As part of my summer post-university, I’m going to start off travelling to New York City. My family will be travelling together, and it’s my first time ever going to NYC. In all honesty, I’m extremely excited given that I’ve heard such amazing things from friends and relatives. There’s a lot to do, and we will only be there for 2 full days technically. I have begun to realize though that the majority of what I want to do and see revolves around food, drinking and shopping…but isn’t that what travelling is all about?

Travelling to New York City

Drive if you can, or bus, or train

We considered flying for a split second and then realized how much the costs will pile up if booking for a family of 4. All of us will be splitting the drive so the 8+ hour drive won’t be too bad and it’s kind of a roadtrip right?

Checking around for hotel deals

I actually wasn’t heavily involved in hotel bookings like I usually am, but my mom was on top of this. On the daily, or so it felt, we were checking out different hotel deals and booking ones (that we were able to cancel!). In the end we settled on a hotel that is in Hell’s Kitchen which is walking distance from Central Park but not at Central Park area hotel prices.

One of the great websites that I always use is Hotwire.com which we used to book our hotel this time around. There are a bunch of other great ones out there including Trivago, Travelzoo (lot’s of great deals, especially their Top 20 deals) and websites like Booking.com. I always find it’s really important to shop around, and at times find a slightly less “central” location and save some money that way.

Picking a hotel with free breakfast

For many family trips that we’ve gone on, we have stuck with chains that we’ve loved including Hampton Inn. They are great hotels and always have free breakfast which is a bonus and can help save you some money. Think about the savings you’ll get every day though, especially when you’re in a pricier city like NYC-all the money adds up. Obviously if there’s a huge disparity in price between a hotel with breakfast and the one’s without, do without the breakfast.

Planning Ahead

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing my research and figuring out some great places to hit up during our time there. I’m never one to create a detailed itinerary (that’s a bit much for me), but coming up with some places of interest makes things a bit easier when you get there. I also want to do a bit of shopping (maybe a lot…) so I’ve set aside some money to spend and budgeted that out as well as figured out the most important things I need. I’m hoping by doing that I won’t go crazy and spend all my money at Century 21 or Macy’s. We will see how that goes…

Throughout the rest of the trip I’ll be posting photo’s and little updates since this is the first time I’ll be really travelling since I’ve started this blog. Really excited!

Anyone have any great tips for travelling in New York City?