Is visiting New York worth the cost?

[puteoli]

Yes flights are cheap at around £250, but accommodation is obscenely expensive. £140ish a night for a cheap not great airbnb, but looking more like £230 a night for somewhere nice that isn't in a dingy dodge basement.

Hotels are not much better either.

I don't get why it is so expensive. London is equally as big of an economic powerhouse, and small central geographic space.

DP and I really want to go to the MoMA, Met and Guggenheim. But the cost of the accommodation would mean we'd be eating mcdonalds every day due to accommodation.

Any thoughts/cheaper options?

I'm another one who preferred Chicago.

I like Chicago too, but violent crime is completely out of control there these days.

My next choice after New York would be Boston. It's so historic, just lovely and so much to see and do. Great dining as well, particularly seafood.

Grace mate hotels... small funky boutique type...they used to be cheap and had offers put it this way... they were the same price as foul youth hostel!!

I'm going to be a party pooper, I think it's the cost to the climate you should be thinking of, short trips to long haul destinations just cos you fancy it...very hard to justify. Find somewhere closer, with good galleries and restaurants

@wigglybeezer Thanks for this gem. I was interested in this thread because I too am considering going to NY. I've never been to America. In fact, I've only ever holidayed outside of the UK twice (Brussels and Italy by plane) and I'm almost 45. I can't afford an electric car and public transport is pretty dodgy where I live (rural) so I have to have a car but I do have a very small one, which does 60 to the gallon, and due to its low emissions it is zero road tax. I live in a one-bed flat, because it's just me. I chose not to have children, so I will have done far less pollution and damage to this earth than pretty much everyone who has produced children because each of those will end up having their own car, create waste etc.

You've made up my mind for me. I'm definitely going to go now.

You've made up my mind for me. I'm definitely going to go now.

Fabulous! Thanks for planning to visit us, we love our UK tourists. Let me know if you need any advice on what to see and do, places to eat, etc.

@MissConductUS I will, thank you very much!

Sorry @wigglybeezer but I will not take anyone with three children being all worthy about climate change. And while long haul may well be worse than short haul, you've done plenty of short haul which will probably work out as more than my trip to NY.

We went with BA as a package... flight and hotel for 5 nights. Was £800 each. We went October half term. Weather was great. Also, with BA package, you can pay deposit when you book and final balance is due later so you can pay in installments if easier for you.

SO worth it. It's amazing and unique and must be experienced at least once! The energy is very unique and it was defo worth it (and the jet lag!)

No budget ideas as we splashed out.

It's also worth paying to stay in Manhattan so you can pop back in a cab between evening/night etc

@EnidButton

And try to leave almost a whole day for Central Park. It's HUGE. Fantastic place for people watching and it'll take you hours to see it all.

See, I'd skip Central Park entirely. I think it's only interesting to New Yorkers because it's the only really big green space they have access to on Manhattan, but it's not fundamentally any more interesting than Hyde Park. I mean, walk through on your way to the Met or something, but I certainly wouldn't prioritise it over other stuff.

Op have you looked up grace mate hotels? We had cute little bjoiu hotel off times square.

I enjoyed it, a week, frick musuem and fraunces tavern were my favourites... Top of the rock, empire state, central station...

However its not somewhere I think its worthy taking dc too for the ££ eg I really want to to shoe them Venice, Florence and so on..

Agree with mare, use cp as place to get somewhere else.. It already feels so familiar though because we see all the buildings anyway on TV

Ditto. Absolutely worth it. Everyone should visit New York once in their life at least.

Sorry but I thought New York was very meh.
Very expensive and I think I watched too many tv shows as I was shocked by the rudeness of many New Yorkers, particularly the yellow cab drivers, not the type of atmosphere I had really expected.
Food was astronomically expensive unless you like fast food. Two salads at Pret-a-manger cost $32 !!!
I wouldn't go again. Give me Rome any day.

