Single parent to New York

[atomicnotsoblonde]

Hoping to book New York for May. I'm a single parent with 2 kids 11/6 travelling on my own with them.

I need to work an itinerary out of suitable child friendly things to do, then work out where to stop.

Planning to arrive Friday, leave the following Thursday. As a single parent I'm on a budget, in that we can spend, but need value for what we do. E.g. I'm happy to have $1 slices of pizza for lunch in the park, if it means we can we something else amazing.

Help?!?

Watching with interest as we're going next October and likely to be on a tight budget too! We're going to rent an apartment in Brooklyn through booking.com I think just to save on food costs.

You need hotel accommodation SJane, not an apartment rental as such lettings are illegal in the five boroughs. Also NYC apartments can be and are very small. NYC as a city is not cheap anyway due to visitor demand.

Thanks Meerkat - from my understanding as I've looked into it, not all apartment lettings are in fact illegal and that legally, if it's hosted (i.e the owner lives in the building) then it is in fact legal. There are other apartments that are also legal through loopholes such as being classed as hotels. As above, was planning to go booking.com rather than AirBnB for security reasons - I've not booked it yet but I did speak to the CS team at booking.com who confirmed that if it was listed on their site then it was a legal let (probably why they're more expensive than the AirBnB ones!). No city apartment we've ever rented has been huge (glorified bedsits usually!) but we're ok with that as they're usually cheaper and just give you that bit more autonomy! It does all look a pretty grey area though I'll admit! From what I've read, to date they've only cracked down on the big offenders with multiple properties rather than the little guy.

You can hire bikes inexpensively to cycle round Central Park-we really enjoyed that! Also look at citypass to purchase before you go. It gets you into the top attractions for one price and you get queue jump as well. Think it works out quite a bit cheaper especially if you do it as much as possible in advance.

Ps we did air bnb with no problems...

Ps if you are going to do self catering research where supermarkets are... the only places we found in walking distance were delis which made for tasty but hardly inexpensive dinners!!

I did it with a 10yo. I avoided the subway as I did feel a bit intimidated (would have done it alone). We ate a mix of cheap and cheerful restaurants, subway/mac d (his choice) and other times picked up cold food from local supermarket. We only had a couple of days but we went to Central Park, took the Staten Island ferry and back, 9/11 memorial, grand central station. And FAO Schwartz repeat but happily for you that’s shut now! I stayed in a budget Hilton on 8th ave but had my kid been older I’d have chosen an Airbnb. I’d chose hotel with kids the ages of yours. Enjoy, I loved it.

Thanks, I need to start thinking about what we will do!

The best guide is Lonely Planet and this recommends budget accommodation options and cheap eats. Finding a $1 slice of pizza might be hard though.

Supermarkets are not on every street that’s for sure. You always pay an extra 8% sales tax in shops and cafes and then there’s the 15% tip in cafes too. It’s expected. Buying a packed lunch from a deli might be cheaper. Be prepared though, nothing is cheap in touristy New York. The exchange rate doesn’t help of course.

The subway is safe. It’s deeply unattractive and old but you can get from A to B just fine. If you don’t use it, taxis will be your only option. Do a sprinkling of cheap things, eg Central Park and The High Line. Do walking tours and plan these in advance. Check if the museums have “pay what you like” days. I know the Met does. Spend money on what you really must see but Broadway shows are very expensive.

The 3 day NY pass worked out brilliant for us, it wasn't cheap, worked out we would break even going to the main 4/5 attractions we wanted to do, but since so many attractions were included we did loads more than we planned including the cost free ones; Highline, walking across Brooklyn bridge...

Have a great time, my DC loved NY

Is Air bnb supposed to e banned/illegal for New York?

No and yes NoLogic - depends on the property! From what I read, if the owner/host isn't present in the building for more than 30 days it's an illegal let, if they are then it's legal. They've tightened up the regulations even further this year and there's currently a battle in process as AirBnB are being asked for the names and addresses of all the property owners basically to check who's operating legally and who isn't. They're trying to get round this by offering millions to NY charities. As above, it's a really grey area re apartments and some apartments have become legal by becoming B&B's and aparthotels and the like. We're hopefully off there next year and while I'm sure AirBnB would be fine (to date they've only gone after the multiple property owners), we'll probably go down an apartment from booking.com who assure me all their apartments are legal!

We stayed in an airbnb...in lower east side. The owner just told us to say we were friends if any of the neighbours asked us!

What LaLaLamp wrote about is one of the problems cited with tenants illegally subletting their apartment to tourists for extra income. Other residents can and do complain to their Super about people coming and going from the apartment building which is their home too. That tenant could have easily lost his/her tenancy as a result. Illegally subletting is grounds for eviction.

You were fortunate in not being thrown out of the building as has happened to others.

Big tip we learned the last time we were there is that the ticket price for the natural history museum is a “suggested donation” - you don’t have to pay that, you can rock up and pay $2 if you wish. Great place to spend a day 👍

The walk across the Brooklyn bridge is supposed to be worth a go also as the river front in Brooklyn has been developed and is supposed to be really nice to visit