TRAVEL PREPARATIONS TO NEW YORK

Are you looking for travel arrangements to New York? It is one of the best known cities worldwide and one of the top destinations of almost everyone. So a trip to the Big Apple never disappoints. Of course, it is convenient to prepare the trip in the best possible way to avoid unpleasant surprises. Here we tell you about our experience, organizing a trip to the city that never sleeps, and all the travel arrangements to take into account.

If it is true that the United States never caught our attention (and how wrong we were!), We cannot say the same about New York. It will be all too many series and movies that we have seen in our lives, but New York is familiar to us, even without ever stepping on it, I suppose we are not an isolated case. Having shared our first year in Barcelona with Soufi and Matte, we even thought about going to live in a Manhattan loft for a season ... - what a ternurica, € 300 in the bank account (hopefully) and a life project in a loft, in Manhattan -After Asia came and our heart was filled with temples, curries and bizarre situations, and New York gradually moved away from our mind. Until, a month or so ago, we decided to buy a one-way ticket to the United States. And here you have us.

Preparing a trip to New York is not an easy task, especially for those who like me (Lety) do not want to miss anything, want to know everything, see as much as possible and, as if that were not enough, do it in the most economical way. And yes, you can travel to New York cheap and enjoy an amazing trip to New York.

We are going with the travel arrangements to New York. And in this other post you can see what NOT to do on your visit to New York.

Surprise! Manhattan is the most famous and tourist district of the city, where the most important visits are concentrated, but no, New York is not just Manhattan. The city is made up of 5 different districts: beyond Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Central Park, Empire State Building, Times Square, Wall Street they are wonderful things to see in Manhattan, but There is much more: we have decided to dedicate whole days to get lost in the streets of neighborhoods full of personality like West village or the real Lower East Side, also to walk among neons in Chinatown and try to get a good Sicilian cannolo in Little Italy The different areas of Manhattan do not charge entrance tickets but they have nothing to envy to the viewpoints or to the museums: it is pure life, street, contemporary that, we are sure, will make us fall in love.

In this post of Manhattan neighborhoods we explain what to do in each and every one of them 🙂

advice: Try to make friends with the map of Manhattan and the neighborhoods that form it or when you're in New York, losing you will be easier than imagined.

Do not forget to ask for your ESTA, without it you will not have the permission to enter the United States. You can get it online and it costs $ 14. Make sure you get it on the official website or some other company may take you some €!

→ In this article we explain, step by step, how to get your ESTA.

Good news: flying to New York can be very cheap. Don't you believe us Check the dates in search engines like Skyscanner, create an alert with the specific dates and let yourself be tempted ... there are flights from i / v for less than € 300! We don't really fly to New York: we found a one-way flight to Boston for € 145 with Norwegian and we didn't think twice. From Boston we travel to New York by bus (thanks Megabus for being so cool and cheap).

Things like they are: accommodations in New York, especially in the Manhattan area, are expensive. Although if you are especially excited to stay in Midtown and you can afford it, don't think about it, everyone we know and have stayed there has been delighted. But we prefer to save a little money that will be good for the rest of the trip, it's almost a matter of survival XD

Does this mean you have to forget about Manhattan? Do not! The solution is, at least for us, Airbnb. If you want to reserve a room / apartment for 7 days or more, you will get discounts In many of the properties. We were about to book a room in the Lower East Side, one of the most authentic areas of Manhattan, but we finally decided to save even more and opt for a nice big room in an Astoria apartment, in the Queens neighborhood.

Why Astoria? Because it was the cheapest option within those who had advised us. Astoria is a multicultural neighborhood, interesting and a step away from Manhattan. So the option convinced us and zas, reserved. The price? Some € 50 per night, not bad to be about NY, right?

2019 update: We are currently enjoying a stay of almost a month in New York. In this case we have decided to rent an entire apartment in the Kips Bay area, very close to the Flatiron and we love it! It is clear that renting an apartment in Manhattan is not the cheapest solution but if you can afford it ... do not hesitate.

→ Here we leave you € 25 discount for your rental with Airbnb.

→ Tips for finding cheap accommodation in New York.

Another option is couchsurfing but as we know that we will kick the streets of New York from morning until night and we consider that couchsurfing is much more than staying free, well, we decided on the freedom of Airbnb.

You can look at offers on Booking although it is difficult to find something decent for less than € 80-100, and we say decent and not cool for something XD. That said: for us the best option for quality / price is Airbnb!

For us gastronomy is very important and we will probably spend more time researching street food and food markets than hanging around art galleries and museums. We are like that, fat and happy. Well I, that Rober has tipín and fast metabolism. I hate him.

We have told you the restaurants and places where eat cheap in New YorkWith the best burgers, the best pizzas, the best dogs, the best food trucks and a few more cholesterol-friendly ones. In addition, we leave you with a few gastronomic “experiences”, the typical ones to live in New York (and a few more that we tell you here):

• A shake shack burger
• A puppy of Gray's Papaya
• Another in a street bar (who says another says another 3).
• A Molly's cupcake
• Binge ducking in Chinatown
• Pizza at 99 cent somewhere greasy and feuco and a slice of pizza from Joe's Pizza
• Chealsea Market Tour
• Heart attack and visit to the hospital, which leads us to ...

By the way, it is not difficult to find food for $ 5 (or less!) In New York. To test the post 🙂

Traveling with medical insurance is important and more in countries like the United States, where by a simple operation you will have to mortgage yourself. Don't play it, nothing ever happens until it happens. Being covered and traveling safely during your stay in New York will allow you to enjoy it more relaxed and carefree.

