NY hotel and daily budget advice

[wholeeverything]

Hi all, hoping for some NY advice from those who have travelled there often! We (2A + 1 teen) are heading there in May. Six nights / five days.

First, hotels. I've found two good options, one a Best Western Premier Empire State five minutes from the Empire State building, and the other the Leon hotel in Chinatown/LES. Both are very well reviewed and excellent value (Leon is 20 quid a night cheaper) when I booked them (I'll cancel one!)

Wondering if anyone has preferences for which area or hotel is better. I tend to lean towards staying in Chinatown but the Midtown location seems like we could walk to more places within 30-40 minutes, and we like walking.

The Best Western does breakfast, although it's not included.

Second, spending money. Assuming we have a very light breakfast, cheap / on the go lunch (or a combined breakfast / lunch) and a mix of 'nice' meals and pizza in the evenings, what should I budget for food every day per person?

Apart from attraction entry fees, are there other costs I need to be conscious of?

Finally, any other general advice would be great. We plan to do museums (met, natural history museum, moma), vintage clothes shopping, foodie bits and 'scenery' like Central Park, Brooklyn bridge, neighbourhood wandering. We might do a whistle stop of the other big 'attractions' but not too bothered.

Any recommended evening activities? We've a basketball game booked, nobody is too keen on a musical.

Thanks!

Subway is really easy so I would look for proximity to that, we stayed near Penn and it seemed good for anywhere. That said I’m not sure it was best location. There were a few homeless on our walk back and whilst they were harmless it was a bit off putting the first time we saw them.

we didn’t do sit down meals much - grabbed fast food stuff. You could get a pizza slice for a couple of dollars. Wouldn’t worry about breakfast included - there is so much stuff to choose from out there and it’s probably cheaper.

look at big Apple greeters - free personal walking tours in location of your choice. You need to be flexible and give a few choices of locations / places and they match you with a guide based on your area of interest.

I’d go for the best western - I haven’t stayed there myself but I’ve stayed in that area many times and it’s such a good location. Theres also a few good subway stations
nearby.

Even a Starbucks breakfast + coffee can be $12-5 per person, on the go lunch can be similar if not a bit more. Bagels for breakfast are a personal fave, especially in a city known for them. We paid $200+ for sit down meals, it’s quite expensive especially when you add tax and tips. I think over 5 days we spent $3500 ish on food, but we did lots of very naice places, you could easily do it for $100 a day per person.

If you like walking I’d definitely recommend the Highline, if you go down it you’ll end up in Chelsea market which is fab for lunch - los tacos is 10/10! You can always walk back up the Highline too.

For the Brooklyn bridge we got the subway to Brooklyn to walk over the bridge towards NYC at sunrise, which was such an amazing view.

Id recommend a bakery tour - if you google the ones you like the look of (original magnolia bakery, Lafayette etc) then you can plot a walking path around the city and share treats at each one. We did this and it was so much fun! Same for pizza tours, some are organised but you can also plot your own and do a walking tour.

In the evening would you consider things like a jazz club? We went to some amazing live music places and it felt like a film! We also did one of the evening boat cruises and a nighttime helicopter tour, both of which were absolutely incredible.

Oh we also got some salad / heated food from the whole foods takeout food area. That gave us the balance with the fast food and we just ate it in the hotel.

I have been a few times with my older teen/YA DC. It’s a great holiday for us all to do together.

Financially, don’t forget you have to tip everyone generously. This adds up!

Evening stuff, The Rooftop Cinema in midtown is good fun. They tend to show popular classics rather than current releases.

Depending on what your DC like, there’s lots of places in Greenwich area where young writers give readings or talks on their work.

New York Zoo has grizzly bears!

Have a great time.

We did breakfasts at bagel places, just be brave when they shout at you to order and shout it back at them. If they scare you too much then there are starbucks and the like everywhere.

Once I went on my own for the weekend and bought breakfast at Macy's, there was so much I stuffed it all into my bag and it fed me all day.

I agree with going to the Wholefoods stores, but there will be so many options to eat you really won't have any trouble finding decent food no matter where you are. Most places the food is so huge that you can easily share a pizza and still feel completely stuffed.

We went in May once and it was stonkingly hot, so the hotel most likely to have working aircon. Either way take earplugs for the all night whistling. And if you do by chance wake up excruciatingly early, like 2-3am, get up and get dressed and go for a walk. There is nothing like seeing the sun come up in between all the skyscrapers.

I would say stay in Midtown for the convenience. And don’t have the hotel breakfast - will be $$$

Find the nearest basic looking “diner” (like a uk greasy spoon cafe!) and have breakfast there - loads of toast, eggs, hash browns etc for a reasonable price and free coffee refills. You can then have a take out lunch somewhere and save your money for dinner.

There are a couple of Whole Foods markets in Midtown and if you choose carefully you can get some nice salads etc. which won’t be too expensive.

But NY is $$$ unfortunately….

I was going to mention Whole Foods stores.
We used them for on the go evening meals after being out in the daytime.
Hot and cold choices, pay by weight or get pre made sandwiches/rolls or pizza.
The ones we’ve been in have small seating areas.

pp mentioned The High Line and Brooklyn Bridge, second them both.

The Chart House restaurant on the Weehawken/New Jersey side gives great views back to Manhattan. Get the ferry to Port Imperial and a cab to the restaurant. You don’t need to dress up for it.

For views we preferred The Rockerfeller centre on 5th/50th over Empire State Building.

You’ll pay a tourist tax per night at the hotel and goods in the shops are priced without the sales tax which will be added at the till. It’s 7-8.8% at the moment according to a quick search.

We found breakfast at a diner wasn’t cheap easily $30 pp just for a few things , there were 2A+2DC.

Thank you all, these are super helpful tips and I feel like I'm on the right track!

@NewYearNewMee Thanks! Any tips for 'naice' places :-) Think I'll book a few good restaurants and then just shoestring the rest of the time. Is 15% OK for tipping? And is it just for sit-down meals? Like would you tip if getting a pizza slice, take away bagel, wholefoods etc?

Also @NewYearNewMee did you go to jazz places with teenagers? Just not sure how much 'bar' based music we can go to.

@wholeeverything tipping is 20%+ at the moment - although it’s a pain!! You can tip if you want to in takeaway places, they’ll often give the option on a screen or a tip jar will be on the counter. No need to tip in whole foods or any other supermarket type stores! It tends to be % based tips for sit down meals, drinks at a bar (cocktails) that sort of thing. For taxis / coffees / counter service you can normally put a few dollars into a tip jar.

What sort of foods do you like? You can’t go wrong with a classic NYC steakhouse - 4 Charles prime rib and Smith & Wollensky were great evenings. Rubirosa is fab pizza / pasta and really nice food, 11 Madison Park is incredible but probably not teenage friendly! Gramercy tavern was really tasty, Au Cheval does an amazing burger 🍔 and we really enjoyed skirt steak for a cheaper steak meal.

Are you wanting to do touristy food places? Katz’s deli was so much fun when we’ve been and it’s just a cool place to go (you will need to tip the person carving your meat when you order though!), Juniors in Time Square was fun and the food was classic diner style. Joes pizza for a slice and then Blecker Street as well (better!), L’Industrie was the best though.

We went as a couple to the Jazz bar - it was quite early in the evening but might be worth checking age restrictions - it wasn’t rowdy or anything!

You’re not expected to tip at fast food places, takeaway hatches or WholeFoods.