Spending money in New York

[JasonTindallsTan]

Myself, DH and adult DD are going to NYC in September for 4 nights. We’d planned to buy attraction passes in advance (any recommendations?) so spending money should really just be needed for food, travel and tips 🤯

All I keep reading is how expensive NYC so what is realistic in terms of amount of money we’d need to expect to spend (we’re fully funding adult DD).

We went for three days in April on the way back from Boston.

We saw a lot of free stuff - just walking around was fascinating - Central Park, 5 Ave, Hudson Yards, Coney Island, the high line, Chelsea Market, Geand Central, Potteting around Greenwich and the Lower East Side etc..

We did get tickets for MOMA which is worth it if you like modern art.

Food is pricey. We weren't there for a special occiasion so didn't go all out at all. We found food was so plentiful we only really ate twice a day. We generally got bagels and coffee for breakfast, light snacks at lunch (if at all) and then dinner in the evening. We went to a proper old school New York Italian trattoria- which was fun but eye watering by London standards- we shared tomato bruscetta and olives (it was massive!), a pasta dish each as a main, shared ice cream and chocolate sauce to end(again massive) and had a glass of wine each. With tip it came to 120 dollars!

Xi'an's Famous Foods is good value - it is a chinese noodle and dumpling place - fun automatic ordering system and you can watch the noodles being made.

@JasonTindallsTan Amazingly “Six” is on Broadway. How English of them! We saw it at the Arts Theatre London which seats about 400. Good night out.

Was there a couple of weeks ago
$20 approx each for lunch - tacos/burrito bowls all sit down no takeaways

Ate in Benihanas one night - Japanese steak house $200 incl tip for two starters two mains & two cocktails cooked at the table in front of us by the chef

Hop on hop off bus ticket $65 for night time tour & uptown and downtown tour, bought from rep in Times Square, there are also options to include a boat trip & this allows you bike hire for Central Park too

Row boat on lake in Central Park $25

Our breakfast was included at hotel

Ice cream from Amarino is well worth it but pricey

It's expensive but cities tend to be

Water $5 from some street vendors $1 from others

The hop on hop off bus is always a good bet, you can see a few things and see most of the place from the bus in one day.

As you’re staying at Hudson’s, do a bit of the High line. Chelsea market is very expensive and I wouldn’t go out of your way for it!

Definitely do Brooklyn Bridge (if you walk across Manhattan Bridge which is next to it you’ll get fabulous photos of Brooklyn Bridge and the skyscrapers behind it then walk back across Brooklyn). Have a wander in Central Park, stick your heads into Macy’s or Bloomingdales and a few designer shops. The New York library and Grand Central Station are both gorgeous buildings and worth visiting. Bryant park behind the library is nice too.

Another cheap but good thing to do is the Roosevelt cable car across the Hudson to Roosevelt island. It’s not far from Bloomingdales on second avenue.
Bath and Bodyworks will be a good shop for your 21 year old.
Just wandering in New York is fun.

Eat pizza, bagels, and ethnic not chains! There is so much amazing food and no reason for it to be stupidly expensive. You will have an amazing times it’s the perfect time of year

NYC is expensive, I'm not going to lie - far more so than London IME. However there are some tips and tricks.

• Don't eat around Times Square. Utter tourist trap
• Seek out the different food neighborhoods. For example, Koreatown is right by the Empire State Building and you'll find a ton of options for cheap eats. As an example look at the website for bb.q chicken on W32 Street. They have a huge hot 'fridge' (like you'd find with sandwiches in in Boots, but hot!) where you can pick up a huge box of different flavours of fried chicken for $15, and sides like rice, hot sauce, etc. very cheaply. No need to tip on take out imo although you will be given the option. Was voted one of the best items eaten on a recent trip!
• Bodegas (corner shops) are a great option - many have deli counters where they make to order sandwiches, bagels, etc. and hot food / salad buffets too. Hell of a lot cheaper than Whole Foods for sure.
• Dunkin Donuts is much cheaper for coffee and a bagel / donut than Starbucks
• Pizza slices to go are a cheap option. The more sketchy the look of the shop, the better the pizza and the cheaper it is.
• At Hudson Yards there's a Spanish food court - kinda like Eataly but Spanish. There are restaurants in there (which have decent specials depending on the month) but also counters where you can grab items.
• For a picnic in Central Park there's a Trader Joe's on Broadway at 72 Street (there's a subway stop right there) where you can grab premade food / drink and then it's a 2 block walk over to the park. I'm not sure it's 100% legal but people do buy beers and drink them with their picnics without issue (and TJ sells alcohol).
• Drugstores like CVS sell alcohol too, should you want a cheaper than bars option.
• Portions are typically huge - it's often plenty for 2 adults to share a main course and skip starters / puds. Or, to-go boxes are common and you can get leftovers for the next day (especially if you have a fridge in your accommodation).
• There's a little covered area on The High Line more towards the South that does amazing little donut holes in different flavours. Just had to throw that in. It's a very easy walk from Hudson Yards but can get busy.
• Little island is at the far end of The High Line from you, but free and a nice view of downtown. Go early in the day.
• Take the East River Ferry from 34th Street to Wall Street for the 'ahhhh, it's really NY' moment. You will get to see the Brooklyn Bridge, Sky Scrapers etc. all for the bargain cost of $4 per person.
• Take the Staten Island Ferry (free) for a view of the Statue of Liberty.
• You can ask for kids ice creams in places like Baskin Robbin's. They will still be bigger than most UK ice creams!
• Uber Eats is a really good way to find what food options are around you, even if you'd rather go and eat in that order delivery. You can see menus and prices easily.
• Google / IPhone maps makes it really easy to navigate the subway. Mine even buzzes when I'm pulling in to the station I'm getting off at. You just have to pay attention to the train letter / number as it pulls in to some stations to make sure you get on the correct one. Downtown goes towards the Statue of Liberty, Uptown towards Central Park (from where you are staying). It's easy to tap a credit card on the gate to enter (you don't tap out again).

