A post about my 10-days-experience in the city and where to buy, where to go and much more!

New York city is a dream! If you want to visit this city, here I’ll tell you: it worths every cent!

I decided to take some days off with my family – dad, stepmother and sister, and we’ve chosen January to get to know Nyc – which means: VERY COLD weather, once they’re on winter. So first thing I need to tell you: if you hate cold, avoid months of December, January and February.

STAY:

We’ve stayed at the Moxy Nyc, next to Times Square – the best location I recommend you to search when you’ll find a hotel do stay. Moxy is really modern, it has an interesting schedule during the week that involves dj, happy hours and a bar with foods and drinks.

The neighborhood there is called Midtown and is the easiest to stay, once it’s close to most of places.

Rooms are small, but very comfortable – specially beds are so delicious to lay down. They offer a little breakfast until 10am that is available on the ground floor with some snacks, fruits and breads, however, it is not even close with hotel breakfasts we use to have in Brazil.

BREAKFAST:

Here I’ll list some cool places for you to have breakfast outside the hotel in New York City:

• Liberty Baggels;
• TAP [they say it has some nice brazilian options for breakfast, althought we couldn’t find it. I found the tip about this place on Dicas de Nova York blog];
• Starbucks;
• Zepolla – it’s around 2 blocks after Moxy Hotel;
• Café D’Avignon – literally aside the hotel.

In the upper image: Zepolla’s Backery coffee. A nice backery close to Moxy Nyc in which we usually had breakfast or a tea before bed.

TOURISM:

I’ve made a 10-day-checklist according to my own Personal Packing service, for outfits and tourism.

I think I overestimate time, once there were tones of options, much more than a 10-day-tourism, however, I’ll leave a list with those who were possible to make during this period.

• Times Square Walk – once I stayed very close to it, this was easy;
• Empire State Observatory;
• Bryant Park and the ice skating;
• Central Park;
• Chelsea Market and places around;
• Statue of Liberty;
• Madame Tussauds Museum;
• Broadway Theater – I’ve saw Mouling Rouge and it was really incredible, one of the best experiences;
• Public Library of Nyc and expos inside;
• National Museum of the American Indian;
• Outlet Jersey Gardens [it stays in New Jersey and you need to get a bus to go there, in the Porth Authority. There’s no subway to go there, neither taxis or ubers want to go, so this is the only option];
• Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo Neighborhood;
• Time Out Market [it’s really a nice place to go when you get to Brooklyn];
• One World Observatory;
• World Trade Center Memorial;
• Rockfeller Center [where is located the NBC studios].

In the images above: Statue of Liberty, located in the New Jersey’s island. You get the ferry in Battey Park to go there – and there is where you also buy your tickets.

Above: The Wallstreet Taurus, located in the financial district of Manhattan, in NY.

In the two above pictures: two different angles of Brooklyn Bridge walk. One direct on the bridge, when we’re crossed it, and another in the other side of the bridge, already in the Dumbo neighborhood, inside the Time Out Market (rooftop).

It’s good for you to know that between one an another walk, you’ll stop somewhere to have lunch, have dinner or shopping at some store – there are so many options.

In order to get things more clearly, I’ll make two lists: one with locals I’ve ate and think it worths and another one with stores I found good things and prices.

LUNCH AND DINNER:

• Carmine’s
• Artichoke Pizzas
• Red Lobster;
• Apple Bee’s;
• George’s [a very simple but nice restaurant around two block after Wall Street];
• Ceci – an italian restaurant around Rockfeller Center’s street;
• Andrew’s Dinner Nyc [close to Moxy Nyc in which I’ve stayed].

COOLEST STORES AND OUTLETS:

• Forever 21 at Times Square – great to find accessories;
• Sephora [nice to find perfumes, only loses for Duty Free in terms of prices];
• Outlet Jersey Gardens – there are so many great stores, of several brands around it, worths your visit. And the prices are better than most of Nyc outlets;
• Burlington – great prices specially to buy travel bags;
• TJ Max – the best in my opinion to find great quality make up, pijamas and underwear;
• Marshall’s – great to find nice clothes and purses with famous brands – prices are better than Burlington and TJ Max;
• Macy’s – it is such a nice option if you want to buy something fancy in a lower price. There I found my favorite Karl Lagerfeld coat – it was from 300usd for 145usd.

HOW TO DRESS

First thing I need to say about this topic: unless you’ve lived in a snow place, all that you think you know about cold weather you probably don’t know.

Brazilian people who usually goes to Campos do Jordão, I can say: you’re not really familiarized to cold. New York cold is similar to London’s cold: the wind to TOO STRONG. When is zero degrees, the wind makes we feel colder than that.

