How to Visit NYC on a Budget (11 Best Kept Secrets)
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If you’re wondering how to visit NYC on a budget then you’ve come to the right place! A trip to New York City may seem like an expensive trip for couples that like to travel on a budget but it doesn’t have to be.
We managed to take our trip to NYC and spent far less than what we expected. When we arrived in NYC, we thought that we would breathe some of the oxygen there and we’d be charged for it!
On a serious note though, whilst most things in the city are expensive, there are a lot of things you can do to keep costs low whilst you’re there.
After we visited, we knew we had to share with others on how to travel to NYC on a budget and make the most of the city.
Before travelling to NYC, it is worth taking the time to create a budget for each day so that you know exactly where you stand. If you’re spending 4 days in NYC or more, you want to know exactly how much you can spend each day and that is where this blog post can help to cut some of those costs down for you.
1. Shop Around For Flights
It all starts with the flights! Finding the best deals on flight can be hard if you don’t know where to look, especially if it’s a last minute holiday.
If you’re planning your budget trip to NYC in advance then you will find cheaper flights especially if you plan to visit around the off-peak times to visit NYC.
New York City is one of those destinations that you can visit all-year round and still be satisfied.
It is always best to look at off-peak times between January – March. This way you will be able to take advantage of cheaper flights.
You will find that the most expensive times to visit is around Christmas time when the Rockefeller lights get turned on.
When we travelled to NYC, we planned our trip last-minute so we definitely spent more money on flights, hotel and transfers than we would have liked to.
Especially now as Amy is also a travel agent, we have so much more knowledge and wouldn’t want you making the same mistakes as us!
We recommend monitoring the flights through tools like SkyScanner and WayAway to find cheap flight options and use our budget travel tips for couples to save even more money.
It is also worth considering to go through a travel agent for both your accommodation and flights so that you are protected.
When we travelled, we flew out to NYC on New Year’s Eve as this was a much cheaper day to fly than if we went out a few days before.
2. Finding Affordable Accommodation
When you’re visiting NYC, accommodation is not always the cheapest so it is really important to shop around and find affordable options for you.
If it’s your first time visiting NYC then you will most likely want to stay in Manhattan so that you don’t spend as much money travelling back and forth.
However, it is worth considering weighing up the costs of staying outside of Manhattan because you will definitely find much cheaper accommodation that way.
Wherever you choose to stay, you will most likely spend a good amount of time in Manhattan. There are so many incredible things to do and places to see in Manhattan that we recommend spending a good amount of time there!
To decide on where to stay in NYC, use the interactive map below to input your travel dates and explore the areas and different places to stay to see what options are best for you.
Remember when you are booking your accommodation to also check the taxes that will be payable upon arrival at the hotel too!
3. Save Money on Attractions with a NYC Sightseeing Pass
One of the best purchases we made was the GoCity sightseeing pass. With the pass, we got to have 4 days to see and do as much as we wanted. This is easily one of the best money saving secrets for New York City as we saved around $200 each using these passes!
With the attraction pass, this included all of the main attractions from the Empire State Building to seeing the Statue of Liberty as well as different food and walking tours. During the festive period, you will even find Christmas Lights Walking Tours too!
There are over 100 attractions included so it is definitely worth the money. This is how you can easily spend a week in New York on a budget! In our opinion using the NYC Attraction Pass is one of the best ways to save money in New York City.
You have the option to choose between two different passes. The Explorer Pass allows you to choose how many specific sights that you want to see.
Alternatively, you can get the All Inclusive Pass that gives you a choice of how many days you want the pass for.
This is a cheap way to visit NYC because you will be saving a lot of money by using these passes. If you want to visit as many attractions in NYC as possible and make the most of your time then we really recommend this pass.
We went for the All Inclusive Pass and had 4 days where we were able to see plenty of the city. You can choose up to 10 days with this pass.
For the length of time we were in New York City, 4 days was perfect for us. We took full advantage of the pass and it still gave us a few days to do some more independent travel and explore the free activities NYC has to offer.
NYC Explorer Pass
Best for travellers with a list of specific must-see attractions!
- Select 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10 attractions from a list of over 90
- Valid for 60 days from the first activation.
- You don’t need to pick the attractions before you purchase!
NYC All-Inclusive Pass
Best for travellers that want to see as much as they can!
- Choice of over 100+ attractions for the duration of your pass
- Choose the pass for 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, or 10 consecutive days.
- Best value for money for avid explorers!
4. Optimising Your Time
The thing with NYC is that it has so much to offer from sightseeing in Manhattan to visiting Brooklyn. NYC is full of things to do even if you are on a budget trip.
