72 Hours in New York
72 Hours In
72 Hours in New York
Three days, one extraordinary city. The insider edit for those who want it all, and then some.
Two Hotels Worth Every Penny
Walker Hotel Greenwich Village
West 13th Street, Greenwich VillageIf you're in the business of knowing where to stay in New York (and we very much are), then Walker Hotel Greenwich Village deserves to be at the very top of your list. Tucked into one of the most enviable addresses in the city on West 13th Street, this hotel understands the art of the considered stay in a way that so few do.
Arrive to find a cosy sitting area with complimentary hot apple cider and water ready for you. It's a small gesture, perhaps, but in a city that can feel relentlessly transactional, it means everything. By evening, live jazz drifts through the lobby with the easy confidence of a place that has nothing to prove. It is, in the very best sense, a neighbourhood hotel with the soul of a private members' club.
The rooms are compact (this is New York, after all) but whoever dressed the beds deserves a medal. Smooth, crisp linens and the most wonderfully indulgent down pillows make the case for staying horizontal rather than going out, which is quite the achievement in this city. Bathrooms feature generous apothecary products from C O Bigelow, and with 24-hour service, the hotel wraps around you like a warm cashmere coat.
Perhaps most surprisingly for a property sitting in the beating heart of Manhattan, Walker Hotel is extraordinarily quiet. Sunsets over the cityscape from your window, blackout possible at the pull of a blind, sleep that actually arrives. Honestly, it feels like something of a miracle. One of those rare hotels that spoils you for staying anywhere else.
Breakfast is taken at the Society Café, where a complimentary continental starts the morning beautifully. A short menu covers the essentials, including avocado on toast, while an additional à la carte menu invites more leisurely exploration: bagels, cooked options, and fluffy stacked pancakes that could legitimately be considered a reason to cross an ocean. If, however, you want a truly iconic New York bagel moment, Murray's Bagels is just around the corner and throws open its doors as early as 6am. For jet-lagged early risers, this is practically a lifeline.
The Civilian Hotel
Times Square, Midtown ManhattanOpened in 2021, The Civilian arrived in New York's hotel scene with the kind of swagger that only comes from a genuinely original concept. Positioned right next to Times Square, the most visited, most electric, most chaotic square mile on earth, this 198-room design hotel leans entirely and brilliantly into its Broadway credentials.
Dotted throughout the hotel are miniature scaled original theatre sets from Broadway itself: extraordinary little worlds frozen in time, sitting in corridors and corners as though waiting for an audience that never quite arrives. Every room has a view, and with one-touch blackout blinds, you control exactly how much of New York you let in. From the rooftop, the skyline opens up in that way that still, still, manages to steal the breath, even if you've stood on a Manhattan rooftop a dozen times before.
The cocktail bar is precisely as sexy as the rest of the hotel implies: dark, intimate, and thrumming with a low-lit energy that Manhattan does better than anywhere. In the warmer months, an outdoor sitting area spills out beneath the New York sky, and the bar menu is varied and considered, with excellent nibbles and delicious bites giving you every reason to hang around a little longer before heading to the bright lights of Time Square.
"We thought we would be creating a hotel for the young, but actually what we found is that we've created a hotel for the young at heart." Joseph Angelini, Director of Sales and Marketing, The Civilian Hotel
If Broadway is your passion, your aesthetic, your heartbeat, The Civilian is your hotel. Rates start from $200 per night, and for a design hotel this distinctive in this location, that is an absolute steal.
Feed Your New York Soul
Little Ruby's
An excellent choice for brunch or an all-day feasting session, Little Ruby's strikes that rare balance between nourishing and indulgent. Fresh smoothies to kickstart the morning, juicy, perfectly booked (medium rare for me) burgers for when things get serious mid-afternoon, and a chicken schnitzel that deserves considerably more attention than it gets. Warm, neighbourhood, uncomplicated. Exactly what you want when the city is being a lot.
