If you live on the East Coast and you want to plan a fun weekend trip with your pet, New York City should definitely be on your radar. From all the lights and action of Times Square, to the busy streets around Madison Square Park, and the winding paths in Central Park, New York City will have something to excite you. It’s impossible to see everything the Big Apple has to offer in a short weekend trip, but we tried our best to make our trip unforgettable.
Without further ado, here is the NYC itinerary we created!
A WEEKEND IN NEW YORK CITY WITH OUR DOGS
GETTING TO NEW YORK CITY WITH A DOG
Getting to New York City from Washington, DC is fairly easy. We packed our bags, loaded up the car, and arrived in the Big Apple in about 4 hours. Honestly, the only time we hit any traffic was when we crossed the Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey to New York. If you do not have a car, Amtrak can get you to NYC in as little as 3 hours. Certain Amtrak routes are allow pets under 20 pounds!
WHERE WE STAYED IN NEW YORK CITY
It’s hard to walk a block in NYC without seeing a hotel or two. For our weekend getaway we partnered with Staypineapple in Midtown Manhattan. We’ve stayed in a lot of pet friendly hotels, but Staypineapple has them beat! Seriously, Staypineapple is not just dog friendly, they are dog obsessed. It seemed like our room was specifically designed with dogs in mind. From a private outdoor terrace for the dogs to run around on, to a (super comfy) dog bed, dog treats, and a food bowl, this room had it all.
Staypineapple is known for their “Naked Experience” meaning their sheets, linens, towels, and robes are so crazy clean you can sleep naked. Let’s just say Navy and Duke joined us in bed, WITHOUT their collars on. 😉 In all honesty, the beds were so incredibly comfortable. Zach and I woke up each morning feeling so relaxed and reenergized.
Staypineapple offers complimentary coffee in their lobby throughout the day. In the afternoon they offered cupcakes and pastries in the morning–yum! We also really appreciated that Staypineapple offers storage for your luggage if you arrive prior to check in. This allowed us to quickly drop our bags off and head out to our first activity. When we came back to check into our room, we were pleasantly surprised to see all of our bags in our room (thanks Staypineapple!).
All in all, we had the absolute best experience at Staypineapple in New York. I cannot wait to visit another one of their boutique hotels!
SIGHTSEEING AND DOG-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES IN NEW YORK CITY
Honestly, we didn’t do a whole lot this trip but eat amazing food, drink, walk around the city, shop, and rest. Normally when I plan out our travel, I jam pack our itinerary with one activity after another, but both Zach and I really wanted to use this trip to relax from our crazy schedules.
Shortly after we arrived on Saturday we started walking to Boris & Horton Café for some indoor, air conditioned fun. We didn’t get very far on foot (way too hot!) so we ended up calling a cab to take us the rest of the way. Our driver was incredibly kind and allowed Navy and Duke to ride as long as they stayed on our laps.
One simply cannot visit New York City with their dog without visiting the famous dog-friendly Boris & Horton Café. This one-of-a-kind establishment is New York’s first Department of Health approved dog-friendly cafe where customers are allowed to bring their dogs inside to enjoy coffee, beer, wine, and light snacks. Boris & Horton was kind enough to allow us to host a meet and greet for our NYC area friends. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hi!
After playing for a solid hour at Boris & Horton’s, the four of us walked to Madison Square Park to capture a few touristy photos of us in front of the famous Flatiron Building. Madison Square Park is also home to the original Shake Shack location. Order your pup a pooch-ini (doggie ice cream with biscuits) or bag o’ bones (bag of dog biscuits) while you enjoy a snack of your own.
By the time we got back to the hotel, showered, and cleaned the pups up, we were absolutely beat. Our fabulous hosts at Staypineapple hooked us up with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to enjoy on our private patio while we watched Navy and Duke run around.
Originally we made plans to walk around Times Square in the evening, but something was telling me to just stay in and relax. Thank goodness I listened to myself. If you didn’t see the news, a large portion of Manhattan, including Times Square, lost power for several hours Saturday evening. The craziest thing was that a blackout like this happened 42 years prior in NYC, on the exact same day! If we had left our hotel room, we likely wouldn’t be able to get back into our room. Luckily, our hotel power (and A/C) came back on around 1 am.
Sunday morning we went to Central Park to walk around with our family in town. Central Park is incredibly dog friendly. Dogs are allowed off-leash when the park is open from 6 am to 9 am and from 9 pm to 1 am when the park closes. Dogs must be on-leash between 9 am and 9 pm. There were a few trails and path we walked down that did require dogs to be on leash. Take a look at a map of Central Park attractions before stopping by with your dog.
