NYC Travel Tips & Must-Know Advice

In a recent episode of Her Travel Expert, hosts Kirsten Maxwell and Meagan Wristen shared their latest adventures in New York City. From where to stay and what to eat to must-see attractions, Broadway tips, and how to navigate the city, this episode was packed with useful insights for both first-time visitors and seasoned NYC travelers. Here’s a recap of their conversation, including personal experiences, recommendations, and a few surprises along the way!

Kirsten Maxwell

Hi there. Welcome to another episode of Her Travel Expert. Meagan and I are going to be tackling all things New York City today. We were recently there, probably the coldest days of the year, and we’re looking forward to sharing everything we learned in our history of going to New York City so we can share that with you. Tips, tricks, where to eat, all the good things.

Meagan Wristen

Okay, let’s see. So I got back from New York City Sunday. I think you got back Friday. So you were there a few days. I was there a little longer because Eden ended up meeting me out there. The first couple of days was like a girlfriend getaway. And then the next couple of days for me was a mother-daughter trip.

Where to Stay in NYC

Kirsten Maxwell

The place I stayed this time, I don’t think I’d recommend it, so I’m not going to say the name. I’ve stayed at this Hilton Club property over by Central Park that I think is really cool (The Quin). It’s kind of a mix of apartment complex slash hotel. have several of them throughout the city, but I think that’s great. Location wise, access to everything, Broadway, bars, restaurants, Central Park. It’s close to the plaza of shopping, of course. about you? Where do you like to stay when you go?

Meagan Wristen

This time I stayed at a new hotel, least new to me, it’s called the Concorde and it was off of 55th near Lexington. It’s a little higher end, very boutiquey, I think only 44 rooms. So it’s super quiet. I like the location not far from, I think three subway stops, which was super convenient. And then it was walkable to Fifth Avenue and over to Times Square.

The last place I stayed in Times Square I really liked was Margaritaville, oddly enough.

Kirsten Maxwell

Oh really?

Meagan Wristen

Yeah, it was like a whole vibe too when you walk in. I’m like, oh yeah, it’s got those beach colors. So two very different experiences.

I lovef that the Concorde so quiet and had one level with coffee and hot chocolate all day long, like 24 hours. It had an on-site restaurant just like Margaritaville does. It had a Nespresso in the room, which I just appreciate. I feel like a lot of times in New York City, you can’t get a coffee maker in the room.

Kirsten Maxwell

Coffee in your room. I don’t even know what that’s about.

Meagan Wristen

Yeah. So, so I really liked that. And I had a bathtub, which I thought was surprising. And a shower and a walk-in shower.

Kirsten Maxwell

You usually don’t find those there because the rooms are so small.

Meagan Wristen

Oh my gosh, you’re usually like so smashed in there. So my room at Margaritaville in Times Square was quite small, but it was fine. This one at Concorde was quite a bit bigger. Eden and I had a lot of room.

Kirsten Maxwell

That’s my one rule is if I’m traveling to New York City and I’m meeting friends I do not want to share a room with anybody. It’s literally a shoebox and it’s like I have to squeeze by going this way, I’m like, forget it. Yes, it’s expensive (to room on your own), but space is limited. I will take whatever I can get when I stay in NYC just so I can be in a small box by myself.

Meagan Wristen

And as you know, the first night we were in town, I did stay at a different hotel that I thought I was booking a different one.

So sometimes when you stay in a certain area, that chain will have several hotels and it can be very confusing. Had I read a single recent review, I would know that they were doing construction and they’re open through it. So, I highly recommend getting on Yelp or TripAdvisor and reading a recent review.

Kirsten Maxwell
Great advice.

Meagan Wristen
And so you can sort, like when you get on Yelp, you can sort by date. So most recent, and then just see what they say because I think now for that particular hotel, the most recent review is mine.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, Oh, didn’t do it in a good light.

Meagan Wristen
And I was not happy.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. There you go. Exactly. You got to tell everybody how it is. And, you know, I think that’s really good advice too, is just to use those reviews when you can, because otherwise you’re kind of, I mean, we get it, New York is huge.

Uh, so it’s like anything you can do to narrow it down area wise. I think that’s one of the more important things is to find the attractions you’re most interested in seeing and kind of tailor your accommodations that way.

Layer for the Cold NYC Winter

Kirsten Maxwell
So you’re not, you know, all over town, subway, Uber, taxi, whatever the case may be, which kind of leads into my next thing. And so Megan and I were there. It was literally the coldest week of the year, I believe they’ve had. And you we were going to Uber. I talked during the walking. It didn’t go quite well, very well. But I was comfortable. But then again, I’ve lived in New York for New York. hu hu Nevermind. I’ve lived in Chicago for 14 years. Equally as cold, but at least I felt like I knew a little bit more about how to dress. And poor Meagan, I think froze her, you know, what off.

