Finding the Universe contains affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission.

Our 2 Days in New York Itinerary (Weekend Visit)

Q: How early should I book Statue of Liberty tickets?

General admission books out at peak times such as Memorial Day to Labor Day, school holidays, and most weekends, so two to four weeks ahead is usually enough for general admission. Pedestal access needs four to eight weeks. Crown access books out months in advance and isn't a realistic add for a 2-day trip; that's a 3-day or longer plan.

Last updated: May 29, 2026. Written by Laurence Norah - 17 Comments

New York. The city that never sleeps. We have visited many times now, and still feel we’ve barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer.

Two days isn’t enough to do New York justice. But two days is also a perfectly reasonable amount of time for a weekend break, a cruise day, or stretching a layover into something more useful. We’ve put together this itinerary specifically for that scenario, drawing on what we’ve actually done across multiple trips, and what we’d cut if you only have a couple of days and the queue at the Statue of Liberty ferry is longer than you expected (which, in our experience, it usually is).

We’ve focused this itinerary on Manhattan, with a brief crossing over to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Bridge walk. We have favourite spots across the other four boroughs, but trying to fit them in over two days will turn your trip into a logistics exercise rather than a holiday.

If you have three days, see our 3 day New York itinerary instead. It covers the same icons but with more breathing room, and adds Hudson Yards, the Vessel, the High Line and a few more food picks. The 2-day version below is the tighter route.

Table of Contents:

Before You Arrive: Book These Four Things

The single biggest avoidable failure of a 2-day New York trip is landing in the city without bookings for the timed-entry attractions, then losing half a day to queues. Four things are worth booking before you fly.

Statue of Liberty ferry tickets. Even general admission books out at peak times. If you want pedestal access (extra fee), book 4 to 8 weeks ahead. Crown access is the bottleneck and books out months ahead, that’s a 3-day trip plan, not a 2-day one. For a 2-day visit, general admission with the ferry crossing is fine. Book Statue Cruises ferry tickets here.
9/11 Memorial Museum timed-entry ticket. Reservations are mandatory and the busy slots fill up. The museum also runs free entry on select Tuesday evenings, with slots that release on Mondays and go quickly. Book 9/11 Museum entry here.
Empire State Building timed-entry ticket. Avoids the 5pm to 7pm queue peak. The deck stays open into the late evening, so booking a late slot avoids the rush. Book Empire State Building skip-the-line tickets here.
Broadway tickets. Popular shows (Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King) book out months ahead through Telecharge or Today Tix. Same-day discount tickets via TKTS at Times Square are a real option for less in-demand shows, but the queue forms from 3pm.

Get those four locked in, and the rest of the itinerary flexes around your day-of energy.

Which NYC Attraction Pass Should You Get for 2 Days?

This is where most 2-day visitors lose money or buy the wrong pass. There are three real options, and the answer depends on which attractions you actually want to do.

CityPASS New York (around $164 adult). Includes the Empire State Building and the American Museum of Natural History as standard, plus a choose-3 from the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty grounds, Circle Line cruises, the Intrepid, and the Guggenheim. For a 2-day visitor following our itinerary, CityPASS pairs naturally with Empire State plus Statue of Liberty plus 9/11 Museum plus AMNH (instead of the Met, see below). Strong value for the 2-day cohort if those match what you want to do.

Go City New York Explorer Pass. A pick-your-own from a long list, choose 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10 attractions. For 2 days the 3 or 4 attraction pass is usually the sweet spot. Includes AMNH, MoMA, the 9/11 Museum, the Edge at Hudson Yards, and many others. Notably does not include the Met, so if the Met is non-negotiable for you, this isn’t your pass.

The New York Pass. Unlimited-attraction model. Generally not the right call for a 2-day visit unless you plan to cram in 6 or more attractions, and at that pace, you’re not enjoying any of them. Better suited to 3+ day trips.

Our verdict for this 2-day itinerary: we recommend the New York CityPASS Standard. With the Met-for-AMNH swap built into Day 2, the standard CityPASS covers all five of the paid attractions on this trip (Empire State, AMNH, Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, 9/11 Memorial Museum) and saves about $39 across two adults compared to gate prices.