One thing you don’t want to do is miss out because you had one too many the night before. Nothing worse than ending up in bed all day with a hangover.
We’re not saying don’t enjoy yourself but it’s important to remember that when visiting NYC. For most people, it’ll be a once in a lifetime trip and you’ll want to make the most of it.
This is the city that never sleeps and you will always have something you’ll want to do. We would advise making a list of things that you want to see and do before you arrive.
Once you arrive there, you can have a clear plan in your head on how to go about it. This can be anything from seeing a show on Broadway to eating a cake from Carlo’s Bakery.
No matter what, you’ll need to have a sit down and think of what you want to do. Otherwise you may end up finding yourself overwhelmed and nothing planned for the day.
You don’t need to follow the list like an itinerary but it will help you narrow it down. This means that when you get there, you have a rough idea and save yourself time.
5. Don’t Be Afraid of the Subway
The subway is an amazing way to get around the city. Some people may be a bit put off from using the subway in particular at night.
Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you would think. It’s a fast, cheap way to get around and it’s also a funny place to be at times.
You’ll definitely meet some characters on a subway all just trying to get to their destination. The best thing is that the subway isn’t expensive either so it is a cheap way to travel!
With how expensive everything else is in NYC, it’s a nice change of pace. No matter where you want to go within New York City, the subway has got you. If you’re lucky you’ll get some entertainment on your way to your destination!
Looking to Save Money on Attractions in NYC?
New York City is an amazing place to visit and the top of most people’s bucket lists! However, it is not the cheapest city to explore especially if you’re on a budget! To make the most of the attractions in NYC and save yourself some money, don’t forget to read our review of the New York City Passes to see whether it will be best for your trip!
6. How to Save Money on Food and Drink in NYC
New York is known for a lot of things but the food has to be up there as one of the biggest. From having a New York bagel for breakfast to having a few slices of some of the best pizza in the world.
One way we found to keep the expenses down was by having street food instead of going out for dinner in a restaurant. New York City is an expensive place to eat out so this is one of the best ways to have a cheap trip.
One thing we will say is that if you’re looking for a good hotdog vendor that is not over priced you’ll be best to look out in Manhattan.
You’ll find hotdogs for around $2 which is perfect and they taste amazing! You’ll also find places doing 99 cents pizza slices!
When we found this we were a bit sceptical at first but when we tried it the pizza was so nice and the size of the pizza is unheard of in the UK.
NYC really does have some of the best pizza because if that is how 99 cents pizza tastes like then the more expensive ones must be better.
There are so many different deals like this throughout NYC you just need to hunt them down! When you arrive in the city, we recommend chatting to locals to find your own secret food picks in NYC.
When it comes to having a night out, once again Manhattan is an expensive area. We did manage to find some bars that were very cool and cheap.
One bar in particular, Rudy’s Bar, offers beers for $3 and free hotdogs when you purchase alcohol there. If you’re wanting to find a cheap night out though you need to push out of the Manhattan area.
NYC is a crazy, beautiful city and a night out here is amazing. If you’re trying to do it on a budget you’ll need to really do some hunting around for the best and cheapest places to go out.
We would recommend to stay with the bars and stay away from the club if you want it to be cheaper. Also, try to have a couple drinks at your hotel before going out to save yourself a bit of money.
7. Planning Your Sightseeing Visits in NYC
Going somewhere like New York City is something you have to plan especially when you’re trying to keep it on a budget too.
You need to make sure you do all your research beforehand and understand how expensive things can be when you arrive in NYC.
Once you have done some research you’ll have an idea of what you would like to do in the city. We would recommend making a list of everything so you can have some kind of idea of what you’ll get up to.
We feel that you don’t need to make a full itinerary when going somewhere like NYC since there are so many different things to do.
You may find yourself wanting to change things up or you may sleep in one day and feel bad because you didn’t do the thing you were meant to do in the morning.
For this reason we think it’s best to just have a small list of some of the things you want to do and just go from there.
When you’re planning your time in New York City, make sure you leave some time to head off for some shopping.
After all, you can’t return home without at least one souvenir for yourself! New York is one of the best cities for shopping so you don’t want to miss out on that too. You can find some of the best places to shop in NYC on a budget here!
8. Use the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
The hop-on hop-off bus is a really cool way to get around the city. On a nice day you can sit on the top deck and listen to the tour guide through earphones while you go around the city.
The best part of the hop-on hop-off bus is the fact that once you buy a day ticket the on and off bus is exactly as it sounds. You can get on and off as much as you want all day throughout the city.
