New York on a budget

Emma_brown96

Hello! 

Me and my partner are travelling to New York in February 2024. We’ve booked our hotel and flights so that’s not an issue, we were just wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions for how to keep the cost down when we’re out there. We want to do all the main attractions, so ideally would like to hear what other people did in regards to buying attraction tickets and food and drink etc. we haven’t booked transfers from the airport as we were planning to get a taxi/subway as we’ve heard this is much cheaper than the £300 we were quoted for a transfer between JFK and Times Square. 

Thank you! 

HillStreetBlues

Good site about transfers
https://www.welcomepickups.com/new-york/jfk-to-times-square/

400ixl

Getting the train to Jamacia and then the subway is the cheapest way to travel into Manhatten from JFK. Manageable with suitcases. It is worth getting a travelcard for the subway to cover the period you are there.

One money saving trip is if you want to see the Statue of Liberty but are not bothered about getting up close, then jumping on the Staten Island ferry goes right past it for the photo op. When you get to Staten and are on your toes you can get round to the return ferry to be back in Manhatten within the hour.

If you want to see the skyline and are looking at the Empire state and Rockafella towers, then I'd suggest the latter. You get to see the Empire state from there and get a better view of Central Park.

The High Line is a free attraction, it is a walkway / park made on an old raised train line. Its a nice way to get between some of the sights.

daveyjp

If you want to "do" all the main attractions you need a large budget to do so, hundreds of pounds.  If you just want to see the main attractions it will cost you nothing but shoe leather and subway fares.  This is easy in summer, but in February it may not be pleasant to spend any length of time outside, so search out cheap/free indoor attractions.

There are various discount cards if you want to see a lot of paid for attractions.  All have different prices and rules so you need to research which is best and plan your days around attraction visits.

We visited about a year ago and I did a very basic daily 'area' plan so we didn't spend time moving between area.  One day central park area, another lower Manhattan, Wall Street, 9/11 and Staten Island ferry, Brooklyn and Park Slope, Brooklyn bridge etc.  Just from the outside Brooklyn Museum looked impressive, not a place for us in summer, but one to look at for winter.

Our main attraction spend was a trip up One Vanderbilt, cost was about £30 each when booked in advance.  No need to do more than one skyscraper, the view from the top is similar, so just choose one if spends are tight.  We also did a day at baseball, but this isnt an option in February,

Transfer looks expensive.  We paid £150 return from Newark to our hotel a couple of blocks from Central Park.

Food is expensive in restaurants and diners, add 20% to all prices for tip.  Grab and go options are plentiful from the street carts, pizza outlets etc. 

Subway is cheap and not too hard to understand, you need the OMNY app for contactless pay for the subway which is the easiest way.

For great advice spend time watching videos by Jon Barr 'here be barr' on youtube.  

michele-p

you have enough time to apply for a Big Apple Greeter, a free walking tour by a local. We were lucky enough to do 2 on our trip to New York, you can choose an area, and they show you around, take you places and are really helpful. You can choose to pay a donation to the website as a thank you. https://www.bigapplegreeter.org/