If you’d rather pack in eight or more paid attractions across the two days, the all-inclusive New York Pass becomes the better-value pick. For the full pass-by-pass comparison, including worked examples for both relaxed-pace and max-density versions of a 2-day trip, see our comparison of New York attraction passes.

(One note: if you’re sticking with the Met as your Day 2 museum rather than the AMNH-pass-swap, the CityPASS still works but with the Met ticket as a separate gate-price purchase on top.)

Empire State or Top of the Rock? Both Are Worth It

Most first-time visitors agonise over which observation deck to choose. Our take after multiple visits: do both. Empire State Building one evening, Top of the Rock the next afternoon, and you’ve seen the city from the two best angles.

The Empire State Building is the iconic one. It’s appeared in over 250 films and TV shows, it has the King Kong history, and the 86th floor outdoor deck is the open-air photograph you’ve seen everywhere. Open until late, which lets you avoid the worst of the queues by going in late evening.

Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center is the better view, because from there you can see the Empire State Building framed in the skyline. From the Empire State Building you can see everywhere except the Empire State Building.

If you really only have budget or time for one, the Empire State Building is the default pick. It’s the iconic experience and the late-evening hours give it the most flexible slot. But if you can fit both in (and we’ve found we can, on every NYC visit since the first), do.

The other two options, the Edge at Hudson Yards and SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, are both worth knowing about, but they’re a 3-day plan. Stick to Empire State and Top of the Rock for 2 days.

What to Do in 2 Days in New York: The Itinerary at a Glance

Day 1 is Lower Manhattan. You’ll start with the first ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, then work back through the Financial District, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Oculus, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, and end with Times Square at night and a late visit to the Empire State Building.

Day 2 is Midtown and Uptown. Grand Central, the New York Public Library, the Met (or AMNH if you have a pass), Central Park, optionally Top of the Rock, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and a Broadway show in the evening.

The whole itinerary fits inside a 9am to 9pm summer envelope on both days. If you’re visiting in winter, Day 1’s Brooklyn Bridge sunset moves earlier and you’ll want to skip the optional DUMBO add. We’ll flag the seasonal moves as we go.

Day 1: Lower Manhattan

Morning: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

We think it’s the right place to start a 2-day trip. The combined visit eats roughly 3.5 hours, but the timing works only if you’re on the first ferry of the day. Get any later and the queues for security at Battery Park stretch into the actual ferry-boarding window, and you’ll lose two hours that you needed elsewhere.

Allow an hour for the ferry-and-security combination, then around 75 minutes on Liberty Island for the grounds and pedestal (if you’ve booked pedestal access), then 75 to 90 minutes on Ellis Island for the Museum of Immigration. Family-history search interest can stretch the Ellis Island portion considerably, so build a buffer if you have ancestors who came through.

To visit either island you need a ferry, and only ferries operated by Statue City Cruises, which holds the National Park Service contract, can land on the islands. Other operators run cruises that go around the islands, but they don’t dock.

The first ferry runs from around 9am. Get the first one. If you’ve also booked pedestal or crown access, you must take the first ferry, the windows for those are tight. Crown access in particular tends to book out months ahead and isn’t a realistic add for most 2-day trips.

We’ve also done this as a guided tour, which we’d recommend if you want context as you go. The 3.5-hour Early Access Statue of Liberty Tour with Ellis Island from Take Walks takes the first ferry and gives you the historical context that makes both islands click. Both Jess and I felt the immigrant-experience element of Ellis Island landed harder with the guide than it had on our first solo visit.

Lunch: The Financial District

Coming back from the ferry you’ll land at Battery Park around midday, hungry, and standing on the doorstep of the most photogenic lunch district in Lower Manhattan. The Stone Street historic block (a couple of minutes’ walk inland from Battery Park) has a cluster of restaurants with outdoor tables along a pedestrianised cobbled lane. It’s one of the few places in this part of the city that doesn’t feel like a corporate canyon. Allow 50 minutes for lunch, you’ve got the heaviest part of the day still ahead.

Afternoon: 9/11 Memorial and Museum

From lunch it’s an 8-minute walk to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The events of September 11, 2001 left a permanent mark on the city, and any visit to New York that doesn’t make space for this site is missing something the city will never separate from itself.