After our walk we stopped by Jacob’s Pickles a few blocks away from Central Park for brunch (more on this amazing restaurant below). We then walked through the 79th Street Greenmarket on our way back to the car. This Upper West Side outdoor market is open most Sundays and offers a selection of farm-fresh food. We did stop by a stand selling organic dog treats.
Sunday evening we walked to Chelsea for dinner. It was incredibly warm out and I didn’t want the dogs to be outside for too long. We opted to eat somewhere where we could get some good food relatively quickly. Our hotel was not too far from Chelsea and there are a number of great restaurants in that neighborhood that have dog-friendly patios.
Our plan was to sleep in Monday morning since both Zach and I took off work. We didn’t want to leave the city too early and sit through traffic so we grabbed a quick breakfast and iced coffee from a local café before hitting the road.
For two and a half days visiting the Big Apple we really did a lot! The one activity we didn’t get to do that is on my must-do list for next time is walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
DOG-FRIENDLY DINING IN NEW YORK CITY
Zach and I generally don’t go out to eat much at home so when we travel, one of our favorite things to do is eat out at new restaurants.
Whenever we travel with Navy or Duke we make sure to make a long list of dog-friendly restaurants. We’ve mentioned this before, but we generally don’t like to leave the dogs alone in the hotel for too long so we do try to find restaurants or bars that allow us to bring the dogs with us while we dine. Usually I’ll search Yelp or Google Maps to find about 5 to 10 dog-friendly restaurants at our destination. I always call to verify that these restaurants are indeed dog friendly before bringing the dogs by.
In big cities like New York City you need to have backup plans in case a restaurant has a long wait. If worse comes to worse you can always order food from a favorite restaurant from food delivery services like GrubHub or Postmates.
Boris & Horton Café – Boris & Horton offers coffee and espresso and light snacks from their all-vegetarian menu. In the evenings they offer a selection of craft beer and wine.
What we got: Rosé, White Cheddar Cheese Plate
Joe’s Pizza, The Greenwich Village Institution – It’s no secret that our family loves pizza. So obviously when we visited New York City we wanted to find the best pizza. My amazing Googling skills revealed Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich as having one of the best pizzas in the city. Instead of eating out we ended up ordering a pie on GrubHub. I’ll let you be the judge but I definitely think Joe’s had one of the best slices of pizza.
What we got: Pepperoni Pizza, House Salad
Jacob’s Pickles – This southern style restaurant focuses on fried chicken, amazing homemade biscuits, and their famous pickles. The large portions made their dishes easy to share. Make a reservation! Within 30 minutes of opening Jacob’s Pickles had a line out the door.
What we got: Oreo Biscuits, Classic Mac & Cheese, Chicken & Pancakes, Croque Madame, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Sandwich
The Meatball Shop, Chelsea – Never have I ever been to a restaurant that specializes in meatballs. I am not the biggest fan of meatballs, but I trusted Zach’s judgement on this one. Let’s just say, I may be ordering meatballs more often thanks to the Meatball Shop! This Instagram famous franchise has several locations in NYC but we visited the Meatball Shop in Chelsea. Talk about dog-friendly … they have a regular dog diner at this location they call “chair dog” … (because he sits on the chair opposite his human).
What we got: Chicken Meatball Bowl with Spaghetti, Pepperoni Pizza Meatball Bowl with Spaghetti
Best Bagels & Coffee – Just like their name states, Best Bagels & Coffee may have (arguably) the best bagels in NYC. This small shop was just down the street from our hotel. Zach was able to quickly grab us iced coffees, a bagel sandwich for himself and a yogurt parfait for me.
What we got: Smoked Salmon Bagel Sandwich, Yogurt Parfait
We had so much fun visiting the Big Apple with Navy and Duke and we loved putting together this little overview of our trip. You better believe I am planning our trip back to NYC! Have you ever visited NYC? Let me know your favorite Big Apple activities in the comments below.
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2 COMMENTS
Dana
5 years agoI can’t believe I didn’t realize you were planning a trip to New York!! But also am super bummed you didn’t have time to make a trip up to The Barking Dog on the Upper East Side! It’s truly one of the most dog-friendly restaurants in the city, with a “dog bar” (water fountain) for the pups and “yappy hour” drink specials for the peeps! Next time you’re in town, it’s a must-hit (truly, prioritize over your Brooklyn Bridge walk :P)
Xo,
Your New York corgi friend/fan, Ruby @corgisaremagic
Alex
5 years ago AUTHORSo fun! Next time we will have to visit 🙂 Thanks for the tips!