10 NYC Tourist Money Mistakes: Stop Throwing Away Cash!

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to the Better Together Here podcast with your host,
Devin. And Ashley?
Helping you make the most of your time in New York City,
everyone. And welcome to today's episode
of the Better Together Here podcast.
My name is Devin. And my name is Ashley.
And in today's episode, we are going to help you spend less
money on your trip to New York City.
So if you like throwing money away or wasting money, go ahead

(00:24):
and just stop listening. But if you like to save a little
bit of cash, because New York isvery expensive generally, and
especially when you're trying todo all the travel and tourist
things, we're going to give you 10 great ways to save some
money. So let's get right into it.
The effort and time you go to plan your trip to New York City,
between booking your flights, finding a hotel, paying for

(00:45):
museums, all the different things, it really can add up
quickly. New York City is a very
expensive city in general, and it's an expensive city to travel
in, so you're going to want to listen up.
First on our list is not double checking your tab slash bill.
Before we go into this, we need to clarify a little bit about
tipping culture in America. We do have a good chunk of our

(01:07):
audience who is not from the United States.
Be aware that anytime you go to a sit down restaurant, a bar,
there is an expectation of tipping.
While it would take literally hours for us to go deep into the
tipping culture and what may or may not be wrong with it in
America, know that there is an expectation for it when you are

(01:27):
at a restaurant. The reason for that is we refuse
to pay our workers a decent living wage.
Again, if you're not from the United States, this might be a
little foreign to you, but the waiters are only making like 2
or $3.00 an hour and making mostof their money on tips.
It is just part of the culture. So like factor that in when you

(01:48):
go sit down at a restaurant and you're thinking about what you
want to order. And if you were trying to be
money conscious, just add, you know, 28% basically because
there's going to be an 8:00-ish percent tax on everything that
you buy at a restaurant bar. And the year is also going to be
a roughly, you know, 18 to 20% tip as well.
Tipping culture, while it has gotten out of hand at a sit down

(02:11):
restaurant, I think it makes sense and it is expected.
Most people would say nowadays 18% is kind of the low end.
Some people might tip 15%. I would say for us, we are
somewhere usually between 18 or 20%.
Don't feel pressured to do more than that though, especially
when they, you know, come up to you sometimes with the little

(02:33):
like tablet and they're like, all right, go ahead, you're
ready to pay your bill. Sometimes the range starts at
like 25% and I'm like, this is crazy behavior to like start at
25. Maybe like a handful of times in
my entire life have I tipped more than like 22%.
I would have 18% be your standard and if it was great

(02:53):
service, do 20. But I don't think you should
ever feel pressure to do more than 20%.
Yeah, and it can be awkward, especially if they're, you know,
coming and standing there and they hand you the tab and you're
looking at it and you're like, oh, shoot, like, I only want to
tip 18% and 20% is the lowest option.
Like, it feels easy, but like, you can do math on your own.
Like, they'll be fine. You're probably never going to

(03:14):
see this person ever again in your life who is waiting your
table. And that's not to say, like,
just screw people over and don'ttip at all.
I'm just saying if you feel like18% is what they earned, great.
Like, that's totally fine. Another note on double checking
your tab or bill, a lot of restaurants in New York when you
have 6 or more people in your group, they are going to

(03:34):
automatically add gratuity. It's usually 20% right off the
bat. And so you just need to be aware
of that because if they hand youyour tab, a lot of times even if
there's an auto gratuity added, there's still a line to add more
tip if you would like. So don't be tricked into
thinking that you need to do that.
That usually will be itemized and it will say gratuity or auto

(03:55):
gratuity and it'll have the amount that was part of that
bill. Most of the time your bill will
be accurate, and I think I fell into the habit sometimes of just
kind of putting my car down and not looking at every item on the
bill. However, I made that mistake a
couple weeks ago when we went out with a group of friends and
I did catch that the auto gratuity was already added

(04:17):
'cause we had a group of six or more.
But I didn't catch that they hadaccidentally added a couple
other things to our bill that wedidn't order.
They didn't mean to. They weren't like trying to be
malicious or anything. But I hadn't found out until the
next day and there were like 3 things on the bill that I had
paid for but we didn't get. So just always check your bill

(04:38):
before you pay. Luckily we were, we were able to
get them to, you know, remove those things, but it took time
and effort, took like 48 hours. To get resolved.
Just check your bill before you pay.
Understand that there is culturein America and New York City
specifically of tipping, and this applies to bars and
restaurants. I will say my personal rule in
most instances is that if I'm standing up to order somewhere,

(05:02):
if I'm going to the counter to order, waiting for my food,
grabbing my own food, I don't usually tip even if they prompt
me to. That's just something that like
is my personal feeling and opinion on it.
But if I am being waited on or you know, a bartender where
they're bringing my drinks and clearing my table, like, yes,
I'm going to tip for that. Next on our list, a tourist
money mistake is paying full price for Broadway shows.

