Traveling is a lot of fun but can be expensive as well. To find out exactly how much we spent during our round the world trip we painstakingly keep track of all of our travel expenses and analyse them for you. In this post: what should your New York travel budget be?
New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so it’s a good idea to think about your travel budget before visiting the Big Apple. We spent 8 days in Manhattan which cost us $2,353.70 (€2,118.33) in total or $147.11 (€132.40) per person per day.
Average Spending Per Person Per Day
We stayed at an AirBnB in East Village that we shared with our parents (who were visiting us during our trip around the world). It was a cozy, 2 bedroom apartment in a convenient location that cost us $69.03 per person per day. You could save some money by staying outside of Manhattan, just make sure you’re close to a subway station. This is especially useful when you have to rush back to your apartment because you forgot the tickets for the baseball game.
There are plenty of free things to do in NYC so if you’re on a really tight budget you could just stick to those and still have a great time. Get yourself an unlimited MetroCard for only $32 for 7 days and you have everything you need for exploring the city.
That said, there are a few paid activities that we highly recommend. These activities and sights cost us $25.84 per person per day but really are essential to your New York experience: a Broadway musical, world class museums, amazing observation decks and baseball at Yankee Stadium. These are definitely worth paying for.
Food & drinks was another big spend for us, so let’s take a look at that in detail:
Average Spending PPPD for Food & Drinks
It’s easy to spend a ton of money on food in New York but there are cheaper alternatives as well. We tried a good mix of expensive restaurants and street food and found a few great places to eat in NYC on any budget.
Just don’t forget about tipping. If someone is serving you food you probably have to tip them about 20%. Wether you agree with this custom our not: don’t take it out on your waiter.
So what do you think of our New York travel budget? We tried to experience the city without breaking the entire bank and feel like we did a pretty decent job. Even though expensive, New York City is definitely different and something you should experience for yourself, whatever your travel budget might be!
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Where did you stay for just $69 a day? Hostel?
Hi Rodney, we shared an AirBnB apartment with 4 people. The $69 is the price per night divided by 4.