cheap vaca ideas

[SAMSET]

:wave1:hello folks

My wife, (1yr)daughter, and I will be taking a short vacation (3 or 4 days) in early Oct. She really wants to go to New York City. So we are going to go to New York City.

Being a Chicago guy, the city does not necessarily intimidate me, but since i only have 3 days i figured id ask you guys for some thought.

So, what are the must do's on a low budget. most of the money will be spent on a hotel im sure.
wouldn't mind check out that stuff you guys claim is pizza.
probably will check out that famous tall chick in the water.
and since im used to walking the streets of downtown Chicago, i may want to see if NY compares.



Where do i stay away form. In the chi there are certain areas you just do not go.
night life and other not family friendly stuff is not really a option because we will have the baby the whole time.
fancy restaurants would be out, since the baby usually only last about a half or or a lil more strapped in a seat. not to mention the budget.





Any tips you guys can give me to make this shorty wroth it would be great.



Thanks

 

[Fore Wheeler]

Must see Broadway, at night, and Times Square.

Take the subway to see the world trade center, then go walk the financial district on your way to see Statue of Liberty from Battery Park. You can't go into the Statute anymore.

Carriage ride through Central Park.

Go back up to Rockefeller Center. Don't buy M&M's at the M&M store, way too costly. Go to the Lego store.

Don't buy any gold from "vendors", it's not real.

 

[altrocker1]

Dan has good suggestions. Pm me or fb me and I can give you some tips. I'll try to post on your thread

 

[chedisme]

I love the USS intrepid. And its not expensive. Its a aircraft Carrier museum. China town is also fun.

 

[XJLI]

pretty much x2 what has already been said. there are a few threads on pirate if you really want a LOT of more specific info. as far as pizza, you really cant go wrong with any of the spots... one of my fave "chains" is two bros pizza- $1 slices. of course, get a hot dog and street meat from the halal carts. the best one in my opinion is in bryant park across from the bank of america tower. not sure if it is still a thing, but when i was a kid i loved messing around in FAO Schwarz.. if you watched home alone 2 "duncan's toy chest" was based off of that.

 

[SAMSET]

So now that we have come to the week of, ill bump this for thoughts, suggestions, or concerns, about my plans.

arriving at overlook lodge, bear mnt wed afternoon probably post 5pm. nothing will happen at that point besides settling in.

Thursday we will wake up early, drive to Staten Island and take the ferry past the Statue of Liberty to lower Manhattan. then head over to Battery park and make our way to the 9/11 memorial. Afterwards we will head to the Empire State where if possible(with the kid) we are going to the 102nd floor. Then we are going to see the library, Rockefeller center, and central park. by then it should be dark and we will check out Broadway and Time Square before heading back to the lodge.

somewhere in there we will need to eat. any suggestions on non sit down type places to eat lunch. and maybe a quick sit down place for dinner?

Friday has much less already planned but we are working on it still.
i believe the plan is to drive to Brooklyn and walk the over the bridge back to Manhattan and check out wall street. from there i have to find our what else the wife wants to do. suggestions?

we are in the lodge until Saturday @11am. we are not coming home until Sunday @5am so we are still looking to finish out the vacation somehow. thinking about a one night hotel in the city as an option or maybe somewhere else besides New York. thinking about driving half way and staying somewhere in between, but i don't like that idea because in our 5 day trip we'd be driving 3 days.

So thats what i have for now...

 

[XJLI]

I've never taken the ferry from SI or anywhere except the city, but if you're coming from bear mtn maybe park in jersey city and take the ferry.. SI seems so far out of the way. not sure though.

for a quick lunch, you CANNOT get any better than NYC street meat. $6-7 gets you lamb and/or chicken over rice w salad and some pita bread and a soda. load up w white sauce and hot sauce. in lower manhattan, they will all be good bc no one will eat from a crappy food truck downtown.

where do you plan on driving into BK from? driving around the boroughs m-f 7am-7pm is nightmarish. wall st is ok, the lower east side is my favorite part of the city.

 

[SAMSET]

The si ferry looks like the only one that goes close to the statue of liberty, thats why we thought that one would be good. this way we do not have to pay for a boat tour.

have not really thought about how we would get to BK though, guess i will have to think that idea through a little more.

