New York - spending money?

[Happywalnut]

Hi. Just wondered how much you would think you’d need for 10 days in New York, 2 adults and 2 teens. Food and activities.

I’ve looked up hotels and seems to be around £4k for room only. Just wondering how much more we would expect to spend but I expect it will be make it too expensive for us

Depend where you’re eating. If sit down fancy restaurants it will be a lot more. But bakeries and burgers and things like that will be cheaper. Have you booked activities? For 10 days I’d expect to spend £3K minimum for a family of 4. 10 days is a long time to be in New York. 5 would still be a great time

It’s very expensive and 10 days is a really long time for a city break. I think 5 is a good amount of days for somewhere like NYC. When it comes to food I’d probably count on $80 for breakfast at a Pret typeof place, $120 for cheap lunch and $200 for a reasonable chain restaurant type dinner, so $400/day for a family of 4 + maybe $20 snacks.

We spent £6k in 5 days last time, between shopping, sit down meals and excursions for 2 adults.

You can definitely do it way way cheaper! You can eat cheap pizza slices or takeaway foods, but if you’re going for a sit down meal it’s easy $200+ with tax and tip. Have a look online at places you want to eat then add 30% onto the menu prices! We went for a nice steak meal which was $600 at the end of it, which wasn’t even super expensive in NYC terms.

If you want to do it on a budget you want food trucks, slices to take away, market foods etc. If I’m honest I wouldn’t want to eat like that for 10 days!

Even grabbing a Starbucks coffee is $20 for two people, the fancy Starbucks reserve is even more!

Why so long?

I’d say around $100 per day per person if you want to eat 3 meals a day out but nowhere fancy e.g. coffee and a pastry at starbucks for breakfast, burger for lunch, casual pizza place for dinner plus maybe grabbing the odd coffee or bottle of water. So that would be $4000 for 10 days then add on the cost of whatever you want to do- museums, tours, broadway show etc. which should be easy enough as it’ll all be on their website. Do you really need 10 days though?? I would personally go for 4-5 nights, which would be the perfect length for a first trip ticking off all the major sites and then it wouldn’t be anywhere near as expensive.

I went for 4 days, we are a family of four adults. We bought New York sightseeing passes which included five attractions such as a boat trip, Empire State building and so on for £107 each. We got lots of Ubers which were reasonable and had breakfast included with our rooms. We only wanted a small cheap lunch such as a pizza slice, we didn’t buy any water as all the attractions have water refill places. We had dinners in diners or Irish pubs and they varied from $140 to $180 per night.
We visited the five attractions, plus paid to go to United Nations, visited Central Park, The Highwalk, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, and quite a few other things.
I don’t find prices quite as high as I expected, tipping wasn’t too bad, certainly not as bad as other parts of America I’ve been to.

I can't imagine what you'd do for 10 days in New York. Its expensive and you can see all the major things in 5 days. You're just wandering about spending money on food for the most part.

Yeah that’s true. We normally do a beach holiday for 10 days and it would be instead of that so didn’t really think about that. Think it’s a long way to go for 4 days though?

All the posters assuming breakfast at Starbucks!

Avoid Starbucks unless you think burning through monehbis an essential element of a holiday.

With a bit of research and planning, you can spend far less.

Ten days in New York is so long!

We usually buy all tourist things ahead of time via something like get your guide so don’t need to budget that into spending money, and we say £100 per person per day will be fine. Food, travel, shopping.

But you will run out of stuff to do!

Ten days is a lovely break in NYC, imo.

There's a lot to see, and a city break in a city as vibrant as NYC would feel extremely rushed and hectic if you spent less time.

For 10 days I think I’d look at an apartment hotel such as radio city so I wasn’t eating out all of the time. Even a couple of breakfasts in the room would work. I tend not to self cater on holiday but 10 days is a long time for a city break type holiday. We did 5. Didn’t see everything but were knackered. I can see the appeal of 10 but possibly just too much all at once.

For those saying 10 days is too long, its not!