The Memorial is in two parts: an outdoor memorial and an underground museum. The outdoor memorial, titled “Reflecting Absence”, sits in the footprints of the original twin towers. Two huge pools, the largest man-made waterfalls in North America, drop into the foundations. The names of the 2,977 people who died are inscribed around the pool perimeters. It’s free and open access. Allow 30 minutes.

The museum sits below ground and tells the story of 9/11 across the lead-up, the day itself, and the aftermath. It’s a paid attraction with mandatory timed entry. Allow two hours minimum, longer if the artefact rooms hold you. It’s a hard place to spend two hours in, emotionally heavy in a way you can’t really prepare for, and the rest of the afternoon needs to factor that in. Build a buffer afterwards.

The museum is open from 9am to 7pm (last entry 5.30pm), Wednesday to Monday plus select Tuesdays. Check the dates on the official site if you’re planning a Tuesday visit. Book online to skip the on-site queues. You can book the 9/11 Museum entry here. The museum is also included on the New York Pass, the Go City Explorer Pass, and is one of the choose-3 options on CityPASS.

The Oculus

I appreciate including a building that’s basically a fancy train station might seem an odd thing to do. But the Oculus, the Calatrava-designed transit hub at the World Trade Center, is worth the 20 minutes it takes to walk through it.

The centrepiece is what looks like the inside of a giant futuristic whale, all white ribs arching upwards to a glass roof that pours daylight down into the concourse. It’s photogenic, it’s architecturally serious, and it’s directly on the route between the 9/11 Museum and your next stop. No ticket required, just walk in.

Wall Street and the Charging Bull

From the Oculus a short walk south brings you onto Wall Street itself. This is the most famous financial district in the world, the home of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. It’s a walk-through stop, not a destination, fortunes are still made and lost behind these doors, but as a tourist there’s not a great deal to actually do here beyond the photographs.

The two photo stops are the Stock Exchange building (you can’t go inside) and the Charging Bull statue near the southern end. The Bull symbolises a bull market, and there’s almost always a queue to photograph it. Five minutes at each is plenty. Don’t make a meal of it.

Late Afternoon: The Brooklyn Bridge Walk

From Wall Street, take the 4 or 5 subway one stop north to Brooklyn Bridge / City Hall, then walk onto the bridge from the Manhattan side. The bridge itself opened in 1883 and was at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world. Today it’s a working bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, and it’s also one of the city’s most iconic photo opportunities.

You can walk the full crossing to Brooklyn (about 30 minutes one way) and then either continue into DUMBO for the second-tower-and-Manhattan-Bridge view, or turn around and walk back. Either is fine.

The pinch point is the timing. Sunset over the Manhattan skyline, framed through the bridge cables, is the photograph. In summer that’s around 8.30pm, in shoulder season around 6.30 to 7.30pm, in winter around 4.30pm. Plan your bridge crossing to land you somewhere on the span (or in DUMBO on the Brooklyn side) about 30 minutes before sunset and the timing does the rest.

If you’re visiting in winter, the sunset constraint means you’ll either need to skip the DUMBO crossover or move the Brooklyn Bridge to the morning of Day 2 instead.

Evening: Times Square and the Empire State Building

From DUMBO (or back on the Manhattan side), take the subway up to Times Square. Day 1 is essentially over by the time you arrive, and the only obligation here is to eat and to look up.

Times Square, the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, has been wowing visitors with its lit-up billboards since 1904, over 50 million people pass through each year. The technicolor at night is the experience. We’d budget 90 minutes including dinner. The food in Times Square itself is mostly chain restaurants, and you’re better off eating one or two streets off the main square if you want anything notable.

From Times Square it’s a 10-minute walk south to the Empire State Building. The 102-storey art deco tower dates from 1931, and was the world’s tallest building for 40 years. It’s been overtaken by One World Trade Center and several newer supertalls, but in our opinion it’s still the iconic one.

You can ride up to observation decks on the 80th, 86th and 102nd floors. The 86th floor outdoor deck is the main one, open-air, with the binocular lookouts and the views you’ve seen in every film about New York. The Empire State Building is open daily into the late evening, with closing times that vary by season (the latest closes are around 1am at peak summer, with last entry roughly an hour before close). That late-evening window is exactly the play we recommend for a 2-day visit: avoid the 5pm to 7pm peak by going up after dinner. The city lit up at night is the photograph anyway.

