People come to New York for its street life, restaurants, and cultural heritage. I go to New York because it makes me think. That’s what I thought as I walked along the High Line on Manhattan’s West Side on a beautiful September morning, marveling at the resilience of nature, the engineering of skyscrapers, and the lack of luxury people have. To live here.
I didn’t have to come up with the last solution, which I did 30 years ago, but I was on a mission to think of ways to make it affordable for travelers.
This budget travel test focused on popular locations in Manhattan’s upscale areas, including one excursion to Brooklyn. My three-day stay showed me that I didn’t have to miss out on theater and good food while enjoying some of my favorite things: free-admission parks, pop-up art, and conversations with strangers.
on the train
My top tip for saving time and money in New York is to take public transportation, including to and from the airport.
On previous trips between LaGuardia Airport and Manhattan, I’ve used taxis (starting at about $40), van shuttles (starting at $29), and buses ($2.90). None of them had the speed.
Currently, the free LaGuardia Link Q70 runs between the airport and Jackson Heights Roosevelt Avenue Station in Queens. Buses run every 8-10 minutes and connect to the subway to Manhattan ($2.90). Less than an hour after landing, I was standing in the crowd at Rockefeller Center.
When you land at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the interterminal AirTrain JFK connects you to the subway ($11.40). At Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey Transit trains connect the airport with Penn Station ($17.10).
In general, traveling by public transportation is cheap, fast, and smooth. The system accepts cell phone wallets and contactless credit cards with a tap at the turnstile ($2.90 on most rides, $34 limit within seven days as long as you use the same payment method each time).
Search for accommodation plans in remote areas
They say you can find anything in New York. I think cheap and well-located hotels are still a challenge.
Pauline Frommer, author of the annual guidebook “Frommer’s New York City,” said that due to a citywide ban on short-term rentals of less than 30 days and an influx of immigrants, many staying in hotels. , said that availability of bargain rooms is decreasing.
“We had to send people to New Jersey for the first year,” she said of the just-published 2025 edition of the book.
Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune of living in Midtown on the edges of the East and West Sides. The rooms at the Yotel New York Times Square, at 10th Avenue and 42nd Street on the West Side, are so compact that walking around the bed requires flipping a switch that electrically folds the bed into a sofa. Located on the Eastside at 51st Street and 2nd Avenue, Pod 51 offers comfortable, no-frills rooms. Prices vary depending on season and demand, but both of the hotels I stayed in cost about $100 a night.
But not in September. Prices were high because the US Open Tennis Tournament and New York Fashion Week were being held. I booked the Paramount Hotel in Times Square. The single price was as low as $155.
After taxes and fees, the bill was $600 for two nights in a tiny room with a sagging mattress and an air conditioner that roared like a wind turbine. However, it was clean and well located.
Step up from street food
Traditional New York gourmet bargains like streetcar hot dogs and sliced pizza can be had for just a few dollars. The bill will be higher if you sit down to eat, so takeout is a good option. At Rockefeller Center, Mr. Frommer took me to Ace’s Pizza. Ace’s Pizza is a spin-off of Brooklyn’s Original Pizza, specializing in affordable Detroit-style pizza that’s chewy on the inside and crispy on the edges. A personal pepperoni pizza is more than a meal for $10. .
Later that afternoon, I was strolling through Times Square and joined the line for the first Los Tacos. Modeled after a Mexican taqueria, the restaurant featured a hand-painted sign and a counter. Dinner was about $10 (one delicious marinated pork “adobada” taco costs $5.25).
For sit-down prices, we consulted the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list of value-oriented restaurants. (The New York Times Dining Newsletter also frequently focuses on affordable restaurants.)
The next day at lunch, I visited Dim Sum Go Go in Chinatown and indulged in a dim sum platter ($21.95 with tea) of 10 Cantonese-style dumplings stuffed with a variety of fillings, including shrimp, pork, chicken, and mushrooms.
Afterwards, I visited a soba restaurant in the East Village. Not only does it excel in making delicious, rustic soba noodles (starting at $13), but it transports me to Japan with its minimalist wood-decorated interior and attentive service.
Great theater discounts
As a theater geek, I often splurge on Broadway. But it doesn’t have to be. Your money-saving strategy relies on flexibility in show selection, dates, and seating locations.
TKTS, the theater district’s most prominent discount store, lists same-day ticket sales, often at half price. Travelers line up to buy at Times Square booths every day.
Many shows offer cheap same-day rush tickets to people who come to the box office or choose a digital lottery ticket through LuckySeat.com. Broadway Roulette tickets are on sale for $49 to $59, but you don’t know which show you’ll see until you pay.