Da Andrea
Sitting directly opposite Walker Hotel, Da Andrea is the kind of authentic Italian restaurant that you find yourself grateful for after a long day walking the streets of New York. When going out to party seemed like a good idea at the beginning of the day, six hours of walking later heading across the road to Da Andrea's is suddenly the best idea! Particularly so when jet lag has its claws in you and an early supper at 5:30pm feels not only acceptable but absolutely essential. The cauliflower risotto is deliciously creamy, one of those dishes that tastes like it has been made with considerably more thought than its modest billing suggests, while the spaghetti carbonara is a masterclass in restraint: perfectly cooked, with properly used guanciale rather than the bacon-based impostors that have no business being near this dish. Neighbourhood dining at its very finest.
Waverly Diner
For a full, unvarnished New York diner experience, the kind you've been dreaming of since every great American film of the nineties promised you this moment, the Waverly Diner delivers. Open 24 hours a day, it draws in all sorts: night owls, early birds, taxi drivers, tourists, regulars who've been sliding into the same booth since the nineties. Its all-day menu is the point, but the atmosphere is the real reason to go. Order coffee. Order more coffee. Stay as long as you like. Nobody is watching the clock here.
Black Seed Bagels
Dotted throughout the city with outposts at Chelsea Market and the Rockefeller Centre, Black Seed are worth seeking out whenever hunger catches you mid-stride. The bagels are hand-rolled and Montreal-style: chewier, slightly sweeter, altogether more considered than the average grab-and-go. They are an excellent reminder that in New York, even the most casual food is taken seriously.
Juice Generation: Order the Blue Beauty
New York is famously, almost evangelically, devoted to its juices and smoothies. If you spot a Juice Generation (and you will), walk straight in and order a Blue Beauty. Thick, chewy with dates, deeply creamy and loaded with probiotics, spirulina and collagen, it's a smoothy that makes you feel virtuous for approximately four hours, at which point you'll probably order another. Genuinely one of the best things you'll consume in the city.
Le Labo: A Detour Worth Making
Not food, technically, but something worth consuming all the same. A short walk from Walker Hotel, Le Labo is where you come to acquire the New York Tuberose, the city's exclusive perfume, available only in this city, only in this store. Each major city has its own fragrance, and it can only be purchased there. If you've been looking for the perfect New York souvenir (one that doesn't involve a snow globe or an I ♥ NY tote), this is it.
Bleecker Street: A Jazz Lover's Paradise
Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village is one of those rare New York addresses where the mythology and the reality are equally compelling. This is where the folk revival happened, where Bob Dylan played his early shows and Joni Mitchell haunted the coffee houses, and while the neighbourhood has evolved considerably since, its commitment to live music is entirely intact.
Terra Blues
NYC's only dedicated signature blues club, open every night from 6:30pm, where local and national blues acts take the stage with a discipline and quality that never wavers. The space is intimate and second-floor, with views down over Bleecker Street that feel like you've been let in on a secret. Acoustic sets begin at 7pm; the main acts take over at 10pm. A modest cover charge applies, but this is serious music in a room that has been built around it. Worth every penny.
The 55 Bar
A Prohibition-era dive bar that has been hosting jazz and blues since before most of us were born. Over 100 years in business and still booking major innovative jazz talent, it has been home to Mike Stern, Wayne Krantz, and Sweet Georgia Brown, among many others. Dark, downstairs, and cosy in the way that only truly old rooms can be, it offers live music every single night of the year. Cover charges are modest, but the experiences are not.
The Bitter End
One of the oldest rock venues in New York, with a lineage that includes Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, and Neil Diamond in its earliest days. Tonight it might be jazz, tomorrow blues, the night after something that defies easy categorisation. The beautiful unpredictability of it is the point.
The Edit: Make Every Hour Count
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum
This should be at the very top of your list, approached with time, patience, and the emotional preparation it deserves. Where the Twin Towers once stood, two vast reflecting pools now sit in their footprint. The largest man-made waterfalls in North America, with the name of every victim inscribed around their edges. The experience of standing there is one that resists easy description.
The museum below is moving, harrowing, and quietly extraordinary. Give it at least two hours, ideally more, to properly absorb the horror and tragedy of that morning, to understand the extraordinary courage of those who ran towards the towers rather than away from them, and to reckon honestly with the devastating, ongoing health consequences borne by survivors and first responders in the years that followed. It is not easy viewing. It is, however, essential.