Buy timed-entry tickets in advance to avoid the on-site queues. Skip-the-line Empire State Building tickets tend to be slightly cheaper than the official site and include the timed-entry slot. The Empire State Building is included on CityPASS as one of the always-included attractions, and is also one of the choose-from options on the Go City Explorer Pass. We have a full guide to visiting the Empire State Building with more detail.

If You’re Running Short on Day 1: What to Skip

The first day’s pacing keys to the Statue of Liberty ferry in the morning and Brooklyn Bridge sunset in the late afternoon. If you’re behind schedule, here’s the order to cut:

Skip Wall Street and the Bull. They’re a five-minute photo each. Walk past on your way somewhere else and you’ve still done them.
Skip the DUMBO crossover. Walk to the second tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, take the photograph, and walk back. You’ve still walked the bridge.
Drop pedestal access at the Statue of Liberty. The grounds-only ticket lets you take the next ferry back rather than waiting for your timed pedestal slot. Saves 30 to 45 minutes on the morning.
Cut Times Square dinner short. Eat a 30-minute meal nearer the Empire State Building rather than wandering through Times Square for an hour.

What you don’t cut: the 9/11 Museum (it’s the heart of the day), and the Empire State Building (too iconic to drop). Everything else is negotiable.

Day 2: Midtown and Uptown

Morning: Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library

Start the day at Grand Central Terminal. The third-busiest train station in North America, opened in 1913, a designated National Historic Landmark, and one of the city’s signature interior photographs. The main concourse, the celestial-ceiling vault you’ve seen in everything from North by Northwest to The Avengers, is the headline. The Whispering Gallery (between the dining concourse and the Oyster Bar) is the small surprise. Allow 45 minutes including breakfast at one of the food court counters.

From Grand Central it’s a five-minute walk west to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the main branch of the New York Public Library. The reason I always include this on a New York trip is the children’s section, which holds the original toys that inspired A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books. As a lifelong fan of the series, this was non-negotiable on my first visit.

The library is also worth a wander beyond the Pooh corner. The Rose Main Reading Room, on the third floor, is one of the great library reading rooms anywhere in the world. Just be mindful that it’s a working library, researchers and readers are using it. Allow 45 minutes total.

Mid-Morning: The Met (or the AMNH if you have a pass)

From the library, take the 4, 5 or 6 subway up to 86th Street, and walk three blocks east to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Met is one of the most visited art museums in the world and the largest in the United States. The collection spans 5,000 years of human history, Ancient Egyptian galleries, the European paintings rooms, the American Wing, the Costume Institute. Two and a half to three hours at a highlights pace covers the headliners without leaving you exhausted. Both Jess and I tend to anchor on the Egyptian Wing (the Temple of Dendur is the photograph) and one of the European wings. The Met is open Sunday to Tuesday and Thursday until 5pm, Friday and Saturday until 9pm, and is closed on Wednesdays. If your Day 2 falls on a Wednesday, do AMNH instead, since it’s open every day.

Worth knowing: the Met is not on CityPASS, and not on the Go City Explorer Pass. If you’re using either pass, you’re paying for the Met out of pocket on top of the pass. So if you’ve got a CityPASS or Go City Explorer in hand, the smarter swap is the American Museum of Natural History instead. AMNH is on both passes (it’s an always-included attraction on CityPASS, and choose-from on Go City), and the dinosaur halls and Hayden Planetarium hit harder for most first-time visitors than a fast Met visit anyway. AMNH is on the Upper West Side; if you’re swapping, take the same subway up but get off at 81st Street on the B or C line.

Whichever you do, allow two and a half to three hours. Buy your ticket online in advance to skip the on-site queue.

Lunch and Central Park

From the Met, walk west into Central Park. The cross-park path takes you through the Ramble and out near Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, one of the city’s most filmed corners, and from there it’s a short walk south to the Bow Bridge, the Mall (the tree-lined promenade), and Sheep Meadow.

