How to Spend New Years in NYC for No More than $550

For those of you who have been here since the very beginning, this will be a repeat post. For everyone else, this is the first piece I ever wrote on an account I had on a blogging site last year. Since New Years will be here before we know it, I decided it would be a perfect time to share this piece on my own site and celebrate how far I have come since. Although a bit longer than my normal write-ups, it gives you every detail on how to do NYC on a budget for New Years. Enjoy!

 

 Standing in Times Square to ring in the New Year is a common bucket list item, but yet so many assume that in order to experience the thrill you need big bucks. Thousand-dollar a night hotels, expensive food and we can’t forget the 15% sales tax (gross). Some of you are probably like me, a 21 year old student with nothing more than a typical college job. But although New York is one of the most expensive places to visit—I am going to tell you how I managed to take a last minute trip to New York for the ball drop with no more than $550 in my pocket.

Accommodation

Here is the biggest tip: SAY NO TO HOTELS! This doesn’t just go for New York, when I travel hotels are the last place I look to stay unless I’m looking for a nice treat. Instead, look at websites like airbnb.com where people rent out their homes at usually cheaper prices than hotels. Not only can this be a cheaper option, if you choose to room with the owners or other roommates it is a great way to meet new people. I mean let’s be honest here, how many people have you made a connection with while staying in a hotel? Not many and I bet you wouldn’t come back with a story about how you stayed with a hypnotist/knife-throwing/kayak instructing yoga teacher who let you play his one of a kind guitars off his wall while listening to the ocean under the bright moonlight as their pet outdoor rabbit curiously ate grass next to you….for $80 a night. Getting back on track, hotels are not the way to go, especially in NYC and especially on a last minute trip. We ended up booking a two story-newly remodeled apartment that was a 5 minute cab ride to Times Square.

Hostels are another great way to go in the city but that’s only if you’re not stressed on time. Some hostels in New York sell out months before New Year’s Eve. If you do plan ahead and have time to book a hostel they are a great idea and are usually the cheapest option.

I’ll go ahead and call myself a hypocrite right now because in my cost breakdown you will see that we stayed at a hotel in Niagara Falls on our way to New York. My excuse: the friend I was with was visiting from Australia so we treated ourselves for the night. I didn’t add that expense into the cost of the trip because it is an expense that can definitely be avoided.

Moral of the story: Hotels can be great every once in a while, but not in New York on New Year’s.

Shopping

Okay now let’s think shopping and souvenirs. Is this your first time visiting New York? If so you’re probably going to want to bring home a few things, but don’t get sucked into the tourist trap shops where you will end up walking out with 7 t-shirts, 5 key chains, 2 magnets, a coffee mug for your grandma and a 4 foot replica of the statue of liberty. Not only did you just spend a good hundred dollars for something that will sit in a drawer for 5 years before you finally decide to throw it out but how the hell do you expect to get that all back home? I once took a trip with my three best friends to the city and one of them bought so many souvenirs she actually had to ship a package home, ouch.

Something I have learned is that it is always good to set a shopping budget.  Having an established amount is the best way to ensure you don’t spend $300 without realizing it. Whether you decide to use it for a new t-shirt, a key chain or a tour of NBC studios is up to you and so is the amount you decide to put in it.

 

Food

So now you’re in the city and you have choices between an upscale restaurant for thirty dollars a plate or a sketchy pizza cart for a dollar. Why not both? I incorporate money for one or two nice dinners depending on how long I’m traveling. By nice dinner I usually mean about a twenty-five dollar plate. Now we may have different ideas of what the term ‘nice dinner’ means. For you it may mean a 4 course hundred dollar meal, if that’s the case we are on totally separate pages and you probably shouldn’t be reading a blog on cheap travel.

Although you might not realize it, there are plenty of amazing restaurants in New York that are reasonably priced. Skip out of the tourist traps and wander down a quirky side street and I promise you will find a nice restaurant where you can dine with locals at a price where you can actually enjoy your food. And of course if you’re in New York, you can’t leave the city without eating at one of the famous hot dog carts, which is also a quick and easy meal. My favorite is stopping at one inside Central Park where you can walk, eat and burn off the calories at the same time!

Would you believe me if I told you home-cooked meals are possible even if you’re thousands of miles away? Just because you aren’t at home doesn’t mean you need to eat out.  Sticking with a rented-apartment or room 99% of the time you will also get a kitchen, so go out and grab a couple groceries for a cheap homemade meal. Hostels and backpackers motels usually come with some sort of kitchen too and sometimes even offer free breakfasts and dinners.

Food to avoid: Sketchy Walgreens salads. Trust me, I’ve made this mistake. After a fourteen hour travel day, a terrifying greyhound bus ride and a terrible snowstorm we landed at our apartment. It was 10:00pm, we were exhausted, starving and looking for any food at a close range. There was a Walgreens on the corner we decided would be a quick and cheap meal so we headed out to get our long-desired food. Sitting down to my salad and my friend to her sub we each took one bite and almost threw up. My “Ceaser Dressing” was as thin as water and my chicken like eating raw meat…not that I’m exactly sure I know what that tastes like. Long story short, we went to bed that night eating nothing more than three pieces of lettuce we ripped apart with our fingers and the Tim Horton’s bagel we had for breakfast.