Chelsea Market & The High Line
Head to Chelsea Market in the Meatpacking District for one of New York's most enjoyable indoor market experiences: food stalls, independent shops, and an energy that manages to feel both local and international at once. And while you're there, walk The High Line, the elevated park built on a disused freight railway that winds 1.45 miles through the West Side, offering perspectives on the city and some genuinely wonderful contemporary art installations along the way that simply cannot be achieved from street level.
Walk. Then Walk Some More.
From Walker Hotel, the city unfolds on foot in the most satisfying way imaginable. Times Square is roughly 50 minutes' walk, taking you up Fifth Avenue with Macy's (the original, the enormous, the one from the films) looming into view somewhere around 34th Street. Brooklyn Bridge, not far from the 9/11 Memorial, is one of the finest spots in the entire city to watch a sunrise, while the Statue of Liberty can be viewed from Staten Island or appreciated from the bridge itself.
The Rockefeller Centre & Ice Skating
During the winter months, the Rockefeller Centre's outdoor rink is one of those New York experiences that lives up to every version of itself you've ever imagined. Skate beneath the enormous Christmas tree with the city rising around you, then head directly to FAO Schwarz next door, the world's most famous and reportedly world's largest toy shop, to recover your equilibrium with a visit to the Jellycat Station, the Swedish sweets selection, or the Bunny By the Bay embroidery service, where your chosen bunny is personalised while you wait. It is, categorically, delightful for all ages.
The New York Shopping Edit
CVS Pharmacy: The Essential Pilgrimage
We are not ashamed. Visiting an American pharmacy is one of the great pleasures of any New York trip, and CVS is the cathedral. Stock up on melatonin (sold freely over the counter and at a fraction of UK prices), Naproxen, Advil, and the legendary 3D Crest whitening toothpaste that every dentist in the UK refuses to stock. EOS vanilla body lotion is exceptional value, and for the Lemme gummies that the internet has been collectively losing its mind over, dramatically cheaper in the US, your first port of call should be Ulta, which carries an international selection of beauty and skincare brands, many of which are simply not available outside of America.
Brandy Melville, Free People & Abercrombie & Fitch
If you're travelling with teenagers, these three are non-negotiable stops and they will find you, with or without a map. The good news is that prices across all three run approximately 20% cheaper than equivalent UK retail, which softens the blow considerably for parents and makes the whole exercise feel vaguely worthwhile. The Gen Z traveller will, in any case, consider this entire trip a success largely on the strength of these three stores, and honestly, fair enough.
Soho
About 45 minutes' walk from Walker Hotel, and conveniently on the way to the 9/11 Memorial, Soho remains one of the city's most compelling shopping districts, even if its character has shifted considerably over the past two decades. The independent retailers that defined the neighbourhood twenty years ago have largely been replaced by Bloomingdale's, Prada, Tiffany's, Mulberry, and Adidas, but the streets themselves, with their cast-iron architecture, cobblestones, and that particular quality of New York light, make the visit worthwhile regardless of whether you spend a single dollar.
Top Tips Before You Go
Taxis from the airport: Don't pay more than €85 in cash or $95 by card for a taxi from JFK into the city. Choose a yellow cab, as they're the only ones running on a meter, which means no nasty surprises. Once you're in the city, Uber is your best friend: reliable, usually within minutes, and considerably less stressful than hailing in traffic.
eSIM: Get one. Holafly.com offers a genuinely excellent product: cheap, easy to install directly onto your phone, and it comes with unlimited data. The time and aggravation it saves is worth far more than the modest cost.
Shopping tax: In New York, an additional sales tax is applied to clothing items priced at $110 or above. Useful to know before you fall in love with something at precisely the wrong price point.
The airport timing myth: Don't arrive more than three hours before your flight. You will simply end up waiting for the check-in desk to open, which is an excellent way to feel like you're already home before you've left the city.
Time zones for short trips: For stays of four days or fewer, try to maintain your home time zone as best you can. It sounds counterintuitive, but it makes the return to normality infinitely smoother. No three-day readjustment period, no week of staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering where your life has gone.
Addresses & Websites
Where to Stay
Where to Eat & Drink
After Dark
What to Do
Where to Shop
Useful Websites
We stayed at Walker Hotel Greenwich Village and had drinks and nibbles at CIVILIAN Hotel.