Meagan Wristen
I did.

But you know what? I had thermals with me. I just didn’t put them on. So I was like, Oh, we’re not walking that far. And then I’m just like yours. It’s a bad decision.

Kirsten Maxwell
Did you wear thermals the rest of the trip?

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, absolutely. And I only brought one pair.

Kirsten Maxwell
As you should.

Meagan Wristen
So they were the same pair every day for the next three days. And then I didn’t think about it. We had like late night flats out. So, I mean, I was dressed how I was dressed when I got to the airport.

So then on the airplane, I’m like, I am so hot. I planned myself a lot. I’m like, Oh, it’s cause you’re wearing thermal underwear. You idiot. You didn’t change. It’s not like I can go change in the air balloon bathroom.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, come on. Why not?

Meagan Wristen
Ugh.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. That’s another story for another day.

Meagan Wristen
You know what, I’ll take risks, but not those kind of risks.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, right.

Meagan Wristen
That’s gross.

Advice for 1st Time NYC Visitors

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, that’s so funny. Okay, so let we had a chance to sit and and do some discussions with people who’ve never been to New York before. And so we’re giving them all of our advice about what attractions to go see, you want to go, where you want to eat, all the things.

And it was funny to see how Megan and I have totally different lists. You know, Megan has this list, A, and I have list B. Sometimes they cross in the middle and sometimes they don’t.

So, you know.

Meagan Wristen
Well, yeah, cause you’re like, you should go to this museum. I was like, and you should go to this rooftop bar.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Tell me did you obviously spend some extra time there? I was literally in and out and under 48 hours Which is kind of how I prefer my trips to New York City.

That’s a story for another day But tell me like what did you find that you haven’t done on trips before? and I mean or we can start from the beginning like what’s a great idea for a first-time visitor to the city Yeah

Meagan Wristen
I mean, I think one of the first, well, a must is to get up high somewhere in the city to catch one of the views. There are more and more places you can go now. Like used to, you could go to the Empire State Building or top of the rock.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
Both are great, but now there’s some newer places. So that’s one of the things Eden and I did was go to The Edge.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
And so, and the edge has like a triangular platform that hangs out over the city kind of and you can see up and down the river you can see towards the city I mean you basically have a ah full view all the way around and so then they have like see-through ground like the walkway you could walk over glass and like look which I’m like I’m not stepping on that I’m not plunging to my death

You know just walked all over issues videotaping and photographing so And everybody else is walking over it. Obviously, it’s not gonna break. It’s like probably some Yeah, but what’s great is that they had a bar and then they had a a kind of like a food truck so we had chicken and waffle sandwiches and

Kirsten Maxwell
Sure. Famous last words, right?

Wait, a food truck on the top of the building?

Meagan Wristen
Well, it’s not a food truck, but it’s like a food cart, I guess, you know, like whipping up different things.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Sounds

Meagan Wristen
And and then they had this, they had a game you could play up there if you booked the experience, like curling.

Kirsten Maxwell
Hmm. Oh, yeah, I think I saw your video.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, but you just kind of do it with your hands and you, and so we we were there with some people I met on a cruise, like a year ago, um actually they were, they were covering it as influencers.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah. so so Okay.

Meagan Wristen
And I was like, well, I want to go.
So we crashed their morning at the edge.

And yeah, so we had cocktails, we had chicken and waffle sandwiches, we played a game, we got good views, and then off we went the rest of our day, so yes.

Kirsten Maxwell
And I think the other the is that’s newer in the city is called Summit One Vanderbilt. And it’s almost more like an interactive experience, but you still have the views. And they it’s really weird because you go in and they give you like slippy foot coverings for your shoes. And sunglasses because it’s really bright in there. But it’s got all these mirrors and stuff at weird angles. So it’s both an interior slash exterior experience.

They have a room filled with like silver Mylar balls, beach balls. So you’ll see a lot of influencers there. I hate to use that word, but that’s what they are. Taking pictures.

Meagan Wristen
No, you can use that word. I’d like to say that they offered to have me come in as an influencer and then they canceled.

Kirsten Maxwell
I’m using it. Oh, there you go.

Meagan Wristen
So I’ve never experienced it.

Kirsten Maxwell
There you go. It’s okay. It’s fun. It’s fun, you know, for like the certain age group, I think teenagers, young twenties, you know, people who want pictures of themselves around the city.

Like it’s a definitely must stop and, and check it out. It’s just a different point of view on the going up in the air kind of thing. So, uh, what else did you guys do after like that?

NYC Museums

Kirsten Maxwell
Or did you, I know you went to a museum that I recommended that you didn’t know about.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, we did, you know, I was eavesdropping when you were giving that lady advice about going to the Morgan library.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yes, library.

Meagan Wristen
I was like, well, I never heard of that. So we went into that and then I’m standing there in, what is it, JP Morgan’s old house.

