New York on a shoestring - possible??

[WelshMoth]

DD is 18 in January and I would love to take her to New York for her gift. She works hard and asks for nothing so surprising her with this would be immense. There are 4 of us altogether. Would this be doable on a tight budget?

Does anyone have any hints and tips and any saving advice? I'd be immensely grateful!

It certainly wouldn't ruin if for me, just being there, seeing the sights, taking in the whole city is pretty much free. What do you need to have a huge budget for?

Without knowing the OPs figures its impossible to comment meaningfully

This is true - when it is cold the wind goes through you like a knife. I wouldn't choose January for a visit for this reason.

When the wind goes right through you it's no place for the old. As someone once said.

Assume you are gifting I Jan but not going then…. April/may or sept/oct are my fave months there

Depends how much of a shoestring and what she’s into.

• Central Park
• the Met (is just incredible and huge it’s a full day if not 2) The amount you pay for tickets is up to you.
• Crown of Statue of Liberty https://www.statueoflibertytickets.com/tickets/
• cheap eats https://www.timeout.com/newyork/restaurants/best-cheap-eats-in-nyc
• happy hours https://www.timeout.com/newyork/bars/the-best-happy-hours-in-nyc

i recommend planning out what you want to do and then cost it up. for each day I do an excel with the following rows for each day
Accommodation
breakfast
Am activity
lunch
pm activity
dinner
nighttime activity

i do this for all hols and normally land about £100-150 pound either side of my estimate

Depends what your budget is, how long your there for and what you want to do?

I did New York on a shoestring in August. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend August - it is unbelievably hot and humid - it did mean a lot of free stuff was on for the summer eg outdoor films, Shakespeare in Central Park

Some of the fun is also just being in New York and feeling like you are in a movie set. I loved hailing a yellow taxi, eating cannoli in Little Italy, looking at shops. I also went to the theatre most nights courtesy of the Tkts stall in Times Square.

New York is $$$

But if you are prepared to walk, book accommodation with a kitchenette so you can prepare breakfast and make up daytime snacks, there's places selling cheap pizza by the slice, nip in supermarkets for drinks (not the fancier markets!)

Certain days are free at different attractions, look for coupons and take the free Staten Island ferry rather than going to the Statue of Liberty (though means you miss the Ellis island museum which was the best bit of out trip and combined with the statue it takes a full day and is a cheaper one to be honest) walk the high line, use the subway and buses if you need transport. Jazz museum in Harlem was free. I found lots of bogof for restaurants online

It’s pretty expensive in NYC, but you can do things cheaply, eg hot dog or pizza for a couple of dollars. But hotels, flights etc, pretty expensive

Thanks everyone.
Just the 2 of us going g is an option but we're a close
Family and i know she'd like us all together. I'll do some travel research.

Check out AllFurCoat's fabulous thread
I (still) live in New York City - Ask Me Anything www.mumsnet.com/Talk/AMA/4919815-i-still-live-in-new-york-city-ask-me-anything

It pops to life now and again so she maybe able to help

We went to NY a couple of months ago. Subway pass for a week is $34 - we used it loads. Lots of free stuff to see just walking round. Big Apple greeters - free personalised walking tour (no tips either) - cannot guarantee getting one though.

fast food can be cheap - we went to 2 bros pizzas and they do slices from $1.50. they weren't bad.

they also have tgtg out there but we didnt end up using that.

some museums have certain days / times they are free i think.

We went in October - just before Halloween- some years ago. We stayed in an Airbnb in Willliamsburg that was really reasonable ( don’t know if Air bnbs are still operating?) and most of what we did was free. Apart from Top of the Rock).

I went on a budget with my DD around 10 years ago and it was tough. We did stay in New Jersey and that part was fine. We found the bus to be quick, convenient and cheap. No different to getting the subway from further out in Manhattan. In fact I preferred that as I didn’t really like the subway. We also got a full suite cheaper than 2 bunk beds in a cupboard we’d have got in Manhattan.

