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).

Yeah I know, but it lingers long in popular memory - people going on shopping weekend to NYC etc...

I went to LA and also Florida last year and found both of them slightly more expensive than New York.

The good thing about New York is the choice of food, we avoided all expensive restaurants.

I thought the attraction pass was good value, I visited Natural History museum, river cruise (I did pay a bit more to extend the length of the cruise), Top of the Rock, Empire State Building twice and 9/11 Memorial museum (excellent) for £110.

We did a double different area each day and had a hotel in midtown.

We found 911 miserable. Just not a holiday experience. Also 3 times to look at a view from a building? This is why people should evaluate what they want. So much that’s great is free even if coffee in Chelsea market costs. It’s cheaper than 3x£110 for what you might not want.

The attraction passes were great. What we didn’t get to use from the passes was guided walking tours, bike hire and river cruises which was a shame but we just didn’t have time. We found they covered everything bar the Met, the basketball game DH and one DC went to and skating at the Rockefeller. There were a couple of options that we wouldn’t have thought of that we did because they were free with the pass and we were in the area which were actually really good.

Which pass is best?

Nothing is free with a pass. You pay for what you don’t use so you need to evaluate value for money. I tend to know where I want to go and what I want to see, then see if the pass adds up. Mostly it doesn’t.

Nothing is free with a pass. You pay for what you don’t use so you need to evaluate value for money. I tend to know where I want to go and what I want to see, then see if the pass adds up. Mostly it doesn’t.

It totally worked for us, our DC had already mentioned where they wanted to go and then fortunately I found a pass that included them all. We then visited a different area each day adding in lots of extra activities.

We all loved our tour of The United Nations Headquarters and the American High Line was very cool too.

All in all we had a great trip.

We got a 3C city pass and used it for NHM, ESB and SOL and it got us a discounted rate for those. We paid into MoMa (free for kids).

@Wimbledoner What is the American High Line? The High Line is a free park.

Well no, included in the pass would be more accurate. The pass isn’t free therefore nothing it covers is free. We were in NY for 9 days and did 3 things that weren’t covered by it. It worked for us for that period but I probably wouldn’t have bothered if we’d only been there for a few days.

As a family of four, we allowed around $200/day just for food. That would be my weekly food shop at home!

@Coughsweet I tend to look at what are my top choices well before we go, and they are carefully chosen if only there for 3/4 days. That applies to anywhere we go. We then look at passes to see what they cover. If not much of our top picks we don’t buy. 9 days is much longer and you would get better value for money, but the pass would never dictate our itinerary, anywhere. I tend to research places and some of the best things are free. You just need to do a bit of walking!

Absolutely, New York is great for walking. We love that as a family, during our trip we averaged 11 miles a day. Best way to see the place I think. What my DCs probably found most interesting was meeting up with my cousin’s daughter at her uni campus who’d was of course free - the sports hall was “just like Pitch Perfect” - and then going with her to get pizza in the Bronx somewhere completely different from Manhattan. Next time I’d like to see more of Brooklyn and Long Island.

@Coughsweet We have friends who live on Long Island. It’s a slog to get out there!