Planning a trip to New York City is exciting! But it can also be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. It’s such a big place and there’s so much to do that you couldn’t possibly squeeze it all into one trip. As a regular visitor to New York and a former resident of New Jersey, Artur Hiaeve has developed a certain big-city vacation style. Here he’s going to give us his top tips for getting the most out of your next New York City vacation.
New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world when it comes to the cost of living. A slice of pizza can cost $20 in some places! But it doesn’t have to be super expensive if you plan your trip right. Before you book your flights and hotel, sit down and do some research. Make a list of the places you absolutely cannot miss, and start pricing them. See if there are any free museum nights, Wednesday discounts, or seasonal dips in pricing, and try to plan your vacation around them.
Artur Hiaeve says he learned this tip from years of experience and sore feet. While you can take the subway and walk to get just about anywhere in New York, you should consider how much of your vacation you want to spend on the subway. Having a hotel that is close to a central line and in a neighborhood that’s located near the attractions you’re most interested in can save you a lot of time, energy, and frustration.
And when you’re looking at the map, warns Artur Hiaeve, be sure that you’re not just glancing over it. It can be deceptively far from one location to another when you’re walking miles instead of the inches you see on the map!
Using taxis to get everywhere is going to eat up your vacation budget fast, warns Artur Hiaeve. And because the traffic is so bad, it’s not always the fastest way to get around either. The subway is much cheaper, much more convenient, and runs pretty much everywhere in the city you could need to go.
It can be overwhelming on your first trip, but you’ll get the hang of it after a day or two and be zipping around and pushing past tourists in no time! Besides, if you don’t use the subway, have you even really been to New York?
Artur Hiaeve is an insurance consultant who grew up in New Jersey and spent a lot of his youth exploring New York. Now, he loves to visit the city with his family as often as possible and share his love of the Big Apple.