New York, New York - NYE with the kids 2014

So, we have decided to bite the bullet, face the crowds and not hide away in a small university town while NYE is on and head down to NY for the celebrations...with the kids...

Anyone can offer recommendations on where to stay? I havent been since before having kids, so we stayed in places that I probably will not be so willing to stay in now :lol: (it was cheap 'kay hahaha).

We will be staying on for a week or so as DH is there for some work, so was also after some recommendations on what to do witih the kids (some things i will be flying solo on).

Am thinking: ice skating in central park and checking out the tree at rockefellar. but what else? Museums, art galleries? I have no idea how to do NY with kids!

what cool stuff is there to do! Hit me with your best! and all your best Hotel Recs!

i havent done NYC with kids but my cousin lives there with his 2 littlies. there is so much to do! Central Park, ice skating, fao schwatrz, heaps of museums - i can get info from him
when we went we rented an apt rather than a hotel... you coudl use airbnb perhaps

We stayed in an apartment not far from Central Park and near a Whole Foods (that stuff's important ya know ;) ) and it was okay. Super tiny and the beds were not flash. It was one bedroom with a fold out couch in the loungeroom but it did the job as we could cook for ourselves and the location was convenient. I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure we booked it through homeaway.

The kids loved going to Times Square- go visit Toys R Us there for sure, the ferris wheel inside is a hit. The Museum of Natural History is great. Central Park zoo is kind of fun, though fairly small. If you're into toy stores then visiting FAO Schwartz is also great- they have the walk on piano there.

The kids also loved catching the subway. A good trip for us seeing we were up near the park was going down to south end of manhattan and looking at the Statue of Liberty. We didn't do the ferry ride out there as we'd done it before (pre-kids) and it's fairly crowded so wouldn't have suited our little ones.

So fun to plan!! It'll be great- very exciting :)

yeah i was thinking the ferry ride would also be a bit foul at that time of the year...it doesnt appeal to me to be blasted by cold wind hahaha. I think the subway down to the south will be good for that.

okay...so FAO schwarz and ToysRus is definite...the girls love that stuff...and so do i hahaha.

A place with cooking facilities is also pretty cool...i am not sure what we are getting through the paid part of the trip...i will make sure DH asks for a full suite so that we can cook. for the week/s that we are there. and yes! near wholefoods will be really important.

you guys are awesome as you are helping me narrow down what we will need etc. i am really looking forward to checking out the natural history museum. although we will also have been to DC for a week so might smash the smithsonian one over there first...but there can never be enough fun in seeing stuff animals right, right?! :lol:

We got the most value from the dioramas at the Natural History museum... you could save your pennies really and skip it. The moving fake dinosaur at Toys R Us was just as much a hit ;)

We also loved the horse carriage ride in Central Park actually. Not sure how fun it is in the freezing cold but you can do fairly short trips.

Hope you can make it to the west coast!!! ;)