A NEW YORK CITY guide - cos difference is power in the concrete jungle

36 things to experience from my 2024 trip

For a person (me) who feels overwhelmed and overstimulated in most major cities - New York is something else. Truly. It’s my top 3 favourite places in the world and it was the first overseas trip I took at 18 years old. I had only just barely left Toowoomba on a few occasions by that point so driving at Christmas time across the bridge at night time with the skyline lit up, was legitimate magic.

When I got shingles in Alabama after moving there for uni exchange, I refused to rest in the student health bay and hitched a plane to recover in a Chinatown hotel. So I could ‘rest’ by walking a few blocks each day to eat the the lunch specials from Little Italy. Any chance I had - send me to the city that never sleeps! Which is CRAZY for a grandma gal who sleeps by 830pm most nights. It is the only place I have ever arrived at and instantly felt it matched the rate of my inner buzzing.

How it was in 2008 vs how it was in 2024 was the same. As was all the visits I have had in between those 16 years. The thing that has never changed is that the city feels like the most extreme example of:

human life.

It’s human life on all levels and across all spans, at all energies, with all races, every economic level, all cultures, every food and drink option possible, anything can be delivered to your door and you are a teeny fish in a literal 8 MILLION people pond. It is something I am unable to describe correctly other than to say; you feel alive and part of the human world in your core because you see how small you are.

But not in an insecure way - in an empowering way.

In a - ‘I should celebrate what’s different about me because even the strangest cats are thriving here in New York’ way. You see amongst the burrows and the streets that difference is the power here, and being unique is the way they want you. But also - no one cares about you in the same breathe. It’s liberating, it’s detached but somehow there’s still community everywhere.

And it’s better in real life than anything you’ve seen in the movies, on postcards or in magazines. Once it captures you and you get to see past the dirty and bad parts of it, much like every major city of that size, you’ll see the depth and inspiration that resides around every single corner of this place.

Here’s what some of my favourite people have said about it:

“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world's greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.”—Nora Ephron

“Quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean “love” in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again.”– Joan Didion

“New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice.”– Bob Dylan

Over 3 weeks last year I ate, drank, shopped and walked my way (some 20kms days) through NYC, and so now it’s time to share what I enjoyed the most this time around!

My favourite way to see this NYC is to do 3 weeks and I always base myself in one accommodation place for that time and utilise getting to know the subways and transport system which is incredibly smart and easy to use.