9 Fun Ideas for Your Next Trip to NYC Including Seeing Jimmy Fallon

I am so excited to share some of the best things to do in one of my favorite cities, New York City! 

Getting to NYC

  • We prefer to take red-eye flights to NYC since we live in Phoenix, AZ. Flying red-eye allows us to have an extra day in the city!

Things to do

  • If you’re planning on seeing a lot, the City Pass might be the way to go. It’s $146 and gets you into tons of tourist places.

  • American Museum of Natural History

    • This museum is great for people of all ages! There are so many awesome exhibits to see.

    • You can learn about animals, space, nature, and so much more!

    • We spent a couple of hours here.

    • You DO need a timed entry ticket to get in. However, on less busy days, you might be able to buy tickets the day of. 

  • Central Park

    • Rent bikes to ride around the park.

    • Go for a walk.

    • Visit the Central Park Zoo. It’s not huge, so you’d probably only need about an hour here.

  • Guggenheim Museum

    • The architecture of this building is amazing! The whole museum is a spiral walkway going up to the top, with art along the way.

    • This museum isn’t too big, so we usually spend about an hour here.

    • The exhibits rotate frequently, so there are always new things to see.

  • Broadway shows

    • Our family loves Broadway shows! They are so fun!

    • On our latest trip, I saw three shows: And Juliet, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Hamilton.

  • Museum of Ice Cream

    • This museum offers unlimited treats (they weren’t amazing in my opinion) and lots of fun photo ops!

      • They had vegan options for treats!

    • This palace would be so fun with kids!

    • Tickets have a timed entry.

  • Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

    • We took the subway near the bridge, then walked around!

    • The bridge was very busy and packed. But it was still fun to look at and take pictures.

    • We love to get Grimaldi’s pizza just on the Brooklyn side of the bridge.

  • Walk Fifth Ave

    • If you like looking around high-end shops, this is a great place to do it.

  • Visit the Statue of Liberty! If you book in advance, you can even go to the crown!

Getting around

  • We almost always took the subway or walked to get places!

  • The subway is super easy to navigate. All you have to do is put in your destination on Google Maps and choose the public transportation options. It will tell you exactly where to go.

How to get into the Jimmy Fallon Show

  • You can apply beforehand to get tickets. Just Google “Jimmy Fallon Show tickets” and try to request tickets. 

    • We applied for this but didn’t get any tickets.

  • However, there is a standby option! We were able to get into the show! Here’s how we did it:

    • We landed in NYC at 6:30 am.

    • We took an Uber straight to the Rockefeller Building to get in line for the standby tickets. 

    • They hand out tickets at 8 am. Try to be there by 7 am.

    • You MUST be present to get a ticket. You can’t get tickets for other people. They even check your ID.

      • You also have to be at least 16 years old.

    • In the afternoon, we came back to the studio and were told whether or not we got a seat for the show.

    • There were 4 of us in our group (we had numbers 23-26 in line for standby) and we were the last 4 people to get a spot in the show! It was so much fun!

Lisa AndrewsComment