New York - March 2020

[Meganlou2]

Hello,

I am looking for advice from anyone who has visited New York recently. I am planning on going in March 2020 for 4 nights, however ideally looking to do this on a bit of a budget.

How much spending money required?
How much for the total cost, including: flights, accom, visa, attraction pass etc?

How long is a piece of string? Spending money will depend on your lifestyle. Are you a full-service restaurant person? Do you take taxis everywhere? Want a private tour guide? Or are you happy to eat street food at a market, walk everywhere and do your own sightseeing?

Likewise the cost of the trip will depend hugely on the standard of hotel, location of hotel, whether you fly economy class, premium or business class.

Unless you are ineligible for the VWP you won’t need a visa. If you do need a visa it’s $160 and lasts 10 years. If you’re eligible for the VWP, you’ll need ESTA approval which costs $14 and lasts 2 years.

We're going in October - I've been to NY previously a couple of times but not in the last 15 years. The long and short of it is that it's going to be expensive however you do it! There are cheaper ways but quite honestly, they aren't completely risk free. I've gone the budget route as it's holiday no 3 of the year and a 50th birthday treat for my DH out of my own pocket (he earns substantially more than me & pays for the bulk of most holidays & it was either do it this way or not do it!). This is what I've booked:

• Flying via Norwegian which for 3 of us in October half term leaving on the Thurs before they break up just under £1K. Norwegian have had a chequered couple of years financially (as have quite a few airlines!) with aircraft issues and regularly move passengers over to partner charter airlines (our flight out is now with a partner). I've flown Norwegian many times short haul and never had a problem but realistically it's worth getting good travel insurance if you go this option (and they do seem to be offering the best flight prices out there!). What you need to look for is Scheduled Airline Failure and looks at the Terms very very carefully - I've taken out insurance for next years trips with Puffin Insurance, costs more but will cover for airline bankruptcies. Flight wise, it's a complete no frills option with no movies, food etc & the potential of being shunted over to a partner airline but it's only a 7 hour flight and likely to be the cheapest option for you.

Accommodation - other Mumsnet posters will tell you that AirBNB and short term lets are illegal in the State of New York. While this isn't completely 100% true it's a very grey & problematic area. NYC is AirBnB's largest market globally but the city have introduced a 'one host, one home' policy so a lot of the lets aren't legal (45% of them according to a study by the McGill Institute). I've booked a studio unit through HomeAway in Brooklyn in an upmarket and safe Victorian Brownstone area with excellent transport links for five nights for £770. HomeAway assure me it's legal and from corresponding with the owner, they & their family live in the rest of the house. So far the authorities seem to have only cracked down only on the multiple abusers of the system in the AirBNB market but to be clear, there is an obvious risk here! Of the posts I've seen by Mumsnetters who've done this, all has been fine and completely problem free. Compared to the ridiculous hotel prices you'll see for Manhattan hotels this is obviously the most cost effective way to do it with the added benefit of being able to do a bit of self catering and save on food costs. But if you are going to do this, do your research and be aware that this is something the city are looking to crack down on!

Spending money - I've put aside £700 for 6 days and we'll probably take another £500. I'm going to book discounted Broadway tickets (they are expensive!) in advance through the Todaytix mobile app - if you download the app and switch the location to NY it'll give you an idea of prices. Cheap(er!) Broadway tickets can be purchased on the day as well through TKTS booths (the South Street Sea Port one has apparently less queues than the one in Times Square).

All in then without the additional £500 and Broadway tickets & travel insurance it's £2450 for 3 of us, 5 nights and 6 days in a school holiday. If I'd gone for a different airline and decent Manhattan hotel it would easily have been double that. Obviously, it's not the most glamourous way to do this so if the budget is there, I'd look at different airlines and different accomodation options! On the plus side for you, March is term time and you're looking at 4 days.

We stayed in NYC this Easter just gone, as part of a 2 centre holiday. As above, it's not particularly easy to do it cheaply!

Have you booked flights yet? Are you bound by school holidays? We need to go during the school holidays, and I book my Transatlantic flights almost as soon as they're released for best dates. However, if you have more flexibility, than keep an eye on Skyscanner etc for the best deals. Also airline sales etc. If you book a flight and hotel package, you should save significantly as well.

We stayed in the financial district this time as it was over the Easter weekend, so the financial district was dead, and hotels slightly cheaper. You should be able to get decent deals if you stay off Manhatten, but then of course you have to factor in additional travel.

With attractions, decide what you want to do and whether it's worth buying a pass or not - we didn't bother as it didn't actually add up for us. There seems to be nothing for less than $25 per head entrance.

Excellent advice above about saving money on a trip to NYC. You can get packages via British Airways Holidays and Virgin Holidays (and no doubt others), which will give you a rough idea of costs of flights + hotel. This can work out cheaper than booking to two elements yourself as a huge operator such as BA or Virgin can block huge large numbers of hotel rooms and get discounts - it's worth looking online to get a ball park figure and if you want to stay in Manhattan then you could do worse than doing it this way. If the price of doing that makes you want to lie down in a darkened room there are many ways of saving money.

We regularly visit the NYC area as DH is from there and in the past we've rented an apartment or hotel rooms in Jersey City, which have worked out at about half the price of Manhattan hotel rooms. The Newport area of Jersey City is particularly convenient and has not only a direct train (the PATH train) to Manhattan (and is just across the Hudson River, the NJ equivalent of Brooklyn across the East River the other side of Manhattan), but lots of inexpensive hotels to choose from, so it's easy to stay there and spend the whole day and evening in the city. The trains (+ NYC subway) run all day and night, unlike London Underground.

As for saving money on sight seeing, there are various passes available, that can be good value is you want to hit several sights in one day: www.smartertravel.com/top-25-ways-save-new-york-city-travel/