High gas prices got you down? Don't worry, home exchange! My home exchange guests will be staying for free at our apartment, located in the neighborhood New York Magazine researchers said was the best in Manhattan. They sent me a list of attractions they wanted to see and I found a deal for them on a pass that gets them in and lets them skip the line for all of their top picks, and more.
Like my swap partners, you can get from JFK airport to Manhattan for just $2.25 by taking the local bus to the subway station. For a more pleasant, quicker ride, I suggest paying the extra $5 to take the AirTrain to Jamaica. From there, you can take the E train into Manhattan, or for another $5 save half an hour by taking the Long Island Railroad straight to Pennsylvania Station.
With home exchange, an attractions pass and a bus ticket from BusJunction.com, a traveler can spend Spring Break week in Manhattan for no more than $50 per day, including transportation, lodging, attractions and food.
I suggested my guests consider a New York Pass, which gives you 3 days or one week of admission to the attractions most tourists want to visit. They have a sale right now until Monday. The on-line only sale price is $170 for 7 days. The pass lets you skip the line and gain free entry at 55 attractions. Some don't look interesting, many are located an inconvenient distance from Manhattan, others are tourist traps and still others are included despite the fact that they are free. Below are my top picks, not for "can't miss" places to see when in NYC, but only for places covered by the pass.
- American Museum of Natural History
- Bronx Zoo
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Central Park Zoo
- Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
- Cloisters Museum and Gardens
- Empire State Building Observation Deck
- Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- Museum of Sex
- Museum of the City of New York
- New Museum
- New York Botanical Garden
- New York City Police Museum
- New York Transit Museum
- Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
- Immigration Museum Ferry
- Top of the Rock
- Whitney Museum of American Art
My favorite museum, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, is not even covered by this pass. And many of the attractions above have free admission days, or accept a lower admission "donation" than the one they suggest. Folks who want to go to at least a dozen of the places above should consider the pass.
Another option is the CityPass. For $79 it provides admission over a 9-day period to just the attractions below:
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