Budget for New York

[Artemis6]

A bit of a tricky question but I'll give it a go.
In 5 years time, I will turn 60 and DD will turn 21.
Our birthdays are 1 day apart.

To celebrate, we'd like to go to NY for a few days and I'd like to start saving now.

The last time I was in NY was 2004 so I've no idea if cost now.

I realise prices will probably go up in 5 years but can anyone give me a ball park figure for flights, hotel, eats and entertainment?

I’m just back. It is very very expensive. Easily $200 per night for your hotel and that’s a basic, and the food & drink are $$ (plus 20% gratuity)
however it was bloody brilliant and worth every last dime!

I went with DS for a week last June. We shared a double-double room in a budget hotel, with breakfast included (which was a godsend). Flights (Virgin, bloody lovely) and hotel were just under £1200 pp, we took the train and subway in to Manhattan to save approx $90 on cab fare. Several evenings we grabbed pizza or something from a deli for dinner so not awfully expensive. Spent a bit on activities (Empire State, Intrepid) but also did lots of walking and free stuff (High Line, Central Park, Ground Zero, State. island Ferry, Brooklyn Bridge). Loved it, can’t wait to go back, and it is possible on a budget.

It is UNBELIEVABLY expensive now.

My friend went there last year with 2 children and spent over 10k in 10 days. Not a big spender and a very experienced traveller who would be looking for bargains and doing a lot of research and planning. He said it was SO expensive.

That included everything now, all accommodations and food, day trips and entry into places etc. but I doubt very much shopping, his children are young.

another friend told me it was $12 for one beer in some places.

I’d say start saving now. Good luck.

(That included flights also)

Another thing is there is a card you can buy outright that gets you into ALL attractions, I can’t think of the name of it but that would be well worth it. I will look for the name for you.

https://destinationlesstravel.com/the-new-york-pass/

here is the information about the New York Pass. Good luck x

I went 4 months ago. Cost £1800pp for 11 nights in a mix of Boston and New York.

I'd say probably same sort of price in each place but Boston hotel room was bigger.

Food I budgeted £200 a day for 3 of us. We came in under that but there was a lot of fast food - especially in NY, didn't really do any sit down meals there, just one pizza I think.

If you want to go to the theatre that's hideously expensive compared to London.

A lot of our stuff was just walking everywhere. Big Apple greeter tours are free if you book one of them.

Last went in November 22. We booked an air bnb in New Jersey and travelled into NY by bus every day taking less than 20 mins. The cost was so much cheaper than a hotel, Much nicer accommodation and the view of the NY Skyline from the end of the road was amazing.
We bought an attraction pass which works out cheaper than paying entry fees - by about $5-10 cheaper pp.
Subway was a cheap way to travel and felt safe.
Alcohol puts the price up when eating out.

Out of interest, where were people going where a latte was $8? And where 2x coffee & cupcake was $30?

I just looked up Blank Street Coffee (a recent import from the US that the TikTok crowd are loving in London) and their prices in Manhattan are $4.25 for a latte, plus tax and that’s still <$5.

I presume for an $8 latte, it was a sit down affair with service etc.

This was the menu 2 months ago:

I think you’re lucky to have found a legal air b and b. They are generally illegal.

@Artemis6 tips from me:
Flights - sign up for jacks flight club. Costs £35 a year and they send every airline mistake/low price fare deal.
Hotels - I like staying in midtown - the garment district has some fun places. I usually use various websites like Priceline, Tripadvisor etc to get which is the best deal.
Plan ahead - get a map of nyc out and map out what attractions you’d like to see and group them together so you are not cross-crossing the island all day. For example, group liberty island with a visit to Wall Street. Work out what you’d like to see and then work out if the nyc pass is worth it. When I had one years ago I was disappointed to find that you still had to queue to exchange your pass for an attraction ticket. Things may have changed now, but I prefer to book in advance. The Empire State Building is best very first thing for example - it is hellishly busy otherwise.
Places we loved most recently : breakfast at Tiffany’s (book via the rest app 30 days before you go) Hudson yards area, nbc studio tour (you might also want to apply for SNL guest tickets?) The high line, Brooklyn for original soda fountain shops, a Sunday tour of Harlem and a service attendance followed by a gospel brunch. Broadway - it is way more expensive than London so use the today tix app for deals and advice on getting rush tickets (worth queuing).
personally, I prefer getting brunch/breakfast out as part of the experience but hotels are fine with you going to a deli and bringing it back. Be aware that tipping is becoming more expensive so factor that in. Get a visitors discount pass at guest service at Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s before you start shopping to avoid the sales tax. You’ll need a passport to get it. We also loved ‘The ride’ which is a brilliant interactive bus tour which combines street performances. The view from the one observatory tower is spectacular.

