We Visited NYC With Our Teens and Acted Like Tourists; Perfect Trip

My husband and I visited New York often before we became parents. On those trips, we’d immerse ourselves in less-touristy parts of NYC by staying in spots like Tribeca or Greenwich Village to experience the city like a local.

On this trip, we splurged on a Hilton hotel, The Quin, located right off Central Park. The hotel was a short walk from Times Square and the Broadway shows we wanted to see, and allowed us to explore the city while passing iconic spots like Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. We walked more than we took ride shares, which allowed for great chats and memory-making with our kids, not to mention my 15-year-old daughter’s delight about grabbing Starbucks and walking through Central Park every morning.

There are numerous hop-on, hop-off bus tour companies in NYC, but we chose Big Bus Tours because it had a stop in Times Square, just a short walk from our hotel. Our tour included 24-hour access to plenty of stops, as well as an audio recording of information about each landmark we passed.

We spent a day shopping in SoHo, exploring Chinatown, and eating at Chelsea Market before hopping on the tour bus one final time to head back to our hotel. Touristy? Definitely. A great way to get a quick lay of the land and see lots of things in NYC? Absolutely, so we have no regrets.

My teens are both involved in our local community theater scene, so they had a long list of Broadway shows they wanted to see. We planned to spend each night walking from our hotel to dinner, followed by a show, and managed to narrow our selections down to “The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge,” and “Chicago.”

Getting dressed up for dinner and a show with our teens was incredibly fun, and worth the pricey ticket costs to invest in something that they’re both interested in. Seeing shows together gave us something to chat about, and I was delighted that they even obliged me with photos of us all dressed up to go out each evening — a true win for a mom of teenagers.

Yes, our teens wanted to do touristy things on our trip to New York. While my husband and I prefer to explore more off-the-beaten-path things when we travel, we loved letting them plan our itinerary. Seeing the joy on their faces when they spotted the Statue of Liberty or took photos of the Brooklyn Bridge was pretty special, and it reminded my husband and me not to take these kinds of things, which we’ve seen many times, for granted.

What’s more, following our kids’ leads brought special memories to our trip. One in particular? A pricey Central Park carriage ride I took my daughter on one morning during our coffee walk. Yes, it was almost $100 for a 20-minute ride by the time I tipped, but getting that 20 minutes to hear her chatter about how much she loved the city was incredibly special.

My kids enjoyed our time in New York so much that they asked if we could make it a yearly tradition. Since we visited during the holidays, it was an easy ‘yes’ for my husband and me, who often prefer to give our kids experiences rather than things at Christmastime.

As we left the city, headed for the airport, I opened the notes app on my phone and asked them what they’d want to do next year in NYC. A ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty and a trip to the top of the Empire State Building were new to their list, and some returning favorites like shows on Broadway and a horse-drawn carriage ride also reappeared. If another touristy NYC trip is in our future next year, I’m OK with that. After all, it was the perfect way to spend a long weekend bonding with our kids.