I went to Manhattan in May this year with my boyfriend, and it was about a year in the making! I spent hours scouring the internet for the best tips and blogs to help me have the smoothest trip possible. Travel tends to stress me out and the more planning I do, the more I know something wont go wrong, the better I feel. These are just a few tips that I learned through extensive research and used in my planning, so I put them all together and hopefully they'll help you too!
Beware: This is extensive! I've tried to compile a list of information that I found super helpful or that I struggled to find when I was looking for help.
Booking
I know it's fantastic to book through a local travel agency and pay back to the humans behind the desk but if you're like me and you can't afford a "full priced" holiday (because you don't to save forever you want to go right now please) sometimes a place like Expedia is best. I also know people have fears (like myself) about booking such a big holiday online. What if something goes wrong? Who do I contact? What can I do? I've booked a few trips previously on Expedia and each one went off without a hitch and with no fuss! With Expedia you see your full price for both flights and hotel when you search so you can easily see what your end budget is before tax. After months of research (we had to wait for my boyfriend to officially book holidays from work) I could see that for 6 nights and 7 days the average price for hotel for a decent hotel, close to the city and flights at the time we were going was around €1,100 to €1,300. We managed to book a 5 star hotel, in Times Square plus flights for close to €1,300, and when I looked the hotel up online, the hotel itself, no flights, for 6 nights was €1,300! We said why not, we may as well go big especially because it was within our budget and we had been looking at a 3 star for €100 less. You can definitely get any price range that you want and they have everything from hostels to big swanky hotels and all areas.
Luggage
I would recommend to buy lightweight luggage on four wheels. First of all buying lightweight or featherweight luggage can be such a lifesaver on the way home, as well as on the way out because your case isn't taking up 5kg of your weight allowance! You can afford to take more back with you without worrying about paying the extra fees at the airport. I bought a suitcase with four wheels before we went which was so handy for the airport to just glide it along beside me, and also once we got onto the streets walking from the station to our hotel it was so much easier to walk it right beside me or in front of me and not worry about getting in someones way, someone tampering with it or having it tug at my arm as I drag it along.
Airport
We flew in and out of Newark airport in New Jersey. This just happened to be the best flights at the time but I personally had great experience in this airport even though I have read some unsavoury reviews. It's a much smaller airport than JFK and LaGuardia and much less busy. As far as I know LaGuardia is usually used for domestic flights and JFK is the main airport but it's just as far, if not farther, than Newark. Newark isn't the best for shops or restaurants, in fact it's very quiet and bare so keep that in mind when you're thinking of flying home if that's something that concerns you.
Transport to and from the airports
I'm going to just talk about Newark airport mainly because we only had experiences here and I also found tons of information on JFK and LaGuardia but not as much on Newark. There's quite a few options to get to and from Newark to Manhattan. Taxi, train, car service and shuttle. Taxis can be expensive, especially if you have to consider things like tolls, time, traffic and even the size of your bag (they can charge extra for certain bag sizes)! personally I'd stay away from a taxi as it's just not worth it. If there's a few of you, you could hire a rented car which are usually hired by the hour and can be payed in advance and will stop you waiting in lines for taxis. These however can be expensive also especially if there's not a lot of you sharing and beware of traffic slowing down your journey also. Shared shuttles are also an option but they can be unreliable and also if part of your party is late you'll have to wait for them to arrive, if a flight is delayed, that could be a while! And the other option, and the one we chose, was to take an Airtrain to the NJ Transit and then we took a train (not an Amtrak) to Penn station New York, be aware there is also a Penn Station New Jersey, this is not your stop! The ticket for the train is $12.50 and it includes both the Airtrain and train ticket into Penn station. When we arrived we followed the signs until we got outside and then walked 15 minutes to our hotel. The whole journey took around 40 minutes. For us this was the clear way to get into the city because it was cheap, quick and easy. There was no traffic, no real wait times, no expensive trips.
Hotel
We stayed in The Knickerbocker hotel on 42nd street right across from Times Square, you could even see it from our hotel window (I used to sit and do my make up watching the Square wake up every morning) it was such a beautiful hotel that has been around since 1906 but has been recently modernised and the staff were extremely friendly and accommodating. We were 14 floors up, our room had double glazed windows with black out blinds so the noise and bright lights never bothered us. I would 100% recommend this hotel if it's in your budget, it's so close to everything and to a lot of subways and bus stations.