You can also get this pass through the Go City sightseeing passes that we have spoken about. If you’re not sure whether these are for you then don’t forget to read our review of the Go City Passes here!
If you were able to get the passes, you won’t need to pay for your day ticket and the bus will take you to many of the areas where there are other attractions that you wanted to see.
One thing we did notice is that the Go City Pass only allows you to use the bus one time so make the most of it and use it for when you have to travel a bit further out.
We used the bus to take us to Brooklyn which saved us plenty of time and we also stopped off in Soho for a little wander. You can still pay for other day tickets if you wish it is just the Go City Pass is a one time thing.
9. Take Advantage of the Free Attractions in NYC
There’s so many different things you can do for free within the city. Even if you get an attraction pass, we recommend that you don’t get it for every single day of your NYC trip.
You could spend the day in Central Park where you will be able to spend plenty of time. There are so many different sights to see within the park itself you will be spoilt for choice.
You can also take a trip over to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge! This has some of the best views of the city. Not only that but you will be able to take a walk over to Brooklyn itself.
If there are any TV shows or a movie that you like that are set there you can go looking for the place in real life.
We did exactly that by using our Go City Pass to obtain a day pass on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. The bridge is a bit out of the way but once we got there it was just a beautiful walk over the bridge with awesome views.
Once we got a few photos (maybe a bit more than a few), we found ourselves in Brooklyn. We had one goal: looking for one of our favourite program’s iconic building which is the Brooklyn 99 precinct building.
We looked it up and found out that it was a real police station so sadly we couldn’t go inside without looking suspicious. However, we got plenty of photos outside of it.
This may not sound like much but for us it was amazing since this is a program that we first started to bond over in our relationship. To say we got to see it together was a memory we will share forever.
Small things like this are a great way to spend the day. The best part about it is that it’s free! We didn’t need to worry about spending a stupid amount of money for a few photos.
Plus, we got to have an adventure walking around trying to find it. We also created our own mini bar crawl on the way so we could stop off!
10. Spending a Day at Central Park
When you think about a park in Britain, most people will think of a play park where kids can play on swings. Central park is MASSIVE with 840 acres.
Trust us it takes a while to walk through and see everything. In this park you have so many things you can do and see such as the zoo, bow bridge, The Bethesda Terrace and Bethesda Fountain.
All of these are cool places to get photos and to just spend the day exploring around the different sights.
The best part about central park is in Liam’s opinion the hot dog vendors. He is ALWAYS thinking about food!
There was one in particular that was towards the top of the park that Liam swears was the best hotdog in NYC. He still talks about it to this day “it was the mustard that made it so good”.
11. Making Your Own Walking Tour
NYC is an expensive place but that does not mean you always need to spend a lot money. Whilst we were there Amy did say that she wanted to do a Gossip Girl tour.
We had a look and felt like even though the real tour would’ve been fun we could do it ourselves. Also the actual tour cost $99 for the standard tour and $125 for the normal tour.
As a couple travelling to NYC, we wanted to try and keep costs low and we did not want to spend this money on just one tour.
We looked up all the places and set them out on Google Maps so we ended up doing our own tour. It took an insane amount of planning but it really was worth it!
We had so many stops set up on our maps that we had to write them all onto our notes in our phones to keep track. As we walked to them all it took us the whole day!
We got to stop off for food and drink on the way and also got to enjoy the city as a whole and not just focus on the tour.
When we got to the Plaza Hotel, we were lucky to meet the manager that took us on a private tour around the building.
He showed us where everything took place and Amy was in her absolute element. It was really nice of him to take this time with us and offer us a secret Gossip Girl tour inside the Plaza.
It was completely free but we left him a tip because he didn’t have to do that for us. This is a great way to spend a day in the city as you get to see so much. We found that we were able to tick off other things on our list all while spending little to no money.
Plan Your Budget Trip to NYC Now!
No matter what, during your visit to NYC you can have a cheaper time than you think. Don’t feel that you need to save for a long time to have this holiday.
You can go over to NYC with just a little bit of money. You just need to be a bit smarter and find the best deals.
We hope that these NYC budget tips will help you when you are looking for a cheaper getaway to NYC.
If you’re needing some inspiration about what to do and see in NYC then check out our article on the top 7 tourist attractions to visit when you’re in New York City.
New York Resources
- Top 7 New York City Tourist Attractions (For Your First Time)
- Budget for New York Trip
- Best New Year’s Eve Party in NYC
- 4 Day NYC Itinerary (with the Best Spots in Central Park)
- 29 Amazing Places to Visit in Manhattan
- Things to do for Couples in NYC for Unforgettable Experiences
- Best New York Pass to Save Money on Attractions!
