Haven’t been to New York City, but interested in experiencing NYC at Christmas? It can be an expensive item to mark off the bucket-list, so a great way to do it without breaking the bank is to have a New York Christmas weekend! Here is a great way for first-timers to spend 48 hours in NYC and maximize your Christmas experience! Here you will get:
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Getting to NYC and Into the City
To get as close to the city as possible, and thus, having the best views and least amount of time to get into the city, fly into La Guardia Airport! And, BONUS for my Arkansas natives, there is a DIRECT flight for an affordable price from Little Rock 😍 (usually like $275 round trip!)
Once you arrive at the airport, there are a few options to get into the city:
- Taxi
- Easy to get at the airport. There are signs and people helping to direct you to taxis near the airport exit.
- Beware of taxi drivers saying their card reader/milage machine is broken. It is common and they try to charge you more. Many taxis have an app that you can download and see the fee as it accumulates
- Uber/Lyft
- Similar time to get into the city as taxiing, however, more often have surge pricing and typically come out to be more expensive than a cab!
- Bus then train
- Unfortunately, there is not a direct subway line to La Guardia.
- However, there is a free LaGuardia Link Q70 bus to a nearby subway station in Queens (Jackson Heights- Roosevelt Avenue subway station), which is a more affordable way to get into the city!
- However, it may take longer due to frequent stops of the subway.
Long story short, best/fastest route is via taxi, but the most affordable is bus/metro.
If you opt to take a cab or ride-share, be prepared to spend about $50 to get into the city center.
Where to stay
If you are going to NYC for the first time and only going for the weekend, you need to be in a good, central location! Times Square is going to be your most expensive option. I don’t recommend staying there.
- However, I DO recommend staying within walking distance to Times Square. There are a lot of sights that are within walking distance of Times Square. Midtown West or Midtown South, just south of Times Square are good options for being in walking distance.
- However, NYC is well-connected by Subway, so just make sure you are close to a station!
Book your hotels like yesterday. Even now, centrally locate hotels are pricey, but they will continue to climb closer to November.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Manhattan South Times Square located at 60 W 36th Street in Midtown which ended up giving us the best bang for our buck(lots of them😅) as a 3-star hotel that was in walking distance of what we needed to see.
- Do know that a hotel in Manhattan at this time will LIKELY run $400+ a night for nothing fancy at all. This is another reason why maximizing a weekend in NYC can be a good option; that or opt to stay in another NYC borough and train into the Manhattan area if you aren’t able to split costs with anyone.
A New York Christmas Weekend; 48-Hour Itinerary!
To make a 48 hour trip to NYC worth it, you need to make sure you are arriving EARLY Friday or even Thursday evening if you can make that work. We opted to take the 6am direct flight into NYC to keep from paying for an extra night of accommodations (they are NOT cheap this time of year!)
With only 48 hours in NYC for Christmas, you will likely only have time to really experience Manhattan. Lucky for you, this is where a LARGE part of the NYC Christmas comes to life😍 But know, that you will have to miss out on a few things if you are only opting for a quick NYC Christmas weekend.
New York Christmas Weekend: Friday
Arrive in NYC! We landed a little before 10am. Be sure to travel with carry-on to decrease the time required to get out of the airport, then head into the city! Drop off your luggage at the hotel, and prepare to walk! Highlights for Friday include:
- Central Park
- Rockefeller Center
- Bryant Park
- Times Square
- The Edge
- Rockette Show!
Central Park
Head straight to Central Park! We were able to land, get into the city, drop our bags of at the hotel and be in Central Park by 11:30 am. I recommend visiting the park, but do know that the park is LARGE.
- If you are only in NYC for the weekend, walk around the south portion of the park.
- Here you will find Wollman Rink and the Columbus Circle Christmas Market!
- Be aware the the prices at the Christmas market will not be light; you may want to just window shop!
