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| Hotel Carter |
I traveled with my daughter Elizabeth for a 5-day vacation
in New York City. Since I was on a limited budget, I found some cheap ways to
have fun and see the “City That Doesn’t Sleep.”
Getting there and back.
There are three major airports that fly into New York City.
The cheapest flight from Omaha was to the Newark airport (around $300 each
roundtrip). We caught a shuttle bus at the airport that dropped us off two
blocks from our hotel ($18 each roundtrip).
Where to stay.
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| Hotel Carter |
The Hotel Carter is one block from Times Square. A room with
two double beds was $110 a night. Don’t believe the Internet reviews. The Hotel
Carter is like a Motel 6, a small room with a bathroom/shower and a television
that gets only two channels. A lot of foreign travelers were staying there
because of the price and the location.
I didn’t plan on spending a lot of time in the room, so I was willing to
accept modest accommodations. We were on the 6
th floor, but with
three elevators, we rarely had to wait.
Getting Around
We walked to nearby sights the first two days. Then took the
subway (and one awkward bus ride) the rest of the time. The subway entrance was
at the end of the block from the Hotel. We purchased a MetroCard for $10 worth
of trips (each trip is $2.25). You can add to the card at any subway stop. The
people on the subway were very helpful and polite. One gentleman heard us
talking about going to Chinatown and told us we needed to get off at the next
stop or we would end up in Brooklyn.
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| The Book of Mormon |
Food.
A guy could spend a lot on restaurant food. I chose a little
place a block away that sold cheese pizza for $1 a slice (50 cents more with
black olives on top). There were
street food carts on every corner and we ate a couple $4-6 meals from the
carts. There were some specialty places I wanted to eat at- Soup from the “Soup
Nazi”, The Tasty Dumpling in Chinatown with their 5 dumplings for $1.25, a
hamburger at the Shake Shack (expensive- a meal ran about $10).
Broadway shows
This is what I chose to spend money on. To get good seats
for “The Book Of Mormon” was pricey, $200 a ticket. But this was the one I
wanted to see. We also paid regular price ($120 a ticket) for the musical
“Spiderman” (the theatre was right next to our Hotel).
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| The lucky winner of Priscilla tickets |
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| Spiderman (Good Seats) |
I wanted to see a couple more shows, but didn’t want to
spend a lot of money so we tried the “lottery.” Some Broadway shows hold
lottery drawings for a pair of discounted tickets a couple hours before the
doors open. I found some shows that had open lotteries- anyone can enter-rather
than student lotteries- only people with student ID’s can enter. Of the four
lottery drawings we entered, my name was drawn twice. We had front row seats to
the musical “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” and good seats to the play “Peter and
The Starcatcher.” I didn’t realize “Priscilla” was about drag queens traveling
across the Australian Outback until right before the drawing, but the seats
were great and it was hilarious.
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| Central Park (wrong bridge) |
Free Sightseeing
#1- Central Park. A long walk but worth it. We walked
through “Strawberry Fields”- a memorial to John Lennon- and made it to
Belvedere Castle. I didn’t realize Bow Bridge was such a big deal (it has been
used in several movies) until it was too late to go back. I suggest finding it
and walking across it.
#2- Staten Island Ferry. Free trip across the Hudson River
and takes you close to the Statue of Liberty.
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| Little Italy |
#3- 9/11 Memorial. Two large pools with the names of the
victims engraved around the edges. The museum was not completed yet when we
went. The new towers were under construction.
#4- Chinatown and Little Italy. Lots of restaurants and
shops. They can’t charge you for looking. I did spring for some gelato and a
biscotti in Little Italy (dessert after a meal at the Tasty Dumpling).
#5- Times Square. Lots of things to see, including people
trying to make money, like the Naked Cowboy- playing the guitar in his white
Fruit of the Looms, his boots and his cowboy hat. We went to look at most of
the famous Broadway theatres around Times Square.
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| Times Square |
#6- Wall Street and the financial district. Not what I
expected. The New York Stock Exchange Building was fenced in and guarded.
Didn’t see any of the Occupy Wall Street people. We stopped at Trinity Church
and saw the gravesite of Alexander Hamilton.
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| The Toy Store with the giant keyboard |
#7- Grand Central Station and Park Avenue. The station is
worth the walk. Wasn’t impressed with the big corporate headquarters and
department stores.
#8- South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked
half-way across the bridge and walked back. Checked out the view of the East
River and the Bridge from the Seaport.
We also ate in Bryant Park and visited the New York Library.
And went to Greenwich Village at the corner of Bedford and Grove to see the
apartment building where the TV show characters in “Friends” lived. We stumbled
across the filming of a stunt scene for the movie “The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty.”
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| Brooklyn from the Seaport |
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| 9/11 Memorial Pool |
What we paid to see.
#1- Top of the Rock. Picked between the Top of the Rock and
the Empire State Building. Went with the Rock.
#2- MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Lots of museums on
Museum Row. Most are free one day a week, but we weren’t able to work a free
trip to a museum into our schedule. My preference is for modern art over the
ancient stuff. If you see a large gathering of people taking pictures, then you
have found “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. Luckily, Beth took an Art
History class and explained what the big deal was. I was surprised that the
painting was only the size of a computer monitor.
If you were thinking there would be more in this section,
refer back to the title.
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| Alexander Hamilton |
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| Filming "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" |
If I had a chance to go again.
#1- Go to a Yankees game
#2- Get tickets to David Letterman or Saturday Night Live
(have to request tickets a year in advance)
#3- Get on the set when they are filming one of the morning
shows like GMA.
#4- Take advantage of the free museum days
#5- Get a picture standing on Bow Bridge.
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| Statue of Liberty from The Staten Island Ferry |
#6- Go up in the Empire State Building
