NYC Trip Summary of Deals: Part 2
Other fave deals and bargains in NYC
- Time Square- Hanging out the Time Square is free! And the city has made it easier than ever to hang out a bit, rest up and soak up the crazy lights; They have recently shut down one of the main streets and have set up lawn chairs for people to enjoy!
- Brooklyn Bridge- Walk across the bridge for free! You get to enjoy a great view of the city and history!
- Subway- $25 for 7 days unlimited riding on subways and buses! The subway was SOOOO easy to use; and got us anywhere we needed to go! What a travel bargain! Be sure to snag a subway map, 1st chance you get. We had to ask at several stations before we found one in stock.
- Coney Island- We ventured out to Coney Island and saw the sights, dipped our feet into the Atlantic Ocean. This was all free too.... We didn't do any rides, only a few were operating and I wasn't too interested.
- Federal Reserve Tour- Another freebie. The building was beautiful and it was neat to see the gold vault. I wouldn't do it twice, but it was a neat little 1 hour adventure.
- Chinatown/Little Italy- We ventured around the area to see the sights. Grabbed a great slice of pizza and drink for $5 each. This is definitely a good stop for "cheapish" souvenirs. Check out this website for a good walking tour, with points of interest in the area. Actually, if you explore the website a bit you will find more walking tours and neighborhood maps that are quite useful.
- Grand Central Terminal- A great building to explore, our hotel was a small block away so we were in the building often. The Sky Ceiling was pretty and the Whispering Gallery was neat. Check out this website for more information about the building, a walking tour and also guided tours. The lower concourse had a mall type food court and "ok" public bathrooms (which can be hard to find...). We had a sandwich and cheesecake at the Juniors location down there. It was YUMMY!
- Broadway Tickets- We snagged tickets to Rock of Ages via the TKTS booth for 40% off. This saved us $57 for both tickets. You can check out Broadway Box for discount codes to purchase the tickets ahead of time. It allows you some more control over your tickets, you get to pick your seats via ticketmaster and no for sure that you can get tickets. The TKTS booths offer tickets up to 50% off and are a great option if there are no discount codes that apply to the show you want to see. In our case, there were discount codes available, just not for the Friday show we wanted to see. Anyway, if you go the TKTS booth route, there are three locations. I would recommend going to the South Seaport location because it opens earlier (11 am) and has less of a line. The main TKTS booth in Times Square isn't open until 2pm and had crazy long lines (although people have claimed the lines move fast...). Anyway, we hit the South Seaport location before walking the Brooklyn Bridge, but its also right down by the financial district as well, so you could definitely plan some site seeing around buying tickets.
- Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center)- We decided to do Top of the Rock vs. Empire Center because of crazy lines. The Rockefeller center is also where Jimmy Fallon is taped, so we did this right before dusk. It was gorgeous. Normally $20, but we used this $3 coupon. If you forget a coupon, snag one from a guy in a red vest down in the plaza. They were passing $2 coupons to everyone.
Not a deal, but another great resource.
HopStop- Plug in your starting point and ending point and it will give you directions using subway, buses and walking. I set up itineraries for each day (which is adjusted somewhat) and it was great to have general directions about which subway line to take and where to get off (especially before we were able to find an actual subway map).
Ok.. so I think I am done. If you have any questions, please let me know. We had a blast and can't wait to plan our next trip.
2 comments :
You saw a lot of things in the few days you were there. My NYC office was on Broome St. for years and I loved going down there to work and being on the edge of Little Italy and Chinatown. Many excellent cheap lunches come to mind. The subway system is terrific. It is the best way to get around NY. In later years the office moved to Penn Station and it was so easy to just go downstairs and catch the train upstate.
Yeah peter had me up and going early and it was go, go, go until we crashed at the hotel in the evening. We really wanted to do/see as much as possible, (without spending a ton...) on this trip. When we go back, with kids, it will have to be at a much slower pace.
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