Saving in New York City

NYC by night

Every time I am in NYC I always have not enough: Not enough time, not enough money, not enough energy, not enough of anything in this awesome city. So I am always happy if I find a way to save time, money, energy or anything else in New York. So this blog should help you to save when you are in NYC.

The first thing is always the trouble to find a place to stay in NYC. It is always far too expensive. So if you need to save on the hotel you should take some time and try out the possibilities of Priceline. If you are from the US it might be nothing new to you but for everyone else it is. At Priceline are you able to choose one or more parts of the city and the stars the hotel should have and giving a bid how much you would pay for this hotel. Within seconds you will get a respond if there is any hotel which is accepting your bid. If there is one the hotel is immediately booked for you, if not you are able to extend your search (more areas, less stars, higher bid). The whole process is described in several forums. Priceline is only available for US citizens. How you will be able to book at www.priceline.com if you are not US citizen: Just google it. 

Wallstreet

As an example: On our last trip to NYC we got a 4 star hotel near the Wall Street in downtown Manhattan for 130$ per night instead of 195$ per night as it was on all booking sides. So we saved 33% and had more money for shopping.

And here we are at the second matter where you have great possibilities to save: Shopping! The recommendation you will find in each guide book is to use the outlet shops and centre. This is of course true - and if you visit Century 21 in downtown Manhattan and see the flood of tourists carrying lots of huge Century 21 shopping bags out of the shop you will agree. A not so well-know advice is that it is also possible to save money in the worlds most famous department store Macy’s. Macy’s is a must do for every tourist in NYC and every woman wants to buy something in here at least to get one of these nice and famous Macy’s shopping bags with the red star. Here you can save money as a foreign tourist. The deal is 10% saving on all your shopping which is not too bad for Macy’s I think. All you have to do is visit the customer service at the gallery, show your passport and you will get a coupon which entitles you to a 10% discount on all your shopping at Macy’s for the next month. Very easy and a good deal!

MoMA: Modern art and nice architecture

After a shopping tour a must do is sightseeing! Museums, parks, theatres and much more are waiting for you. A very smart idea is to visit the websites of the attractions you want to visit. Often you are able to pre-book tickets and so you are able to save time and money or often both. Just two examples out of many: The hop-on-hop-off bus company Gray line offers a lot of different routs and tours through NYC. On all tours you can save 5$ per person if you pre-book on the website. You will get a voucher by mail which is valid for one year. These voucher you have to exchange for a ticket at their ticket office near the Times Square. A good advice is to change the ticket not in the morning because the queues are very long. At noon or later there is no one waiting so you save time. Important is that you also don’t loose travel time for example for a 48 hours ticket for all loops if you show up at noon or later. The ticket is exactly 48 hours valid and not two calendar days so you are able to travel the same duration as if you have to wait and queue up in the morning. The second example is the MoMA. Here you pay 22.50$ instead of 25$ for the entrance of an adult. The smart thing is, that you print your ticket at home. So you are allowed to pass the whole queue (and when we arrived it was a looooooooooooooong queue) and proceed directly to the entrance. I guess so it took us just 2 minutes to get in instead of 45 minutes without a pre-booked ticket – by even saving 5$ at the same time! So just think about what you want so see in NYC and save time and money by pre-book your tickets.

Amazing Time Square by night

An activity were you are not able to save money by pre-booking are Broadway musicals (although travelzoo.com sometimes has some pretty good deals, too. But if you are not keen on seeing a special musical you are also able to save here. At the Times Square there is a ticket box which sells available musical tickets for the same day every day. The savings here are often 40% or more on the original ticket price and often you have a chose between many different musicals. Please check the operating hours of this office. Because of the first come first serve principle, the best tickets are available just after the opening and so it is good to show up early. For those who still can not or are not willing to pay the prices for the shows Ellen´s Stardust Diner at the 52^nd at Broadway might be a good place. Here do they serve typical American cuisine like burgers and sandwiches. The clou is that the servers are singing all the time. They are all actors (or to-be actors) from Broadway who do not have any assignments at this time. So you can dine here at affordable prices and listen to several musical and other songs from professional singers. Really great and I think something special. This is a really good tip especially for your first evening in NYC, in case you are jetlagged – this is a dinner place that does keep you awake :)

My last one enables you to save really a lot of time. You are able to see whole NYC exactly in one hour. You are asking yourself how that is possible. I have the solution. The Marriott Marquis hotel at the Times Square has a revolving bar and restaurant in the 42nd floor. You will get there by express elevator and normally you will not need a reservation. The nice staff guides you to your table and it doesn’t matter if you will chose the dinner buffet, just the nice dessert buffet (with a chocolate dwell and lots of fresh fruits, cakes and cheese) or only a drink: Whole NYC and parts of Jersey will pass your table behind the window within one hour. This experience is not the cheapest but it is worth to do and a nice ending for a beautiful day in the city that never sleeps.