New York is expensive, but the expense is concentrated. Three line items — accommodation, alcohol and ticketed attractions — will take the overwhelming majority of a typical visitor’s budget, and all three have workable alternatives. Transport is genuinely cheap. Food ranges from three dollars to three hundred and the three-dollar end is good.
Here is where to cut, in order of how much it saves.
1. Where you sleep
The biggest number by far, and the one most people optimise least.
Move one subway stop out. Long Island City in Queens is one stop from Grand Central on the 7 and routinely 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than the equivalent Manhattan hotel. Downtown Brooklyn, Jersey City on the PATH, and Harlem on the express trains are all similar.
Go in the low season. Mid-January to early March is half the price of October. See the seasons guide for what that means in practice.
Check the total, not the rate. Many New York hotels charge a mandatory nightly facility fee that is not in the advertised price, on top of roughly 15 per cent in taxes.
Hostels in New York are legitimate and there are good ones in the Upper West Side, Harlem and Brooklyn.
Short-term lets are heavily restricted under Local Law 18. A whole apartment offered for a few nights is very likely illegal, and last-minute cancellations happen.
2. What you drink
A cocktail in Manhattan is often eighteen to twenty-two dollars, a beer eight to twelve, a glass of wine fifteen and up. Two people having three drinks each in a bar can spend more than they did on dinner.
Happy hours are a serious institution, typically 4–7pm on weekdays, often half price.
Buy from a shop. Beer and wine are sold in supermarkets and delis; spirits in separate liquor stores. Drinking in the street is illegal and enforced inconsistently, but drinking on a hotel roof or in a rented flat is not.
Skip the rooftop bar with the view. You are paying a large premium for a photograph.
3. What you pay to see
Free entry windows exist and are real: MoMA on Friday evenings, the Whitney on Friday evenings and second Sundays, the Guggenheim on Saturday evenings, the Bronx Zoo on Wednesdays. All ticketed online in advance and all released in limited numbers, so set an alarm.
Pay what you wish at the Met and the Natural History Museum applies to New York State residents only, with ID. It does not apply to out-of-state visitors, whatever older guides say.
One observation deck, not three. They show you the same city. Top of the Rock is the one, because the Empire State Building is in the view.
Broadway by lottery. Digital lotteries cost nothing to enter and pay out at thirty to fifty dollars a seat. Enter four or five a day for a week and you will probably win one. See the ticket guide.
The free list is long and good: the Staten Island Ferry, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the High Line, Grand Central, the New York Public Library, the 9/11 Memorial plaza, the Chelsea galleries, Green-Wood Cemetery and a good deal more in the free list.
Attraction passes — CityPASS, Go City and the rest — save money only if you visit three or four paid attractions in a few days and would have paid full price for all of them. Work out the total first.
4. What you eat
This is where a budget can be cut without feeling like one.
Eat lunch as your main meal. The same restaurants that charge sixty dollars a head at dinner run set lunches for a fraction of it. Restaurant Week in late January and midsummer puts good restaurants at fixed low prices for a fortnight.
Eat in the outer boroughs. Flushing, Jackson Heights, Sunset Park, Astoria and Arthur Avenue are all better and half the price of Manhattan. See the neighbourhoods guide.
Eat the cheap New York food, which is the good New York food. Pizza by the slice, bagels, halal cart platters, dim sum, deli sandwiches, tacos. Most of it is under fifteen dollars.
Budget for tax and tip. Any restaurant bill is about 30 per cent more than the menu suggests. See the tipping guide.
5. How you move
Transport is the cheapest part of a New York trip and there is not much to save, but there are two things worth knowing.
OMNY caps automatically. After twelve paid rides in a Monday-to-Sunday week on the same card or phone, the rest of the week is free. You do not need to buy a pass or decide in advance.
Skip taxis in Manhattan between 8am and 7pm. The subway is faster and a tenth of the price.
The Staten Island Ferry is free and NYC Ferry costs slightly more than a subway fare for a full harbour crossing.
What not to cut
Shoes. Ten to twelve miles a day is a normal New York day, and blisters on day two will cost you more of the trip than any saving is worth.
A metro-card cap’s worth of subway rides. Walking everywhere to save three dollars is a false economy when it costs you an afternoon.