Pizza Principle, that the average price of a slice will always be equal to the subway fare, so you don’t even need to spend that much for a great meal.
3PM: Macy’s Herald Square
In 1902, Macy’s Herald Square opened in New York, and it’s been there ever since. The flagship store of the Macy’s department store chain, the building contains 11 shopping floors so you’ll find pretty much anything and everything you need and want. If that sounds overwhelming, Macy’s has you covered with their Personal Stylist service, a free personal shopping experience that will guide you to exactly what you need. For those interested in the building’s history, Macy’s also runs two tours, the Retail 101 Tour and the History Tour, so you can learn all about this truly well-maintained trailblazer in retail history, including how four of the escalators in the building are part of the original wooden set installed in 1920.
5PM: Walk down the High Line
In 1980, the tracks of the southern viaduct of the West Side Line were effectively abandoned. For years they remained something of an eyesore in the Lower West Side, until 2006 when construction began to turn it into an elevated park similar to the Promenade Plantées in Paris. And then in 2009, 2011 and 2014, the park opened in sections, becoming a new attraction and unique shared public space that aims to give visitors new experiences of nature, art and design.
Though its pathway is narrow, it’s still a pleasant place to have a walk, through the gardens and art displays, taking occasional breaks at spurs and benches along the path. The High Line can be accessed at various points along its 2.33km route, so it’s pretty easy to make your way up to it. Some of the features of the park include the 10th Avenue Square and Overlook, an amphitheatre that allows people to sit and look out onto the street below, the 14th Street Passage, where High Line Channel 14 projects videos - from curated series to historic films—onto the walls every evening, and the Chelsea Market Passage, where the tracks run through the building that originally housed the National Biscuit Company, Nabisco, the birthplace of Oreos, courtesy of the flour that was delivered by those same tracks, and which is now an open-air food court.
7PM: Dinner
Towards the end of the Highline there’s an exit that leads out to the Chelsea Market, and this is where you can find yourself a fantastic dinner. Located in the heart of the Meatpacking District, the area has always been a hub for food, so it’s no surprise that you can get a great meal here, anything from fresh seafood to prime cuts of meat, as well as some decadent dessert options to round out your meal. After you’ve stuffed yourself, you can wander around and pick up some things to stuff your fridge too, such as gourmet cheeses, fine bottles of wine and more.
10PM Drinks
It’s late, but you’re not ready to go home—find a place to have a drink or two. The word ‘food’ is almost always followed closely by ‘drinks’, so it’s no surprise that an area that has great food like the kind at the Chelsea Market will also have great places for drinks.
From places super close by like The Tippler (right under Chelsea Market), to speakeasies like Bathtub Gin and the Raines Law Room, and even places like Porchlight, which has a games room in the back where you can play Jenga and Yahtzee all night long, there’s no shortage of options for your nightcap.
12AM: Head home
Midnight is the hour of the lonely and the dreaming, evening the city that never sleeps. After an entire day of exploring the city and seeing as much of Manhattan as you possibly can, you’re bound to be tired and ready to fall into bed. If you’ve ended up somewhere far from where you’re staying (and after such a long day, even three streets seems like a bit of a walk), have no fear, because in New York, the subway runs 24/7.
With 28 lines going across the city, the subway gets you pretty much everywhere. You will need an MetroCard to ride the subway though, which is available in a Pay-Per-Ride version, or an Unlimited Ride version, and which card you should get depends on how long you’ll be in the city and how often you might take the subway.
