Earlier this month we went to New York City for 3 days! This is a trip that has been on my bucket list for a while. I've always wanted to see NYC at Christmas time! We planned the trip for my 29th birthday and went from Friday - Monday. In this post I am sharing everything we did during our trip to help you plan yours. This post is all about 3 days in NYC in December!

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We stayed at the Homewood Suites in Midtown because we read that was the best area to stay for NYC first-timers! This was technically my second time to NYC but I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to navigating the city. It was a nice hotel and we liked being in walking distance to Times Square, Central Park, and the Penn Station Subway Station. We decided that the next time we go to New York we would rather stay in the SoHo area because it felt a little less touristy and not as crowded. As long as you are comfortable taking the subway, you can really stay anywhere you want! We were intimidated by the subway initially but it was really easy and saved us so much money by not taking Uber's everywhere. 

3 days in NYC itinerary

Day 1

We flew into the LGA airport at 11am and took an Uber to our hotel in Midtown. By the time we arrived to our hotel it was 1pm and we weren't able to check in to our room until 4pm. We dropped our bags off at the hotel front desk and walked over to Central Park! It took us about 30 minutes to walk there and then we spent a few hours walking through the park! 

After leaving Central Park we stopped at a mall in Columbus Circle and shopped around stores like Sephora, J. Crew, and H&M. On our way back to check in to our hotel we stopped at Famous Amadeus Pizza. It was fun sitting in the window and people watching as we ate our pizza! 

Once we checked into our hotel we took a power nap, showered, and headed to Times Square! This was just a little over a mile walk from our hotel. Times Square takes up about 5 blocks, so we walked a loop around the entire area then headed to dinner. There are several restaurants within Times Square but we wanted to get out of the crowd and ended up at a bar / restaurant called Beer Authority. This was an American style restaurant with a really fun atmosphere! On our walk home from dinner we stopped at Shake Shack and got Christmas cookie shakes to drink in our hotel room.

Day 2 

After just one day of walking through NYC our legs were sore and we decided to learn how to use the subway. I'm so glad we did because we were able to explore way more areas of New York this way! We ended up taking it to the Seaport where you can see a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River. We walked through the Tin Building and grabbed lunch at Malibu Farms.

Once we were finished exploring the seaport we took an Uber over to the 9/11 memorial and walked through the World Trade Center. From the World Trader Center we took the subway back to our hotel in Midtown to get ready for our nighttime activities! 

Once we got back to the hotel we showered and got ready to go take the subway to 5th Avenue. This is where a lot of the designer brand stores are that decorate the windows for Christmas! We stopped in front of Saks to watch their Christmas light show and walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the iconic Christmas tree and all of the ice skaters. At 7pm we had tickets to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City! We were trying to decide if we wanted to do this or see a broadway show and I'm so glad we decided on the Rockettes! If you're going at Christmas time I highly recommend getting tickets for this show. We got our tickets online the day before and sat in the second mezzanine.

Day 3

On our last full day we slept in then took the subway to SoHo. Our first stop was a cute bagel stand called Leon's Bagels where we got bagel sandwiches and coffees. Then we walked to Broadway street to go shopping! Once we started getting hungry again we headed over to Chelsea Market, which has so many different options for food. We got the spicy noodles, which were a little too spicy for us but still good! Next we walked over to the Little Island to see the skyline on the Hudson River. We also walked the High Line which was fun but probably would have been a better view if it wasn't already so dark out. For dinner we ate at Eataly and browsed the market. 

Technically we were in NYC for three and half days and while we had time to squeeze in some more exploring on the last day, we were pretty exhausted by this point. We decided just to sleep in until we had to pack up and check out of our hotel at 11am. We wanted this trip to be somewhat relaxing and I think we did the perfect amount of activities, but we thought of a few more things we would like to do next time we come! We hope to come back in the fall or late spring and take a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, go to the top of the Empire State Building, and walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was so fun seeing NYC in December and it actually wasn't as cold as I expected! I wore this coat the entire trip and it kept me so warm and dry walking through the rain! These boots were also really warm, comfortable, and weatherproof! 

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I hope this post was helpful if you are planning a trip for 3 days in NYC in December!