Living in New Jersey, I grew up spoiled that the best city in the entire world was only a 30-minute drive away. New York City has everything that you would ever want in a city, within the 22.7 mi² island. There are so many things about the city that truthfully make it the best place on earth.

You can’t walk down a street without finding a bagel shop or a cute coffee shop that fuel you to explore the city more. Ranging from Happy Bones in SoHo to Ess-A-Bagel in Midtown, there are so many amazing places to stop for a small bite.

There are so many parks that somehow fit into the small island. It amazes me that somehow Central Park fits on the island. You can get lost running on the paths, despite being smack dab in the middle of Manhattan. Somehow the park of 843 acres can fit in.

MoMA, The Whitney, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Guggenheim. I can’t even count how many art museums are scattered around the island. Spend a day exploring a museum of your choice, and become enraptured by all of the amazing modern, contemporary, or classic art pieces throughout the buildings.

I swear by brunch. Brunch will forever be the best meal that exists throughout the week. I cannot even begin to list all of the amazing brunch places to go throughout the city. A lot of them will spruce up your Instagram feeds with the colorful avocado toasts or eggs benedict. The countless mimosas, fresh mint lemonades, chai lattes all add to how amazing one meal can be.

The one downside of living so close to the best place on Earth, is now whenever I travel, I compare every city to this one. Chicago is not as dense, not as many good food places. San Francisco is too windy and hip. Washington D.C. is too spread out. St. Louis cannot even hold its own in comparison to the plethora of intellectual museums. I travel extensively, but not without the small voice in the back of my head comparing every small details to parts of NYC.

Next time you find yourself in the city, take a walk. Bookmark a few places that you might want to go throughout the day, within reasonable distance of each other. Then, forget about social media, and just walk and take in the beauty of the city. There is so much to see, the hidden wall murals, the different neighborhoods, the hole-in-the-wall gems. I swear that the best day that I have ever spent in the city was when I walked from Midtown, to SoHo, stopping at various donut shops along the way. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge maybe, and take in the skyline. Take the 3 subway to the Financial District, and enjoy a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobsters. Hail a taxi to the Upper East Side and have an amazing meal at Bluestone Lane.

I don’t know if I was clear, or was able to persuade my point, but I cannot stress how amazing New York City is. If you not have been, I highly recommend coming to visit the best place that you might travel to.