I lived in New York for two years a long time ago. It was scary, exciting, challenging and to be completely honest, quite tough.

Going back with Mr Big and Mademoiselle reconciled me with the city.  It was good to walk around as a tourist again and to discover new places that didn’t exist when I lived there.

So what can you do if you go to New York with your children and have a few days in the autumn?  Here is a summary of our itinerary to give you some ideas.

Read my review of the Soho flat where we stayed.

Day 1

Usually the day you arrive and need to get your bearing.  Take it easy as you’ll need your energy for the next days!

• driving to and from the airport is now really long and hard, I recommend you look at the train to get into the city
• because we rented a loft, we chose to go and buy groceries at Gourmet Garage and dined in.

Day 2

Time to hit the obvious sites !

• Statue of Liberty: do not buy the expensive boat trip to the island. I did it the first time, frankly not worth it. Do as many and take the free Staten Island ferry.  Great view of the statue and of Manhattan.
• Walk along wall street
• Lunch: try Eataly in One World Trade center shopping mall.  Several choices so go all around before choosing where to seat.
• September 11  Memorial.  If you want to go into the museum, remember to book your ticket in advance.  There are long queues otherwise.
• Westfield World Trade Center for the white architecture dome inside
• Shopping in Soho.
• Diner at Cafe Dante, Greenwich village.  Lots of young couples and groups having cocktails and nice comfy Italian food.

Day 3

Sunday rest, so take it easy and go explore Brooklyn

• Take the subway to get in and then walk around Brooklyn Heights
• Make sure to have an ice cream at the Ice Cream Factory on the water front
• Lunch at Gran Electrica, a Mexican restaurant recommended by my friend Barbara.  Best meal we had during our trip actually: very fresh and tasty food
• Walk across the bridge back into Manhattan. It’s about 20 min and easy for the children.
• Walking around City Hall and Little Italy
• Diner at Acme NYC if you can book a time way in advance

Day 4

This was the day for Mademoiselle and also a trip down memory lane for me…

• American Girl shop. If your girl is between 7 and 10, you know about American Girl dolls and therefore this shop will be their heaven!  Do go during the week as you won’t fight for space with the NY children!
• For all children, the Lego shop is also just oppposite on Rockfeller plazza
• Rockfeller centre, Trump tower (yeeek!!) and Saks Fifth avenue are just around
• Lunch at Rue 57, recommended by my friend Virginie was really nice.  Lots of choices that can please everyone in the family.
• Walk in Central Park.  Lots to see and do: the ice ring, the Alice in Wonderland statue, picnic, just climbing on the rocks (Mademoiselle loved doing that)
• Stop at Metropolitan Museum
• The Guggenheim museum is just a few blocks up if you still have energy!
• We then went to my old building on 88th (same street as Guggenheim!) between 2nd and 1st avenue.  Very weird to be back there.
• Taxi back to Dylan’s Candy bar, the biggest sweet shop bar in New York.  Three floors of chocolates, candies, sweets.  The kids will love it, you might get a bit sick!
• Diner at home after picking up food from Dean and Deluca

Day 5

• Time Square and a visit to the M&M’s shop (there is also a Hershey shop).  As you know there is also lots of attractions for children there.  If you can, book tickets for that night’s broadway show at the Tkt booth
• Lunch at Dean and Deluca
• High Line walk.  From Times Square, we took the subway to the the entrance at 23rd street but there are other entrances at various points.  Really great, highly (!) recommend it.
• Walk and shopping through Meat pack district / Chelsea
• Walk in Greenwich village and stop at Café Gitane, an institution.

• Diner at the River Café in Brooklyn: this was our wedding anniversary and a great way to spend our last night in New York. It’s old fashion but has oozes of charm.  The food is classic but good, the service fantastic, the bill quite something too!

Day 6

By that time, we were starting to be a bit tired and we were flying back in the afternoon so we took it easy

• Walk and shopping around Soho
• Lunch at the Mercer Kitchen

Here you go.  Hope this was helpful.

Where would you recommend a family to go in New York?  Let us know in the comments.