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I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who’ve never been to New York City. Of course, some of the people I’m talking about are from New Jersey and we’ll have to address their troubles in another article. But seriously, a lot of people avoid the city like the plague and one of the chief reasons is that it’s considered exhorbitantly expensive. I'm going to show you how the Big Apple can be downright cheap, if you know how to snag good deals.
So, let’s talk about getting to the Big Apple cheaply. Because it is a major hub for many airlines, scoring a cheap ticket to New York shouldn’t be much of a problem. Many discount airlines like JetBlue or Virgin America fly right into JFK. It shouldn’t take any special effort to find a round trip ticket from any major city on the West Coast for around $250. And $500 should cover you for round trip fare from any major European hub.
A round trip taxi ride from JFK to your hotel will run around $100 and that’s not counting the tip. Yeah, that's a bit pricey, but it isn't your only option. You can take a shuttle bus that drops you off at Grand Central Station or Penn Station for S15. If that’s too steep a price and you’re travelling light, you can spend $7.25 and take the AirTrain that serves JFK and switch to the A Subway or the E Subway. You’ll be downtown in around an hour and avoid the traffic.
The last thing you want to do in New York City is have a car rental. There's nothing cheap about parking in Manhattan where daily rates can rival what you would pay in other cities for a hotel room. For $8.25, you can buy a one-day fun pass that allows you access to one of the most efficient transportation systems in the world...including the famed, and much cleaned up subway. If there are two or more in your party, taxis can actually be a bargain and they don’t charge extra for additional passengers.
Definitely consider buying a New York CityPass which gives you a choice between the Circle Line Harbor Cruise or a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Then they throw in admission to the Empire State Building Observatory, the Guggenheim Museum, The American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And if that’s not enough for you, you get a 15% gift certificate at Bloomingdale's and a free gift with a $200 purchase. All for just $79 or $59 if you are 17 and under. Not bad considering you'd pay double that if you bought the tickets separately. Here’s a tip. Choose Statue of Liberty option instead of the Circle Line and then take the Staten Island ferry at night to make up for the Circle Line Harbor Cruise. Believe it or not, a ride on the Staten Island ferry is free and the view is just as good.
You won’t just save money with a New York CityPass, you save the time and hassle of long ticket queues. And, as we shall see, saving time is essential to making your trip to New York affordable. You get nine days to complete your visits from when you start using the card.
What you definitely don’t want to do is waste $45 on a bus tour of the city. It’s just not necessary and the only thing you’ll walk away with is a few factoids on which building was the tallest in 1909 or 1913 or whatever.
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