{"id":2470,"date":"2019-02-23T22:55:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T22:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/expedia.blog.au.local\/new-york-with-small-kids\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T23:28:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T23:28:18","slug":"new-york-with-small-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.au\/stories\/new-york-with-small-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"New York with small kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expedia has commissioned me to write a piece on travelling to New York<\/a> with young kids, presumably because most people would read that sentence and think to themselves WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT ARE YOU CUCKOO NEW YORK CITY WAS BUILT FOR COCKTAILS AND RESTAURANTS AND SHOPPING LEAVE THEM AT HOME WITH GRAMMY AND POPPOP FOR THE LOVE OF BAGELS.<\/em><\/p>\n

As it turns out, not only is NYC entirely do-able with kids (the people who live there even have some of their own!) <\/em>it\u2019s fun. And it makes for a pretty exquisite set of memories. I say this because last year my husband and I spent six weeks in summery NYC with our four year-old boy and 14-month-old girl. Partly for my work, but mostly because we love that city, and our kids are not yet locked to the school term, so we can afford to be a bit cavalier\/ambitious\/obnoxious with our trips.<\/p>\n

We arrived in NYC after six weeks of training in Greece and Italy, where we perfected the art of constantly moving into new places, and eating pasta and pizza every day. We chose to stay in three different areas of NYC. This is because:<\/p>\n

1) If we booked one home for six weeks and it was noisy, (HAHAHA JK, every<\/em> place in NYC is noisy) or it sucked, we were stuck<\/p>\n

2) NYC is huge; there are so many areas to explore, and limiting ourselves to just one felt silly<\/p>\n

3) We enjoy packing and re-packing suitcases, schlepping them up and down lots of stairs, and making our children feel displaced and confused.<\/p>\n

\"\"We began with two weeks in a cosy apartment in SoHo<\/a>. This was ideal, since my work was based there, and we could get all our favourite NYC restaurants (Sant Ambroeus, il Buco, Minetta Tavern etc) and shopping out of our system so we didn\u2019t spend the rest of the trip hankering for the part of Manhattan we know and love best. Our apartment was RIGHT IN THE THICK OF IT. Tourists everywhere, sirens, party drunks: SoHo is never quiet. But, the kids didn\u2019t care. We slept well. Big days mean big sleep.<\/p>\n

I found a babysitter through a friend so we grown-ups could enjoy the city. No point being in NYC and staying home every night. She babysat for us for the duration of the visit, and I am very<\/em> grateful to her.<\/p>\n

We ate:<\/strong> Out a lot \u2013 we were right on the cusp of Little Italy after all. Aside of that, take-away soup, sushi and chili from Gourmet Garage was our go-to. (I live<\/em> on chicken noodle soup in NYC.)<\/p>\n

We kept the kids busy with:<\/strong><\/p>\n