The difficulty is food. It’s so expensive and if you sit down anywhere that’s immediately an extra 20%+ for the tip. New York is a lot of walking. You’re not going to want to have every meal/drink on the go. Especially if you go in winter. As pp’s have said, the exchange rate is also far worse now than when I went, so you’ll not really be able to do any shopping. Even when I went, things weren’t much cheaper than here.

Going on a budget is possible. But it’s stressful worrying about every dollar. Especially now, it’s really not good value for the money you’d spend. In your scenario I’d be inclined to take her for her 21st and save in the mean time.

Definitely possible on a shoestring. I've been three times. A few pieces of advice:

• Agree with other posters about warmer months. It just gives you more options where you don't need to buy something because you want to get out of the cold.
• One of my favourite regular hangouts is Bryant Park, next to the main NY Public Library branch. They have so many events, including group yoga (not my thing but so much fun to observe it!) and games sessions, as well as a public reading room where you can chill and read books or newspapers.
• The NYPL branches will have talks and events so look into those before you go. I once saw a rather obscure film and another time heard a very big author do a reading of their new work. All free! They also have a Treasures exhibit in the main branch which is full of incredible items (original Winnie the Pooh and friends!).
• Most of the Broadway shows will have some kind of rush ticket. Either you go and stand outside the theatre that morning, or you register on your phone (sometimes on an app, other times not) and they'll email you if you win or are on a standby list. For those, you must be able to check your email at a certain time and then pay immediately (within an hour of their email, usually) and it's a complete lottery where your seat is, but it can really cut costs - I saw Wicked for around $65, as well as Harry Potter and Back to the Future for much less than a regular ticket. There are also ticket booths in Times Square that sell discount same-day tickets. Note that the off-Broadway shows are pretty expensive, so the booths might help with those as well, but I'm not sure.
• You might be able to get a flight/hotel deal with your airline - that's what I did for two of my trips. The hotels were decent and had good locations (lower side of Midtown). Nothing fancy and smallish rooms, but you're not going to NYC to sit around your hotel, are you.
• Hotel-wise, I personally prefer CitizenM. On my most recent trip, I had their paid membership (£120/year I think), plus I booked during a sale, and I booked 7 nights which got the long-stay discount, and I ended up paying $305 a night for 50th Street just off Broadway. That's an amazing price. I think it would have been $325/night without the membership.
• It's always possible to eat cheaply, especially if you have a fridge in the room (which is partly why I like CitizenM). Buy a dozen bagels and a tub of cream cheese and that's breakfast or a snack for two people for six days. Or, if your morals permit it, splurge on the hotel buffet breakfast and then sneak out a sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch. I generally only have one proper restaurant meal a day, so it eats (lol) into the budget less. Also, American restaurants tend to have larger portion sizes, and it is completely normal to take your leftovers home so that could be another meal. I usually keep a plastic fork/spoon in my travel kit so I'm not eating mashed potatoes with my fingers!
• If you buy a ticket to the Met Museum ($30), you get same day admission to Cloisters, so it's worth trying to do both in the same day. Alternately, it might be worth buying a membership - a basic membership is $110, and you get to bring in a guest, so if you and your daughter went to the Met/Cloisters on two separate days, a membership would literally be cheaper than buying individual tickets (which would be $120 - 4x$30) and would also get you private viewing hours and priority for the big exhibits and discounts in the shop. Or it's $210 for 2 members + 2 guests, so if it's four of you then that's even slightly better! (The Met is huge and dipping in and out can work a lot better than trying to see everything at once.)
• I love to walk around new cities, and Manhattan is great for that. Bring excellent walking shoes and plasters.

We stayed in Queens, very pleasant and clean hotel, less than 5 minutes walk to the subway and only 2 stops from Manhattan. On the line to Kennedy airport, it was perfect. Also stunning view of Manhattan. It was 2/3 cheaper than Manhattan hotels.

I priced a similar break for 4 of us in Jan/Feb and it is not possible to get it under £6K for 5 days if you stay centrally and 'do the sights'.Even very cheap eating options are $20+ and it was a shock to see a take away breakfast would be $15pp. We rethought and are heading to Jamaica a week instead (we also looked at Skiing in Whistler). It just wasn't worth it when I look at the comparisons.