Which is the best travel insurance for the United States? We will trust Iati Insurance, we never had to use their services (luckily) but we have some friends (W the Escariolos!) that did and had a good feeling. Here you have a 5% discount as in any other blog but hey, we are very nice and better hire it here jiji.

Our recommendation is to use travel cards. But not just any card, because the one you have in your bank probably crises you in commissions if you make cash withdrawals or payments abroad. The solution that we have had for a while is to travel with two Bnext cards (each with its own), which we complement with two other N26 cards, these to make payments and in case the first fails. They are for free! Eye: on more than one occasion when paying in New York it has NOT worked for us. Of course, to withdraw from ATMs we did NOT have any problems.

There is also the option of change money and get dollars. But where it is better to change? Is it better to take them from home or do it once we get to New York? The least risky way is to take them from home, so you don't have to worry about looking for exchange houses, comparing prices, etc. But it is important that avoid the banks. We know that what the body asks of you is to go to your bank, request a lot of dollars, and forget about it. These types of operations are where they get a good slice, and they probably charge you a high commission. Eye, it does not hurt to ask and compare. So the alternative would be do it on one of the websites specialized in currency exchange, everything is done online, they send money home and usually offer much better prices and without commissions.

Eye, if in the end you prefer to change money when you arrive in New York, the last tip is do not do it at the exchange offices of the airport, which usually offer a very unfavorable exchange rate. Find the “Currency Exchange” closest to your accommodation and try there.

We will move walking and by subway. The New York subway gave us some dread, and not because of the rats: it seems very complicated, especially at the beginning, but in reality everything is a matter of practice (and to study it a little).

A basic New York subway manual would tell you that:

• Have 26 lines They are differentiated by a number or letter (colors are repeated, so don't trust them!).
• You have to look carefully at the addresses: Uptown indicates that the subway goes up (north) and Downtown down (south) and in the name of the last stop of the line, only then will you know where you are going.
• Eye to local and express trains: The latter do not stop at all stations.
• The Single ticket costs $ 2.75, so if you plan to do more than 10 trips it will compensate you to buy the weekly bonus (MetroCard) worth $ 32 and allows you to make unlimited trips for 7 days.
• The subway runs during 24 hours of the day

New York is not as expensive as described and there are many things to see and do for free, in fact, the main visits are free: Central park, the Brooklyn bridge, see the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry, walk around all the neighborhoods from the city, see the Grand Central Terminal… Here we give you more ideas of things to do for free in New York.

We have written a more complete guide to 100 things to see and do in New York 😉

But let's not fool ourselves, there are some essential visits in New York that are not, it is not free. ¿Examples? The Empire State Building, the Top of the Rock and the Statue of Liberty + Ellis Island (That one thing is to see it from the free ferry and another thing is to meet it in person). Then what do we do? Do we pay without more?

Yes and no. We explain: we do not recommend paying each visit, but to acquire the New York City Pass, a tourist card that allows access to all these attractions and museums:

We will choose to visit the Empire State Building (You can climb twice the same day, to see New York day and night!), the Natural History Museum, the MET, the Top of the Rock Observatory, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and the 11S Memorial and Museum.

Is it worth it or not? As usual it's up to you and what you want to do: If you just want to go up to the Empire and / or the Top of the Rock we obviously do not recommend it, but if you have time and desire you can save yourself a little money… it is our case, as we wanted to see everything, it was profitable. Another option is to get the New York Pass and choose the number of attractions to visit (3 cost about € 89).

There are many tours in New York, but we recommend you do at least one: the Tour contrasts New York, The tour takes you to tour different areas of Harlem, Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn teaching the different faces of the city that never sleeps.

You can read our experience here.

If you want to do other tours or excursions such as Hudson River cruises, day trips to other cities or buy musical tickets, we recommend you take a look at the Civitatis New York website. They usually have good offers.

Uff, we are so afraid of rolling it brown that we are going to download an App like Tip Calculator, which automatically calculates the 15% -20% tips Yes, they are practically mandatory in the United States. Is there no way to avoid them? Yes: if you eat in street places or fast food you don't have to worry about tips. But beware: not only in bars and restaurants will workers expect a tip... It is also a good habit to tip tour staff ($ 1-5), housekeepers ($ 5 / day) and taxi drivers (10-20% total price).

¿Why tipping is mandatory? Ains, complicated terrain. Let's say that many workers in the Service Industry have a pay quite low, and to level it to market standards ... zas: tip. And can't unions get better agreements? Do bosses pay more? Mmm, apparently it doesn't work that way.

The good thing about all this? That workers tend to serve you very well, of course.

We have also written a post full of tips for traveling to New York (and not loading it), be sure to read it!

The truth is that it has helped us a lot to be able to read more about New York in several blogs, but we want to thank them especially for having so much info about New York and for writing it with such love (although we surely forget someone, sorry!) :

• Nycgo
• To New York
• Authentic New York
• Cotters
• Carla's Suitcase
• Street Travelers
• TravelCodeVeronica

We also thank our families for believing in us and Steven Spielberg for giving us the opportunity to win this Oscar: thank you, we would not be here without you. Oops, it seemed like a little speech by Oscar XD

So far our travel arrangements to New York, hopefully they will be useful and neglect: as soon as we return from there, we will update this post with a few more tips. What a desire for New York!

* Photocredit: Shutterstock

Video: Travel prep. New York City Carnival Sunrise Family Vacation Vlog August 2019 (April 2024).