 

[altrocker1]

Street meat or cart food is a great choice for quick...also look for dollar pizza. Usually there are some reviews online that you can check out. I don't know anything about parking in Staten island but there should be some tips online too. The bridges in and out of Staten island are expensive, but if you have an ipass already, it works here on all bridges and tunnels so you don't have to worry about having enough cash. Driving into Brooklyn is also tough since you either have to go all the way down to Staten island or cross through Manhattan or the Bronx...if you are set on it, give me a call on wed and I can walk you through it.

Also...I'm here till Friday. I can hook up with y'all on Thursday night if you'd like. Maybe I'll come camp on Wednesday night..I've been here over a week and could use a break lol...

 

[XJLI]

2 bros pizza is all over and it's $1 a slice. It's good NYC pizza

 

[altrocker1]

2 bros is the shit...don't know if there are any down by wtc though

 

[altrocker1]

In fact I just had two slices of 2 bros an hour ago

 

[XJLI]

Ya idk how far downtown they go. Oddly enough, my fave slice is rosa's in penn.

 

[SAMSET]

Street meat or cart food is a great choice for quick...also look for dollar pizza. Usually there are some reviews online that you can check out. I don't know anything about parking in Staten island but there should be some tips online too. The bridges in and out of Staten island are expensive, but if you have an ipass already, it works here on all bridges and tunnels so you don't have to worry about having enough cash. Driving into Brooklyn is also tough since you either have to go all the way down to Staten island or cross through Manhattan or the Bronx...if you are set on it, give me a call on wed and I can walk you through it.

Also...I'm here till Friday. I can hook up with y'all on Thursday night if you'd like. Maybe I'll come camp on Wednesday night..I've been here over a week and could use a break lol...

Sounds good. I will keep you updated on what we got going on and see if we can work something out. I will probably text you for tips from here on out, easier and wont soak up my data:rtm:

sounds like im getting 2 bros pizza. i do love something for a dollar so i willl keep and eye out.

i did not think about tolls for the bridges and what not so i will have to talk with the wife and see if we want to change any plans per that.

i have no ipass...

 

[XJLI]

if you guys are really set on going into BK, you are probably better off taking the metro north train into penn.

 

[SAMSET]

well back to work after 3 vaca's and a weekend.
went to New York mostly for sight seeing and a good road trip.
for what we put my daughter through(car seat and stroller for 80% of her trip) she could have been a little devil, but she was fantastic. only a few crabby baby moments. now we just have to get her sleep schedule back on track.
showed up late wed after driving straight there, and just chilled in our cottage up in Bear Mtn. Thurs we headed down to Staten island took the ferry over, checked out battery park, 9/11 memorial and the freedom tower, before making a very long walk to get pizza for a buck. eventually my wife said no more walking and with some advice from Craig we jumped on a subway. after realizing we took the wrong one we got off and took a cab to the empire state and met Craig. he then played tour guide and took us past the library, Rockefeller center, a toy store for the baby, central park, time square and then a GREAT dinner spot if you like BBQ.
he then made sure we got on the correct subway to get us back to the ferry.
Friday we made our way back to the city and took a different ferry then walk back into the heart around the empire state and did a bus tour that took us to see it all. that eventually dropped us of at time square again(oops, we were happy with time square once. 2 times was rough)
but we made our way through it and headed back.
Saturday we wanted to check out the mountain we were staying at and maybe do some light hiking, but we woke to rain. all day kinda rain. so we chilled, packed, ate and left. grabbed a hotel in Ohio and continued home Sunday.

all in all great trip to a huge city and something im glad i did.

that being said, it will be hard to get me back in New York City for a looong time. :spin1:

couple pics

it was absolutely breath taking
This was just one shot i stole from my wife as she makes her entire collage

early oct means prime fall time colors. perfect time between all the trees being beautiful colors but before the leafs actually falls. we had the same experience in mich for our honeymoon 3 years ago.



we walked a ton. i mapped out the walked and on Thursday we did 7 miles and Friday 4. so glad you were there to help out. we probably would have stressed a lot more and gotten upset with the whole thing if we didn't have your help. and that was some damn good BBQ. we also enjoys the NY pizza. even got more from a different place on Friday night.

thanks a lot.

also we must have been pulling off the "New York" look because we got asked for directions 4 times and i was even able to give directions once!



SAM'trip report'SET

 

[XJLI]

nice. where did you go for BBQ?

 

[SAMSET]

nice. where did you go for BBQ?

I think it was called Hill Country? but Craig will know for sure.