You need to say what your actual budget is as otherwise people are just guessing.

But generally, no it's not possible and it would be pretty shit. It's a very expensive place and you're surrounded by things that cost money. All the main attractions are expensive as is the food/drinks/entertainment.

I might sound stuck up in saying this but I'd rather not go at all, than go and not be able to do anything there.

Don't fly with an obvious airline. I went about 15 years ago and fly with a lesser known Arab airline, ok no alcohol and halal food but save about £300 per person and meant we could stay for a week rather than long weekend by not going virgin or similar.

No way could I do Met Museum and Cloisters in one day! For one thing the Cloisters were a trek out on the subway. I did the Met in one day and my feet were killing by the end and I had suffered serious art overload.

A more sensible idea would have been 3 days at least just for that.

I ended up paying $305 a night

That probably was cheap for where you were staying but I don’t see that as a “shoestring” price. Where we stayed in New Jersey it was about 100$ per night. But that’s why OP needs to clarify the type of budget they’re talking about.

I went to NYC in August 2022 and the last time I had been was 2012. I couldn't believe how much more expensive everything had gotten!
I went with my partner and partners parents. It was around $50 for 4 breakfast bagels and 4 coffees at the local deli beside our hotel!

I'd deffo recommend the hop on hop off bus. We bought it from a seller in Times Square and I'm sure they gave us a discount or so they say. It's a great way to get around and listen to the guided tour.

If you want to see a lot of the sights and attractions that cost money then have a look at the New York Pass. Work out what sights you'd see and if you're better off paying for them individually or buying the pass (it's a digital pass on your phone).

My partner and I spent about $1000 while there for 4 nights/5 days and that doesn't include when partners parents would buy us a round at the bar or paid for our meal one night. We also didn't manage to do a show and did some shopping but not a lot.

We went in August and it was super hot and felt like NYC was poorly equipped when it came to air conditioning (unlike Florida/Vegas etc where everything indoors is very cool). I felt like I sweated the full trip and could never get cool enough when indoors. Spring/Autumn is lovely and you can spend a lot of time in Central Park, take a picnic and hopefully have a few hours of not spending very much!

When I was there in 2012 we stayed in an apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn which was just a short subway ride from Manhattan.

Despite the above, there really is no other place like NYC and I feel like everyone should experience it once if they get the chance. Good luck 😊

This. Just takeyour DD. New York is amazing and we have been many times but it's not going to fun if you're counting the money.

We went in 2016 in Feb and it was unseasonably warm i.e. 2C. I really wouldn’t have wanted it to be any colder. I was celebrating a big birthday and got an unbelievable deal £600 per person via Dublin for 5 nights and in a really nice hotel. Still can’t believe the price but would definitely pick a warmer time of year next time.

We stayed in Hells kitchen and usually got a takeout to eat in hotel room and breakfast was included. We bought snack food at local mini marts. Sit down restaurants were expensive and middling quality imho. I was disappointed by the pizza in Little Italy but at least it was cheap.

We were there for Chinese new year so it was lovely to see China Town all decorated for that. We did an extraordinary amount of walking and got a train pass for something like $10 each if we were going somewhere we’d be walking around all day like the History Museum. We didn’t do Liberty (but did the Staten ferry), Empire State etc so that brought the cost down but it was more that we couldn’t fit everything in one visit rather than trying to do it cheap. We got the most spectacular view of NYC at night from the air on the flight out.

We stayed in New Jersey. It wasn't a problem. The NYC skyline from Weehawken/Hoboken is absolutely stunning and buses get in quickly through the tunnel or you can take the more expensive but pretty ferry with a free shuttle to Times Square. We went for self-catering, as eating out in NYC is massively expensive. We quite liked the local vibe - shopping in the Spanish speaking supermarkets and bodegas.

Top tip - if you want to treat her to a fancy meal somewhere, lunch is half the price of dinner. Chelsea Market is fun if you time walking the High Line or stop there for lunch.

I loved the Staten Island ferry and it's free.