That’s now a museum looking at all his stuff he collected from literally all over the world, like stuff a private citizen shouldn’t have. It should be in a museum. I guess that’s why they turned it into a museum.

Kirsten Maxwell
It’s a museum, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
I mean, I was like, this is ridiculous. Like statues, art, books, rare books, like.

Kirsten Maxwell
Super massive collections. And the interesting thing is there’s a book called The Personal Librarian. It’s about his librarian. Read it. It’s great background story before you go visit of kind of like how he did go about collecting all the stuff and how she was involved in doing it.

Meagan Wristen
Well, there are two rooms now dedicated to her. Her life Yeah, we were limited on time.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, great.

Meagan Wristen
So I walked in and I was like, oh this isn’t any of the million dollar stuff, next. I’m like who wants to learn about the curator it sounds like she’s quite fascinating my bad.

Kirsten Maxwell
That’s funny, that’s funny. Yeah, shit, that’s okay. Yeah, and usually you wouldn’t think she was, but I think she’s part of the attraction of why more people are visiting the Morgan Library.

And we talked about the other big libraries there, or museums, or the modern art, the natural history museum.

Meagan Wristen
We hit MoMA this time. That’s my first time to go to the Modern Art.

Kirsten Maxwell
Did you? Oh, okay, what’d you think?

Meagan Wristen
I was shocked how many Picassos they have in there. I wasn’t expecting all that.

There was also like, gosh, rivera had couple of Rembrandts, which I wasn’t expecting.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, wow, okay.

Meagan Wristen
Not his good ones, but still. And then also, like I’m not that into modern art. So sometimes I’m looking at it and I’m like, this is stupid. I could do this.

Kirsten Maxwell
Right.

Meagan Wristen
But then when you walk in and you see a Picasso, I’m like, okay, that’s pretty impressive.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
Some of the sculptures sculptures are like pretty interesting.

Student Discount

So one great thing about that was that they had a student discount. So I did the Morgan Library. So I think most places in the city now have a student discount.

And Eden did not bring her student ID, but I think because she’s so small, they didn’t question it.

And that saved me, like the adult price was 30, 38 bucks. The student price was like 15 bucks.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. And you should check because if you belong to associations, you can usually get in with your journalist ID for free or free.

Meagan Wristen
I’m not in any associations.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. I got to work on that. Got to work on that. yeah, you’re funny.

Meagan Wristen
Too cheap.

Kirsten Maxwell
Uh, the other place has the Met. Obviously. Have you done that with Eden?

Meagan Wristen
No, but she did the Guggenheim after I left town a year ago.

And she said it was phenomenal, so I guess I’m gonna have to go there.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. They’re all impressive. And then you got the Whitney Museum too. The other one I love is the Frick Museum, which is closed temporarily, or I mean temporarily, it’s been like for two years.

But again, it’s a private collection of artwork, but it’s in a former like Fifth Avenue mansion kind of thing. Just super cool to see the art displayed in the house as they think it kind of was when they lived there.

So interesting thing to do. Okay, so enough about museums. But tell me what are your other attractions you you like to visit in the city?

Subway Info

Meagan Wristen
Oh, so he didn’t really wanted to go to Brooklyn. And so we decided to catch the subway and I was like, I’m not going to ride the subway while I’m there. Cause I kept seeing all these horror stories on the news.

It was fine. did look up to like, I guess most of the crime is at three subway stations. So maybe avoid those publicly.

That was one of the stations we were in multiple times and we were fine.

Kirsten Maxwell
Which one? Wait, can you say it again? Cause I didn’t hear the name.

Meagan Wristen
There’s a list of the three worst subway stations where most of the crime in the subway is at one of these three stations.

And so I’m gonna say that one was up Lexington and 58-ish, 59, which happened to be one that we popped in and out of several times because we didn’t realize it, and it was fine.

I mean, I will say was funny, because the minute we went in the subway, Eden was like, well, that figures.

So the minute we descended, we just hear screaming. crazy screaming and then I’m trying to buy our Metro card, which I just bought one card, put a high amount on it and then as I walk through the turnstile, I swipe it, walk through, hand it to Eden.

You don’t gotta get a bunch of Metro cards that you gotta keep up with.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
You can do one and just, and so as I’m like buying my Metro card, there’s a homeless person digging through the trash next to me. Eden’s like, Eden, you weren’t even phased. You acted like you didn’t notice.

I’m like, well, what am I supposed to do?

Kirsten Maxwell
Ask him if you can help. I don’t know. Yeah, yeah, that’s not what he’s

Meagan Wristen
I mean don’t have any food on me. So, you know, I’m just like we we can’t miss our train so um So we did see some crazy stuff.

Kirsten Maxwell
i Yeah, yeah. Carry on.

