
It’s time for the second part of my New York City adventures (you can read part one here), where I’ll be talking about what we got up to on days 4 and 5. There was lots of shopping, lots of eating (of course), and some celebrity movie action.
Day FourThis day was so much fun. I ate the cupcakes that I’d bought at the Magnolia Bakery for breakfast as we were booked on a New York movie location tour at 10am. So, I got to have a bit of a lie in, with breakfast in bed. The tour we booked was a 3-hour tour with On Location Tours and it took us around New York on a bus with about 20 other people, showing us different movie locations alongside clips from the films. Our host was a lot of fun and knew so many interesting facts about the makings of some classic and cult films. This tour also allowed us to visit parts of New York that we wouldn’t have ventured out to on our own on this trip – like TriBeCa and the West Village. Some of the places we visited were the iconic Ghostbusters fire station, and the exterior of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S apartment building. Although, if you were confident on the NYC subway, you could do the tour on your own. If you are in New York for longer than 5 days. You might want to do a NYC weekend getaway at this point, as the city can be quite overwhelming.
After this tour, we went for lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. You need to queue for this amazing place, but it’s so worth it. I was out there in the rain and wind for 40 minutes, sharing umbrellas with various kind Americans. Our hotel was just a block away from the diner, and there was literally a queue at any time of day we walked past.
At Ellen’s Stardust Diner, the servers all sing songs from Broadway musicals and other huge hits, whilst you’re eating. They get up on tables, there’s disco lights, there’s confetti… It really is such a fun and quality experience. They are all such talented singers and performers, and the food there is amazing.
We had huge Mozzarella Triangles to share for our starter, then my Mum had a wrap with Ellen’s famous crinkle cut fries. I had THE MOST AMAZING & HUGE BBQ Pulled Pork in a Pretzel Roll with the crinkle cut fries. I also had such a yummy cookie milkshake. I loved that the food really matched up to the high standards of the entertainment. This is a must-visit restaurant, but get more New York food tips here too.
After this, we jumped in an Uber to New York City’s only Ulta store, so that I could spend some more money on beauty products. We were in there for quite a while, and we stopped at Junior’s Cheesecake on the way back (to pick up takeout cheesecake), so this took us up to around 6pm by the time we got back to the hotel. It was time for an early night and to eat delicious cheesecake in bed.
Day Five
On day five we went for breakfast at New York City’s only iHop, as I wanted to get the epic Cinnamon Roll French Toast that I got in LA last year. Unfortunately, it was no longer on the menu, so I just opted for another of iHops sweet dessert-style breakfasts – pancakes with bananas, caramel sauce and vanilla cream, and of course, syrup.We then travelled over to Chelsea Market, an old market/industrial building that has been transformed into a stunning indoor shopping and street food/deli market. It’s beautiful to wander through, and there are cool little shops and places to grab food around every corner. A lot of independent makers and artists sell their products here, and I picked up some beautiful prints for my wall, as well as cute little gifts such as pins.
We then walked around the corner to Gansevoort Market, which is a much smaller indoor food market. There was pizza and cookies, and I had the most amazing Strawberry Lemonade. I wanted to try something from every seller.
I had been looking forward to coming to this place so much, as it is home to a cookie company, Chip NYC, that I follow on Instagram. Their cookies are huge and fat, and filled with gooey chocolate on their Instagram page, but in real life, the cookies aren’t very nice at all. They were quite dry and weren’t gooey in the inside at all.
After this, we headed to The Plaza Hotel to have a look around. It’s so beautiful inside and they have a food hall downstairs that has stunning patisseries in it. They also have a luxury children’s store called Eloise at the Plaza, after the famous books and Disney movie. It’s so cute, and they also have a portrait of Eloise hanging in the hotel.
After that we walked out onto Fifth Avenue and had a look around. We past Trump Tower with its heavy NYPD security outside. I’ve never seen guns so big! We also had a look at Tiffany, Bergdorf Goodman and some more luxury stores. It’s a very busy street, and is much more like Oxford Street than Rodeo Drive.
We went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant a short walk from our hotel – El Centro. It was a bustling neighbourhood place full of locals, so it had a great atmosphere. They had amazing homemade tortilla chips. After dinner, we went straight to bed as we were flying back home the next day.
Day 6On the morning of flying home, we went for delicious Banana & Nutella-stuffed French Toast at the Times Square Diner & Grill, a had a little wander around some of the souvenir shops. We also went back to the Rockefeller Center as it was one of our favourite places. I loved this trip with my Mum and I was so sad to leave. However, I don’t think I would return to New York for vacation purposes. It was great to really experience it for 5 whole days, but it’s just far too busy a place for me and I feel like I got my fill of it on this trip. This was enough to satisfy me.
You can see more of what I’m loving, and what I’m doing, over on Instagram.