Overall, food is not something you can avoid so plan wisely. Give yourself a night to go out and enjoy a nice restaurant (I recommend Rue57) but remember that cheap places do exist and a home-cooked meal is possible even in a foreign environment.

Transportation

Okay, this is the part that can get a little tricky.

We come from all over the world and obviously transportation can be the most expensive part. Fortunately I live in Michigan, which gave us the option to drive. However it still was quite a trek as we had to travel through Canada and totaled 15 hours of driving one-way not including a 3-hour bus ride into the city from Hartford, Connecticut thanks to a snowstorm.

If you do need to fly check discount airlines (Southwest, AirTran) and if you are a student try STA travel which gives discount travel options.  Another good trick for cheaper flights is to check smaller surrounding airports. Instead of flying into JFK try flying into LaGuardia or Newark, even if cab fare to the city may be a little more expensive.

I would say anyone who lives on the east side of the Mississippi river and north of Georgia can drive to New York no problem.

If you do drive, expect the unexpected. Expect there to be a crazy snowstorm that follows you the entire way and expect you to get lost off an exit and get stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of the Appalachians. If I’ve learned anything through traveling it would be Murphy’s Law; “Anything that can go wrong, will”. If Google maps says it will take 15 hours…give yourself 18.

Whether you decide to fly or drive, this will be your most stressful part. Be prepared for a stressful moments and a few swear words along the way.

Groups

Team up; bring as many people as you can stand for a long trip. If you are driving, the more people, the less expensive it is for you. Splitting gas costs between four people is a hell of a lot better than paying for it by yourself. This is also a great way to save money for accommodation if you stay in an apartment or hotel, some of the homes on airbnb.com charge for extra people, but usually no more than $25.

If you are the driver of the group talk to the others about not putting as much in for gas. I mean it’s your car that is getting the mileage and you are the one taking the risk of something happening. Even if your car is brand new you never know when a tire can blow.

This being said, do NOT bring someone you hate in order to cut costs…unless you plan on ditching them as soon as you get into the city.

Ball Drop Tips

Before I break down the costs here are a few other tips if you plan on seeing the Ball Drop:

1) Get there EARLY! If you think you have time to wait, you’re wrong. You can ask people around the city and they will tell you to be there around 2:00pm but if you want a good spot plan to be there around noon.

2) Don’t let yourself pee in the streets. It is quite disgusting actually, but you will see water bottles of pee rolling around by the end of the night. There are no bathrooms and if you have to go, you lose your spot. In order to make sure this didn’t happen to us we took our last drink of water December 30th at dinner and didn’t drink anything until after the ball drop on the 1st. Were we thirsty? Of course! But I can promise you we weren’t as miserable as some of the people who were about to pee their pants.

3) Eat a good breakfast. This was a personal mistake. We had been told that 2:00pm would be a good time to show up for the ball drop, so we planned to eat breakfast in Times Square before. As soon as we arrived we realized they were already packing people in and if we didn’t go now we would be blocks away. We were STARVING and getting quite hangry (hungry + angry) and those couple hours that our stomachs growled was torture. Finally, around 5:00pm a guy came delivering medium pizzas for $20 dollars. Safe to say all hell broke loose. People were fighting over who would get one and thankfully we were one of the lucky ones on his 2nd trip in. Best. Pizza. Ever.

4) This is New York in December…dress like it. Just because there are TV cameras there doesn’t mean you should go for the “camera ready” look. You will be freezing. Layers! Layers! Layers! I wanted to say I felt bad for the 18 year olds in their cute coats, hats and texting gloves…but let’s be honest they knew what they were getting themselves into.

5) Don’t be afraid to sit on the ground like a hobo. If no one else is sitting down, start the trend and people will follow because they are all dying to do the same. If you don’t you’re stuck standing in the same spot for 12 hours.

6) The best spot you can possibly have is next to a fence. You might see everyone going to the front by the stages at first, but even though you may be a bit further back head straight for an open fence spot. It gives you something to lean on and you are right there for all the interview action! If you pick a side fence, it may even be a performer’s entrance and exit. That is what happened for us and the result was meeting a lot of the performer’s, it was awesome!

7) It’s not what you see on TV. It may look like one big party through the screen but in reality there is a bunch of standing around. When the time comes for the big celebrity performances, you’ve already heard them preform the song three times during sound check. Also, you never hear any of the interviews or speakers. But don’t let that stop you from going…it’s totally worth it!

8) Leave Early! If you need to take a cab after the ball drop, leave as soon as it’s over. If you wait too long there will be no cabs and you will end up walking fifty blocks back to wherever you are staying. If you do get a cab, be prepared for extreme prices.

It’s not too late to plan your trip to ring in 2015! Make it a best friend’s trip and experience the famous Ball Drop even though at some points you may think “what did I get myself into” afterwards you will look back and go “oh man! What an adventure!”

Cost Break Down:

Apartment through Airbnb.com: $120 for 3 nights split between two people (80/night X 3= 240, 240/2=120)

Food: $150

Shopping/Souvenirs: $30 

Gas: $140 split between two people ($280/2)

Niagara Falls Hotel…OPTIONAL: $120 split between two people ($240/2)

Miscellaneous (the unexpected expenses): $90

Total w/ Niagara Falls: $670

Total w/o Niagara Falls: $550