New York: How to do it cheaply?

[zimboe]

Going with dh for my first time. Everything seems expensive. $30 for museum entry? In London they’re free!

I’ve seen the New York pass. Anyone got suggestions on where to eat cheaply? Mcdonalds? Subway?

What time of year are you heading there?. Some museums like the American Museum of Natural History currently require booking in advance for timed entry admission. If there is a particular museum you want to see look it up online in advance to see what the admission policy is.

NYC is not a cheap city at the best of times and due to the pound against the dollar exchange rate it is more expensive.

The US is very expensive at the moment particularly due to the exchange rates. I doubt you’ll be able to go to New York cheaply. Could you go somewhere else instead?

Have you booked your hotel already? We were there earlier this year and having a room with a kitchenette really helped keep costs down. Some of the museums and galleries have free evenings too. I have to say I didn't find New York as expensive as I'd been lead to believe but I live in London!

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis island museum is reasonable and takes a full day.

For cheaper eats go into the more residential areas, some food stands are cheap and there is cheap pizza by the main bus terminus (near Times Square) supermarkets have hot deli counters. Coupons can get you reductions or buy 1 get one free. There are free museums eg we went to the jazz museum. Take shoes suitable for serious walking, you can avoid transport costs in the main this way. Walking the high line is a great way to get towards downtown for example.

It is pretty expensive though, far more than London we found but I know london well so know the cheaper places to go

It’s just expensive all round I’m afraid.

We got our passes on groupon which brought attractions down a bit. You can live off cheap pizza for a few days and walk everywhere.

Have you booked hotel and flights already?

We recently ate in a pizza place off time Sq, great and cheap. Cheaper than the $50 sandwich in Long Island! NY is pricey, but non chain ‘local’ places are ok

We grabbed pizzas from 2 bros pizza I think it was. $1.50 for a big margarita slice or $4 with toppings wasn't bad. Ate a lot of fast food!

Sign up for big Apple greeter - free personalised walking tours (no tips either)

We did a lot of just wandering around seeing places.

I have seen the east river ferry recommended as an alternative to the circle line evening one if u want to see the buildings lit up.

I have a feeling 911 museum might be free at certain times - I think it was an evening. (I may be wrong)

Price up passes - depending what you want to do it may not be cheaper - it wasn't for us.

I was coming on to say about the pizza by the slice as well!

You will also find that lots of small grocery stores/delis will have counters of hot food which you can select and takeaway- you’ll probably be able to get a hot main meal for around $10 from there.

US portions are quite big so if you do eat out, and choose options which you could enjoy cold as well as hot, it’s perfectly normal to ask for your leftover food to be packaged up and take it with you.

I paid $20 yes that's right, for a GLASS of mediocre white Californian plonk in a nice but just ok restaurant in Lower Manhattan (Financial District). Yes the views over the Hudson were great, food mediocre, rushed sitting 1.5 hours, and that was just one place. I found NY extremely expensive all round TBH. But that's NY for ya. Had a room with kitchen as someone up thread mentioned, and it was the best thing ever. Had breakfast there, and made up a packed lunch, so it was only dinner in the evenings. While eating out at night was expensive it is part of the package and you just go for it!

There is a new ferry going up and down Manhattan, very cheap and a great way to see the sights of NY without killing your feet. One time and ten journey trips are some of the options. Highly recommend. NYC Ferry Ticketing Information & Fares

Another option for a cheapish change from fast food. Whole foods do a hot buffet. We went in about 5pm and got a couple of tubs with stuff like mac cheese, chicken, vegetables pasta etc. paid about $20 a tub which was a meal (pay by weight)

@zimboe Local residents get price concessions at museums. I see these as good value and they are a lot cheaper than a Broadway show. They usually do cost $$$$

Free things: High Line, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, 5th Avenue, architecture such as the Empire State, Flat Iron, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, any department store, Soho for narrower streets and atmosphere, Chinatown and Times Square (not great in my view). Museums and galleries like MOMa are worth it and many museums around the world do charge. We, unusually don’t.

Cheaper eats: neighbourhood cafes. Less touristy areas.

Thank you for this thread, OP. I’m planning a trip in January, having not been since 2017, and would like to keep costs down somewhat.

How much should a petite woman budget for food and drink each day? Say for 2 meals, a coffee and maybe some fruit/a snack each day. Is $80/day sufficient? Thanks!

I’ve just been to a different part of the US and found it much more expensive than in previous years …. Certainly supermarket food was expensive and it wasn’t just down to the exchange rate. It was difficult to find fresh produce cheaper than we could get at home so although a hotel with a kichenette is s good idea don’t count on it being cheap exactly.

Sorry to hijak. Have read all the posts with interest .
im planning an NY trip for Dec 24 . What has shocked me most is cost of hotels. I really want to stay in Manhattan but everything seems to be $400/500 per night 😳 is this just what it is ? Maybe I need to stay further out

@cockeyedoptimist Hotels can be quite expensive in Manhattan anyway. Perhaps the fact that you are travelling at Christmas might have jacked up the prices somewhat?

Is it because it's over 12 months ahead? I know packages only get released 11.5 months before and those I saw earlier were very very high.

At $1.20 to the £, America is expensive, full stop. The glory days of $2 to the £ are sadly long gone, and they won’t be returning any time soon. My fond memories of taking an empty suitcase over & filling it up with bargains at the outlet malls won’t be repeated.

NYC is expensive even by American standards, but it’s possible to save money by staying outside Manhattan in one of the other boroughs. The obvious trade-off being the time it will take to travel onto the island & back again eating into your holiday. Fast food is ubiquitous & affordable, if that’s acceptable to you. If you do decide to eat in restaurants, the tipping culture is now completely out of control with 20% being the absolute minimum acceptable tip.

The Staten Island ferry is free. Central Park is free. When are you going? Where are you staying?

We are going in August. I've booked our hotel LIC in Long Island City in Queens'. It's very close to the subway and just across the Hudson from midtown so travelling around is very quick. I got an insanely good deal (for NYC!) on Expedia- £120 per night for the room (triple room) which includes a breakfast buffet so the plan is to eat a big breakfast which hopefully should mean that we shouldn't need much lunch (if at all!)

It is expensive, even locals say so.

If you can book a hotel with kitchenette, do it. We had to let food go as we couldn't store it in the hotel and it would have been a great lunch the next day.

Museums - yes, the Met is $30 but it is really worth it. Do look closely as some museums do late openings once a week for free or at least some galleries.

December is always expensive, DH travels to NY on a regular basis and unless something really urgent comes up they stop between November and February to avoid the hotel prices.

The times where you could fly out with an empty suitcase and go shopping are long over. Saying that, DD spent her birthday money on clothes and got things you don't get here in the UK, so it's worth looking if you like shopping for clothes.

I have booked for March and yes it’s expensive! Staying at the 50 Sonesta midtown which has kitchens, so planning on eating a few meals in. Lots of free stuff too - Highline, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge. Things like the cruise to liberty island and Ellis island I think was about $30 but is a good few hours.

on the other hand, New York is a long way to go if you can’t afford to enjoy it when you’re there.

Re the museum admissions, in fact a lot of museums have a suggested admissions fee. I have in the past declined to pay or paid $5 instead of the full fee and have not been given any grief about it. Additionally a lot of museums etc have a free day or evening per week eg the Bronx zoo is free every Wednesday and MOMA every Friday evening. I’m sure you can probably find out a full list of these on a nyc website somewhere.