Lunch options around the park are mostly takeaway-and-bench. There are sit-down restaurants in the Boathouse area on the east side and around the southern entrances on Central Park South. Either works. Allow 75 minutes total for lunch plus a slow walk down through the park to the southern end.

Central Park itself is free. If you’ve got energy, the carriage rides through the park run year-round, and you can book a Central Park carriage ride here, or rent bikes at the southern entrance and book bike rentals in advance here.

Afternoon: Top of the Rock

Working south out of Central Park lands you near Rockefeller Center. With Empire State done Day 1, Top of the Rock Day 2 afternoon gives you the matching second-deck view, with the Empire State Building framed in the skyline this time. If you really don’t want a second deck, this is the easiest stop to skip; head straight to St. Patrick’s instead.

If you want both decks, Top of the Rock is the better afternoon stop. The viewing area, designed to look like the deck of a cruise ship, gives 360-degree views, Central Park to the north, midtown and downtown to the south, and (the photograph) the Empire State Building to the south. Allow 75 minutes including the timed-entry queue. Top of the Rock is on CityPASS as a choose-3 option but is not on the Go City Explorer Pass.

Around the base of Rockefeller Center there are usually film crews, the gold Hercules statue, and the famous skating rink in winter. None of that needs an entry ticket; budget another 20 minutes if you want to wander.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

A four-block walk south of Rockefeller Center brings you to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America, dedicated in 1879. Free to enter, allow 20 to 25 minutes for a quick interior visit. The stained glass and the architectural scale earn the brief detour.

Evening: Broadway

It would be a shame to spend two days in New York and not take in a Broadway show. Same-day discount tickets via TKTS at Times Square are an option for less in-demand shows, the queue forms from 3pm and the discounts can be 30 to 50 percent off. For a specific show, especially a popular one, book ahead via the official theatre box office or a vendor like Today Tix.

On a recent visit we saw Phantom of the Opera. We figured the longest-running Broadway show must have something going for it, and it did. Off-Broadway shows and matinees are the price-conscious play if cost matters.

Show times are typically 7pm or 8pm. Eat before, Theatre District restaurants run pre-show menus designed to get you in and out in 90 minutes. You’ll want to be at your seat 30 minutes before curtain.

If You’re Running Short on Day 2: What to Skip

Skip the New York Public Library. If the museum needs more time than your morning has budget for, drop the library and go straight to the Met (or AMNH).
Cut the Central Park lunch sit-down. Grab a hot dog or coffee from a vendor and walk south through the park instead. Saves 30 to 40 minutes.
Drop Top of the Rock. If you went up the Empire State Building on Day 1, you don’t need a second observation deck on Day 2.
Cut St. Patrick’s. A 25-minute drop-in is the easiest cut on the whole itinerary.

What you don’t cut: the museum and the Broadway show. Both anchor the day.

Map for the 2-Day New York Itinerary

To help you visualise this 2-day route we’ve put together a map. You can also see it on Google Maps here.

How to Get Around New York City

Manhattan is 13.4 miles long and 2.3 miles wide, and you’ll be walking a fair amount on this itinerary regardless. For longer transits, downtown to midtown, midtown to the Upper East or West Side, you’ve got the subway, taxis, buses and ferries to choose from. Our detailed guide to getting around New York goes into more detail.

Subway / MTA

The subway is the fastest and cheapest way to cover meaningful distances in Manhattan, and the bedrock of how we move around the city when we visit. Over 450 stations, one of the largest networks in the world. It’s also one of the oldest, so delays are part of the experience.

OMNY contactless tap-to-pay is now the default fare system across the entire MTA network. You tap a contactless credit or debit card (or a phone with a digital wallet) at the gate, and that’s the fare paid, no MetroCard purchase needed. UK Visa and Mastercard contactless cards work the same way as they do on the London Underground. There’s also a 12-trips-then-free weekly cap if you tap with the same card on multiple journeys, which makes OMNY the best value for a 2-day visitor without doing any maths. The MetroCard is being phased out fully, for a short trip in 2026, OMNY is the answer.

Taxi

New York’s iconic yellow taxis are still everywhere, and fairly priced for short hops. Manhattan traffic can be brutal, so a 12-block taxi ride at 5pm can take 25 minutes, for that distance you’re often better off on the subway.

