Best slide ever!  Central Park, NYC

The first time I went to New York was with an 18 month old.  It wasn’t really ideal for my vision of sipping cosmopolitans and staying up all night in the city that never sleeps, but apart from that, visiting NYC with our daughter was still a fantastic trip.  I’d read some real horror stories about how New Yorkers would villainise me for taking a pushchair around the sidewalks of the city and how the famed rudeness of locals would not be softened just because I had a child in tow.  In reality I found New York to be very child friendly for a city of its size.  New Yorkers themselves were great; we pushed our buggy for miles around the city and did most of the major tourist sites whilst still finding time to run around the park with our daughter.  Restaurants and cafes, both in New York and across America, are very child friendly (especially compared with the UK) and we had such a great time on that first visit that we’ve been back time and again.  The subway is fairly easy to deal with as all stations have a disabled access point from the ticket hall and many have lifts but I would advise having an umbrella fold buggy if possible as there are times when access has to be via a stairwell.

If it’s your first time in NYC then you’re going to want to see most of the sites that are covered in our main Top Picks but there are a couple of other options you might want to consider if you‘re visiting New York with kids, as well as some more practical information for those travelling with children.