Tips
Tipping is something that absolutely terrified me! I had tipped before but I've never been expected to especially a percentage of the bill, it's always just been the extra change. I downloaded a tip calculator to help me do this which I explain a bit below. Do keep an eye out as some places will add on a tip to the end of the bill and very sneakily not tell you so you could end up tipping twice! Also remember tax (on everything except clothes under $110) is not added until a purchase is made, so don't be surprised if the total is more than you had calculated in your head.
Subway
We had decided that we wanted to walk as much of the city as possible to get the most experience out of New York as we could, but when we had to, we took the subway! It was cheap and quick and with the help of the NYC Subway app it was really easy. When you step up to the machine it's all pretty clearly shown on the machine and they have different colour blocks for what section you need and everything is pretty clearly listed on the screens, all you need to do is follow the directions! Some things that are helpful to know are: no matter what your ticket will cost $1, a one way fare costs $2.75 (plus the $1 fee makes it $3.75) but you can top up your card with more than just that amount, for example, you could add $11 to your card and get 4 trips out of that rather than adding a ride every time you go. You can also refill your card at any time, just keep your card. Pay-per-ride tickets are very handy because they can be used by more than one person (up to 4) so one person enters, passes it back and the next person enters. The type of ticket we used was the 7 day unlimited ride ticket for $32 (plus the $1 fee), this was because I had worked out an approximate amount of time I knew we were going to have to take the subway (to get to and from Yankee stadium etc) and it would have cost us more to do it single ride every time. This card cannot be used by more than one person because there's an 18 minute delay on the card between each use, meaning if you swiped and passed it back, you can't use it again for 18 minutes.
Just in case you need more information, here is the site I used to help me and it's extensive! If there's something I haven't covered, you're sure to find it there including how to use your ticket, what's the difference between a diamond shape and circle on the train numbers and what direction downtown and uptown are.
Taxi
We didn't take taxis as we'd rather walk and see the city for exactly how it is, but if it's something you want to do, here's a website that I found very helpful when I was looking at the idea. I would have loved to take an iconic yellow cab but the idea of hailing a cab and paying god knows what for how long of a journey that could have taken ten minutes on foot just wasn't enough of a pull for me personally.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor can be extremely helpful when it comes to sights, resteraunts and tips but don't go on just these reviews alone, sometimes people have very different, and sometimes high expectations and the smallest thing can result in a bad review! I've seen people give one star reviews because the bathroom had no bath! If you're in New York, chances are even the best hotels have small rooms and small bathrooms and you're probably going to pay a price for that, it's New York City! Expect expensive for very little, anything else is a bonus. The same goes for experiences at tourist spots, a lot of what I had read we never actually came across. We had also heard the notorious things about how rude New Yorkers are, but we found them to be so nice and friendly and extremely helpful so don't be scared haha.
Go with what YOU like
As I read review after review and guides and blogs I was told a lot of what to do, I was also told a lot of what not to do ("Don't spend too long in Times Square, it's not worth it") well it turns out I quite enjoyed Times Square, especially at night. Don't go exactly by any of these guides especially if they tell you not to do something based on the fact they don't like it. Do what you want to do, if you enjoy it, go for it! Spend your time how you like!
As I read review after review and guides and blogs I was told a lot of what to do, I was also told a lot of what not to do ("Don't spend too long in Times Square, it's not worth it") well it turns out I quite enjoyed Times Square, especially at night. Don't go exactly by any of these guides especially if they tell you not to do something based on the fact they don't like it. Do what you want to do, if you enjoy it, go for it! Spend your time how you like!
