Anonymous wrote:Nice hotels in NY are upwards of $1k a night.

We went up for the day on the train last Christmas. Long story short, we ended up having to stay overnight due to Amtrak (yes, they suck). I found quite a few reasonably priced hotels on the Hotels Tonight app. I think the one we stayed at across from Lincoln Center was around $250 or so. I think you can book ahead of time too on the app.

Hotels are rough that time of year. I looked starting eight weeks out and checked back frequently. Still paid about $650/night for a midtown Hampton Inn. This was in 2023. I don't think it included tax, but I can't remember. Similar properties were all around the same.

We just paid $1700 for tickets for our family of 4 to the NYCB Nutcracker and Rockettes. $2800 for hotel for two nights, two rooms, at a Hilton in Times Square. Estimate $1000 for food and drinks. Trains will cost about $1200. That's $7k for a nice weekend in NYC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am doing similar trip, but on a budget. Family of 4, sharing 1 room, I plan to spend $7k for 7 days. Hotel $3500, flights $2000, dining out/tickets $1500.

I think you’ll have to do some planning to stay within that food budget. But depends how old the kids are and how much they eat.

That is not enough. Food will run you $1500 before any tickets or shopping. We went for 48 hours last December and went to a show, basketball game at the garden(college), meals and a little shopping- 5 of us- $2000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am doing similar trip, but on a budget. Family of 4, sharing 1 room, I plan to spend $7k for 7 days. Hotel $3500, flights $2000, dining out/tickets $1500.

Are you outside the DMV? I can’t imagine traveling to NYC on a budget while burning $2k on flights when I could take the NE Regional or drive and stash my car in a Jersey Lot for the week. Either option would cost less than $500, and would get you on Manhattan in the same amount of time as flying, if not quicker.

Yes, coming from Chicago! And i will bump up the dining-out budget since I was duly eviscerated. Not seeing any shows this time.

What stuff do you really want to do in New York, how old are your kids, and how edgy are you?

Obviously, if you want to do regular tourist-y things at a decent level of quality, that could be expensive. But there are plenty of ways to economize.

Example: You probably could get a nice AirBnB on the New Jersey side that’s well within your budget.

If you breakfast on yogurt, go to bagel or burrito places for lunch, and stick with modest restaurants for dinner, you could easily hold your daily food spending for five adult equivalents to $1,400 for the trip.

If avoid tourist-y attractions, hunt for free activities and spend a lot of time at playgrounds and walking around, maybe you could hold ticket spending for five to about $600, assuming you just chill one day.

You didn’t include ground transportation here. If you stay in New Jersey or Manhattan, and all five of you are adult equivalents who will take public transit, I’d budget at least $500 for bus and subway tickets.

So, I think you could hold the basic cost of being in New York for seven days to $6,000.

My daughter lives in NY and I often drive up at Xmas. There are several nice boutique hotels on the UWS where you can park on the street (just pay attention to the new parking rules and definitely be ready to move your car during street sweeping hours). Seems like a lot but it's not at all. Plus it's nice to return to a quieter part of the city after a long day of crowds.

And not far will be the Columbus Circle Holiday Market (exactly like Bryant Park). We've always preferred it to some of the others.

Have fun!