New York with a 6 year old

[Sabi14]

Anyone been to New York with a similar aged child?
How did you find it? Yay or absolute nay?

We would be looking to get married while we are there (simple city hall ceremony) but are otherwise happy to tailor activities to suit DC.

We have not done a traditional city break with them yet, so am unsure.

Thanks in advance!

We took DS for the first time when he was five and had a great time. We obviously had to tailor the trip around him in terms of eating out but we visited Central Park and the Zoo, did the Statue of Liberty boat tour, walked along the Skyline, went on the USS Intrepid, visited the Natural History Museum and saw a Broadway show. He had more energy than we did!

A trip to NY generally involves a lot of walking, so factor that in when you plan your itinerary. Don't try to cram too much into one day. Focus on a few key activities and allow for flexibility.
It might make sense to split your stay over two hotels to save a lot of walking or extra subway or taxi journeys.
Some New York hotel rooms are very small. Check the square footage to get a feel for how tight it will be, especially if you’re planning on sharing a room rather than opting for adjoining rooms.
Flying west is harder for jet lag, and he might not sleep on the plane if he’s excited, so bear that in mind too.
Try not to use the subway during rush hour - it’s manic and easy to get separated.

Walk the High Line and go up The Edge - book in advance. It’s really high up but if you think they’d like it

The Museum of Ice Cream and The Color Factory were big hits with my young family. As were The Met and Natural History Museum. There’s plenty for young children to do. Don’t forget that hundreds of thousands of children actually live in NYC!!!!

Sure, they might not be too happy walking 20km a day to see the main sights, but with some forward planning it’s a fab city to visit with children.

The dinosaur exhibit in the natural history museum is really impressive.

We took our daughter a couple of years ago when she was 3 and she still talks about it. I would absolutely take her again now (she’s 5). We probably will go back next year actually.

We took ours at a similar age (6 and 9), but we lived in the USA at the time so it was a short flight, no jet lag. They loved the Natural History Museum, Central Park, the libraries, picnics in Bryant Park, the M&M store, FAO Schwartz (the toy store, it isn't there any longer), Empire State Building (they were very into Percy Jackson at the time!), Staten Island Ferry.
We returned as a family recently (DCs were 17 and 20) and they both said it was incredible - we revisited some of the places we enjoyed the first time we visited, but tried new places too - Statue of Liberty, the High Line, the museum on the battleship on the Hudson River. It's an incredible place to visit. SO expensive to eat out as a family of 4 adults though.

Same. We went with 6,8 and one in the buggy. Had a great time; the only tricky thing was restaurants but we managed ok. Think I’d book in advance next time

So much to do in NYC for little people. I'm just back and absolutely loved it. Only advice would be to avoid times square. It is soo busy and absolutely stinks of weed. I saw a few children clutching to parents looking quite intimidated and worried when it was at its busiest.

We took our then 5 and 7 year olds and it was brilliant. Highlights included doing all 20+ playparks in Central Park in one day (we made it a competition!). Summit at 1 Vanderbilt was the best observation deck by miles. We took the bus from Port Authority to the Dreamworks American Dream waterpark in NJ…took about 30 mins to get there and the kids loved it. There is also a dreamworks theme park right next to it but we don’t do that but it looked good. Took boat trip to Bear Mountain and did some gentle hiking. Went to see a couple of shows on Broadway. Highline was good, Brooklyn Bridge, the talking walls in Grnad Central Station…pretty much everywhere we went we were tripping over nice playgrounds for the kids. It’s super child friendly. Have fun! Makes me want to go back.
Edited to say, I used to live in New York pre kids many many years ago so I knew my way about…it helped as we didn’t have to waste any time getting our bearings but the subway is your friend.