Ride-share services like Uber and Lyft work the same way they do everywhere else. Booked through the apps, generally cheaper than a yellow cab, same traffic problem.

Bus

The MTA also runs an extensive bus network across the city. OMNY contactless tap-to-pay works on buses the same as on the subway. Pay with a tap on entry. Slower than the subway in midtown, but useful for the cross-town routes that the subway doesn’t cover well.

Ferry

The NYC Ferry service runs along the East River and around to Brooklyn. We loved using it on a Brooklyn-stay trip, same fare as the subway, panoramic views, and a useful way to get up to East 34th Street from DUMBO if you’re crossing back from the Brooklyn Bridge. Tickets via the NYC Ferry app or the machines at the piers.

Hop-on Hop-off Bus

The Big Bus and other hop-on hop-off services run looped routes around the main sights. Not the cheapest way to get around the city, but useful for first-timers who want a narrated overview while moving between attractions. Hop-on hop-off bus access is included on the New York Pass, which is one of the few cases where the pass changes the maths.

Where to Stay in New York

For a 2-day NYC trip, our default recommendation is to stay in Midtown. It’s central, walkable to the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center and Grand Central, and the subway covers anything else from there. Two days is short enough that we’d skip the commute that comes with Brooklyn or Long Island City, even though those areas can offer better-value rooms. Downtown Manhattan around Wall Street is a reasonable second option, particularly at weekends when the business travellers have left and rates drop.

Our Where to Stay in NYC guide covers all of the city’s main neighbourhoods in detail (plus Greenwich Village, Fifth Avenue, the Upper West Side, Brooklyn and Queens). For a 2-day stay specifically, here’s our shortlist across the price tiers:

HI NYC Hostel, a solid budget hostel uptown, ten minutes’ walk from Central Park.
Hotel 31, a well-located 2-star in Midtown, 650 yards from the Empire State Building. Some rooms have shared bathrooms at lower rates.
Warwick New York, a historic 4-star Midtown hotel built by William Randolph Hearst (the publishing magnate behind Hearst Castle). Spacious rooms, friendly staff, and one of my favourite hotels in the city for the price.
The Sherry Netherland, a Fifth Avenue 5-star opposite Central Park if you want to make it a special-occasion stay.

For apartments rather than hotels, Booking.com lists them alongside hotels, or look at Vrbo for broader inventory or Plum Guide for curated picks. Our alternatives to Airbnb guide has more on the apartment-rental landscape.

Walking Tours of New York City

Walking tours are one of our favourite ways to see a city, and New York is no exception. A good guide turns a stop you’ve already photographed into a stop you actually understand.

We’ve taken a number of walking tours in New York, mostly with Take Walks, our preferred walking-tour company. We’ve taken Take Walks tours across multiple cities and they’ve consistently delivered. Two of their New York tours we’d point at first:

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour, including pedestal access and first-ferry boarding (referenced earlier on Day 1).
The guided Met tour if you want context for the world’s largest art museum that you couldn’t get from a free audio guide.
See all Take Walks New York tours here for the current full list.

There are also a wide range of other walking tour options in the city via GetYourGuide. The New York Pass also bundles in several walking tours if you’ve gone with that.

Practicalities for Visiting New York

A few things worth knowing before you go, especially if this is your first trip from outside North America.

Electrical Outlets in New York City

Like the rest of the United States, New York runs on a 110-120V system at 60Hz. Plug types are A (two flat parallel pins) and B (the same with a round grounding pin).

If you’re travelling from anywhere outside North America you’ll need a travel adaptor. The single one we’d recommend for a US trip is a multi-port USB-C and AC unit so you can charge a phone, watch, camera and partner’s phone simultaneously from the two outlets you’ll find in most hotel rooms. We have a guide to the best travel adapters on the market.

Voltage is the second consideration. Most low-power devices (laptops, phones, camera chargers) run on 100-240V and are fine. Higher-power devices like hair dryers, hair straighteners and travel kettles often don’t, check the rating on the device itself. If yours is 230V-only, you need a voltage converter rather than only a plug adaptor, and a converter rated for at least 2000W if it’s a hair dryer. The simpler answer is usually a dual-voltage travel hair dryer.

