Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and Singing Stardust Diner! / USA and Canada 2024

My first full day in New York and I hit all the hot spots! 

Click here to watch the vlog or see below. 

I started my first full day in New York with the Big Bus Tour. I did the first half of the uptown New York route, observing and watching all the buildings and architecture, before getting off to visit the Statue of Liberty. 

There was quite a big queue to board the ferry which I was surprised with, but once on, it wasn't long until we could see the Statue of Liberty up close. I got the free audio guide and spent a couple of hours walking around the island and exploring the museum before moving onto the second island, Ellis, which was honestly quite depressing. 

I then got back on the Big Bus Tour to do the remainder of the uptown route. I had planned to stay on the bus and keep going to the Empire State Building but unfortunately, the bus terminated early and the next bus wasn't leaving for another 15 minutes, and then it was a 10 minute driver. With it being a 20 minute walk, I decided to just walk through Times Square instead and made it to the incredible Observation Deck. I loved the little history and exhibition on the way to the top and once at the top, it was the perfect viewing platform. 

I stayed for quite a few hours to watch the scenes by daylight, sunset and night time. The sunset never came because it was a little cloudy, but dusk was still pretty and watching the lights get brighter was pretty special. 

They then had live music on in the evening. It wasn't as good as I had anticipated as I thought it was going to be more like the Sky Gardens in London, but nevertheless I stayed for about half an hour listening, before heading off. 

My favourite meal of the whole trip was at Ellen's Stardust Diner and honestly it was truly epic! It was on my bucket list and I couldn't be happier. Not only was the food delicious, with me craving the Mac n Cheese bites ever since, the singing was out of this world. It would have been nice if I didn't have to sit at the bar, but it meant I didn't have to wait in the 1 hour queue.

Finally, I ended the night walking through Times Square. I've been a few times and it's so crazy busy. I kept looking for displays of new films and shows coming out, or the epic MomTok billboards, but there wasn't anything special being displayed whilst I was there to be honest.