How to Spend a Long Layover in New York City

I love a positioning flight, and the Northeast is the best place to position for cheaper international flights! We were flying to London so we decided to visit New York for a few hours before heading off.

We landed at LaGuardia (which is a great airport!) and immediately head into the city. We used Bounce to hold our luggage for the few hours we were exploring and it was so helpful. This was my second time using Bounce, and I can’t say enough good things about it!

Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History right next to Central Park. It is HUGE. So many areas to visit, so many things to learn. It was a bit like a large taxidermy museum, but still worth a visit! We happened to go on a day where about 20 schools had field trips, so it was a bit overwhelming navigating hundreds of children… Overall though, I’d recommend going if you’ve never tried.

After Museum of Natural History, we went to Warby Parker On W 81st and Columbus Ave. Neal wanted some sunglasses and he was able to use his HSA to get them!

Just a few shops up Columbus Ave is The Strand bookstore, so we obviously had to stop in and pick up a book!

Then, we went to have a drink at Bemelmans Bar on E 76th and Madison. I loved Madeline as a child, and was so excited to see Bemelmans illustrations around the walls of this bar. The drinks were delicious, but very expensive. I got the Jackie, which was $30. The staff also was not very friendly so that was a bit of a bummer. However, seeing the illustrations made up for everything else!

From there, we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, only to find out it is closed on Wednesdays. So we just continued our wandering through Central Park.

By then, it was time to head to the airport! So we didn’t get to explore the whole city, but it was a great little taster of a few streets.