Make sure your daughter has ID - a driving licence is best so you don't have to take passports. They are very hot on IDing in bars.

John Barr (HereBeBarr) is NY travel vlogger on YouTube and Insta, I really recommend following for info. He does a lot of content on food including best cheap eats.

But a short night out! It’s not much more than an hour (no interval).

For a picnic in Central Park there's a Trader Joe's on Broadway at 72 Street

Personally I'd grab a bunch of hotdogs from Billy's cart (he's on Google maps, W93rd). They're cheap and delicious and he's a great character, a real NYC icon.

I do draw the line at street meat vendors!

One other thing to note, every place that serves food has a large letter rating on the door (including the hot dog carts). Avoid anything that does not have an A rating (you have to be pretty bad to not get an A!)

Aw, it's part of the New York experience! Look him up, he has zillions of 5* reviews.

Agreed, there is something iconic about a hot dog, especially Nathan's. But it's still a no from me!

@SabrinaThwaite Er? Yes I know. I saw it in its first few weeks in London. I didn’t realise it had gone to Broadway. Who needs an interval - cheaper not to have one. I was a bit surprised that New Yorkers get Henry VIIIs wives! Good night out though

@TizerorFizz
More a question of why pay top dollar (quite literally) for a very short show that you can see in the UK.

Just to reiterate a PP - I went to the US and all of us in ur party were over 30 ( this was a long time ago ) but still asked for id for buying drinks. So I assume she will have her passport but just to say they can be very hot on id for drinking alcohol.

My 60-something mother-in-law got carded in Texas.

Have an amazing time OP! I went last Christmas and it was an incredible experience.
We didn’t have any sit down meals (felt awfully full of crap when we came back!), did barely any shopping and booked attraction tix in advance and still spent £1300 in 4 nights (2 of us).
2 milkshakes, for example, we’re 30 dollars - and I don’t mean the fancy type of shake!!! Literally like a McDonald’s one!

The subway is a cheap and efficient way to get around.

Yes it is very rundown, stinky and creaky compared with London Transport but it is useable and we never felt unsafe. May be I have a higher tolerance for dealing with crazies and pan handlers after 25 years of living in South East London, but no way would I be using loads of my spending money on cabs - also traffic in NYC is insane!

@Winnerwinnerchickendinner123 ha ha, after 7 days in the US I went straight to the shop and bought some fish fillets and salad for dinner! My innards could not have coped with much more than a week.

Hi OP!

We've been to NY several times and each time done a different kind of trip so can give different perspectives if that helps. I always advise people going for the first time to take however much they think they need, plus 40% more than they think they need!!

• The first time we went we done quite a lot of attractions, empire state, one world, 9/11 museum, top of the rock, msg tour, jersey shopping centre, Central Park tour. We also done all the touristy restaurants, bubba gumps, hard rock, olive garden, Ellen's etc. (yes we were young and got suckered into everything!!!) we ended up spending about $900 each without shopping and airport taxi . We were there for 5 days
• second time we went (older and wiser) we pretty much walked everywhere as it was summer and done a lot of "free" attractions like the high line, Brooklyn and manhattan bridge. The only paid one was Ellis island but we paid less than $30 for us both. We ate in restaurants during the evening only this time. We were there for 5 days again and spent around $400 each plus airport taxis
• our most recent trip at Christmas again we walked everywhere, got the subway or hired bikes all of which were very cheap options. We done a lot of sight seeing by using the bikes. We had one sit down meal on the last night and all in (including the airport taxi) we spent $520 combined so a lot cheaper!!!

My tips would be

• hire bikes near Central Park and ride around the park, do not get in the horse and cart they make the prices up as they go along
• if you can don't sit down for meals all the time, eating fast food will save you so much more money. Doesn't have to be fried food there are loads of sand which and bagel shops around
• use the subway if you feel comfortable, we only used it during the day as travelled with a baby on the last trip and didn't want to take him on there at night.
• also all the views from the top of buildings are quite similar so maybe only do one rooftop experience, I would recommend top of the rock or one world over empire state
• the taxi fare has recently increased due to the city council bringing in a toll fare for entrance into the city, I believe the standard rate is $125 from jfk now, not sure about other airports though!

So sorry if this has already been covered in other posts, I skimmed over to send a reply before work! Have a great time, we are going in 11 weeks

the taxi fare has recently increased due to the city council bringing in a toll fare for entrance into the city, I believe the standard rate is $125 from jfk now, not sure about other airports though!

No - it’s still $70 plus tolls and congestion charge from JFK to Manhattan. Adds up to about $85 (plus tip on top)

@SabrinaThwaite ah my mistake then.
Is this due to increase though? We got told that it was increasing in 2024 due to congestion and tolls so we factored this increased cost into our upcoming trip

It’s still $70 ($75 at peak times). Congestion charge is only $2.50, tolls about $7, and then there’s airport charges and taxes on top.

www.jfkairport.com/to-from-airport/taxi-car-and-van-service