During the summer holidays, our family were fortunate enough to have a week in New York City. With our children now aged 14,12 and 8, a long haul flight no longer seemed daunting, but more importantly some close friends moved there last year, so we went for it. If you’ve been following our adventures here on ClassicallyCurious or on Instagram for long enough, you’ll know we love city trips. Being on the move and exploring suits us all (most of the time)!
City trips take a fair bit of planning, even once the travel and accommodation have been sorted. Here are a few tips we’ve found helpful:
- Source a physical map and guide book in advance. Yes, all the information is on your phone, but a map can help to understand the geography of the city and is a more communal activity. Likewise, the guide book can be flicked through by different members of the family, with each marking what interests them.
- List the sites/museums you’d all like to see and then prioritise them, as you won’t be able to see them all.
- Take into account the family’s different interests. e.g We went to an exhibition on video gaming and interactive design at MoMA, which two of our children loved.
- Keep museum visits short and sweet
- Check whether you need to book in advance
- Carry a bag of water and snacks at all times – food is key to keeping energy levels up
- Plan for roughly 1 major site/museum in the morning and another in the afternoon
- Comfortable shoes
- Walk or take public transport where possible, as this helps root you in the city and gives a sense of
- smell (the stench of NYC subway and the wafts of cannabis!),
- the people (huge number of beggars, the friendliness)
- the place eg. place names, how the traffic and crossings work, licence plate numbers, architecture, trees
- different sounds e.g. fire engines and birds
- As you walk you can plan to pass buildings or monuments that you have not got time to go into. For example, 9/11 Memorial – we chose to spend 5 minutes at the monument and not go into the museum.
- Self-catering accommodation helps keep costs down on food for families
- It’s ok to just chill out and watch a film back in your hotel room. There’s only so much you can all take it. We watched James and the Giant Peach one evening, which rather fittingly ends in NYC!
Another way of introducing a city to the family beforehand, is to read literature set in the city. Before any trip I scour the bookshelves at home and the local library, and gather a selection for everyone to enjoy. When they were little I read a chapter book aloud to them all together, but now the older ones might read one independently, while I read a mixture of picture books and chapter books to my 8 yr old.
For those of you looking for books set in NYC, look no further – here’s a list of books I put together:
Picture Books 3+
Books 5+
Chapter Books 7+
Chapter Books 9+
Books 12+
Books 14+
And don’t forget, most of these are available on Audible – great for car journeys or even flights!
CLASSICALLY CURIOUS 
extremely well written and very interesting with all the right bullet points to take into account when travelling with children, who may seem reluctant about museums etc. If you start at an early age like 5 or 6 years old and with always short visits (maybe with a theme eg find the dogs/angels in paintings) in the morning always followed by a hamburger or ice cream, they will grow into the habit of visiting cities and absorbing all the links you describe…It’s such an easy way to bring in the threads of history, literature, nature and all of life in general.
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Couldn’t agree more. 💕
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