So if you’re going there on winter, here are some important tips for you:

• Take a “second-skin” blouse with you. It looks like a pantyhose for top pieces;
• Choose sythetic clothes instead of natural fiber ones, because they don’t knead and they keep you warm. Forget cotton or linen, for example; it will get totally crumpled in your destiny and you will feel cold, because natural fibers make your skin “breathe” and you’ll feel cold;
• Take at least 3 panty-hoses or flannel legging pants; it’s not so easy to find those pieces in NY and they’re really useful for you to dress before the outfit, like a real lining;
• Mandatory accessories – if you don’t bring with you, you’ll need to buy: socks, big scarfs, gloves and hats;
• Sunglasses are useful as well: the wind makes our eyes sensible and they protect from it during the day.

Another great warning things about outfits:

• Avoid high heels – unless you’re going to an event in which you’ll be seated all the time or make really few walks. We walk a lot in Ny, so the best options are flat shoes – speacially sneakers or boots, to protect from the cold;
• Statement earrings or rings are not so useful, once you’ll wear hats, scarfs and everything that will make you “covered”. You can bring a few accessories with you, but smallers ones and this might be enough for you to style your outfit;
• Bring 3-4 neutral and small purses that match everything in your suitcase (another strategy from my Personal Packing Service) and nothing else, because you’ll probably want to buy a purse there. Prices are really good and we can find all the brands we love in the outlets;
• Big coats, same as purses: from 3 to 4 options that matches everything – I’d say I still haven’t used one of them I brought with me – the black one [LOL] because I found the magenta Karl Lagerfeld model that “stolen” its places in my looks.

• Make up: bring few with you, because there will be tones of options (cheap and great) for you to buy. There are so many good brands with nice prices, so it’s basically impossible not to buy anything.

HOW TO PLAN THE MONEY

Make plans for this trip was essential, much more when you’re not going alone. In my case, I’ve traveled with my family, so we started to decide the destiny about 4/5 months before and the hotel and flight about 3 months.

It’s important to search flight tickets anticipated, ’cause once you let it to check close to the date of the trip, tickets get much more expensive. If you use to travel a lot, you should know that.

We’ve booked the hotel and flight tickets with a Travel Agency but we could have done it perfectly by ourselves. The only good thing about travel agency is that you can optimize your time while they do everything, but if you have time you should do this by your own – you can save much more money this way.

Now, talking about spending day by day there: I assume that we spend about 100USD per day for food and tourism and another 100USD for shoppping – of course it depends on what do you want to buy. It’s important to remember that there are lots of free options for tourism, so you’ll probably save money in some walks.

How do I got the money for this trip: I always saved 10% from all my payments. The total ammount I’ve saved was about 1300 usd for 10 days and it worked for me (dollar was R$5,35 that time).

The hole trip for the 4 of us with flight tickets, hotel and daily spents I suppose it costed around 35 thousand USD (or R$70k).

FLIGHT TICKETS

We traveled with United Airlines. It’s a great company besides some annoying rules – but it was suggested by dad, ’cause he had mile to use. The board service and the food was okay.

An important point: we’ve noticed they ask for vaccine’s receipt before letting you on board, so it’s good to you to have at least two receipts – or a PCR exam recently done.

New York has lots of public places around the streets for you to get an exam, however, I think it’s more intelligent to get the vaccine, once it protects you from a harder version of the disease and you don’t risk yourself to get a positive result and be prohibited to get your flight.

The vaccine receipts or PCR test are not obligated for under 12 ears old. Which means: once you turn 12, you should have the vaccine or the test.

OUTFITS

I let the best for the end, so here are my outfits I’ve wore during my NY trip, according to my color palette and my style. Hope to inspire you – to get dressed in a more fun and elegant way.

Need a Personal Stylist Service? Send me a message!

SUITCASE CHECKLIST – FOR 10 DAYS:

• 5 tops;
• 5 skinnier blouses to wear under tops;
• 1 dress;
• 8 bottom clothes (pants/skirts);
• 4-5 winter coats;
• 3 thermal blouses;
• 3-4 pair of shoes;
• 5-7 accessories – scarfs, gloves and hats;
• 4-5 small purses; 
• 3-4 sunglasses;
• 5 pairs of earrings (few rings and watches);
• 10 underwear;
• Beauty nécessaire: facial and body moisturizer lotion, serum, lip moisturizer, basic make up, perfume and make up remover;
• Remedy nécessaire: the usual for you and something for nausea, aches or fever, as a precaution;
• Electronics: notebook, cellphone, chargers, earpods, hairdryer (if the hotel doesn’t offer);
• 1 Pijama;
• Documents: cards, ID, passaport, money in cash – make sure to exchange in your country, ’cause usually is more expensive in the other country – and flight tickets.

So that’s it! I’ve tried to point the most important things, but a small post would be incomplete. Take a look at my Instagram Profile too if you want to check my Stories for this trip in the Highlight – it could be a nice immersion.

It was an incredible trip and it worths every cent – I will come back for sure.

READ MORE: 4 common mistakes when getting dressed

If you want to say something about this post, please leave a message here in the comments or you cant contact me on my Instagram and I’ll be glad to help.

Kisses and see you in the next post!

Marcéli