To do and not to do on a day trip to New York City - Advice for next time

Tom and I went to New York City for the day yesterday. It was exciting to see so many famous things I've heard about my whole life all in one place in such a short period of time.

My goal was to spend as little as possible on the trip as a whole and still see and do all we could. 

We took the SEPTA (philadelphia public transportation) into Philadelphia which was less than driving and parking down town all day. SEPTA was $22 dollars, parking all day would cost about $24 plus approximately $5 for gas. It was the SEPTA "regional rail" which is similar to the Chicago Metra except a little smaller and no bathrooms. It only took us about 30 minutes to get down town to our bus.

Megabus is not the cheapest way to get to Manhattan, but its one of the cheapest, most reliable, most highly recommended ways. It was $12 per ticket there and $11 per ticket to get back. Our total spending all together was about $50 dollars with tax. Not bad, but not great either. The China Town bus is the very cheapest way to Manhattan, but we've been strongly advised against taking it. I guess they overbook and people stand up the whole trip, busses smell bad etc. I doubt its actually that bad. I think we'll try it next time. 

What we did:
1. lunch at Cafe Del Sol - at 7th ave and 36th st. Delicious food, $7.50 per sandwich, lots of choices, no tip, I would definitely go here again. Our bill came to about $23 dollars because we bought a water for $4! Tip for next visit, bring water bottles

2. walked through Times Square - Cost: FREE. Cost physically: PRICY!

We were really tired half way through the day because of this walk. It was good to see for the sake of seeing, but over all, wasn't really worth it.

3. walked the length of Central park - This was worth it. The whole park is only 2.5 miles long by 0.5 miles wide. There are a lot of famous spots to see, and the trees are gorgeous! It wouldn't have been as tiring if we hadn't made the 2 mile hike from our bus through Times Square right before.

4. spent a few hours at the Metropolitan museum of art - also worth it. One of the greatest museums in the world and when getting tickets the man at the counter said "two tickets is $50 dollars. You can pay whatever amount you'd like." WOO! Nothing like a world class museum for a donation of any amount. We gave $2 dollars :)

5. took the subway one time - Next time we go I would take the subway more. It is $2.75 per ride (over $5 dollars each ride for both of us), but thats not much more than other cities - Chicago is $2.50 per ride. It would be worth it to pay say $30 dollars for 6 rides, conserve energy, and see more of the city (Brooklyn, Queens etc). We did have to call Toms sister Carrie to look up directions for us online, but we probably could have figured it out if we'd just had a subway map. Or an iphone!

6. Dinner at Heartland Brewery - for a restaurant in Madison Square Garden, this place was cheaper than we expected. But we made the mistake of getting really tired, really hungry, and being in a hurry to get to our bus. We glanced at the menu, saw $12 top-five burgers in NYC and went for it. It was very luxurious to sit down in a booth and have water served to us after all the walking we had done. Our bill ended up being about $50 dollars (including tip) because each burger topping was $1.50 extra, and we ordered a beer sampler since we were at a brewery after all. Next time, we need to plan out an area to be in around dinner time where food won't cost so much.

7. sat by the Hudson river and watched the sunset and boats - there is a walking/biking path that goes right along the Hudson river that seems to be less populated than central park. Its also right on the water, so it was more breezy and cool. I liked it here, it was a beautiful place to see the sun set over Jersey City (which is best admired from afar anyway).

Over all, it was a good learning experience. Next time I hope to spend less on food and water, less energy on walking, and spend more on getting to places we want to see. I pretty much planned the whole excursion this time and spent about $155 dollars for the whole day. Next time, Tom wants to plan it. We will see who can spend less!