Meagan Wristen
Oh, we saw an amazing musician down there from Gambia I think and he was playing an instrument that I’ve never seen before like this really long voluptuous musical, guitar-ish, and singing.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
And so that was really neat. It’s been a while since I saw like good music in the subway.

But yeah, so we caught the subway. We went out to Brooklyn. That’s really the best way to do it. It’s going to be faster and much cheaper to take the subway down there.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
And Eden got a new camera for Christmas.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
she’s a journalist major and so she really wanted to get good photos and she had read something about go to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to get photos it is some of the best views I’ve ever gotten of the city we took a ton of photos a ton of videos it’s a really beautiful area and I didn’t realize you could walk right up under the bridges so that’s kind of cool photos too

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. Oh, I don’t think I did that either.

Brooklyn

Meagan Wristen
And near the Brooklyn Bridge, there’s the Manhattan Bridge. which It can be a little confusing when you walk down there. the There’s the Manhattan Bridge to your right, if you’re standing in between the two bridges, and then the Brooklyn Bridge to your left.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hWCaFfkY0qc

Meagan Wristen
As you walk towards the Brooklyn Bridge, if it is super cold like it was when we were there, there’s this little area you can pop into, and it’s this massive, like like all these different little food, that’s like a food hall.

You can get pretty much any type of food.

We went in there to warm up. and grab a coffee and then we went back out and took more pictures and walked around some more and then we caught a an uber over to Williamsburg because it’s it’s a little too far to walk I mean it’s a 30 minute 10 hour walk depending on which way you walk so you might think Brooklyn’s really small it’s not it’s huge and so

We essentially switched boroughs.

And so I have been to Williamsburg a handful of times. I really like that area It reminds me a lot of Portland, Oregon like a lot of independently owned shops and restaurants and so we popped into a couple of thrift shops So I’m gonna recommend two of them.

The first one was Monk thrift shop. This place is huge It’s upstairs downstairs and they have other locations too. So you could find one near you But like right now college kids are super into thrifting. My kids are only wearing like thrift shop clothes at this point, which drives me nuts because I can afford to buy them nice looking pants, but they’d rather look like that. So I tried to embrace it and not be judgmental.

So there we were thrifting. And then the other one is, was recommended to me by a friend of mine that lives in Brooklyn and it’s the L train vintage. And they also have multiple locations.

So you don’t have to go to Williamsburg to go to that one.

Quawah Yemeni Coffee Shop

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. What does it taste like? Coffee.

Meagan Wristen
They put, they put cardamom, cardamom.

Kirsten Maxwell
I’m just kidding. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
in their coffee. So like the first sip, I was like, hmm, no.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, no.

Meagan Wristen
Second sip, I’m like, oh, it’s fine. Like, and by, I mean, we ended up finishing the pot, which we should have, so we went to the Quawah coffee shop.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
Sometimes, you know, I’m from West Texas.

Meagan Wristen
So sometimes when I look at these words and I have to pronounce them, I’m like, Quawa?

Meagan Wristen
Anyway, they have multiple, they have locations from the city too.

Kirsten Maxwell
Whatever, people know.

Meagan Wristen
You don’t have to go out to Brooklyn to try it.

I did think it was an interesting enough, like um I’ll drop a video in of them like, had all these pots and they’re making all these different coffees on the stove and sprinkling in, see spices, I guess, cardamom.

And so there were like, you could get a small pot, a medium pot or a large pot. We got a medium pot. We should have gotten a small because like, This is around four o’clock in the afternoon and I don’t typically have caffeine after noon.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
yeah yeah I was so wired at midnight. I’m like, we’re in New York. We’re in Times Square just killing time. Cause I am.

Kirsten Maxwell
so funny.

Meagan Wristen
But yeah, it was really good. so we had a fun little trip over to Brooklyn.

Kirsten Maxwell
All right.

Meagan Wristen
A year ago we had done a different part of the city. We did, Chelsea. and Hell’s Kitchen. So I love going over to Chelsea and walking the High Line because I feel like they extend it all the time.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
So there’s always new things to see.

Meagan Wristen
I know you and I walked right underneath it and they had a great big pigeon up there.

Kirsten Maxwell
Mm-hmm.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, like massive and very detailed pigeons sitting on top of the overpass.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, which a year ago, they had a beautiful tree up there and we took pictures. Like we walked out of the way just to see this tree because it was so beautiful. I’m like, why, why would you give me a beautiful tree and put that pigeon up there?

Kirsten Maxwell
Interesting. I never got a pigeon. yeah Yeah. Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
Thought that was kind of weird, but Hell’s Kitchen, man, we went up and down on Hell’s Kitchen just eating all day long a year ago when we were there.

Meagan Wristen
This time I was like, okay, we can’t do that again. We’ve done that. Like,

Meagan Wristen
to a different part of the city. So we tried to do like all new stuff.