(05:24):
We've talked a lot about Broadway.
We have a full episode about howto get cheap Broadway tickets.
You should go listen to or read that on our website
bettertogetherhere.com. You can search Broadway, it'll
show up. But a quick overview of that.
There's a few ways to get cheaper Broadway tickets.
Number one is the TKTS booth. So in Times Square, you'll see

(05:46):
those giant red stairs. Underneath that is a tickets
booth where they sell discountedday of and sometimes next day
tickets for Broadway. We love the tickets booth.
If you want to go to like a verypopular show and get good seats,
the tickets booth is a great option.
The downside is usually you haveto wait in quite a bit of a

(06:08):
line. I would say probably plan on
waiting about an hour give or take in line, especially if it's
on a weekend. However, it's usually worth it
if there's a show that you really want to see and you want
to get great seats. A couple months ago, I went to
the tickets booth and was getting tickets to a show for my

(06:28):
mom. And it was a show that we are
really looking forward to seeing.
And I went up to the booth and said, hi, I'd like tickets for
this show and it's a gift for mymom.
So I'd like them to be like better seats if possible.
And the person behind the counter was like, OK, let me
check. Oh, how is lower orchestra 5
rows back dead center? And it was like for a show that

(06:49):
we really wanted to see. And those were like the best
seats in the house. And we got them for half off.
So the ticket booth is a great option if you really want to get
great seats. It's worth braving the line.
Or you can go to the secondary location of the TKTS booth,
which is in Lincoln, which is actually not very far from Times
Square. It's maybe one stop on a subway

(07:09):
or you could even walk there in probably 20 minutes.
There will still probably be a line, but it likely will be
shorter. And the inventory that they have
is mostly the same. So TKTS booth, great option for
last minute if you plan in advance today, Tix is what it's
called. They have a website and an app
is probably the best option. So that's today and then Tix.

(07:30):
Tix sometimes if you're planningfar enough advance and for
certain shows you can get tickets as cheap as $29.00.
So plan ahead do today ticks. A couple other options is what's
called rush and lottery. So rush is usually through the
specific shows website or the theaters website.
Basically, you kind of sign up to be notified, they tell you

(07:53):
when it's released, and you haveto physically go to the box
office and get what are these called rush tickets, which is
like kind of in the name, right,That you're rushing to be there
first because there's only a limited amount and you have to
go to the box office, but it canbe a good option.
They're usually pretty good seats as well.
Yeah, and then additionally is the lottery.
So if you go to lottery.broadwaydirect.com,

(08:14):
we'll link in the show notes. They have about 10 different
shows that are on lottery. They have Aladdin, Death Becomes
Her 6, Redwood, Stranger Things,Lion King, even Wicked.
And the lottery prices are anywhere from about $40 to
$60.00. The way the lottery works, it's
like how a lot of lotteries work.

(08:35):
You enter your information, you might get chosen, you might not.
If you get chosen, you'll get ane-mail and you have a very short
window to accept the tickets andpay for them.
So you need to be kind of checking and making sure you're
aware of it. But it's a great option,
especially if the show that you want to see is a part of the
lottery. And these are also usually
pretty good tickets. We've gotten lottery tickets a
handful of times. We even did it when we were

(08:57):
travelling here. It's not something that's only
for locals or people who live here.
It's something you can do in your travels as well.
So again, if you get selected for the lottery, you do still
have to pay for your ticket, butyou're getting a a great seat at
a very discounted price. Yeah, if that makes sense.
So you're not winning free tickets.
I just want to clarify. Yeah, that's a good
clarification. All right, next on our list is

(09:18):
buying bottled water at restaurants or on the go.
Let's clear the air here. New York City tap water is
delicious. It is safe and it is free.
If you are a bit of a nerd like me, you can go read the New York
City Water Report. They put it out every year and
they show you all the different things that they test for and
how good it is. It's it's amazing that's I drink