Prebooking sights
I know this isn't what will suit everyone but in my opinion it's much easier and makes the most sense to book and print out your tickets in advance of your trip so you can cut back on time queuing up to buy or collect them. Is the Top of the Rock something you know you can't leave without seeing? Why spend over an hour queuing up on the day to find out they have no slots left? It's so much easier to book your ticket for a certain day and time and know you're good to go! I know this is tough because what if you pick a day with bad weather etc. This may not suit everyone but for me it was worth the risk. I didn't want to go to New York and miss some of what I had waited years to see because I waited two and a half hours in a queue for something I could have bought online months ago. The things I'd recommend buying in advance would be, Top of the Rock or the Empire State building, a Statue of Liberty cruise and a larger broadway show. If you plan on going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island go at the earliest possible time as later in the day the queue can get so long and the longer it can take you to get on the boat, it could be two or three hours before you even leave the dock! We went at half 9 in the morning and we just walked on and even got on an earlier ferry because it was so quiet! I've seen videos of the queue wrapping around Battery park, no thank you! Also if you want to go to the crown of the Statue book well in advance as these sell out months ahead. If you don't care too much about Ellis Island I'd recommend the free ferry to Staten Island instead where you still get a great view of Lady Liberty. I talk more about this site in a bit more detail on my other post, I'll post a link when that goes live.
Planning your "Itinerary"
I would really advise having an idea of what you want to see or even places you want to eat and even if you're not about having an itinerary like me, at least have and idea of where your sights are because it cuts down so much on time, the last thing you want when your trying to fit things in is waste time going from one end of the city to the other because you haven't planned anything and didn't realise the Moma is nowhere near Little Italy! It could easily cut down on a good 40 minutes on a subway or an even longer walk.
Apps
There was a few apps I found super helpful while I was in the city. The first one is NYC Subway. You can use it offline which comes in very handy when walking the city without using your data, you simply use the route planner which subway station you want to go from and which station you want to go to, it then gives you a few options and tells you exactly which number and colour train to get how many stops there is, if there's any changes to take and how long it will take you! This is your best friend when using the subway because reading those maps will give you a headache.
There was a few apps I found super helpful while I was in the city. The first one is NYC Subway. You can use it offline which comes in very handy when walking the city without using your data, you simply use the route planner which subway station you want to go from and which station you want to go to, it then gives you a few options and tells you exactly which number and colour train to get how many stops there is, if there's any changes to take and how long it will take you! This is your best friend when using the subway because reading those maps will give you a headache.
NYC Subway app
The second app I couldn't have done without (on any trip) is Google Maps. You can download any city map you want to use offline, and then you can tag places, restaurants and shops that you want to visit which I did and colour coded them to make it much easier at a quick glance. For example all the places I wanted to eat were in green so when e were in a certain area I could look at the map and see where was close to us. You can also use the route planner to give you directions somewhere you want to go without getting too lost in the big city. Dropbox was a great app I used to upload photos at the end of every day so I could delete my camera roll to make room for more the next day! The last thing you need is to take a photo of an incredible moment only to be told you've no more memory (it's truly heartbreaking). It's an online file that you can connect to your laptop and download all the photos straight to your hard drive, and it's free to use. Tip Calculator is something that I didn't need to use much but it definitely came in handy, you put in the amount of your meal, how many people there was and the percentage you want and it does it for you automatically! No embarrassment of leaving to little or leaving way too much.
I'm not one for walking around a city in heels, the main thing I care about is being comfortable and enjoying what I'm seeing, I don't want to have to cut my day short or sit down every ten minutes because my shoes are hurting. I chose to wear trainers and something light and stretchy like leggings with a loose top for ultimate comfort. You can still be stylish without bleeding or chafing!
Insurance
Please please please don't go to another country without insurance! The last thing you want is to have something stolen, someone to get hurt or to be stuck in a different country with no help. We used getcover.ie for our policy and thankfully we never had to use it, but I don't think I could trust not to.
Comfort
I'm not one for walking around a city in heels, the main thing I care about is being comfortable and enjoying what I'm seeing, I don't want to have to cut my day short or sit down every ten minutes because my shoes are hurting. I chose to wear trainers and something light and stretchy like leggings with a loose top for ultimate comfort. You can still be stylish without bleeding or chafing!
Insurance
Please please please don't go to another country without insurance! The last thing you want is to have something stolen, someone to get hurt or to be stuck in a different country with no help. We used getcover.ie for our policy and thankfully we never had to use it, but I don't think I could trust not to.