Kirsten Maxwell
Have you done the Chelsea market at the end of the Highline? Yeah, I mean, I love the food courts there. I think other one, there’s one called Mercado Little Spain. It’s all different Spanish restaurants and tapas and churros and a little bit of everything, the bars.

Meagan Wristen
Is that a Hudson Yards? Okay.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, you can get to it through Hudson Yards, like go down in the basement, it attaches. But yeah, I think that’s always a fun little thing is to check out different food halls. There’s a ton around the city.

Kirsten Maxwell
So I know there’s one over by 9/11. Also, I can’t think of what it’s called. Bridge, I can’t remember, Brookfield Place.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, or not, don’t quote me on that one. I might have to come back and put it in the show notes about what it really is.

Where to Have Breakfast in NYC

Kirsten Maxwell
But anyway, since we’re talking about food, know, we had talked a little bit beforehand, if you had any favorite restaurants. Let’s start with breakfast. Do you have a favorite breakfast restaurant?

Meagan Wristen
we so one of the places i don’t know that i have a favorite but we we just eat really good when we’re in the city i mean there’s no bad meals to be had and so but we were running late and so we were out of time to have really stop and go somewhere for breakfast one of the mornings and so we just ate at Bonsai Tapas which was in my hotel the concord hotel and it was phenomenal yeah even had a hash brown sandwich so like

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh. Oh. Yum.

Meagan Wristen
She’s like, Oh, I didn’t realize it’d actually be like two pieces of hash browns with a sandwich in the middle.

Meagan Wristen
And then I had like a, like a burrata tomato toast.

Meagan Wristen
They do all these different toast and then it is a, it is a tapas bar.

Meagan Wristen
So great wine list.

Meagan Wristen
And it’s called Bonsaii Tapas.

Meagan Wristen
It was quite tasty.

Meagan Wristen
We went to another place and it was a bar and it had the funniest name, The Horney Ram. And we had like buffalo chicken nachos with eggs.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yum. Yum.

Meagan Wristen
And I was like, that’s a strange breakfast.

Meagan Wristen
But yeah, we’ve tried a bunch of different breakfast places.

Kirsten Maxwell
I know we talked earlier about Mom’s kitchen. They have these massive shakes, meals, you name it. It’s like almost breakfast brunch food on steroids.

Kirsten Maxwell
I know the person I was with had a pancake burrito that was literally like, did you?

Meagan Wristen
That’s what I have when I ate there.

Kirsten Maxwell
It’s so cool, it’s amazing.

Meagan Wristen
I should have split it.

Kirsten Maxwell
But it’s exactly what it sounds like, eggs, bacon, wrapped in a pancake, really good. But we were talking also about Ellen’s Stardust Diner. If you’ve never been,

Kirsten Maxwell
Highly recommend breakfast is the time to go, go super early because lines are always long every other time of the day. They have Broadway stars slash wait staff and they will sing while you’re eating your breakfast. And so you’re not really going for the food, you’re going for the entertainment. And there was this one gal and she was like Adele-esque. I mean, just amazing voice.

Kirsten Maxwell
And you’re like, what, what show is she in? Where could I find her? And somebody actually commented on my Instagram story. They knew her name. She had an album out.

Kirsten Maxwell
So I mean, I’ll have to go track that down, but she was amazing. So I think that’s part of the whole thing is that you, you go for the food sometimes, but also sometimes the entertainment or the creations, the food creations that they make are part of the reason you go.

Kirsten Maxwell
also like bagels in New York, next level, like, I’m sorry. sorry texas bagels but like you gotta to to go new york for the real thing oh

Meagan Wristen
Okay, as a Texan, I do not understand the bagel thing. I don’t understand why there’s bagel shops everywhere. When I eat a bagel, it tastes like a bagel. And if I’m in New York City, it tastes like a bagel.

Kirsten Maxwell
no they’re like left here they’re like fluffy i don’t even know how to explain it but yum yum yum and now i’m hungry now i want to go get bagels for life darn it

Meagan Wristen
If I’m in New Jersey, it tastes like a bagel.

Meagan Wristen
When I eat it, I’m not tasting a fluffier bagel.

Meagan Wristen
We had amazing Mediterranean food this time at AU Zatar.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yum, yum, yum.

Meagan Wristen
Au Zatar. They do a shawarma and they bring out this piece of meat that they’ve grilled and they do a whole

Meagan Wristen
presentation with it, so it’s quite tasty.

Kirsten Maxwell
What’s not to love, what’s not to love.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, it’ll feed like five people. This one, you can just order one thing.

Meagan Wristen
They have quite a few shared meals on their or shared items, I guess.

Meagan Wristen
So, their hummus was really good. I mean, it was just, it was really, it had been a, I really was in the mood for Lebanese food.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
When we lived in Portland, Oregon, we had the most amazing Lebanese food down the street from us.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
We ate there all the time.

