New York Travel Diary

Can you believe I hadn’t been to New York until this year? I had planned the trip SO many times, but always ended up swapping it for something else last-minute. Can’t believe I finally made it! Since I planned the trip so many times before, I had a TON of places marked to check out. Here’s a quick recap of our time there.

WHERE TO STAY

We really wanted to get a feel for both the city and Brooklyn, so we ended up splitting our time between the two. For the first half we stayed in Brooklyn at The Hoxton, and for the second half we stayed at The Ace in Midtown. We loved Brooklyn, and I wrote about our experience at The Hoxton here too.

WHAT WE DID

We took a red eye, and landed in the morning and we were ready to explore the city jet lag and all. We dropped off our bags at The Hoxton, got ready, and headed straight to brunch at Maman Greenpoint. This place is the cutest!

We stopped by the record shop next door, browsed a bit and then headed to some shops. Listing the shops below!

+ Catbird

+ Le Labo

+ A/D/O

+ The Break

+ Feng Sway

+ Tula Plants & Design

+ Brother Viellies

After shopping we were ready for some small bites before our dinner reservation, so we found TØRST on our way back to the hotel and they happen to have happy hour, great beers on tap, and yummy snacks. Then we headed to dinner at The Four Horsemen and LOVED it so much. My fave restaurant in NY!

The next day we woke up then stopped by Gertie for lunch. It just opened, and had the cutest mural. Seriously swooning over this beauty! We had sandwiches and I had a sparkling cocktail because vacation, amiright?

We headed to grab a coffee at Hey Coffee, and chilled there for a bit. Joe’s a total coffee snob and he loved this place, so it has his seal of approval.

We walked around and explored for a while before heading to dinner at Sunday in Brooklyn. The drinks were so freakin’ fun. Mine came in a banana and Joe’s came in a honey bear. Dinner was amazing, we ordered a ton of things to share and were stuffed. Word on the street is that they have a great brunch too, so I def want to go back for that.

Next day we woke up for our last morning in Brooklyn! We had brunch at The Hoxton because they place is a dreamy huge campus that you basically never have to leave. We grabbed an Uber to the city and we’re excited to explore a new area! After we dropped off our bags at The Ace and headed straight to some shops before our happy hour reservation at La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels. Their happy hour is 3-4 during and every single glass is $5 off. Popcorn, olives, pistachios, prosciutto and cheese—yum! Topped off with the best wines. After that we walked around some shops and explored the area. Obvi I had to stop by Pietro NoLita aka the pink restaurant and take a photo. 

For dinner we headed to Gitano Jungle Room NYC. We fell in love with it in Tulum a few years back and we’re so excited to find one in NY. It’s huge and by the end of the night it was packed. We grabbed a drink upstairs for another happy hour of the day before heading to downstairs for our dinner reservations. FYI happy hour upstairs is from 5-7, otherwise drinks are $18. Everything we had was so good! The dessert even came in corn husks, so fun!

The next morning we headed to Felix Roasting Co and had so much fun trying their special s’mores latte. This place is seriously out of a Wes Anderson movie! Interior design goals. Fun fact; it’s designed by the same person that did Leo’s Oyster Bar in San Francisco. 

We headed to breakfast at Blank Slate Coffee + Kitchen and then headed for the subway to visit MOMA. I love all of the Salvador Dali pieces and the 1950s area! We were craving some cocktails after so we went to While We Were Young Kitchen & Cocktails—such a cute place! We walked around the West Village neighborhood there and it felt like a whole new world. It’s so nice and lush there and reminds of London.

Then we headed to the lower east side for tiki drinks! We are a little obsessed with tiki and we’re so excited to try a few tiki bars! We went to Mother of Pearl and then grabbed a slice of $2 pizza because when in New York! We went to the second tiki bar of the night Otto’s Shrunken Head— a super divey, grungy tiki bar with a live band. We were seriously craving some dinner by them so we went to Panna II and omg it was so good! It’s a tiny place stuffed with Christmas lights and crazy decorations and the food was great. It’s BYOB and cash only, and a great time! There’s pictures of celebrities like Solange and Ryan Gosling on the wall from when they’ve come there.

The next morning was our last morning so we headed to brunch at Jack’s Wife Freda. I was so excited to meet up with Janae that day!

We had our last few hours to kill before our flight left so we had to walk around Central Park. After a walk around we headed back to our hotel to grab our bags, and a snack before the flight. We had a nice surprise that the Ace Hotel lobby had a happy hour so we grabbed some snacks and chilled while we talked about what a great time we had in the city. It was our first time in the city and we went all over the place. Successful first trip!