- Price to ice skate: $26 for admission+$11 for ice skate rentals= about $37 per person if you decide to ice skate (which we didn’t)
Walk Down 5th Avenue
From Central Park I recommend leaving from the southeast corner down 5th avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Sak’s 5th Avenue. As you will be short on time, I don’t recommend going into the cathedral, but it is worth seeing. From here you will be right at Rockefeller Center.
- I recommend going to see the Rockefeller tree and the skating rink during the day (night time is wildly busy!)
- After the Rockefeller Center, head directly to 6th Avenue where you will run right into the Radio City Music Hall
- Near here is where you will also get to see the giant candy canes and red ornaments in the daylight (also recommend because its NUTTY at night)
- (This route can be found on the map screenshot at the beginning of this section of the article)
- From here, head to Bryant Park
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is home to another skating rink and Christmas Market. Compared to the Central Park market, this one is bigger with more shops and options for eating! It is cute to see, but unless you want to spend a lot of $$ shopping, it won’t take long to walk through the market.
- Admission to the Bryant Park skating rink is “free,” but if you rent skates, the price varies between $25-$50 depending on time of day and which day you choose to skate
Times Square
Bryant Park is close to Times Square, so from Bryant Park, I recommend taking West 42nd Street over to 7th Avenue so you’ll run right into Times Square on your way to Hudson Yards! Take in the sights, because it’s Time Square, but don’t spend too much time here.
- From Times Square, continue down 7th Avenue until you run into 33rd and 7th where you will see Penn Station and continue passed Madison Square Garden (don’t forget to turn around and admire the Empire State Building!)
- Take 33rd all the way to the Hudson Yards where you will find The Edge!
The Edge at Hudson Yards
There is some debate about which high rise city view to visit (usually The Edge vs Summit One). We chose The Edge due to it having an outside platform and I thought my mom might not like the lights of Summit One. I’ve heard good things about Summit One, but can only personally vouch that The Edge is awesome and worth visiting!
- General Admission is about $40 per person
- Reservations are required!
In December, sunset is about 5:30 pm. Therefore, I recommend making a RESERVATION for around 4:30pm.
Sunset at The Edge is unbelievable! Watching the sunset over the skyscrapers and being able to see the city from above during the light AND at night is 👌🏻
HOWEVER, know that sunset is POPULAR and everyone has the same idea; stay until sunset then leave. We were underprepared for the LINE of people trying to leave all at once. So, my recommendation is keep an eye on the line and try to beat it down.
Also, a perk of The Edge is that it is located at the Hudson Yards which is home to LOADS of Christmas lights as well 😍 For more details and to purchase tickets, click here!
After The Edge, prepare to go see the Rockette Christmas Spectacular!
Rockette Christmas Spectacular
If you reserve your Edge experience for 4:30, you should be done by 5:30 or 6pm. Therefore, you will have PLENTY of time to catch the Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular Friday night!
Show time options are 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm. If you are quick, you could make the earlier one; however, I recommend grabbing some dinner after The Edge and catching the 10:00 pm show. Either way, be sure to purchase your tickets in advance here, because the shows will sell out!
Seeing the Rockette Christmas Spectacular really is a must-do when trying to get the full NYC Christmas experience!
- The show is about 90 minutes
- Pricing varies depending on which night of the week and what time you choose.
- The 10pm showing on a Friday night in December was about $80 per person, but is more during prime time (7pm show) and gets more expensive the closer you get to Christmas!
New York Christmas Weekend: Saturday
I know, it will be hard to beat the first day! However, the second day will be great also! Highlights of Saturday include:
- Macy’s and its Christmas decor
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Financial District/Wall Street Christmas Tree
- Statue of Liberty via River Cruise
- Christmas lights at night
- Sak’s 5th Avenue
- Rockefeller Tree
- Radio City Candy Canes and Ornaments
Macy’s
Day two involves less walking than day one 🙂 Start the day at Macy’s! It is pretty centrally located and a great way to start your second morning off with Christmas vibes 🎄🤘🏼
Outside and inside is decorated with loads of beautiful Christmas lights! Macy’s is home to a whole floor of Christmas decor called Santaland. However, I’ve heard that the lines and the wait are long even with reservations, so I don’t recommend visiting if you are only in NYC for a weekend! There are plenty of decorations in other places at the Macy’s!