Meagan Wristen
and since relocating back to Texas, I haven’t found good Lebanese food.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
We tried some Turkish food the other day near our house that just opened and unfortunately it just was mediocre.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
So good Mediterranean food, I think is just, and it is hard to find unless you were in a foodie city, in New York City, delivered.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. It hits the slide. Yeah. Well, you know, and speaking of foodie cities, I mean, I think also the big thing pia people go there for is pizza, right? New York pizza.

Kirsten Maxwell
There’s a place called John’s Pizzeria. It’s very much in the touristy area because it’s right off Times Square, but it’s in an a former church. They have some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.

Kirsten Maxwell
I mean, I know you can get it anywhere, but like it’s a great place for a group because it’s loud and you can get big tables, but I mean, it’s good pizza too.

Meagan Wristen
Okay, that’s good to know. So we, that was our goal the last day.

Meagan Wristen
We’re like, okay, we haven’t had Italian food and we haven’t had, we haven’t had pizza or Italian since we got in.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
And I kind of feel like you have to have pizza while you’re there and you should have Italian food. The Italian food is just like so good. So we ended up, and again, we’re like kind of running lakes.

Meagan Wristen
We got to get to the airport. So we were going to go to a place called Norma’s, but then we realized there’s too far up a walk once we got off the subway. So we switched and went to Rosemary’s.

Meagan Wristen
It was so good. It’s like midtown on the east side.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay.

Meagan Wristen
it was super cute. I mean, I wasn’t expecting such an adorable restaurant when we walked in and then we ordered one pasta to share and one pizza to

Meagan Wristen
my gosh, it was so good. So.

Kirsten Maxwell
Again, I’m hungry.

Kirsten Maxwell
I’m hungry. Yeah, and I’m gonna add one last one and it’s called Tivola. It’s also it’s in Hell’s Kitchen Pizza like the wood fire pizza and Italian food highly recommend very good Okay, yeah Okay

Meagan Wristen
okay that’s good to know we did uh we got it telling you food i think it’s i think it’s called Mama Mia’s i’ll just be called mama’s on and that was in hell’s kitchen good little lasagna i’ve thought about that lasagna for a year

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, let’s transition from food because now I’m just

Kirsten Maxwell
What about bars, restaurants, rooftop bars? I know you found a few along the way that, you know, that you like. Any recommendations?

Meagan Wristen
I mean, the rooftop bar scene in New York City is phenomenal. So, and the prices can really vary.

Meagan Wristen
So, I was planning on doing brunch this time at the Magic Hour because it’s always decorated super cute and it’s super Instagrammable.

Meagan Wristen
So I had booked us for brunch there, but I found out right before that they were transitioning. So they were taking down all their holiday decor after Christmas and they hadn’t put anything up yet. And I was like, well, I want to go there for the ram.

Kirsten Maxwell
That’s where you’re going, part of the fun. Yep, yep.

Meagan Wristen
So we didn’t end up going, gosh. And I’m trying to think of the name of, so I have a whole post on rooftop bars. So I will drop a link with the whole list that I’ve been to. Best NYC rooftop bars.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, good.

Meagan Wristen
Um, Cantina, there’s a, is it called Cantina Rooftop. That’s Mexican food. It’s really cute. And it’s, it’s, views, good vibes.

Kirsten Maxwell
Again, you can’t mention food anymore. I’m too hungry.

Kirsten Maxwell
ahs So I’m like, drink slowly, drink slowly. The other place that I would recommend, and it’s really kind of a cool thing, that I actually have a Speak Easy tour that you can book of New York City. And it takes you to all these little Speakeasys.

Kirsten Maxwell
But when I was doing research for it, I found this place called Lilly’s Victorian Establishment. And it’s near Broadway, Times Square area. But it’s got this beautiful stained glass.

Kirsten Maxwell
Old Victorian style bar. I mean, highly recommend. Again, drink prices are going to be up there, but it’s called Lilly’s L I L L I E apostrophe S Victorian establishment.

Kirsten Maxwell
But anyway, so it’s not really speak easy because it’s not like secretive or behind like closed doors, but it’s just, it was packed. I went in there and it was mostly people who had just gotten off work and they were stopping in for a drink. So.

didn’t feel touristy is what I’m saying.

Kirsten Maxwell
So, I guess one other thing we’ll touch on is that the week that we usually end up in New York together is the third week of January, more or less. And it’s restaurant, restaurant.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh my goodness. Restaurant week.

Kirsten Maxwell
God, that’s a tongue twister in New York city. So usually that you can find a prefix meal at different places. So save yourself some money that way. It also is Broadway week.

Broadway

Kirsten Maxwell
And they will often have two for one tickets, which is a huge money saver, obviously. But since we’re talking Broadway, I was going to let you lean into that segment and talk about shows.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, so we went and saw two shows. And I wish that I had known about Broadway week a little sooner because you do have to buy the tickets a little bit in advance to get the two for one.

