NYC - Solo Female, tips please!

[PrettyScotland]

Thinking of going next May probably for 5 days maybe a week by myself. It'll be all museums, shopping, walking, exploring Central Park etc. I'm assuming it's a lot like London. I'm aware they don't add tax to their clothing labels and they have a tipping culture, which obviously I will follow.

Would like to spend around £1,500 on flights and accommodation then say £1,000 to spend on food, tipping and anything I treat myself to.

How best to get around? Is May very busy? Are the museums all close together? Is the subway hard to use? Is it easier to just get a cab from JFK to central NYC than piss about with transfers? Obviously I'll be researching but I usually find people on here very helpful too.

How much do I tip the cab driver? Waiter? Hotel helper? Do you tip people in every single shop?

Thank you!

When we went in December, we got a taxi from a cab place at jfk. There were lots of random cabbies offering to take us, but we used the official cab office. You can pay with a card, it was a set price. You can tip via card too.
Used the subway, straightforward. Didn’t think much to the shopping as the dollar wasn’t very good and the shops were the same as here.

Tip servers in restaurants , not shops about 10-15%. If you can get a printable map before you went, that would be good as used loads of data !

if you are seeing any shows book here as you couldn’t get anything while we were there.

comfortable shoes as we walked 13 miles the first day, hard to get a taxi as it was busy.

We did the statute of liberty boat tour and the 911 tour, booked on the day through Viator. Was an experience just very cold and VERY busy !

Keep an eye out for the next British airways sale (I think the next will be around October) we got flights and hotel for 5 nights for £550 each 2 years ago. The 'Air train' from JFK was really easy to use.

I got a big map and plotted out where everything we wanted to was and basically planned our days into 'areas', we tried to walk as much as possible as didn't like the subway (easy to use, especially if you download city mapper, and you can now 'tap in' with a contactless card but just felt unsafe at times) so would try and just use it once a day then work our way back walking.

For attractions it's worth researching the passes, we got a 5 attraction pass for £110. Money wise it is more expensive than you could ever imagine, people warned us but I couldn't believe the prices of some things! However I think £200 a day for one person is ok.

Tipping wise your restaurant/bar bill will set out the different amounts at the bottom (generally 18%, 20%, 25% iirc), there was a guide in a book that we followed too which was $1 per drink in more causal bars, 10% for 'take out' food and leave change in the pot at places like Starbucks.

One safety tip I have for travelling anywhere as a solo female, if you are using google maps/city mapper pop your headphones in and listen to the directions rather than holding and looking at your phone, makes you looks less obviously touristy.