Reply To: Budget trip to New York

[jumpersforgoalposts]

Here’s some of my top free/cheapish tips for NYC:

1. Walk around the City. There’s always something going on. Pick old historic neighbourhoods like Chinatown, the lower east side, Greenwich Village etc. The High Line is a particular highlight, especially early in the morning as you can watch the City wake up and it’s fairly quiet on the walkway.

2. The museums. Can add up so select a few. The Met as outlined above has some fantastic free tours, and the roof top bar does have the best views of Central Park and Midtown. The Tenement museum and the Immigration museum (included for free with the boat ticket to Liberty Island) are outstanding.

3. NYC has an excellent ‘foodhall’ culture where you can get high quality food with an endless choice of cuisine for a reasonable price – just search for ‘foodhall’ on the map and they’ll come up

4. For food, remember portion sizes tend to be massive. We’d share a breakfast bagel given they were full to the brim. Stick to local neighbourhood bakeries/sandwiches etc., as they tend to be more reasonably priced. Food is really expensive in NYC (remember to add +20% tip to the cost) and hard to give advice here as it depends on accommodation (e.g. free breakfast included, or AirBnB where you can make your lunches etc.). It’s something you’ll have to think about if keeping costs low.

5. For fantastic views of Manhattan, getting the PATH to Hoboken and walking along the promenade there gives you an amazing view of Manhattan with some nice parks and walkways

6. Central Park (and other parks in Queens/Brooklyn) are free to to walk and explore. There’s a park called ‘Little Island’ near the pier where you’ll dock – it’s a nice place to walk around, as is Pier 55 there. Again, a free rootop with amazing views.

In terms of accommodation, we stayed in Hoboken – across the river in NJ. It’s a fairly residential place and has a nice atmosphere with plenty of bars, restaurants, coffee shops etc. If you want the NYC experience without the bussiness and touristy nature of the City, it’s a good place to stay.