Meagan Wristen
You can’t get two for one the same day or the next day, at least not for the shows we wanted to see.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. Got it.

Meagan Wristen
We saw & Juliet. That was the first show we went and saw that somebody had recommended Joey Fatone from NSYNC in it. And the music is like, at one point it was a number one hit.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, wow.

Meagan Wristen
And I believe they were all songs produced by the same person. or And he’s had like a ton of number ones. And so all super catchy music. So Juliet, instead of killing herself, Romeo and Juliet, she just has to live.

Meagan Wristen
And then it’s, you know, what happens afterwards. And it’s, it was very funny, uh, very different. And we, we both really liked it.

Meagan Wristen
And then the next day we saw Moulin Rouge.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, good.

Kirsten Maxwell
my all time favorite.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, which I liked, I did like it. I liked & Juliet more, might’ve been our seats.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
I bought the tickets like day up. So we were in the very back. And I think if we,

Meagan Wristen
I think the sound difference between the bottom floor and the top floor is significant.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, and I said we said, I mean, I went all out for the tickets front row of the balcony. And so I mean, Great view, great sound, the whole thing. And I love the movie, so I i knew I was gonna like it going in, but they’ve even updated it from the movie with the music that they chose, so I thought it was really well done.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, so I wasn’t expecting modern, like current music in a I was expecting much older music in it.

Meagan Wristen
When they bust out Britney Spears, I’m like, huh.

Kirsten Maxwell
What? Yeah, yeah, interesting.

Meagan Wristen
That I didn’t expect. I thought it was going to be more like French.

Kirsten Maxwell
So yeah. So that’s good. So those are some tips for Broadway. You can also get day of tickets. I think it’s at the tickets booth in Times Square still. do that. There’s also another company I can’t think of right now, but they do day of tickets.

Kirsten Maxwell
We’ve had one that delivered the tickets to the theater, like Metis at the theater with tickets. I don’t know if they still do that. Right.

Meagan Wristen
everything’s on online now, they just scan it.

Kirsten Maxwell
Exactly.

Meagan Wristen
So I will say like the bag check at & Juliet, we got in really quick and Moulon Rouge was a lot more intense to get in and out of.

Meagan Wristen
I’m not sure why.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, interesting. Okay.

Meagan Wristen
So it’s something to be mindful of. Like, I think you definitely need to get to Moulon Rouge earlier than the other one.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay

Meagan Wristen
I don’t know if it’s because it’s so much more, it’s a much bigger auditorium.

Kirsten Maxwell
Venue. Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
So, you know, maybe the bigger the show, the more time you need to give yourself.

Meagan Wristen
I will say at Moulin Rouge for five ounces of wine, it was $24.

Kirsten Maxwell
Whoo.

Meagan Wristen
I’m like, I was like, I will take a glass of wine and a water.

Kirsten Maxwell
Drink before you go.

Meagan Wristen
And they’re like, that’ll be $30. I’m like, huh?

Kirsten Maxwell
Wow. Yeah, the crazy thing is the $6 bottle of water is crazy to me. I mean, it was the same in my hotel room. I’m like, what?

Meagan Wristen
Well, and they gave us a Fiji water bottle and now I have super weird feelings about drinking Fiji water now that I know that that family owns the rights to the majority of the water in California, which is part of the reason they have a water problem.

Meagan Wristen
So I don’t want to drink Fiji water anymore.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. Public service.

Meagan Wristen
Not to be political, but what the hell?

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. There’s your PSA for the day. Yeah. Okay. And I guess we didn’t really talk about anything like outside of the main attractions. I mean, we did, we touched on a couple, but anything else unique that you want to talk about before we wrap this episode up?

Other Things to do NYC

Meagan Wristen
Can it be food related?

Kirsten Maxwell
Maybe I guess, and then I’m going to leave and we’re going, I’m going to go have lunch.

Meagan Wristen
We did Like a local tour, a dessert tour around Hell’s Kitchen.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh my gosh. How fun.

Meagan Wristen
10 out of a 10 experience.

Kirsten Maxwell
Wow.

Meagan Wristen
Yeah, we ate like eight desserts, I think.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
It was so good. So good. I mean, I think any food tour in New York is probably a good idea.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I actually have an article that we can add in the chat. It’s the best family tours in New York City. And there’s, I mean, there’s a tour for everything. We did a bus tour once. I don’t know if they still do it, but they would drive around the city and at different locations, there would be performers. And so like, you might have somebody singing to the bus, or but it was all telling a story. And it was really cool. I don’t know that they do it anymore. They kind of stopped it after COVID.

Kirsten Maxwell
But, I mean, there’s Sex and the City tours. I mean, there’s a tour for everything, so, yeah.

Meagan Wristen
So one of the things on my bucket list that we still haven’t done is a spa experience. They have some really decadent spa experiences with extensive hydrotherapy and they’re really spendy.