Hope you have fun!

@Crushed23

Starbucks is very expensive, definitely not $5 if you're getting a large coffee! Same for every independent place we went to. The worst offender was any of the reserve Starbucks, easily $40 for two coffees and cakes - wild money. But totally worth it! Not sit down with service, still expensive.

Even random drinks (like a lemonade from Chelsea market) was like $7!

Well yes, a large Starbucks coffee is expensive anywhere. It’s like a litre of liquid and I am amazed anyone can drink a whole one tbh 😁

A standard latte is unlikely to be $8 was the point I was trying to make. Seems to be around the $5-$6 mark from the high level research I’ve done.

Still a lot more expensive than London where a latte is around £4.

Thanks everyone!

I'm shocked at the prices now, particularly food and drinks.
I've got a lot of saving up to do !!

Haven't read all of the thread properly yet, are places like McDonalds expensive too??

When I went in 2004 with DH we stayed at the Waldorf and ate at some fantastic restaurants....don't think that will be the case this time. 😧

They're illegal in NYC, but not in New Jersey.

Placemarking! I'm taking my 2 teens in the summer for 10 days or so, and I'm looking for ideas. Has anyone heard of the omnipass for getting around in NYC or been up to Montauk/Long Island beaches?

It was in New Jersey, I don't think they're illegal there are they? It's just most of them in New York City that are.

Is Ruby Woo's still going?
Would love to take DD there.

@48wheaties we used the weekly pass for metro and was great. $33 for a week (it was Sun - sat but I think I may have read it's now anyday start)

Thank you!

Ballpark I'd say $10-15k realistically

We are going in April for 3 nights. Flying Aer Lingus from Dublin, over on a Monday morning and back on Thursday night so landing on Friday morning. Paid €2500 for flights and hotel, which includes breakfast. I will report back with prices for food etc. We are planning to eat a decent breakfast, and have some snacks on the go.

@usernamealreadytaken That sounds amazing. Can you remember the name of the hotel? I'm a single parent, and the prices are looking scary 🤣

Airbnbs are still available, though much less than previously. We stayed in one on Staten Island that was going through registration at the time and now has its registration.

We booked through Lastminute.com and the hotel was the Hampton Inn by Hilton on W39 St between 8th & 9th, right near Times Square, close to the Port Auth bus terminal and subway (we walked to the hotel from there, our first adventure!) and pretty central. Just over a mile to Central Park, close to Empire State Building, Bryant Park, Macy's, it really was good and we packed in so much, there's plenty that doesn't cost too much like the High Line, Central Park, Staten Island Ferry, Ground Zero, lots of walking for sightseeing. We caught a bus over to NJ and went to a shooting range ($$$), went to the very top of the ESB ($$$) - if you buy one of the visitor multi pass things it only gets you to the lower level which is still brilliant, but we wanted to do the very top and I'm not sure whether you can just pay on top, IYSWIM.

Get a Metro card - the subway is pretty easy to navigate and you can pay per journey (IIRC it was about $2 per journey) or buy a weekly ticket. Getting the air-train from JFK to Jamaica and getting the subway in to Manhattan saved us a fortune. Both times we went for the air train we didn't have to pay, they opened the gates and waved everyone through - apparently they do that frequently at busy times so we got lucky!

Hope you have a fabulous time!