The Grand Canyon at sunset
One of the things that we do in our family is that in addition to monthly 1 on 1 dates with our 6 kids, each kid has a 1 on 1 “travel date” each year with either Mom or Dad. It’s a way that we can do more traveling without paying 180K miles for one trip, as well as give each kid some more 1 on 1 parent time. So I went with my son to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon last year
(SEE ALSO: 3 tricks to visit Hoover Dam for free)
More recently my wife and son went overnight up to Columbus, where they had some less than stellar service at their hotel – we ended up getting 7500 points refunded
Going to NYC with my daughter
My middle daughter wrote down a bucket list last year of some of the places that she wanted to visit.
(SEE ALSO: My 11 year old son’s bucket list cracks me up)
Since I’m a firm believer in chasing the fare not the destination, we have been looking for some deals to some of those places. In looking at New York, there are just SO many different options that it probably took me too long to just pick some dates and some miles / cheap fares and just book the darn thing. It probably didn’t help that I screwed up my Citi Prestige airline credit…
In any case, we have our tickets booked and we’re going next month
A 10 year old’s Top 10 things to do in New York City list
So then it was time to figure out what exactly we were going to do in our time there. We’ll only be there for 2 1/2 days, so obviously not anywhere near time to visit everything in NYC. So, inspired by one of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs (though apparently this is the original)
I had her come up with a list of the Top 10 things to do in New York City that she wanted to do. So here it is
In case you can’t read all of it, I transcribed her Top 10 things to do in New York City
- Statue of Liberty. Although as a 4th grader she gets free access to all Naitonal Parks through Every Kid in a Park, the “Statue of Liberty” is free…. just not the $20 ferry ride to get there 🙁 )
- Pizza Tour
- Coney Island
- Central Park
- New York Library
- Visit the LDS Temple
- MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)
- Chrysler Building
- Brooklyn Bridge (though Cincinnati has the original)
- Times Square (doesn’t she know that was one of the top 28 worst tourist traps?!)
- Pokemon Go (Though I hear Central Park is the place to go for that)
- Swim in the pool
- See the ocean
- Ride the Subway
- Rockefeller Center
And of course she has “Go to church” under “must do” 🙂
Any other Top 10 things to do in New York City that you’d recommend?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
As a NYC-based reader, happy to give you any pointers! Happy travels!
Love to hear them! What are your Top 10 things to do in New York City?
Definitely group things together (e.g. LDS Temple, MOMA, Central Park, Times Square, Central Park)–your feet will thank me!
Make sure to get the most out of your Metrocard: http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/109078777129/2230-might-just-be-the-new-1905-for-metrocards
Know the difference between local and express trains (and call them by their letter/number–nothing says tourist like “the blue line” 😉 )
In terms of other things I like to do when I’m a tourist in my own city: NY Aquarium, The American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and Governors Island are some of my favorites!
Have fun!
Right – definitely planning on grouping things together, though we haven’t yet figured out the timings for each thing. And I already knew that about the subway – one of my bucket list items is to visit every stop on the NYC subway 🙂 so I’ve done some studying on that before
You’ve already gone but Coney Island was a waste of time when we went. Rides that looked in need of paint, few people and our car got broken into.
It’s a good list. I’d substitute the Met for MOMA though. Best art museum I’ve ever seen ( not a world traveler).
We had crown tickets for the Statue of Liberty. Definitely the way to go if you plan far enough ahead. Central Park has so many features, we hit a different part every day we were in the neighborhood. Not many hotels in the city have a pool.
Hey, thanks for your blog.
As a long time Brooklyn resident (I now reside at the other corner of your state) I can offer you pointers on visiting all sorts of different types people where they actually live. For instance, in some places, all you have to do is walk a (relatively) short distance to pass completely changing neighborhoods, as if you just stepped into a different countries. I already see that you plan on stopping at every subway stop, so this shouldn’t be too far off.
If it sounds interesting, email me, as it could be a bit extensive.
The main thing you have to prepare for is excessive honking everywhere!
What?! Visit the LDS temple in NYC? This is religiously inspired. Please don’t label this as a top ten supposedly for everyone.
This was a list compiled by my 10 year old daughter of her 10 favorite things on her trip. Take it up with her
LOVE your reply! Also love your daughters suggestions. I am hoping to talk my mom into a NYC weekend as a joint birthday gift for my 11 yr old daughter, mother and I in the fall. Did you take this trip? Any revisions to your list?