NYC Spring Break, 2024

Spring Break Trip 2024 – Part 1
New York city

April 2024

Amtrak
MOMA
Chinatown & Little Italy

For Spring Break 2024 our travels took us from Norfolk to NYC by train, followed by a flight to Miami and a road trip from the Florida Keys back home to Norfolk. This blog post covers our travels between Norfolk, NYC & Miami and our Easter weekend in Manhattan.

Follow our steps from Norfolk to NYC to Southern Florida and back home with this series of blogs:

THE FLORIDA KEYS
SOUTHERN FLORIDA: THE EVERGLADES & KEY BISCAYNE
ROAD TRIP- DELRAY BEACH TO ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (coming soon)
ROAD TRIP- THE LOW COUNTRY: SAVANNAH, GA & BEAUFORT, SC (coming soon)
ROAD TRIP- CHARLESTON SC TO EMERALD ISLE NC (coming soon)

East Coast Amtrak

One of our favorite things about traveling from Norfolk is access to the Northeast Corridor on Amtrak. Our downtown Norfolk Station is first on the line, so we are able to easily choose our seats. This convenience has become even more important as Amtrak changed its passenger cars so that half of the seats face forward, and half backwards, on every route. The only lengthy stop between Norfolk and NYC is Washington DC’s Union Station, where we often get a chance to stretch our legs. The entire trip is roughly 8.5 hours between leaving Norfolk and walking out of Penn Station in Manhattan.

staying uptown

We stayed for the first time at the Hilton Midtown. The massive hotel, we learned, is almost always 90% sold out due to its location and large conference center. As Diamond Members we were granted access to the Executive Lounge on the first floor. It provided a comfortable seating area, substantial continental breakfast, and afternoon hors d’oevres. The rooms didn’t have coffee in them, so thankfully the lounge provided all-day selections from an espresso machine.

It took nearly 2 hours in line at the reception desk to finally get our hotel room at the Midtown Hilton (wrong size room assignment and no room at check-in, finally getting into our room at 10pm having no pull-out couch). Our King room was large by NYC hotel standards and the 24th floor was very quiet.

This was our third early spring trip to NYC and each visit semi-warm temperatures have broken for the first time after winter. Our family that lives in NYC has been more than happy to take us to Central Park, where both tourists and residents of the city could be found sunbathing on the rocks and grass around the park.

We walked to dinner each night of our trip. The first location, Carla in Hell’s Kitchen provided fantastic food and drinks. I didn’t know when I ordered the “Adult Fruit Punch” that, true to theme, it would come in a plastic bag with a twirly straw.

In continuing with firsts for dining, we ate dinner our second night at Beyond Sushi, an entirely vegan Japanese restaurant. The imitation fried egg was one of the stranger fake animal products I’ve eaten.
Finally, in the continuation of our creative dining in NYC, the bagels in our hotel were inexplicably tie-dyed on Easter Sunday.

MOMA

The hotel’s location across from the Museum of Modern Art was perfect for our short trip. With three floors of a permanent collection, a full floor of galleries for temporary exhibitions and a sculpture garden, it would have been easy to spend nearly a full day at the Museum. We chose the more moderate second floor Cafe 2 for lunch- a pricier but highly recommended alternative would have been The Modern, a two Michelin-starred restaurant located adjacent to the sculpture garden.
We loved that many of the kid-friendly pieces in the collection were marked by interpretation, with prompts for parents/chaperones to use to discuss the art with younger visitors.

Easter Sunday – Uptown to Chinatown

Easter Bonnet Parade, Manhattan, NYC, 2024

This was our second time attending the Easter Bonnet Parade on 5th Avenue. The event isn’t a traditionally organized parade, but instead an opportunity for people to gather wearing hats and costumes that celebrate spring in the city.

After wading through the crowd for an hour we hopped on the subway toward lower Manhattan. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Chinatown and Little Italy neighborhoods.

LaGuardia airport- Tiny Terminal A

We’ve been choosing our vacation destinations for the past few years based on the availability of affordable and direct flights. This was our first time fliying on Frontier out of LaGuardia Airport. We arrived not at the larger airport entrance, but at a small terminal that catered to just Spirit and Frontier flights. The rotunda was welcoming with a small cafe, but we didn’t have clear directions to the next step. We had to ask an attendant for directions to the Pre-check area, where we found no wait compared to the much longer line. Past security we found a waiting area with six gates, a to-go food option, and (thankfully) a pizza shop with wine and beer. Boarding was easy. So considering the cost of the flight and having all of our basic needs met, we will likely choose the same option again.