Meagan Wristen
So I was like on Groupon trying to find a good deal, or I tried to see if somebody wanted to host us.

Kirsten Maxwell
Were you looking at those air baths? I know that air is one of the, one that people,

Meagan Wristen
That’s one of them, yeah, but it’s, it’s money.

Kirsten Maxwell
I will tell you, so my sister and I, a couple of years ago, we did one of those like, I don’t even know what you call it, but it’s like the little hole in the wall spa where they do the massages and they like stand on your back and that kind of thing.

Kirsten Maxwell
Quite possibly the best massage I’ve ever had. It was no frills, but it was amazing. And I would recommend that all day long. If I think of the name, I’ll put it in the the notes

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, I mean, night and day experiences, right? But I mean, the end result was worth it. And I think it costs like $35 each. I mean, it was something ridiculous.

Meagan Wristen
Okay, so the ones I was looking at are like a whole experience so you’re there for hours on end and they were pricey. I mean, you could do just the pools for maybe 170 per person.

Kirsten Maxwell
I bet they’re nice though. Wow.

Meagan Wristen
But I mean, I’m just not going to spend that money for Eden and I have to do that.

Kirsten Maxwell
Right. Right. Well, and I think at the end of the day, that’s what, you know, everybody thinks that New York is going to be pricey and they’re not wrong. I mean, but you can find your little workarounds, whether it’s through the going to the different weeks or, you know.

New Transportation Fees

Meagan Wristen
So something and mentioning cost-wise is

Meagan Wristen
that we were Ubering a lot and there are a lot of new fees on Uber and Lyft. And so an Uber that costs $10 a year ago is now $26 because there’s so many built-in fees.

Meagan Wristen
So that was an expense I wasn’t expecting.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, yeah, Okay.

Meagan Wristen
mean, how was it done I was expecting it, but it was double what I had anticipated, which is kind of why I finally gave up and was like, yeah, let’s do the subway. Cause I’ve just spent like $500 on Uber.

Meagan Wristen
So, and Kirsten and I, we flew into LaGuardia and we found out that you can take an Uber shuttle for $18 per person

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah, no. Uber was ridiculous.

Meagan Wristen
from LaGuardia to Penn Station. And so we really debated doing that. We were staying too far from Penn Station to justify it because then we would end up getting an Uber anyway to get to our hotels.

Meagan Wristen
But yeah, so that’s, you know, I mean, that could be a way to save a ton of money getting in out of the city.

Kirsten Maxwell
something to consider. Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
I wish JFK had it because JFK right now is a flat fee on Uber. So it’s a one hundred dollars.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, okay. Oh, really?

Meagan Wristen
So yeah, it’s a flat fee right now.

Kirsten Maxwell
I didn’t know that. That’s kind of the tactics. Yeah.

Meagan Wristen
Eden flew out of JFK, and so her Uber to get there in her bag ran me about $250, which is the cost of a plane.

Meagan Wristen
That was more expensive than her plane ticket.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. Literally, literally, literally. Okay, let’s wrap this up.

Our favorite NYC product to pack!

Kirsten Maxwell
I think we forgot to share. We’re each gonna share one of our favorite products that we take with us to the city when we go. I’ll go ahead and go first. These are called Thermal Leggings.

Kirsten Maxwell
They are fleece lined, super soft. I wore them all over the city because it was super cold. You can get them on Amazon. They’re just different colors, whatever.

Kirsten Maxwell
I had one for every day of the week. Meg, what’s your product you want to share?

Meagan Wristen
mine is this heavy-duty water bottle that is also a foam roller because you’re gonna walk all over that city and your back is gonna hate your guts and so I if I don’t have this with me then I have a travel foam roller but this doubles so I just got water in it right now it is it’s pretty heavy-duty I mean it’s metal so I also like when I was in

Kirsten Maxwell
I love that.

Kirsten Maxwell
it heavy to go without the water? Is it a heavy product or is it pretty

Meagan Wristen
Nika Hova in Tahiti, or the French Polynesia, not Tahiti. And I had read a story that the tour guide ate his tourist.

Kirsten Maxwell
Oh, I remember you saying that you were gonna use it as a weapon.

Meagan Wristen
I was like, I’m like, I will take this water bottle and I will beat him.

Kirsten Maxwell
That’s right.

Meagan Wristen
He was perfectly nice, but anyway, there was no scenario, but it’s pretty heavy duty, but it’ll crack your back too, so.

Kirsten Maxwell
Yeah. Gotta watch out for those tour guides.

Kirsten Maxwell
Awesome. Awesome.

Meagan Wristen
MIVA recovery water bottle.

Kirsten Maxwell
Okay. Well, we will sign off for now. Thanks for joining us today and look forward to our next episode and sharing all of our favorite tips.