(09:39):
it every day, all day. New York City top water is
really delicious. So you don't need to buy bottles
of water when you're out and about.
Ideally you bring a reusable water bottle like an algae, nor
a collapsible bottle or something like that.
And you can refill throughout the city.
Well, it might not always be super easy.
Many of the spots that are a little bit more touristy will

(10:00):
have places to refill a water bottle like Central Park, like
Bryant Park, like probably even Grand Central Station or you
know, not the subway stations, but some of like the more major
train stations. So you can save yourself those
expensive water bottles. Like I am a runner.
I run all around New York City and I unfortunately often find
myself trapped where I don't have the opportunity to find a

(10:23):
water fountain or whatever it isand I'll go up to some of the
cart. They want to charge me $4.00.
And a lot of times I just don't even get it because it's just
too expensive for a bottle of water.
So bring a refillable water bottle.
Another tip on buying water in New York City is when you're
sitting down at a restaurant frequently.
They ask can we get you sparkling or Stillwater?

(10:43):
And they make it seem like thoseare the only options.
A lot of times you would think if you're saying still, you're
going to get tap water, but usually they're going to bring
you like a $10 glass bottle of still water, which is maybe what
you want, but it's probably not what you want.
So say tap. So if they say all right, can I
get you sparkling or still say tap water I.

(11:04):
Don't know if I would say they're trying to trick you, but
like their job as the staff of the restaurant is to get you to
spend more money so that they get better tips as a percentage,
right? Like that's just how it works.
And so again, to re emphasize, they might just say, would you
like sparkling or still just sayI would like tap.
All right, and that moves us to this episode's New York know
how. OK, this one is not as New York

(11:30):
specific, but it can help you asyou're planning your trip to New
York. So if you are travelling with
someone to New York, especially if you live in the same
household, whether it's a friend, a roommate, a spouse,
you and your child, whatever it is that are going on this trip
together. One of the best things I've
found with the iOS Reminders appand if you have Android, I'm
sure there's something that's similar that functions to this.

(11:50):
But in the native reminders app,you can do shared reminders
lists and instead of it just being a reminder of, you know,
remind me to do this at tomorrowon 5:00 PM, it's add blank to my
packing list. So Ashley and I have a shared
packing list. We're actually preparing for a
trip right now to Italy and throughout our weeks leading up

(12:13):
to it, when things pop into our minds of oh, we need to make
sure we bring that, whether it'sour passport or it's collapsible
water bottle or it's a portable charger, whatever it is, we just
say, you know, we tell Siri, addthis to our reminders list and
then it's all there. So while we're packing, we have
an entire list of all the thingsthat we've thought of in the

(12:34):
past month or so that we need tomake sure we have and we both
have access to it and can add and remove things.
And you can check it off really nicely when you are fully packed
as well. So this is great for packing
when you're preparing for a trip, but we also use it for
groceries. We use it for different types of
grocery lists, like we have a Costco list, we have a normal

(12:54):
grocery list. Like it is such a lifesaver to
have shared reminders lists withthe people in your household.
The Reminders app is the most underutilized Apple tool I think
that exists and it makes your life so much easier.
And you introducing the shared packing list has made our
packing experience so much better and we forget way less

(13:17):
things. So that's this episodes New York
know how shared reminders lists on iOS.
All right back to Taurus money mistakes.
OK #4 we've talked about this onanother episode thinking that
you have to stay in Times Square.
The allure of being right in theheart of it where there's Times
Square and you're kind of in thedead center of the city.

(13:40):
It's tempting, but you don't have to stay in Times Square.
The nice thing about Times Square is if you are wanting to
go there and you know, if you want to go to Broadway shows or
whatever it might be, the vast majority of subway lines come in
through Times Square. So instead of prioritizing
staying directly in Times Square, prioritize being close
to a subway station. Staying in Times Square is

(14:01):
always going to be quite a bit more expensive than staying
elsewhere. So you can kind of get this same
benefits if of staying in Times Square.
If you're just close to a subwaystation, that's going to run
through Times Square, which likeDevin said, most of the subway
lines run through Times Square. So even if you're like a couple
subway stops away, you'll save alot of money and it'll still be

