This is far and away one of the coolest experiences I’ve had since moving to NYC. Four of my friends and I went out to Long Island to go skydiving at Long Island Skydiving Center! We got up (realllllyyy) early to take the LIRR from Woodside to Long Island’s Mastic-Shirley stop (we live in Queens, which is why we went from Woodside, but you could easily go from Grand Central!) From there, it was about a 25-min walk over to the skydiving center (you could Uber, but we were early and the walk let us see other skydivers in the sky on our way over). The entire experience (skydiving, trains, snacks) cost about $300. (also, there’s a super cool Irish Tiki Bar that you could stop at in Patchogue on the way back….) The thrill I felt was like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and the instructors were extremely reassuring. I wasn’t nervous, but a few of my friends were, and they had us laughing and joking the entire time. They load you in a small plane with your whole group, fly you over the Long Island Sound, and get you high enough to tandem jump. After the parachute had popped, my instructor even let me “drive” it. I 10/10 recommend this. We left the city around 6:45 for a 9:30 slot (and we were really early hahaha), jumped around 10, grabbed some lunch and were back by early afternoon. So doesn’t even have to be a full day trip. Let me know if you’ve gone skydiving — or if you want to! 🪂