How To Visit NYC (With Kids) On A Budget
So, let’s be real, everyone knows that New York City is an expensive place. However, in the summer of 2022, with revenge travel and record inflation, it was a real pain in the tits. A pain made worse by those freeloaders who call themselves my children. (Just kidding! I love traveling with my children… sometimes). After one day of making rookie mistakes, I knew we had to make drastic changes in order to make the trip more budget friendly. So, here are a few things I learned about visiting NYC on a budget. Let’s get into it.
Delete The Uber App
No, not really! But, in order to save money in NYC, you might as well pretend like Uber doesn’t exist. Taxis or ride share services can really blow a budget. For example, we were feeling really lazy when we arrived in NYC, and didn’t want to lug our bags around. So, we took an Uber. Our fare, with tip, was easily over $100! Ouch. It was a hit to the trip budget right away.
Instead of using ride share services, take the metro every where. The trains in NYC are highly efficient and run 7 days a week 24 hours a day. A week long metro card was only $34, making it a great way to explore NYC on a budget. Though the trains go everywhere, definitely have your walking shoes ready! Depending on where you are going, you will often have to connect between metro lines, and likely walk a bit to your destination. Not to mention the 1 billion stairs you will climb, getting into and out of the stations.
Travel Tip: Make sure you have Google Maps downloaded offline. Internet connection is not great in the Metro, but Google Maps gives you exact transportation directions. Including which line to take, which stop to walk to, and which exit to get off at. It is incredibly helpful when navigating the NYC subway.
Travel Tip: Not all the stations are mobility accessible, they announce which stations are accessible along the route. The train line maps also depict which stations are accessible.
Book It To Brooklyn
I know what you’re thinking, “UGH, then I have to commute into Manhattan every day of the trip.” First of all, NYC is huge, you will have to commute regardless of where you stay. Second of all, the commute was the quickest 30 – 40 minutes of my life. Before this trip, I had never stayed in Brooklyn either, but it truly surprised me how quick it was to get into the city. We even rode the metro from Brooklyn to the Bronx for a Yankees game, and it was still 1 hour and 30 minutes. Believe me you can’t beat that in a car with NYC traffic.
However, the benefit of staying in Brooklyn, is the price. Since our kids are older, we usually have to book 2 bedroom Airbnbs or 2 hotel rooms. Both of these options, in summer, again in the year of our Lord 2022, in Manhattan would have been expensive. Easily, $400 – $500 a night. In Brooklyn however, our super nice Airbnb, located in an iconic brownstone, was $350 a night. Still pricey, I know! But, since we’re not ready to introduce our kids to hostels, still better than staying in Manhattan. When visiting NYC on a budget, the further you get from Manhattan, the better the price.
Travel Tip: Brooklyn was also slower paced and family friendly. The kids would sometimes get overwhelmed with Manhattan, and were always relieved to get back “home” to Brooklyn.
Travel Tip: If you wanted to save even more money you could easily stay in Queens. It will add another 30 minutes when commuting into Manhattan, but may be worth it, if you’re not traveling with kids.
Embrace Street Eats
Other than transportation and accommodation, food is the next thing you should plan to spend money on. And, if you want to really do NYC on a budget, then you have to embrace street eats. In NYC, lunch and dinner can easily cost $30 or more per person per meal. Even breakfast can easily run $15 per person per meal, and don’t even get be started on the $7 coffee.
Luckily, New York also has several cheap eats. From the NYC staple, the Halal Guys food trucks, serving up awesome Mediterranean food. To cheap slices of pizza, serving up the “New York flop.” Cheap food can definitely be found. After a couple of nights of eating out, at $150 a meal, I decided to stop by this Mexican food truck, Tacos Morelos. After ordering what felt like 100 tacos, the price came out to $45. Saving a full $105! And, the tacos were amazing!
Other ways to save money in NYC is by having at least a couple meals in Chinatown, where (to me) the price of food felt comparatively cheaper than the rest of the city. Also, check out the various markets all over the city. Time out market, Mercado Little Spain, and Eataly were all places where we could order several items and share them.
Tours and Tickets
Tours
So, you all already know my love for Free Tours by Foot. NYC is not an exception, there are so many free walking tours you can do. You could literally do multiple free walking tours a day. Soho, Little Italy, Harlem, Brooklyn… the list goes on and on. Just don’t forget to tip your guide! On this trip we also did an Airbnb Experience, which was a bike ride through Central Park. Though, not free, it was $36 a person, it was still decently priced tour. And you cover so much more ground on a bike in Central Park.
Attractions
For tickets to some of the tourist attractions, there are several different options depending on what you want to do and how long you will be in the city. You can buy the New York City Pass which let’s you choose either 3 or 5 attractions for one bundled price. We used City Pass when we visited Seattle, and it was great. But because we were already doing other tours, I skipped the City Pass this time, and instead chose City Experiences. With this we were able to see the 9/11 Memorial Museum, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the One World Overlook for $85 per adult and $65 per child. Which is a bit cheaper than the 3 attraction City Pass. At the end of the day if you’re planning on seeing a lot of tourist attractions, find a way to bundle them.
Travel Tip: If you really don’t care that much about seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, you can always just enjoy a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. It will give you a great view of the Statue of Liberty.
Tickets
Broadway tickets are a little more difficult to get a deal on. I read several blog posts about standing in line at specific locations in order to get a day-of ticket. Trying to win a lottery for some tickets, which apparently isn’t that hard? Or buying Off – Broadway tickets, which are a lot cheaper. But honestly, none of these options appealed to me when traveling with kids. I mean who really wants to spend time waiting in line or maybe win a lottery? To me, it wasn’t worth it, so Aladdin was our ticket splurge. However, I paid myself back for 2 of the tickets using credit card points, so technically, I got 50% off right? LOL.
If you’re not wanting to splurge on a Broadway tickets, definitely do some research because there are still ways to have this NYC experience on a budget.
So that’s it! Hopefully you find these tips help you have a more budget friendly trip when visiting one of the most expensive cities in the world!
Have you ever been to NYC? Any more travel budget tips to add? Let me know in the comments or drop me a DM on Instagram @TheGlobetrottingAccountant.
