Traveling to New York City with THREE kids

If you’ve NEVER had anxiety about traveling with kids, teach me your ways because I am not that mom! I am the mom who overpacks and is just a complete mess when it comes to traveling with my kids. The anxiety of planning, and making sure everyone has everything they need, it’s a lot.

So, naturally, when the discussion of us traveling to New York City with all three of our kids came up I was in FULL ON panic mode. On the outside I was excited, filled with joy that we were going to experience this with our kids, but on the inside…. sheer panic. I’m a mama, it’s what we do!

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I am so glad I pushed those fears aside and went with it! We had the best vacation with our three littles, and even started planning our next one!

Here’s how we conquered New York City with kids ages 9, 4, and a 1-year-old!

Let’s start with getting to New York City with your kids

This was our first time flying with our little ones, and I have a blog on how to make flying with your kiddos easy here.

Now one mistake we made at the very beginning was not taking into account the time change. On our first night arriving in New York, we landed at 7 at La Guardia airport (highly recommend La Guardia! It was recently renovated, and it is beautiful! With lots of great food options and a BONUS for mamas, it has an amazing kid/play area! My kids loved it while waiting for our flight to board!) Our hotel was on Times Square (more about this later) Which in all was a 45 min drive from the airport.

By the time we actually got to the hotel we walked to get food across the street, then headed back to the hotel to sleep. We were exhausted! So our first day was spent mostly traveling.

We didn’t actually use this app for our flights, but it is a great tool to use when wanting to get the best price for them! The hopper app helps keeps track of when flight prices drop or rise so they tell you the best time to purchase tickets!

Sleeping in the Big Apple!

We stayed at The Hilton Garden Inn Times Square

There are several Hilton Garden Inn hotels in the area, but we really enjoyed this one. The location was great. We were able to easily walk to anything and everything we wanted to explore. With quick access to Subway stations as well. Extra perk, there was a Starbucks on the corner!

The views were great, it was affordable and clean! Nothing fancy, and my kids were bummed that there was no pool. We found out that hotel pools aren’t very common in NYC (well closer to times square at least). Which ended up being fine, because we really wouldn’t have had much time for swimming!

There was a nice lobby and a cute little gift shop in the hotel. Cleanliness is the biggest thing for us, and this hotel was great with cleaning.

Transportation in the city

Now when my husband first presented the idea of going to New York with our family, my first thought was how the heck am I going to tote around three kids in the city!? What does transportation in New York even look like? I mean I know what I’ve seen on TV, and that’s a lot of walking.

And walking is exactly what it is! We did get a Lyft to and from the airport, but aside from that, it was a lot of walking and Subway rides! Now I have a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old who have a double stroller, but if you have ever owned or navigated a double stroller you know they aren’t the most compact strollers out there.

I knew this wouldn’t work, and I’m so glad I decided to buy the Summer 3D Lite stroller.

This stroller was perfect for New York! It wasn’t as flimsy as the usual umbrella strollers, it had a space underneath for storage, it reclined back for when she fell asleep, and it had a cover for our baby girl. We got lucky and got cloudy weather most of the time, but New York can be very hot and sunny!

This wasn’t a double stroller, but thankfully our 4 year old was a trooper, and was willing to walk! When he did get tired, our 1 year old was usually ready for a stroller break, and we’d carry her or let her walk close to us, and it really wasn’t an issue!

The stroller was also easy to fold up and carry which we had to do a lot in the subway stations. You have to climb several stairs to get to the subways! So I would always take our daughter out and carry her while my husband would fold up the stroller and carry it up or down the stairs.

Teamwork truly made the dream work! 🙂

Top 6 Favorite things we did in New York City with our kids

Our trip was definitely one to remember, and there’s so much to do in the city. We didn’t even scratch the surface, but we will definitely have to make another trip back.

These were our family’s top 6 favorite things we did while we traveled to New York City with our kids

1. 9/11 Memorial museum

   • We did this on our first day in NYC, which was by far the highlight of our trip. Of course, our littlest ones weren’t over the moon about it, our youngest just stayed in her stroller and looked around. Our 4-year-old was to our surprise very engaged and had lots of questions. Now our 9-year-old still talks about it to this day. She loved it, and to see the empathy and emotions she had towards it was truly incredible!
   • There is a memorial outside of the actual museum that is free, and absolutely breathtaking. We did not go with the intention to go inside the museum, and last minute decided that we would! I am so happy we did. Even with little ones in tow, it was absolutely worth it.
   • As far as cost goes, our one and four-year-olds were free. Adults were $26 and our 9-year-old was $15, but again it was completely worth the price. You can find more information, along with tickets here.

