Our Postcards: New York City

Jan 15

5 min read

Snow-covered city street at dusk with cars driving between tall buildings and frosty trees, glowing windows, and blue winter light

What made us choose New York City in January is anyone’s guess. It was freezing, and somehow it felt even colder than Iceland in February, perhaps because of the wind funnelling between the buildings or simply because we spent so much of the trip outside. Whatever the reason, we certainly felt it, but we absolutely loved it.

With only three nights in the city, we knew we wanted to make the most of every hour, so before we arrived we mapped out the places we really wanted to see. Rather than spending the whole trip jumping on and off the subway, we decided to walk wherever we could, and apart from one journey underground, that is exactly what we did.

By the end of the three days, we reckon we had covered around 40 miles on foot. It may not have been the warmest way to explore New York in January, but it turned out to be one of the best.

Seeing New York on Foot

We stayed at the Gansevoort Park Avenue, which was ideally placed for the way we wanted to explore. Its Midtown location meant we were roughly between downtown Manhattan and many of the sights further north, so we could head out in a different direction each morning and simply keep walking.

When you only have a few days somewhere, being able to leave the hotel and immediately start exploring makes such a difference, and walking meant we saw far more than we would have done underground. There were the obvious landmarks, of course, but also the smaller things between them: busy delis, yellow taxis edging through traffic, steam rising from the streets, neighbourhoods changing almost block by block and that constant feeling that something was happening around you.

New York is one of those cities where even the journey between two sights feels like part of the experience.

Elegant restaurant with set tables, wooden bar stocked with bottles, hanging copper lights, and abstract wall art.

Downtown Manhattan

One of our days took us south towards some of New York’s most famous landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Charging Bull and the 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center.

The atmosphere around the memorial was understandably very different from the rest of the city. New York can feel loud, fast and constantly in motion, so the relative quiet around the reflecting pools was particularly striking and gave the area a completely different feeling from the streets surrounding it.

From there, we continued exploring downtown before gradually making our way back north. What surprised us was how compact parts of Manhattan could feel when we were walking, with places that appear completely separate on a map often flowing naturally into one another once you are actually on the streets.

That was one of the advantages of having planned our route beforehand. We were not constantly rushing backwards and forwards across the city, but could work our way through one area before moving on to the next.

The High Line and Midtown

Another part of the trip took us along the High Line, which offered a completely different perspective on Manhattan. Walking above street level gave us a chance to slow down slightly and look across the surrounding buildings rather than always being at pavement level, and even in the middle of winter it was a lovely contrast to the busier streets below.

From there, Midtown brought us back into the New York everyone instantly recognises. We saw the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal before making our way towards Rockefeller Center and Times Square.

Grand Central was one of those places that felt worth seeing even without needing to catch a train. The scale of the main concourse, the architecture and the constant stream of people moving through it all made it feel like a landmark in its own right.

Times Square was almost the complete opposite: bright, noisy and unapologetically over the top. It is probably not somewhere you need to spend hours, but it is one of those places you feel you have to experience at least once, particularly after dark when the screens are glowing above the streets and crowds are moving in every direction.

Crowded Times Square at dusk with glowing billboards, traffic, and pedestrians among tall buildings in New York City.

Central Park, Shopping and an Evening Show

We also managed to fit in part of Central Park, although with only three days there was never going to be enough time to explore it properly. Even a short walk through the park gave us a brief change from the density of Midtown, and it was surprising how quickly the city seemed to soften once we stepped away from the traffic.

Naturally, there was also time for shopping. New York makes that very easy, whether you are wandering through department stores, browsing smaller shops or simply finding yourself distracted by somewhere interesting as you walk from one part of the city to another.

One evening, we swapped the streets for a show and went to see the Blue Man Group, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. It was funny, energetic and completely unlike anything we had seen before, with that slightly surreal style that makes it difficult to explain properly afterwards.

For such a short stay, it was nice to have one evening that was less about sightseeing and more about simply enjoying being in the city.

Meeting a Real New Yorker

Perhaps the most memorable part of the trip was something we had not originally planned ourselves.

Big Apple Greeter had been recommended to us before we travelled, and it turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice we received. The service pairs visitors with local New Yorkers who volunteer their time to show people around parts of the city they know well, so rather than a traditional guided tour built around major landmarks, the experience feels much more personal and conversational.

We spent time with a local who showed us areas we probably would not have discovered properly on our own and, more importantly, talked us through the stories behind them. By that point, we had already seen many of New York’s headline sights, but hearing about how neighbourhoods had changed, what the city was like before tourism became such a huge part of it and how everyday New Yorkers experienced their own city gave us a very different perspective.

Our greeter could point out buildings we might otherwise have walked straight past, explain why particular streets or neighbourhoods mattered and give us an insight into the city that no guidebook could really replicate. It became less about ticking off landmarks and more about understanding the place around us.

For anyone visiting New York for the first time, we would absolutely recommend making room for it.

Tourists on an observation deck photograph the New York City skyline through metal bars, with the harbor in the distance.

Aerial view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline across New York Harbor, with a boat wake in calm water.

Three Days, Forty Miles and Plenty Left to See

By the end of the trip, our feet definitely knew we had been to New York. Three days was nowhere near enough to see everything, but we managed to fit in an extraordinary amount, from downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty to Central Park, Times Square, the High Line and an evening show, while still feeling as though we had barely scratched the surface.

Walking almost everywhere made the trip more tiring, particularly in the January cold, but it also meant we experienced far more of the city than we would have done if we had spent most of the time underground.

We left exhausted, very cold and already knowing there was plenty more we would want to see next time.

Blizzard on city street with red traffic lights, pedestrians and a cyclist trudging through deep snow between tall buildings.