To save time, I used Broadway Box, an online discount retailer, to purchase an $86 ticket to the jukebox “& Juliet” in the front right row of the Stephen Sondheim Theater ($40 The total cost is $99 including discounts and fees). A musical that frees Shakespeare’s Juliet from Romeo with a lively Britney Spears anthem.
Most of the cheap skaters around me said they were happy paying about $100 for a ticket. “But what about shoes?” I asked. “They’re dancing, but I can’t see their feet.”
The couple in row B shrugged and went back to their program.
View free art
Buoyed by my Broadway experience, I hopped on the M42 bus ($2.90) to the East River. There, an empty lot was transformed by installation artist Bruce Munro into Freedom Plaza’s “Field of Light” (free timed tickets, until November 30).
In a dark field of tall grass, more than 18,000 glowing lights shone on the stems, making them look like glowing flowers. A walking path wound through them. The experience was meditative, as the crickets sang.
Free pop-ups bring New York to life (like the outdoor life-size elephant sculpture exhibit in the Meatpacking District). But travelers can also count on some free museums to offset the more expensive options (for example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art costs $30 from out of town).
Housed in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, the museum features spectacular spaces, including a three-story rotunda with murals by artist Reginald Marsh and tranquil galleries dedicated to indigenous cultures from the North Pole to the southern tip of South America. It is fused.
As I admired the display of ceremonial hats, I became engrossed in conversation with the security guard.
“What happens when you graduate? You put on a cap,” he said of the graduate cap and gown attire. He added birthday and New Year party hats to the list of hat-driven cultural traditions.
Enjoy the great outdoors
New York’s parks offer free, relaxing moments, a testament to the genius of New York’s landscape architects, including Central Park.
Designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux incorporated landscaped gardens, trails, fields, and woodlands into their 843-acre haven. On our 90 minute walk we were excited to see warblers and finches and explore the native grasses and flowers of Dean Slope.
A lot of construction work was needed to make Central Park look natural. That also applies to newer spaces, such as Little Island in the Hudson River, on the site of Pier 54, where transatlantic passengers arrived in the early 20th century. The Meatpacking District attraction opened in 2021 on a raised pier that resembles an oversized golf tee.
When I visited one morning, the nearly 2-acre park was buzzing with runners tracing the slopes and steps around the manicured hills. From the top of the hill to the southwest, we could see the Statue of Liberty and the High Line a few blocks away.
Perhaps New York’s most acclaimed urban reuse project, the High Line is a linear park built on the elevated tracks of a former freight railroad. From Gansevoort Street to 34th Street (just over 20 blocks), the High Line offers quintessential New York views from cobblestone streets to the Empire State Building, surrounded by flowering perennials, shrubs, and trees. can.
There are tours to suit every budget
New York City has seemingly endless tours. Some tours are macro, such as a helicopter tour, while others are more specific, such as visiting the filming locations of “Sex and the City” or food carts in Midtown. Self-guided audio tours are an inexpensive option.
I spent two mornings touring to test what I could gain and lose with guided vs. DIY. We started with Walks Inc. ($35) and a 90-minute trek around the landmark Grand Central Terminal.
Colin Israel, an actor and guide for a group of 15 people, uses statistics (the station has “33 miles of track in one city block,” he said) and hints at the accepted philosophy. Mixed architectural insights, including the decorative use of acorns. According to Cornelius Vanderbilt, the device’s developer, a small acorn will sprout a large oak tree.
I learned that the constellations on the ceiling mural of the main hall appear to be facing backwards, so I explored Yayoi Kusama’s mosaic mural added in 2023. Mr. Israel then answered questions about food and the Broadway hit (“Moulin Rouge”). It was well worth it given the expertise and engagement.
I’m not sure I felt just as invested in crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on the cheap while listening to the free walking tour ($2.99) audio guide on my phone.
As cars whizzed by below, the boardwalk at the top of the 1883 Bridge, which connects Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, was crowded with runners and tourists taking photos.
About a mile and a half each way, I heard about caisson construction and cable technology in a script interspersed with amusing anecdotes. These included the fact that in 1884, 21 circus elephants, directed by showman PT Barnum, paraded across the bridge. It was strong.
I got lost and missed the exit indicated on the recording, but ended up in front of the Brooklyn Fire Department. There, firefighters stood drenched in the wind after drilling holes with hoses.
My encounter with a slice of New York life just blocks from a busy bridge reminded me of the immense rewards of spontaneity and the surprise of going off course.
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