From about 8th grade to my freshman year in college, I had a dream. Knee-deep in Newspaper and Yearbook writing and editing, my dream was to move to New York City and become the next face of the nightly news scene.
Reflecting upon things, I’m not exactly sure why my love of print journalism equaled a career in broadcast journalism, but whatever.
Halfway into my sophomore year of college, I changed my major from Communications to a dual-certification in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. While I have zero regrets in making this change, my dreams of working side by side with Tom Brokaw and living it up in NYC went by the wayside.
Knowing this dream, would you believe that it took me until 2017 to finally make my way to New York City? Well, it’s true.
My friends, it was everything I dreamed of and more.
I have not been anywhere quite like New York City. The melding of Wall-Street, Broadway, Immigrants, and American history makes it one of a kind. The place where foreigners became neighbors. Italy, China, Ireland, Eastern Europe, Puerto Rican. Jewish and Catholic. So much diversity packed into a relatively small piece of real estate. It is truly special.
John and I had 4 days to explore this wonderful city. We loved it so much that 2 years later we returned with some of the kiddos!
A huge shout-out goes to our friends Brandon and Alyssa Peine. Many ideas that we used came directly from their experience in living as missionaries in NYC!
No doubt that a trip to the Big Apple can cost you dearly. Below are 5 ideas and or activities for making your trip more affordable.
- Fly using Southwest points. Remember when I told you about flying for free? Go here to revisit this https://mjmakesmemories.com/how-my-family-flies-for-freeish/
Taking off for NYC!
Important to note: regardless of who you end up flying with, you have 3 airport options! Newark NJ, JFK, and Laguardia. You can take any one of these and get to New York City.
2. Stay off the beating path a little. We stayed in New Jersey the first time we went and Queens the second time. We used Hyatt points to stay at Hyatt Places both times. For more on how to do this, follow this link: https://mjmakesmemories.com/my-favorite-credit-card-for-booking-free-hotel-stays/. In New Jersey, we took a bus into the city each time. In Queens, we were near a subway station but also opted to use a Lyft discount to get around. Both times our savings was significant to staying near Times Square.
3. Find free things! We’ll talk more about this later. In a nutshell, there’s a lot to see and do that is 100% free. Central Park, the New York City Library, Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, the High Line, Grand Central Station, and so on. Additionally, museums like the Natural History Museum have free days. We actually found a lot of these experiences much richer than some of the traditional touristy ones.
4. Time your trip wisely and go to Broadway and off-Broadway shows for half-price! January and February are oh, so cold. HOWEVER, we hit the jackpot in February. One of our favorite shows, The Play that Goes Wrong, was offering ½ price tickets! It made taking our kids much more affordable!
This show was off-Broadway. I have noticed that in January, Broadway offers these kinds of deals as well!
Not there during the offseason? No problem! There are other means of securing affordable tickets. The TKTS booths can provide same-day ticket opportunities at a discount. We can talk about details on more options later. This is a solid starting point.
5.Utilize the New York City Pass. We saved so much money using this to do all the touristy things! From heading over to Ellis Island to enjoying the view from the top of the Rock, we cashed in big-time using this pass.
What is City Pass? Basically, for the cost of the pass, you can enter several attractions in a specific city.
We LOVED using this pass! Entrance to The Met, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Top of the Rock, the 9/11 Museum, and the Empire State Building were some of the entrances included! Talk about Big money saver! Go to www.CityPass.com for more details.
Bonus! I kind of mentioned this earlier, travel via the metro! For one lump sum, you can go EVERYWHERE! This is BY FAR the most affordable way to travel around NYC!
These are my Top 5 for saving money in the Big Apple. Do you have any tips? Share them below!