Making the Most Out of One Day in Manhattan, New York City
By Meg Brunson
Visiting New York City with a 35' RV is relatively easy... if you're willing to say a short train ride away in Jersey City! We booked a stay at Liberty Harbor RV park. It's a glorified parking lot where you're packed in like sardines - but it has elecrtric and water and the HUGE perk of proximity to New York city. We spent day one visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and day two was our day to explore Manhattan. Of course, that tiny island has so much to see and do, we knew we could not do it all in a day... but we are so happy with the amount of stuff we were able to squeeze into one day!
From Liberty Harbor RV park the walk to the PATH train was only about 1/2 mile. There was a Krispy Kreme on the corner, so we stopped in there for breakfast as well. The train brought us to One World Trade Center - which was neat to be inside, and then go outside and look up at the highest building in the United States! It was a short walk to Ground Zero (pictured below) and after paying our respects at the memorial we ventured on to meet our tour bus.
We booked a double decker bus tour of downtown Manhattan. I knew that the family would only tolerate so much walking - and though we could have taken the subway to a variety of places, I loved the idea of riding atop a double decker bus so we could actually see the sights and hear stories about the city. It was an on-off tour, so you could get off and explore any time you wanted to. We only took advantage of this once - at Times Square.
We got off at Times Square and walked up to Central Park where we enjoyed a picnic lunch, ride(s) on the carousel, and seeing some of the family friendly highlights (in my opinion) of Central Park. The kids enjoyed seeing the Alice in Wonderland statue, and the Hans Christian Anderson statue. I loved visiting Strawberry Hills and John Lennon's Imagine memorial. During our visit there was a performer who was at the Imagine memorial, and he was playing Beatles songs - it was heavenly.
After Central Park, we walked to FAO Schwarz so the girls could experience the iconic toy store - and then reboarded the tour bus to finish the tour and bring us back within walking distance of the PATH station.
On the double decker bus tour we saw the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, SoHo, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and Little Italy - among many other things. Way more than we would have been able to see if we had walked and relied on the subway! It was the best way to experience the city when we only had one day to visit! Learn more about the bus tour we enjoyed at https://www.citysightsny.com/downtown-tour-plus.html
Read about some of the other adventures we're having on our Year-Long Road Trip!
© 2019 Meg Brunson
All opinions expressed are my own. See more on Instagram!
Meg is a mommy blogger, Facebook marketer, and much more. She is a mom to four kids who live full-time in an RV exploring the US! As a former Facebook employee, Meg remains a Facebook addict and handles KidsOutAndAbout.com's Social Media Marketing in addition to providing freelance services for other small businesses on how to best leverage Facebook as a part of their marketing strategy. Meg also hosts the FamilyPreneur Podcast, a podcast for parent entrepreneurs raising entrepreneurial children. Learn more about Meg at MegBrunson.com!