Do You Know How Many Times ‘Sex and the City’ Left Manhattan?
Manhattan served as something of a fifth main character in Sex and the City. The city provided the perfect backdrop for Carrie Bradshaw and her pals to shop, eat, and find eligible bachelors. For most of the show’s six-season run, the girls rarely ventured off the island. Still, it did happen occasionally. We’ve collected all the times the ladies of Sex and the City found themselves as fish out of water while away from Manhattan.
The group traveled to California more than once
Carrie and her pals were pretty attached to the East Coast, but that doesn’t mean they never left. The group traveled to California in season 3 of Sex and the City. In a two-episode story arc, Carrie leaves New York to meet with a film executive to discuss potentially optioning her columns.
Carrie took a train to California with Samantha for a book reading again in season 5. The entire trip seemed like a disaster until she was able to hook up with Mr. Big for a one-night stand. The foursome never returned to the West Coast in Sex and the City again, although Samantha did move to Los Angeles between the end of the series and Sex and the City: The Movie.
They trekked to Philadelphia to support Miranda Hobbes
In season 4 of Sex and the City, Carrie, Charlotte, and Samantha leave New York for the funeral of Miranda’s mother. Her mother died and was buried near Philadelphia, where Miranda was born and raised.
While Miranda had a few siblings and mentioned her family life occasionally, Sex and the City fans learned almost nothing about her life before she attended Harvard University for law school. Miranda never mentions traveling to Philadelphia again after her mother’s death, despite its relatively close proximity to New York City.
Connecticut was featured twice in the series
Connecticut is home to several New York City bedroom communities, so it would make sense that the ladies of Sex and the City would have hopped off Manhattan for a visit now and again. Early on in the series, Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda travel together to Connecticut for the baby shower of their old friend, Lainey.
Later in the show, Charlotte regularly returned to Connecticut to visit the MacDougal family compound. Although Charlotte never mentions exactly where in Connecticut she was visiting, the state has several wealthy enclaves. Charlotte was from one of those very communities. She grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
The ladies of ‘Sex and the City’ were happy to leave Manhattan for the Hamptons
While they hesitantly left Manhattan to visit Connecticut a time or two, the ladies were always happy to leave the city behind for the beach. The group visited the Hamptons twice. During their season 2 visit, Carrie finds herself when she runs into her ex, with his new love, at a beach party. Charlotte is in just as much pain as Carrie during the beach stay when she contracts crabs from a 20-something she hooks up with.
Their visit to the Hamptons in season 6 turned out to be a much happier trip. The entire group ventures out onto Long Island for the wedding of Bobby Fine and Bitsy Von Muffling, despite their confusion about Bobby’s sexuality. The wedding was beautiful, Carrie connected with Berger, and Charlotte finally settled into her relationship with Harry Goldenblatt.
Carrie begrudgingly trudged to upstate New York a few times, too
Carrie was the one from her group who seemed to leave Manhattan most often. Aside from her travels to the Hamptons, Connecticut, and California, Carrie also begrudgingly headed to upstate New York fairly regularly while dating Aidan Shaw.
Aidan owned a cabin in Suffern that he desperately wanted Carrie to see. Her first set of visits didn’t go particularly well, but it seemed she later settled into the cabin. The upstate jaunts ended when Carrie and Aidan called off their engagement. Suffern is a small town in Rockland County. It sits close to the New Jersey border. It’s about an hour north of Manhattan.
