Below, you will find some tips for seeing the most of NYC in less than 24 hours. This itinerary works for people of all ages. We saw a lot of the city and we had a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old exploring with us. 

How to See the Most of NYC in Less than 24 Hours

A couple of weekends ago while my sister was visiting we decided to go to New York for a weekend. We ended up being able to spend one day in the city.

Jared and I had been to New York City a couple of times before this trip. We had done a bus tour, seen some tourist spots at Christmas, and Visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

We debated for a couple of days what we wanted to do on this trip to show my sister the most of NYC. After looking at all of our options we decided that since we didn’t have a lot of time a bus tour was the best option.

Why Take a Bus Tour in NYC

The Hop on, Hop Off Bus tours are a great way to see a lot of the city and learn a lot in a short amount of time.

The Lower Manhattan Bus Tour covers most of the tourist spots in NYC and takes about two and a half (2.5) hours to do the whole tour. You can get on and off as many times as you want. So it’s a great way to get around the city and see a lot!

Our first trip to NYC about 2 years ago we took a bus tour and didn’t ride the whole thing since we got off. (Which is how the tours are designed, you don’t need to ride the whole bus route.)

This time we decided to ride the whole tour, then go back around and get off and explore. If you have good seats on the top of the bus this is something you might want to consider doing if you want to see the whole tour.

Our Day In NYC

For this trip to NYC, we stayed in New Jersey, so we started out our day driving to Staten Island. We parked our car at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and road the Ferry Across to Manhattan.

The Staten Island Ferry

Taking the Staten Island Ferry was a great way to get to new york for a couple of reasons.

Riding the ferry is Free and parking was is a lot less expensive than driving into the city and parking in a parking garage.

By taking the ferry we were able to see the Statue of Liberty without taking time from our short trip to actually go to the Statue of Liberty.

After disembarking from the ferry we headed to the subway.

New York City Subway

This was our first time on the NYC subway and it’s something everyone should experience at least once when visiting NYC.

We took the subway from Battery Park to Times Square. Getting off at the Times Square stop we headed for the City Sights NY Bus Tour Visitor Center.

Note – We got a great deal on our bus tour so we had to go to the visitor center to get our tickets. If you don’t purchase your bus tour online you can buy the tour from vendors on the street at Battery Park.

The Bus Tour

The line to get our tickets seemed long at the visitor center but it only took a few minutes to get our tickets and head to the bus stop. We waited about 5-10 minutes for a bus with seats on the top to come.

The bus was just starting so the whole top was empty and we ended up getting seats on the top in the very front. The awesome seats contributed to our decision to ride the whole tour before getting off and exploring.

It took about 2 hours to do the whole bus tour and both of our toddlers took short naps on the ride. (Thanks to the fact we woke them up early!)

The Downtown tour started across the street from the visitor center at 777 8th Avenue. The tour had  20 different stops.

Tour Bus Stops

• Times Square North
• Times Square South
• Port Authority Bus Terminal
• Macy’s
• Empire State Building 1
• Empire State Building 2
• Flat Iron District
• Union Square
• Greenwich Village
• Soho
• Chinatown/Little Italy
• City Hall/ World Trade Center/ Brooklyn Bridge/ 9-11 Tribute Center
• Battery Park/ Ellis Island/ Statue of Liberty Ferry
• South Street Seaport
• Lower East Side
• East Village
• United Nations
• Waldorf Astoria Hotel
• Rockefeller Center/ Radio City/ Top of the Rock
• Central Park
• Park Central Hotel
• Winter Garden Theater

Choosing which Bus tour to take can be challenging. We really liked this tour we chose with CitySights NY. They have a few different tour options. We did the Downtown Tour and it is the perfect tour to take to see most of the touristy spots in NYC.

One thing to note is that this tour did not have a live tour guide, it just had an audio recording.

On the tour, we learned a lot of information, way too much for this mommy brain to remember. But some of the fun little facts stuck.

Fun Facts:

Did you know that the Empire State Building made more money on admission to the observation deck than it did in rent the first year?

The property where the United Nations sits was donated by the Rockefeller family and is not a part of the United States.

The Macy’s Star was inspired by the tattoo R.H. Macy had on his arm.

Exploring off the Bus

After riding the bus tour the whole way around we got off the bus and got some lunch from a food truck. Before catching another bus and riding inside to Chinatown/ Little Italy.

Little Italy 

From the bus stop, we walked through Chinatown to Little Italy where we got some amazing Almond Cheesecake Cones from a street vendor and a few Cannolis from a shop down the street.

If you haven’t tried them yet the Almond Cheesecake Cones are a must for any trip to New York City!

9-11 Memorial

After satisfying our sweet tooth in Little Italy we made our way to the 9-11 Memorial, which is just a short walk away. It’s amazing how this monument on ground zero feels calm and peaceful in the midst of a crazy busy city.

After spending some time at the Monument we walked to Battery Park to catch the Staten Island Ferry back to our car.

Highlights of our Day in NYC

It was a fun day and we got to see a ton of different things in a relatively short amount of time ( about 7 hours).

Some of the amazing things we were able to see include:

• The Brooklyn Bridge
• Times Square
• The Statue of Liberty
• Empire State Building
• 9-11 Memorial

There are still a ton more things for us to see and explore in New York and we are excited to plan another trip to the city! Let us know what your favorite things to do in NYC are so we can check them out next time!

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