Discovering New York's Lower East Side

This post is sponsored by Holiday Inn Hotels, but all opinions, photos, and experiences are 100% my own.

A week ago my husband and I headed to one of my favorite cities to celebrate our 14 year anniversary. This was our first kid-free trip since getting married. Nope, that’s not a typo. Truthfully we love traveling as a family and have no regrets. But taking a trip sans kids enabled us to unwind and enjoy the things we love most about traveling-food and culture. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel located in the Lower East Side which gave us an amazing view of the One World Trade Center.

The Lower East Side is rich with history, family-owned eateries and boutiques. It’s also quickly becoming one of New York’s trendiest neighborhoods. There is so much to see and do in the Lower East Side that we didn’t even venture to mid-town to see the typical NYC attractions.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while you know that I’m a foodie at heart. So having a variety of restaurants and cafes to choose from was a dream. One of our first stops was the Doughnut Plant located in the Lower East Side.

There’s a variety of unique flavors to choose from which included Tres Leches and Apple Cinnamon. All I can say is that this donut-loving gal was very happy.

We also took a tour that stopped at some of the Lower East Side’s food staples. One of our stops was Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery which has been operating since 1910. We chose a traditional potato knish, but there’s a huge selection that includes spinach knish and even blueberry cheese.

During our tour we made a quick stop at Russ & Daughters, which is a gourmet Jewish grocery, as well as C & C Prosperity Dumplings which has delicious dumplings at a ridiculously low price.

One of my favorite stops was The Pickle Guys on Essex St. I’m not a big fan of pickles, but these guys literally pickle everything so you have a ton of options to choose from.

I personally recommend the pickled pineapple. It sounds odd, but trust me it’s amazing. You have to experience it at least once in your life. The staff there is also extremely nice, so feel free to ask them any questions you might have.

We wrapped up our tour with a stop at Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery which is known for their delicious cupcakes. However, we opted for a shot of banana pudding which was creamy, light and insanely good.

One can never visit the Lower East Side without stopping at Katz’s Deli. This place gets busy since it’s known for the infamous When Harry Met Sally movie scene and it’s oversized pastrami sandwiches.

The pastrami and corn beef sandwiches were a bit on the pricey side, but certainly lived up to the hype.

We were also treated to New York’s outdoor gallery as we explored the Lower East Side and nearby neighborhoods.

If food and street art are not your speed, the Lower East Side is home to the Tenement Museum. This tenement building was built in 1863, and was home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants. The museum now offers several tours that will give you insight on the history of immigration and the influence it had on our culture.

The Lower East Side is also home to the Angel Orensanz Foundation which is located on 172 Norfolk St. It’s a former synagogue that was built in 1849. You simply have to see this building for yourself because my photos couldn’t possibly capture how beautiful it truly is.

If you want to venture out a little, you’re only a step away from Chinatown.

As well as Little Italy and SoHo.

We even ventured out to the Chelsea Village area, just so I could capture a photo of the building shown in one of my favorite 90s TV shows. 😉

Have you figured out which show it is?

As I mentioned previously, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel located in the Lower East Side on Delancey Street. The location of the hotel was perfect since we were within walking distance to everything. We never had to move our car during our entire stay which was nice for a change.

The Holiday Inn Hotel is also located very close to the Williamsburg Bridge which will give you quick access to Brooklyn.

The hotel offers comfortable accommodations, a guest patio, a business center and fitness center which makes it the perfect location for business and leisure. The entire staff was very friendly and attentive which made our stay even more enjoyable.