(14:23):
a very convenient central place for you to stay without having
the sticker shock of paying for a hotel in the middle of Times
Square. Yeah, the handful of times that
we came and travelled to New York before we lived here, we
stayed in Times Square once. We weren't paying for that
hotel, so we didn't care. We were just happy that someone
was taking care of us. Thanks, Dad.
Thanks. Thanks, Bruce.
So other times we stayed down inthe financial district, we've

(14:47):
stayed like in the garment district, we stayed all over the
city and in pretty much every instance we had a good
experience except for one time when we stayed all the way on
the East River. The hotel itself, not good.
That's a whole different story. But we were like a 10 and a 15
minute walk to the subway, and it wasn't the most convenient
subway line either, and so we ended up wasting a lot of time

(15:10):
just having to. Walk to and from the subway.
Save some money. Don't stay directly in Times
Square. OK, next on our list of ways to
throw away money. Literally.
You could have more fun just lighting it on fire, and that
would be by taking a pedicab anywhere.
I can't remember, do you like pedicabs or do you not like
pedicabs? I wonder, you know, how like
there's those word maps where you like input, like all the

(15:33):
words that people do in like a survey and then it shows the
bigger ones that are talked about the most.
Pedicab would probably be like really high on my list on my
word map. It would probably be one of the
higher ones for this podcast in general.
For those of you that don't knowwhat we're talking about, a
pedicab is kind of like a, it's a bicycle in the front and then
at the back it's like a little mini carriage.

(15:53):
It's kind of like a a seat and there's usually a covering and
they have a bunch of lights, like Christmas lights around it
and they're playing music that that's what a pedicab is.
That's what we're referring to. Part of this is because we live
in Midtown, we go to Central Park a lot and so we have a lot
of exposure to them. But genuinely, we have seen
multiple instances of people getting off the pedicab, their

(16:14):
ride's over and legit shouting matches where they are screaming
at the pedicab driver. The pedicab driver is yelling
back at them. It's about to get violent like
because these pedicabs in many instances tell you a price, are
dishonest, and then end up charging you way, way more.
Ashley's mom's friend took a pedicab from like 50th St. to

(16:40):
62nd Street or something like that, twelve blocks in a taxi
that would cost you less than $10.
She paid $100 for that pedicab, $100.
If I had a dollar for every timeDevin has either texted me or
sent me a voice memo complainingabout the pedicabs, we would be
very rich. It's like our number one pain

(17:00):
point with Midtown. I'm, I'm sure that they're nice
enough people, but the business model is just, it's not nice for
the end user. And that is I'm, I don't stand
behind anything. That's like taking advantage of
consumers. They also charge like some of
them charge like $10 a minute. Which is just insane.
You're usually not paying for like, oh, we're going from here
to here like it's going to cost this.

(17:21):
They're usually charging you by the minute and they won't make
that clear, so they're kind of just game artists.
They also take over the whole bike lane and we bike everywhere
and they're. Always like they're safe.
They're unsafe. They're running red lights.
Yeah, they're loud. It's.
Bad. Similarly horse drawn carriages
in Central Park. Look, I get if you or someone in

(17:42):
your group is not able to walk around for whatever reason, or
you know, maybe you're coming with a little kid and they're so
excited about riding in the horse drawn carriage.
Like I, I understand the allure.I really genuinely do.
But they are so, so expensive. Like I think the cheapest you
can go on a ride in Central Parkand one of those horse drawn

(18:02):
carriages is like $75. Oh, I was going to say like 150.
I think it's it's really expensive.
It's too expensive and. Horses shouldn't live in the
middle of Manhattan. It's not 19 O 5 anymore.
I. Don't even think that's like a
hot take. Like, that's just Horses should
not live in the middle of Manhattan.
Yeah, we have cars. We have bicycles.

(18:25):
Why are you putting a giant mammal in the middle of a huge
metropolitan city where they don't have any space?
Where there's a bunch of bikes and cars and buses and yeah,
they're not super well taken care of.
We've seen where they stay. It'll bum you out.
But if you do want to learn moreabout it, just search Horses
Manhattan or Horses Central Parkand you will see plenty of
articles showing some real horror stories.

(18:47):
So our recommendation, Don't support that craft.
OK, next on our list of money mistakes when visiting New York
City is ordering too much food. Well, we will say that portions
in New York City restaurants areprobably smaller than what
you're used to wherever you live, like they generally are.

