New York City is easily my favorite city thus far in my life. It’s crazily hectic 24/7, and definitely lives up to its label “the city that never sleeps”. No, it’s not everyone’s perfectly made nonfat latte no whip, but I believe it’s something everyone should experience in their life. Here are my top 5 reasons why everyone should visit the Big Apple at least once.

1. The Culture

New York City was the first drop in our melting pot of a country. People from literally all over the globe reside here. You can find highly concentrated areas in the city such as Chinatown, Little Russia, or Little Italy. Everyone country is highly represented in this city. You can always find people in parks or subway stations representing their culture (and trying to make money) by dancing, playing music, painting, or making food from their country. It’s impossible to leave the city feeling as uncultured as you did when you showed up.

2. The History

NYC is home to so many historically significant destinations. It houses the famous Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where the United States truly took off as a nation. The 9/11 Memorial Museum is a great representation of the tragedy that took place in 2001. You can even stand where the late Beatle John Lennon was shot. Radio City Music Hall has had some of the most famous people in the world perform there since it opened in 1932 after the stock market crashed and John D. Rockefeller needed to do something with this piece of property. The city is a history fanatic’s paradise.

3. The Diversity of the City

New York is broken into five boroughs, or sections. These are Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Each one of these has their own atmosphere. You could go to the Bronx and find the root of hip hop music and Yankee baseball, but it is completely different than Manhattan and all of its glory including Central Park and Times Square. Each one is unique.

4. The Shopping

Even if you aren’t big into shopping, it’s still a huge part of the city. 5^th Avenue has many of the high end stores. Times Square has a great amount of stores too ranging from common places like H&M to novelty stores such as the Hershey’s chocolate or Disney store. Chinatown has shops where you can bargain with the owners and buy any knockoff product you can imagine.

5. The TV Show/Movie References

This one is huge in today’s Netflix loving society. I know last time I visited, I had been watching ”How I Met Your Mother”, so I made it a point to stop at the bar where it was filmed. You can skate on the ice rink in Rockefeller Center where Buddy the elf did in “Elf” or walk by Monica and Chandler’s apartment from “Friends”. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome.

I only gave you a few of the many reasons you should visit this amazing city. New York does a great job of giving you perspective. It shows you how small you really are in this crazy world. If there’s one thing you do while you’re there, it should be going to the top of the Empire State Building and seeing the skyline. It’s a life changing view. It’s something you can only do in New York City. I mean, you can meet celebrities just walking down the street while eating some amazing pizza that was only a dollar, what more incentive do you need?