Spending money for New York. Experiences?

[Onamissionfor2015]

Going with dp for 5 days and I know it's a "how long is a piece of string" question but just wondering how other people found it?

Hotel all paid, I'm hoping to have Empire State and 911 memorial booked and paid before we go, doing some free stuff like Staten Island ferry/walking Brooklyn bridge/Central Park. Going to get the $30 subway passes....

So really it will be food (not high end, we are more burger and beer people) drinks, tourist crap and anything else I've not thought about.

Just wondering if others spent a fortune or were surprised? Not on a tight bidet as such but hoping to save money for shopping on the last day and don't want to come home to a CC bill.

It is, as you say, a how long is a piece of string question but if it helps we are also burger and beer types and don't find NYC too pricey. There are tons of bars and diners with cheap, decent food. Just avoid eating in really touristy places such as Times Square. Thanks for giving me a giggle with your brilliant typo - I'm so relieved to hear your bidet's not too tight . Have a great time!

Nothing worse than a tight bidet!

Thanks for your reply, was really hoping it wasn't a $18 for two buds kind of place.

No worries. If you're anywhere near Chelsea there's a bar called Flight 151 on 8th Ave that has cheap beer deals on weeknights. Toss a coin to decide whether you pay or not for example. Decent burgers too!

If you really want to splash out, a helicopter ride is lots of fun and is about 100 dollars a head.

One thing I'd say is budget a bit more than you expect for soft drinks, coffee, snacks etc during the day. You will walk miles and miles and it's so busy that you end up stopping off to take the weight off way more than you intend. Have a wonderful time, I've been 3 times in the last two years and am still desperate to go back again ASAP!

I found New York quite cheap because of the exchange rate being on my side (uk). I was mostly in touristy areas and didn't go out of my way to find cheap places to eat mostly just salad bars, subway, Pret etc but found the prices were generally in dollars what I would expect to see in pounds - a couple of dollars for a coffee etc. The sane for tickets etc. I did a few things I'd normally consider over priced because the exchange rate made it ok..

I think the first time we went we spent about £750 over a week. And then the second time we spent about £3000. You can easily eat and drink to whatever your budget is.

For example, the first time we went we ate $1 bagels for lunch and local cheap eat type pizza and Chinese for dinner.This time it was picnics from Whole Foods for lunch and Michelin star for dinner.

Book Statue of Liberty in advance too to avoid the queues especially if you want to go inside the statue as those tickets are limited. Tickets are inexpensive as its a national park and it includes ferry and Ellis Island.

We just went as a family of four and budgeted £100 per day for trips/fares, £50 for breakfast, £50 for lunch/drinks/snacks and £100 for dinner so £300 per day, didn't spend it all and we had a few pricy but lovely dinners e.g lobster. We had the hotel breakfast which was a children eat free with full paying adult deal, normally just grabbed a snack for lunch like a magnolia bakery cake or ice cream etc and then had a good meal in the evening. So I found I spent a lot less in lunch but more in dinner, we had cocktails etc but had young kids etc so we're not spending lots in bars.

Have a wonderful time

The New York City pass is worth getting, we did the Empire State including a free return the same night, top of the rock, the beast speedboat and the 9/11 museum for $114 dollars per adult, plus it's all paid for before you go which helps with budgeting

Mcdonalds were great for loos, sometimes you have to buy something before they would let you have the code but you can just buy a drink or something