(19:07):
You don't want to end up where you have leftovers because your
hotel. It might have a fridge and it
will be very small, but there isalmost no chance that your hotel
has a microwave. This was really shocking to me.
In one of my first trips in New York City when I was 19, I came
with my dad on a business trip. And for whatever reason, I don't

(19:30):
know, I was 19, I had microwave popcorn in my backpack, like a
UN like a unpopped bag of microwave popcorn in my
backpack. And I was like, oh, this will be
a great snack at like 10:00 PM. I'm so excited to make this
popcorn. And I'm looking around the hotel
and I'm like, where is the microwave?
So I go downstairs and I ask theguy at the front desk, I was
like, hey, is there a microwave I can use?

(19:50):
Like I couldn't find one in my room.
And he was like, there are no microwaves in any New York City
hotel rooms. It's a huge fire hazard that had
never occurred to me before. So don't expect there to be a
microwave. If you're going to bring home
leftovers, a there's no guarantee you're going to have a
mini fridge, but B you're not going to be able to warm it up
at all. Our recommendation is to share
usually when we go to restaurants, whether it's with a

(20:13):
group of friends or even just ustoo, well, you know, maybe get
an appetizer and share and an entree and share.
And not only are you probably going to be able to try a few
more options because you're kindof sharing things, but you are
going to not end up with leftovers and be able to save a
little bit of money as well. And leave room for dessert.
And leave room for after, which is important.
If you do end up with too much food at a restaurant and you're

(20:33):
not going to finish it, Instead of just leaving at the
restaurant, ask for a box and then give it to someone on the
street who needs food. And if you don't see someone,
what you can do as well is set it on top of a garbage.
Because yes, people will rifle through the garbage for food.
Because if they're hungry and living on the streets, they need
food. And so by setting it on top of
the garbage, you make their lifea little bit easier.

(20:54):
All right, next on our list #7 is overpriced, crappy souvenirs.
OK, New York City, specifically Manhattan, specifically Midtown,
is full of the, like, New York City touristy trinket.
Frankly, just kind of like cheapgarbage stuff.
Cheap crap. Cheap crap, but the price is not

(21:15):
cheap. OK, Like some of those like the
I Heart NY shirts, like $25 or like a little magnet is like
$10. If you really want like that
classic I Heart NY stuff, go to Chinatown.
Chinatown is going to have all of the exact same things, and
it's probably going to be half the price of what you will pay
in the Midtown area. But our recommendation is to

(21:37):
instead get good souvenirs that you or whoever the person you're
buying it for will actually likeand enjoy.
Some places that you can do that, thrift stores, there are
plenty of them. You could even go to somewhere
like Artist and Fleas, which is in Chelsea Market, which is
local artists selling, whether it be jewelry or candles or

(21:57):
paintings or all types of different unique gifts that not
all of them are going to say explicitly New York City or NY,
but some of them are. And even those that don't, it's
still a more meaningful souvenir.
A lot of that stuff is also like, New York themed.
Yeah, yeah, as well. Like, there's a lot of like, New
York art. Another option is to go to the

(22:20):
gift shops at any museum that you go to.
So hopefully you plan on going to the MO Ma or the Museum of
Natural History or the Met. The gift shops at those are some
of my favorite stores in all of New York City.
I love the MO Ma design store. I love the Museum of Natural
History's gift shop and the Met gift shop is massive and

(22:40):
amazing. Basically it's, you know, all of
the classic pieces that are in the Met put onto things like tea
towels or postcards or T-shirts or T-shirts, right?
Like. Decks of cards and they have a
lot of New York specific stuff too, like I've seen in the Met,
I've seen like AI heart NY with like a beautiful piece of art.

(23:03):
Yeah, on like a mug. So you could find like if you're
dead set on getting something that says like I heart NY or
something New York specific, youcould really jazz it up a bit.
Bye putting Monet's water liliesbehind it.
Let's just say this, if you're getting an I Heart NY shirt for
someone else as a souvenir, theymight wear it a couple times.
But if you get them like a really thoughtful, beautiful

(23:25):
gift from somewhere like the Met, they're going to cherish it
and they're going to love it. And so do that instead of the
overpriced crappy souvenirs. I will say one of the best uses
of the I heart and then whateverthe city is, is our
brother-in-law went to London with our niece for her 12th

(23:47):
birthday and they have a daughter named London.
And so Tom, the dad bought a shirt that says I heart London
on it when they were in London. And I just think that's like
really funny and sweet. So you're saying if someone
listening to this has a child named New York?
Definitely buy that shirt. Definitely buy the I Heart NY
shirt for sure. Got it.