Its a huge city with loads to do. I would start with the main tourist stuff then delve deeper. So many things and nice to have the time to explore.

Have you been before? I’m assuming not. As everyone says, it’s very expensive. Be prepared to tip at most places you eat out. I would think £5k would be a comfortable amount for you for that duration. Considered catering or a staying at a hotel that includes breakfast, to cut down on costs. Or a hotel not in Manhattan but with quick access to there.

look at hotels in Long Island city. Hilton home2suites includes breakfast. Eat pizza, bagel, and go to lunch specials at restaurants that are not touristy—eg Chinese, Indian. I am from here and agree 10 days is a lot. You can get to other places like Philly easily or just do a shorter trip.

I would do 4 days NY and then head somehwere else. You can take a train to Boston for another break and fly back from there.

Or go to the coast, Cape May or head down to Virgina.

NY for 10 days is crazy.

You could go somewhere else for the rest of the time. Washington for example and take in Virginia. You see a different side of America but close by.

New York is unrelentingly urban (apart from Central Park of course) and very busy and noisy.

Yes, I'd spend 4 or 5 days in Manhattan, then go elsewhere. Obviously you could fly anywhere, but how about driving to the Catskill Mountains? Beautiful and a complete change of pace.

Why don’t you do a two center holiday and one place New York and also go somewhere else? I’m sure people here can make suggestions

i liked whole foods for breakfast, its an upmarket supermarket with ready made food counters. We would get coffee and a muffin or hot food and go upstairs to eat. As it was supermarket there wasn’t a 20% tip charge and the food was reasonably priced compared to cafes or restaurants. In summer it’d be easy to get food and sit in park for lunch

we did share a couple of meals as they are so big, Eileen Stardust we got 2 meals and shared as they were big.

we stayed at the Marriott beside 9/11 World Trade Center memorial and it was at that time a good deal but we got tube passes to get about and got those at airport rather than taxi

we did do a lot of free stuff, but did all the tourist stuff as well in 5 days

Have you factored in tipping?

Ten days is a perfect amount of time. There is so much to see and do and you don’t have to cram everything in. We went for six days and didn’t get to see everything we wanted, would have loved more time. I can’t believe people think you can see all of NY in four days! So many galleries, beautiful walks, interesting museums, markets, shows to see.

There are some great food halls which would be great for families that all like different things. Pizza restaurants are quite cheap and the portions are huge. I think an aparthotel has mentioned previously would be a good idea for a family. You can then get things in for breakfast, or have dinner in if you’ve had a long day sightseeing.

From NY you can get a train to Boston or Washington. 10 days in NY will be utterly draining and very expensive. From Boston you can go for a beach holiday at Cape Cod. I’d bump up the time to 2 weeks and do NY 4 days, Boston 3 days and CC 1 week.

The USA is very very expensive now. We went earlier this year and even found self catering expensive! Food costs are high, and Manhattan doesn’t have a wide choice! Plus you won’t have a car. However have a self catering unit (Citadenes type place) might suit you and buy breakfast to self cater. Maybe a packed lunch? However, be prepared to be shocked at the cost of eating out! It’s London prices plus tax plus 20% tip minimum! Tips go on everything! So a meal is 33% more than you think and you won’t want hot dogs and burgers and pizzas for 10 days!

I don't think ten days is too much at all in one of the best cities in the world. But consider having day trips to Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New Haven, Long Island . I wouldn't scrimp on spending money - I still think £5k is fine - because the last thing you want when there is worrying every day if you're going to afford to be able to eat out in pizzeria's / other cheap fast food places or restaurants (or worrying you won't have enough money for the tips) and have that at the back of your mind constantly.

I had 10 days in NY last year, and broke it up with a 3 day trip to Washington in the middle. To be honest I could’ve spent the whole 10 days in NY, but wanted to take my DS to Washington. It’s a great side trip, easy by train.

Definitely look at an Aparthotel, even having a few breakfasts or Uber eats dinners will save you masses.

I also think 10 days is a long time to book for a city break in case you actually don't like it! Have you highlighted enough activities to fill 10 days?