On New Year’s Eve the temperatures were a bit more normal and fortunately there was no snow at midnight. Our hotel was in the Times Square area but this is not where we celebrated.

Initially we thought of going to Time Square for New Year’s Eve, however, to do this spectacle comfortable you really have to dig deep into your savings to afford a simple table. Even the lowest priced general admission ticket at TGI Friday’s at Times Square costs you USD 179.00. The cheaper and free option to celebrate at Times Square would be to line up for HOURS on end in the cold outside at Times Square (Times Square is open to the public and it is FREE on New Year’s Eve so don’t buy any fake tickets from someone).

New York City at New Year

The FREE option seemed excruciating. First of all Times Square is totally controlled by NYPD, which is a good thing of course and they did and are doing a great job, but this also means that there are several restrictions. In fact, a lot of police around the world could learn a thing or two from the NYPD on that!

You cannot simply turn up just before the ball is dropped and have a space readily waiting for you. You really have to line up early (starting before or at noon) to get a good spot at Times Square.

People celebrating New Year in NYC

If you leave the line, i.e. to go to the restroom, you are not guaranteed to get your space back. Also, there are no portable restrooms available at Times Square and so you should go to the restroom beforehand and make sure your hotel is nearby so you can use the restroom there. You should also eat something beforehand as there are no food vendors at the square during the celebrations. If you are outdoors in NYC, remember alcohol in public is illegal and so don’t think of having your fizzy drink at the square or elsewhere in public at midnight! The only thing you get at Times Square are the free New Year’s celebration articles like the free hats. At around 8pm, musicians give live concerts at the stage there.

If you made it through to midnight at Times Square, then you will be able to see the ball being dropped. The square is filled with lights and lots of confetti.  As you can imagine, this all seemed like a big pain and so we opted for a better option.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with the locals at Central Park.

It was a relaxed and civilized atmosphere there.

From 10pm until 1am there was last year (and is again this year) free music and celebrations at the Rumsey Playfield.

We basically entered the park near Columbus Circle and headed towards the stage. As we don’t like crowds, we didn’t go all the way to the stage but we were still able to enjoy the music and festivities from further back. They even had portable restrooms there!

Fireworks Central Park New Year

This celebration is part of the annual NYRR Midnight Run. You can read more about the run and entry fees on the organizers website here.

It was a great place to celebrate New Year’s Eve. You can bring your own food and drink (of course non-alcoholic 😉 ) and there were plenty of places to get away from the crowds. Plus you also get a fireworks display.

After the fireworks display, we headed back to our hotel a few blocks away from Times Square. The streets were filled with masses of people and police. Although it was a fun atmosphere in the streets nearby, we were secretly very pleased with our choice of New Year’s Eve celebration.

New York Police Officers at New Year

View over lower Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge

The bridge connects the two boroughs Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River*. At the time of opening Brooklyn was an independent city because it only merged with New York City in 1898. Every day thousands of people cross the bridge via the walkway/bicycle lane or vehicles. From the bridge you can have some great views over Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s skyline. The top level is solely for the use of pedestrians and cyclists. The lower level has two carriageways for vehicles. You can access the Brooklyn Bridge Walkway from Manhattan or Brooklyn.

View over Manhattan Bridge and Lower Manhattan

How to get to Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan:

In Manhattan the promenade walkway starts at Centre Street shortly after the intersection with Chambers Street. You can even take the subway to Chambers Street or Brooklyn Bridge City Hall. The Manhattan side is fairly easy to find.

Brooklyn Bridge

How to find the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn:

From Brooklyn you can start the walk at the stairway at Cadman Plaza East. To find it with the subway is a little bit more complicated than from the Manhattan side. However, we just followed the other tourists.

If there are no tourists around, here are the directions from High Street station to the Brooklyn Bridge:

When you arrive at the High Street subway station take the exit marked “Cadman Plaza West / Cranberry & Henry Street”. After the staircase turn left and continue walking until Middagh Street. At Middagh Street turn right at the traffic light and head towards the Cadman Plaza Park. Enter the park and soon you should see a little sign on your left indicating the Brooklyn Bridge Walkway. Continue walking along the path (don’t go right) sort of round and soon you will see a passageway where you should see another small sign (at the top) for the Brooklyn Bridge walkway. Continue and just before the passageway ends you will see on your left the staircase to the Brooklyn Bridge walkway. Before you enter the staircase have a look on your right. There are some information signs about the Brooklyn Bridge.

*Good To Know: East River is not actually a river. It is a tidal strait. If you look on a map then you can see that water way goes to the ocean.

Click here to see our video of our walk across Brooklyn Bridge

– Click on the picture to see the entire picture –

Click here to find out how to get to the Brooklyn Bridge walkway from Manhattan and Brooklyn

The High Line is located at Lower Manhatten in New York City. The two main acccess points to the High Line are from West 30th Street between the Tenths and Eleventh Avenue and at Gansevoort Street. In between you can also access it at several points.

The best time to visit the High Line for amazing photographs is at sunset.

Click here to visit the website of the Friends of the High Line

The Times Square is located in Midtown, Manhatten on 7th Avenue/Broadway between  West 42nd street to West 47th street in New York City.

Click here to visit the site of the Earth Cam which is a live webcam of Times Square in New York City

Click here to visit the official site of New York City

Click here to visit the official tourism website of New York City