@Earslaps

We stayed here and it was brilliant. Just a few stops on the subway to the main attractions. We got 7 day passes for the subway so we could zip around easily.

Would definitely recommend.

I am a New Yorker and agree with this recommendation. The location is very easy—minutes from midtown and very close to museums, etc. price is good.

[quote PresidentHump]Absolutely worth it. Depending on when you go you can get hotels on the lower east/Chinatown for circa £110/120 a night.

I disagree with a previous poster though - three/four nights is not 'enough'. If that's all you can afford that's fine, but you could spend a couple of weeks there.

Things are expensive but not everything is. If you just want to soak up the atmosphere wander around, sit in central park for a day. Watch the model boats.

Get coffee in the lower east, chat to ransoms, and eat pizza on the street wherever you are.

Spend on galleries but visit Christie's for free near Rockefeller. See some mad amateur theatre for ten dollars in Brooklyn. Go to bars in Brooklyn where you get free pizza with every beer. Hang in a park in Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon as great big groups of people also hang out and do BBQs.

Visit Coney Island and sit on the beach. Avoid the ££££ musicals you can see in London and spend your money on table tickets for Sleep No More. Walk the High Line (free). Get the Metro (use Google maps!). Spend a bit of cash on cocktails in fancy roof top bars to enjoy the view (The Standard) but eat cheap after.

don't waste time buying shit clothes and boring make up in times Square. Spend a little in Chelsea market and in little shops in Brooklyn.

I

It's ridiculously expensive - not just accomodation but food too. The attractions all cost a lot too iirc. I love NY but only go if you can afford it because it can bankrupt you (and part of the attraction is the food - I wouldn't go if all you can eat is McDonalds! ).

DH and I have visited at least once a year since 2012 - we both love it so much we even got married in Central Park

However, the last time we went was November 2018 and we both agreed at there had been a massive increase in price. Whether it was a crappy exchange rate or prices had just gone up in general, it was astronomical and we found ourselves saying no to things we'd usually do because it just simply wasn't worth the cost. It put a real dampener on the holiday to constantly penny pinch.

We always book a package with BA and get good deals (it's cheaper in the winter but it's COLD, a totally different kind of cold to UK winters) but, in recent years, many hotels have started charging a ridiculous resort fee on top of the room rate. It's usually an extra $30 per room per night, which makes it really expensive.

We've decided we won't be going back for the foreseeable. I'm sad because it's my favourite city in the world but we spent the last trip picking something up, saying "pfffft!" and putting it back down.

Oh ffs, zombie thread...

Just saw this is a zombie thread. Duh.

We went years ago and it is worth it!

Accommodation is expensive in Manhatten but the food was quite cheap and huge portions. Wine was very expensive but beer was not.

The staten island ferry is cheap, some museums and art galleries are free and the subway is inexpensive. We had the best day just wondering around drinking coffee and going to see Imagine in Central Park. Clothing isnt too expensive and we had a discount in Macys because we were tourists.

I cannot wait to go back!

It’s absolutely worth it, yeah. We stayed in a tiny budget place but it was find as we were out all the time

@halfwitpicker

www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/nycqn-fairfield-inn-and-suites-new-york-queens-queensboro-bridge/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

We stayed here.

5 stops on the subway to Times Square. Rooms were massive. Great view of the city too.

Long Island City is a great location, for decent reasonably priced hotels, with easy subway access to Manhattan. I stayed in a fairly newly opened hotel in LIC in 2016 (Boro Hotel) and got a great deal. That particular hotel had gone up in price when I had a look in 2019, but there are various others in LIC. Just be sure be choose one which is not miles away from a subway station. Many are close to stations but I think some are a bit of a hike away.

It's worth the money but it can be done on a budget! The first time we went we paid around £1,200 for a week for two people
but
A) it was new years
B) we had to pay a supplement because we were "underage"

Alternatively make friends with someone who works in a hotel and use their staff discount :P I paid roughly $40 a night due to staff discount...it's worth it if you can find someone who has staff/friends and family rates