How To Spend 4 Day Family Vacation In Nyc On A Budget
It is the summertime and everyone is looking for a cool holiday to spend with extended family. We all want to save money, especially during these tough times but most importantly we want to have fun. The city that never sleeps has a lot to offer everyone including tourists on vacation. The Big Apple has always been e xtremely popular for its diverse culture, café lifestyle and legendary nightlife. If you want to plan a budget friendly trip here’s my top four day family vacation in Nyc on a budget!
Whether you want to tour New York City for 4 days, or take a quick family vacation, we’ve got your back — and your wallet. I’ll show you how to enjoy four days in NYC without breaking the bank.
Are you planning a vacation with your family? Have you visited the Big Apple yet? Have you heard that New York is one of the best shopping and tourism destinations in the world? Would like to visit New York someday with your family but not sure how much it will cost? If so, this blog post is for you.
How To Spend 4 Day Family Vacation In Nyc On A Budget
We came at New York pretty much blind, I’d done almost no research on what to do nor where to go. All we had organised was a 4-night stay in a Holiday Inn not far from Times Square. Times Square sounds like a good place to stay, right? Check current prices on our bargain Times Square hotel here, there was plenty of room for our family and the location was good. It was about the cheapest place we could find and it was the most expensive place we’d ever stayed. New York is not cheap! We hit New York in Arctic conditions, snow was on the ground, and temperatures were set to drop to -11 degrees C. That was pretty exciting for us, my kids had never seen snow and ice and they mostly loved the new experience.
This trip was for my husband. Chef loved exploring the city, it was a dream come true for him.
He was out wandering and exploring while we stayed indoors in the warm.
What we did manage to see we loved, New York is a great city, and it is possible to make it budget-friendly.
Seeing the Statue of Liberty as we arrived on our cruise ship (it was Norwegian Getaway, an Atlantic Crossing to New York) was amazing. My fingers were frozen as I tried to take photos and my camera wasn’t cooperating.
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This is the best photo I could get.
Even more amazing was where Getaway was parked (berthed?) almost in Central Park.
Our hotel was just a few blocks away. Right next door to Getaway’s berth, concord, and a submarine were sitting among the ice and snow.
The kids wanted to see The Empire State building, they’d seen it in an episode of Doctor Who and we all wanted to check out Central Park and the museum featured in Night at the Museum.
We weren’t sure which museum that was, but we were pretty sure we could work it out.
I’m absolutely no expert on New York, so I’m not going to write any sort of authoritative post, but here are some of our experiences and things we worked out as budget travellers in the Big Apple.
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New York on a Budget
Budget-friendly things to do, ways to eat, and how to save are listed below. We were on an ultra-tight budget, but we made New York work for us.
New York City Pass
Were we to visit New York again and wanted to save some cash while seeing as much as possible, we’d certainly invest in a New York City Pass.
Unfortunately, when we visited New York, we didn’t know they existed. You can buy your New York City Pass here. This should make a trip to New York more budget-friendly.
Taxi Cab or Subway?
Taxi cabs work out cheaper than taking the subway (tube train) in New York,for a family of 4 on shorter trips. Cabs are really good value, we thought, compared to London.
Budget New York Eats
Pizza at $1 for a really huge slice fills us up on the cheap. It’s pretty good pizza and available everywhere.
Night at The Museum
The American Natural History Museum is where you need to go to see a lot of things from the movie “Night at The Museum”.
From the Hudson to Times Square
Ships dock almost IN Central New York, just a few blocks from Central Park on the Hudson River, a cab to our hotel just off times square was under $10.
Included Breakfast Save You Money
Breakfast in cheap hotels (ours, at least) is odd and served on disposable polystyrene plates and bowls.
I’d never seen that before.
But there is plenty of it, a few bananas followed us up to our room and made great snacks. Free tea and coffee all day in the hotel lobby was good news for me and others on a budget.
Take-away cups and lids made it portable. A hot cup of coffee is a good hand warmer in New York in January.
We paid around $140/night for a 4 bed room, including breakfast and wifi, we couldn’t find anything cheaper for a hotel with the features we needed. See the hotel we used here.
