New York City. It's the city everyone dreams of visiting. The tall buildings that tower into the sky, the bright blurs of yellow taxis whizzing by you, the adrenaline that starts pumping the very second you walk into The Empire State Building, knowing that very soon you will be standing on top of a national icon. It's beautiful. It's magnificent. It's inspiring.
Last month I was lucky enough to be able to visit the wonderful city of New York and experience all this for myself, and let me tell you now, there is nothing like it. It is incomparable.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to be sharing my trip to NYC with you. I will cover the basics such as booking and accommodation, all the way over to food, things to do and how to get the most out of your time there!
When it comes to travelling, I am not shy of hunting around for the best deals, booking everything separately, and figuring out things as I go, I actually prefer to do things this way, but as I was travelling with my mum, I opted to book it all online with Expedia. My mum likes to know that everything is planned before she travels, she doesn't want to faff about looking things up once we get there. Expedia allowed me to scroll through and choose hotels and flights based on our needs and budget and then add on extras once we had finished. These extras included transfers, sightseeing bus tours, excursions, helicopter rides, and other bells and whistles NYC had to offer. We opted to stay at The Washington Jefferson which I will talk about more in my next post and to fly with British Airways. I also chose to book our airport transfers through the 'add-on/ extras' section, so I could put my mother's mind at rest.
Aside from a day trip to Washington DC, we booked all of our attractions whilst we were there, but I will go into all of those in a different post, (and that post will be linked right here when I have posted it.
What did it cost?
In total, not including anything I did whilst we were there the trip cost £1250. Please bear in mind that these figures were for two people
£940 for return flights with BA.
£260 for a five-night stay at The Washington Jefferson.
£50 for return airport transfers.
However, just because I booked it through Expedia, doesn't mean I didn't do everything I could to get the best price possible. Here are some tips on how to save when booking through travel agents
- Many hotels will charge extra for WIFI. Some at extortionate prices ($10.00 a day). Always read the small print when it comes to WIFI. If you find a hotel that is an extra $30 but offers free WIFI, do the math and figure out whether or not you'll actually be saving money by staying at the cheaper hotel without free WIFI.
- Do you really need to add breakfast to the bill? Buy some cereal bars and keep them in the room, or go out and pick up something from the local shop. Most hotels will get you to pay $10.00 a day for breakfast, and all they will offer is some croissants and cornflakes.
- Fly on a Wednesday. I don't know why, but for some reason, it is always cheaper to fly on a Wednesday. Most airlines abide by this unwritten rule, so if you can, travel on a Wednesday.
- Be prepared to shop around. If you can book everything individually then do it, you will often find out that planning everything yourself, and booking it all individually will be a hell of a lot cheaper than booking through a company.
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New York City is everything you could hope it to be and more. I could sit here explaining it to you all day, but anything I say will not do it the justice it deserves. Hopefully over the next few posts, I will be able to show you a small part of what makes it so great, and why you should go there.
Kirstie xoxo
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