(24:07):
OK, perfect. OK, another spot that is a great
place for souvenirs is actually this episode's you'll have to
check it out segment. The next stop is the Strand
Bookstore. The Strand Bookstore is arguably
the most popular bookstore in New York City.
The most famous. It opened in 1927 and has been

(24:28):
family run since its founding. This bookstore is massive.
It's down near Union Square on near 14th St. and the Strand has
over 2 and a half million new and rare books covering topics
as far ranging as philosophy to finance and even an entire
children's section. And they're kind of main tagline

(24:49):
is 18 miles of books. So if you took every book that
was in the Strand bookstore, laid them out next to each
other, it would go 18 miles, which you might think, OK, well,
there are big bookstores everywhere.
But like for New York, where space is limited, things are
compact. Like they get a ton of books
into that one bookstore. And it's very well organized as

(25:11):
well. You can find exactly what you're
looking for. Any type of book that you were
looking for, you will find at the Strand Bookstore, like Devin
said, including kids books. They also have a great, great
selection of literary and like New York esque gifts and
trinkets. So some of my favorite magnets
that we have in our house we bought at the Strand Bookstore.
They have really great solid tote bags.

(25:33):
They have really cute mugs. Pencil holders.
And it's all like good New York themed stuff, but not like
kitschy. Yeah, it's not kitschy.
Yeah. The store itself is also four
floors, so there's tons to explore.
They have a rare book room. There's also a little coffee
shop in there, which is nice if you want to even grab a a mug of
coffee and read a book, whateverit may be.

(25:54):
And importantly, in New York City, the Strand Bookstore has a
public bathroom, so be aware that if you're in the area and
eating somewhere to go to the restroom, head on over to the
Strand and maybe buy a gift on your way.
The Strand also has several areas that have like signed
books. Like books signed from the
author. One of my favorite cookbook

(26:15):
writers and chefs, her name's Allison Roman.
Shout out to Allison Roman because I know she listens to
this podcast. Hopefully.
She's always trying to make the most of her time in New York
City. Anyway, I bought one of her
cookbooks at the Strand and it was a signed copy.
And I don't even think it was more expensive because it was a
signed copy. Maybe it was like a dollar or
two more. My favorite cookbook author.
I have a signed copy because I bought it there.

(26:37):
Yeah, and on that note, The Strand also hosts events like
book signings and literary lectures.
So if you are the literary type and you love reading and you
love bookstores and that kind ofexperience, you have to check
out The Strand. It's also a great place to get
some not overpriced, not crappy souvenirs on your New York trip.
So that was this episode. You'll have to check it out.

(26:58):
Segment, The Strand Bookstore. And now to the last three on our
list of Waze tourist waste moneyin New York.
And clear up the closing doors, please.
All right, we've talked about this many times.
We have full episodes about this, the Statue of Liberty
tours slash boat tours. OK, to clarify, there's only one

(27:21):
group that actually sells the boat tour that goes to the
Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island and the and the museum
that's on Ellis Island. Buy it through that specific
website, website. I believe it's like the
government website. I will link to it in the show
notes. That is going to cost you.
I think it's like 50 bucks. It's not.
Yeah, it it, it's like it's not cheap.

(27:42):
It's a decent investment. And it is a long, long day.
It is a full experience. You're going to stand in a lot
of lines. You're going to be cramped onto
a boat. You're going to be in a crowded
music. Like if this is important to
you, make sure you really want to do this.
Last summer, some of our family came into town and two of our

(28:04):
nephews, I think at the time, they were 10 years old and seven
years old, and they were really,really excited to go see the
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
They learned about it in school.They've been watching YouTube
videos. They were so stoked to go do it.
Halfway through. Not even halfway, probably.
They were so bored, so bored. And these are like well

(28:26):
educated, open minded, smart kids.
Yeah, they weren't bored becauseit was like a museum.
They were bored because it's a long day and it's a kind of
boring experience. Am I allowed to say that?
I mean, would I recommend it if you're coming to New York City
for a few days? Would I recommend going and
doing the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island?