Currency in New York City

The currency is the US Dollar. Notes run from $1 to $100, with coins from 1 cent to $1.

Credit cards are accepted nearly everywhere, but you’ll want some cash on hand for tipping (which is common across the United States, tipping culture is part of how restaurant and bar workers are paid). A handful of dollar bills is always useful. Bus single fares and a few smaller transactions are coin-only.

Travelling from outside the United States, get a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign-transaction fees. Use it for nearly everything except tipping. Most contactless cards work for OMNY and for shop purchases the same way they do at home.

Safety in New York City

New York is a much safer city than its 1970s-1980s reputation. As with any major city, petty crime, pickpocketing and opportunistic theft, exists, especially in tourist-heavy areas like Times Square and the subway. Keep wallets and phones in zipped pockets, don’t leave bags unattended on cafe chairs, and you’ll be fine. We’ve never had an incident across many trips, but the precautions are still worth taking.

Internet Access in New York City

Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, the subway stations themselves. For mobile data, you’ve got a few options outlined in our guide to getting online when travelling. The US is not a particularly cheap data destination but eSIMs are now the easiest path for short trips.

One thing to be aware of: the skyscrapers create a canyon effect that disrupts mobile signals, and the sheer number of people in the city pushes networks. Expect occasional dropped signal and slow data, especially in Times Square and Lower Manhattan. Hotel and cafe Wi-Fi is usually a more reliable bet for anything bandwidth-heavy.

Frequently Asked Questions About 2 Days in New York

Is 2 days enough for New York?

Honestly, no, but it’s enough for a worthwhile first taste. Two days lets you do the icons (Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Central Park, the Empire State Building, a Broadway show) at a tight pace. You won’t get to neighbourhoods like Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Hudson Yards, or any of the outer boroughs in any depth. If you can stretch to three days, you should, see our 3 day New York itinerary for the longer version.

Which observation deck should I choose for a 2-day trip?

Our recommendation is to do both Empire State and Top of the Rock if you can fit them in. Empire State Day 1 evening (open late, avoids the 5pm queue peak) and Top of the Rock Day 2 afternoon (so you get the photograph with the Empire State in the skyline). If you really have to pick one, the Empire State Building is the default. The Edge at Hudson Yards and SUMMIT One Vanderbilt are newer additions worth knowing about, but they’re a 3-day pick rather than a 2-day one.

Do I need a New York Pass for 2 days?

For a 2-day trip, the unlimited New York Pass is rarely the right call. You can’t realistically use enough attractions to break even. CityPASS (around $164) is the best value match if you’re doing the Empire State, AMNH, the 9/11 Museum, the Statue of Liberty and Top of the Rock. The Go City Explorer 3-attraction pass is the better fit if you want AMNH and the 9/11 Museum but want flexibility on the rest. Our guide to New York attraction passes has the full breakdown.

How early should I book Statue of Liberty tickets?

General admission books out at peak times, Memorial Day to Labor Day, school holidays, and most weekends. Two to four weeks ahead is usually enough for general admission. Pedestal access needs four to eight weeks. Crown access books out months in advance and isn’t a realistic add for a 2-day trip, that’s a 3-day or longer plan.

What’s the best way to get from JFK or Newark airport into Manhattan?

From JFK, the AirTrain to Jamaica or Howard Beach connects to the E or A subway lines into Manhattan, about an hour total, roughly $11 door to door (the AirTrain is $8.50, plus a subway fare on top). The LIRR is faster (around 35 minutes to Penn Station) but more expensive. Yellow taxis from JFK are flat-rate to Manhattan, currently around $70 plus tolls and tips. From Newark, the AirTrain to Newark Airport NJ Transit station, then NJ Transit train to Penn Station, is the public-transit route, around 45 minutes total, around $16. Taxi or ride-share from Newark is generally $60 to $90.

What are the must-do things in NYC in 2 days?

Our shortlist for a 2-day visit: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Brooklyn Bridge walk, Central Park, one observation deck (Empire State Building is our default pick), and a Broadway show. The Met or AMNH adds a museum block to Day 2. That’s a packed but realistic 2 days, and roughly the route this itinerary lays out.