A Weekend in New York {Part 1}

This past weekend we got to escape to New York...which was my first trip EVER to the Big Apple!  We only had two and a half days but we made the absolute most of it and I am so excited to share our trip and some tips that we learned along the way.

First things first, we stayed at Ace Hotel, which is centrally located in midtown. Now...I did a TON of research about where to stay and agonized over the location, atmosphere, and of course price point. If you didn't already know, I can confirm that New York is expensive across the board and while we weren't planning on spending an excessive amount of time in our hotel {hello, we only had 2.5 days}, we wanted to move sure we stayed somewhere fun!

Ace Hotel really nailed it for us!  The property was pretty much everything we could have asked for.  The location was great...we could walk to our favorite neighborhoods or jump on the subway, which was located right around the corner.  The hotel is fun, quirky and personable.  There were lots of little details that made our stay memorable...like a record player, guitar, Pendleton blankets, fun little quotes around our room and an oversized rain shower head.  The staff was extremely accommodating...we got to stay on the top floor with a great view of the city {we booked a medium room, for reference}!  And the scene in the lobby is always bustling, which made us feel like we could unwind at the end of the day in a fun atmosphere.  Oh!  And don't forget, Stumptown Cofee Roasters is on-site too!

We took the red eye flight on Friday night and arrived at 8am on Saturday morning.  The perk was that the drive from JFK was only 30 minutes, since we weren't dealing with commuters.  The hotel happily held our bags, we grabbed a huge latte at Stumptown and hit the ground running.

Our first stop was Dominque Ansel's Bakery for his infamous cronut!  The line was not too long and we figured it was worth the wait...and it was!  The May flavor of the month was brown sugar ruhbarb with lemon thyme sugar and it tasted just like a giant poptart...only 1000x better!

**Tip...you can pre-order your cronut and skip the line if you play your cards right!  More info on that here.**

Ryan and I both had one thing that we felt we really wanted to see while we were in New York.  Mine was seeing a musical and his was seeing the 9/11 memorial and museum.  We pre-ordered tickets for both.  

The 9/11 museum was very emotional for me.  They did such an amazing time laying out the museum {we skipped the tour...but you can easily walk through the museum on your own} and they captured all the details, from phone call recordings of passengers on the plane {heartbreaking} to semi-destoryed fire trucks that were on display.  There were several other exhibits in the museum that just took my breath away.  I could not help but cry for those all of the victims, whether they were on the plane or in one of the buildings.  I'm glad we went, but be prepared for the weight of the experience.

Afterwards, we decided to walk up to Soho and do some shopping.  Did you know that there is no sales tax in NYC?  Hello!

We grabbed lunch at Tacombi on Bleeker Street which was an adorable taco shop!

After lunch we did some more shopping, sight-seeing {we strolled down Carrie's old street from Sex and the City}, grabbed a latte at Bluestone Lane and made our way back to our hotel to check-in and freshen up before dinner!

That night we stopped by the 230 5th Ave rooftop bar for a glass of champagne, the stunning views of the Empire State Building and fun perks like robes to keep you warm!  ;)  We walked through Eataly before going to ABC Kitchen for a cocktail.  ABC Kitchen is Jean-Georges restaurant and connects to one of his other restaurants, ABC Cocina, which is where we had dinner that night.  The food, service and atmosphere was all on point!  Definitely order the spring-pea guacamole {it was AMAZING!} and the short rib tacos.  I also tried the ginger margarita at ABC Kitchen and really enjoyed it too!

After dinner we grabbed macarons at Laudree in Soho, met up with a friend at Estela and then headed back to our hotel for a nightcap in the lobby!  It was a fantastic day and we were both impressed that we got to do as much as we did in one day!

I think I'll break this post up into two parts since it's getting so long!  Check in tomorrow for the rest of our trip!

xo natasha

PS... See Part 2 here!