NYC Financial District
After seeing the Christmas decor at Macy’s, hop on the metro and go south! The metro ride from Macy’s to the financial district is only 15-20 minutes. In southern Manhattan I recommend visiting the financial district quickly and then making your way to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
If you haven’t been to NYC, seeing the financial district and its skyscrapers is cool to see! Also, Wall Street is home to a large, beautiful tree that has 1/5th of the crowd!
Brooklyn Bridge
Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Bridge was being moody when we visited and was covered in fog. If weather had been better, I would have taken the time to walk the bridge over to DUMBO, which wields great views of the Brooklyn Bridge as well as Manhattan!
Statue of Libery via River Cruise
After visiting the bridge, we headed toward Battery Park where I had heard you could get a view of the Statue of Liberty. It quickly became apparent it was not going to be a great view. Here, as we were walking by the Statin Island Ferry terminal, we were approached by someone with a company who does tours down the Hudson River.
Here is where you can learn from our mistakes! Now, I normally ignore anyone who approaches me with suggested excursions. However, the last main thing we wanted to see was a good view of the Statue of Liberty, and we didn’t want to take the ferry all the way to Statin Island. Therefore, we went with the river cruise. To note:
- We cruised with Big City Tourism
- They will shuttle you from the Statin Island Ferry terminal to Pier 78. This was the biggest negative of the tour due to the amount of time it took to pick people up, bus to the peer and actually get on the boat.
- THEREFORE, if you decide to do this cruise, I recommend taking yourself to Pier 78!
- However, the cruise itself was great. It was a sunset cruise that went from Pier 78, down to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, turned around, got close to the Statue of Liberty and went back up to Pier 78.
- It was informative and made sure to get close to the State of Liberty from both sides of the boat and is a great way to see the cityscape at sunset and in the evening!
- Cost: $43 per person
- Timing: 1.5 hour cruise + transportation from about 3:00pm to 5:30pm (we left a little late, per usual in NYC 😉)
- Click here for EVERYTHING you need to know about cruising with Big City Tourism!
Christmas Lights at Night
The sunset cruise will end around 6pm and the sun will be set. Therefore, I recommend going back to see the Christmas lights at night! These include the Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Tree and the light show at Sak’s 5th Avenue.
Now, before you head there, PACK YOUR PATIENCE. These areas, at night, in December will be CROWDED. But I didn’t regret going back to see them lit up at night; its a different ambiance than during the day!
If this is your first time in NYC (as it should because this whole weekend is for first-timers 😉), then finish the night seeing Times Square lit up! Should you spend a lot of time there? No. But its an iconic place and really is spectacularly lit up and bright at night!
New York Christmas Weekend: Sunday
What you are able to do on Sunday obviously depends on when you fly out. We flew out early and didn’t venture out into the city on Sunday. But if you fly out later on Sunday I would opt to do one of the following:
- Go to Ground Zero
- Spend more time in the DUMBO neighborhood
- Attend another broadway show (which should be purchased ahead of time!)
What I would do with an Extra Night
If you are flying in on Thursday instead of Friday and are looking for an extra evening activity, I would definitely go to Ryker Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn where the Christmas decorations are OVER THE TOP and awesome (per the internet and social media 🙃).
Is a New York Christmas Weekend Worth it?
Despite the significantly elevated price and the crowds, NYC at Christmas in magical! We really enjoyed our quick trip here and felt the crowds and price were worth tackling to experience it! I’d even do it again!
Just remember, this is one of those trip-of-a-lifetime, bucket list experiences. Not one of those, cheap-trip-chasing vacations. So know that things will be expensive; food, activities, hotels, etc. Book everything as soon as you can and pick and choose which activities you want to do.
Enjoy your trip to New York City! 😍