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2. Coney Island

   • My kids loved going to Coney Island! They had the best time playing on the beach, our youngest wasn’t a fan of the water, but she did enjoy playing in the sand.
   • Now getting to Coney Island is about a 45 min train ride, but with little ones, we didn’t mind. We got to see new places on the train, and on the way back the kids napped! We truly enjoyed it.
   • You have to try Nate’s hotdog at any stand in New York, but the original one is in Coney Island, and it’s huge!
   • Keep in mind we did not spend much time on the pier where the carnival rides are, we did grab something to eat, but we opted out of the rides. It was getting late, and Coney Island is kind of in a “rougher” side of New York. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get back to our hotel before dark! But it’s definitely something you could make an entire day of!
   • I definitely recommend taking your own towels, and a change of clothes! You get sand in all of the cracks and crevices and it’s an itchy train ride back if you don’t have an extra set of clothes!

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3.  Statue of Liberty

   • Now, this is one part of our trip I wish we had carved more time out for, but we still really loved it! We did not actually go to the statue of liberty. Instead, we took the FREE Staten Island Ferry that goes right past the Statue of Liberty.
   • The ferry ride in itself is an experience, it’s relaxing (if you can get a good seat on the outside), and it was a fun experience for our kiddos.
   • Like I said this one is completely free! It goes right past the Statue of Liberty so you can get a good glimpse of it, and take pictures. Then you arrive in Staten Island, we did walk around for just a minute, and then jumped right back on the ferry back to the city. Again, we were kind of crunched for time this day but when we do make another trip we plan to actually go to the statue of liberty.

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4. Times Square

   • Times Square is such an experience! I will warn that once it gets dark the smell of marijuana becomes extremely strong so be cautious if you are traveling with kids. We did see Times Square at night once, and I do recommend seeing it at night because it’s just spectacular. They have music and people dancing, the lights are incredible. It’s just a whole different world.
   • Now during the day we walked around and went into the shops. When you’re with kids you HAVE to go to the THREE stories M&M World. My kids absolutely loved it!
   • My oldest daughter and I explored early one morning and even stumbled across some kind of movie scene or commercial being filmed. It was such a crazy and fun experience and I was so glad I got to experience that with her!

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5. Central Park

   • When people say Central Park feels like another world it is so true! Now we didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Central Park since we were headed to Coney Island on this day, and Central Park is HUGE.
   • The part of the central park that we visited was closest to the Trump towers! We found a cute little splash pad that the kids loved and got to play in.
   • While there we got to see the pigeons of central park, which seriously made you feel like you were in the Home Alone movie! So fun! Then we finished with ice cream from the food trucks parked near.

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6. Hop on Hop off

   • The Hop on Hop off buses are big buses with the tops cut off that give you a tour of the most important, and popular places in NYC. It works exactly how it sounds you just hop on an available bus and hop off at any part of NYC you want. We ended up getting on at Times Square and getting off at The National Museum to catch the ferry to The Statue of Liberty
   • I will say to choose the company you ride with wisely. Check reviews online, and just make sure you’re comfortable with that bus. We ended up getting on a bus and had the hardest time catching a bus back. They were all full and did not have enough buses running. We ended up taking the subway back to our hotel and honestly didn’t get our money’s worth.
   • But, the concept and the time we did spend on the bus were really amazing. It was nice to just sit and be able to look at everything! Beware, the drivers of NYC are insane! There were so many times I thought we would for sure hit something or someone!

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New York City adventures with kids and many memories made

Overall, don’t let the idea of traveling with your kids and the stress that comes with it hold you back. I was terrified to travel to New York City with kids, and now we still talk about it to this day! We really love hearing the excitement from my kids when they talk about it!

So, mamas, I get it. We are tired. Why would we want to plan one more thing or pack one more bag? But we only get so many years with our babies before they are gone on their own adventures. Experience life with your kids! Take these tips, and plan a trip to New York City with kids!

This is your sign to just go on that trip! Not only is it doable, but it’s also enjoyable AND memorable…

and even if it seems like too much, or things don’t go exactly as planned remember to just

KEEP IT ROLLIN’

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XoXo,