(28:47):
No, I'm, I'm sorry. No.
I think seeing the Statue of Liberty is cool.
Which leads us to the fact that you can go and see the Statue of
Liberty on the Staten Island Ferry for free.
I think it's pretty close, you get a good view.
Good, good view. You can take good pictures and
then you can turn right back around.
How long do you think that roundtrip takes?
An hour, if you time it right, it's like just around an hour,

(29:09):
maybe a little bit more. So it's going to be a lot
shorter than doing the actual like Ellis Island tour and all
that stuff that goes along with it for sure.
And it's free, 100% free. Be aware, common tourist trap,
when you go down to Battery Parkand when you're going to get on
the Staten Island Ferry, there are people who are going to try
and swindle you and lie to you and tell you that you need to
buy a ticket and blah, blah, blah.

(29:30):
Just ignore them, blow past them, say sorry, not interested
and keep going. Get to the Staten Island Ferry,
it's completely free. Always another last little piece
of that story. When we went with our nephews, I
was wearing a Patrick Ewing jersey, which is a player who
played for the New York Knicks acouple decades ago.
And we had passed one of those guys who was selling tickets,
and I was like, oh, no, we're good.

(29:51):
And he, you know, had made a comment about my jersey.
And then on the way back, you know, we're talking five hours
later or something, he goes, hey, Ewing, you're not going to
do that again, are you? And he kind of like, gave me
this look. And I was like, no, man, like
too long in the day. We've done it twice now.
We've done the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island boat tour.
I will never, ever do it again. There's I just don't see a need
personally. Where's like, there's a lot of

(30:13):
other very popular New York things that I would do many more
times. Yeah, know this.
We're not trying to convince younot to do this.
We're just saying know what you're getting into, that it
cost money and it's a very long day.
Yeah, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, like those are
very important in history. Maybe worth doing once if you're
really excited about those things, but just know it's going

(30:34):
to be a very long day and it's going to be expensive.
Yeah. All right, second to last on our
list. Very opposite of a historical
museum is don't buy shots of alcohol.
This is probably just good advice regardless.
Like when have you ever had shots and then the next day been
like that was a good decision. Probably never.
But specifically in New York it's going to be way more

(30:55):
expensive than you think. Unless the bar has a special or
some type of promotion about shots, it's going to be
expensive. We're talking like anywhere from
10 to like $15 per shot. Yeah, we were lucky enough to
have some of our friends in townand get tickets to Saturday
Night Live and we had gone out to dinner, had a great time and

(31:16):
we're like, OK, we have some time to kill.
Let let's go to a bar, get a drink or two and just kind of
hang out before we go to SNL to live taping.
And our friend Harvey, he was like, oh, guys, like, you know,
once in a lifetime experience, like let's do a shot.
Like let's get some fireball, which like fireball already is
like a lower alcohol percentage drink.
And so it's already like, you'renot, you know, quote, UN quote,

(31:36):
getting as much value out of it.And we order the shots, we take
the shots, and then the bill comes and the each fireball shot
was like 12 or $13. And Harvey is an extremely
upbeat, energetic, just positive, happy guy.
He was just pure sad boy. So bummed.
He was so bummed. I mean it was like almost like
50 bucks after tip just for a round of fireball shots for four

(32:00):
people. Like, that just sucks.
You could buy a whole bottle of Fireball for like $25, yeah.
Don't buy shots instead if you really want that.
If you're at the bar and you want to stay at the bar, I
would. I would instead just get a well
drink because you're probably actually going to get a little
bit. I feel like you get heavier
pores when you do a well drink versus doing just a shot.
Or go to any of the dozens and dozens of liquor stores that are

(32:23):
probably within walking distanceand buy like the little shooter
or the little, you know, bottle of, of liquor.
Like if you, if that's your goalof like, oh, I want to have a
shot. Or like, you know, I'm, I'm
going to a, a sporting event andI want to have a shot before I
go into whatever. Like just buy it from a liquor
store. It's so, so much cheaper, like a
few dollars probably compared to, you know, $13 plus tax and
tip. So don't buy shots of alcohol at

(32:45):
bars in New York City. All right, Last but definitely
not least on our list is thinking that you need to take
taxis or Uber slash Lyft everywhere.
We have an entire transportationguide.
It is, I would say, the most in depth free transportation guide
that exists about New York City.It covers everything from
getting to and from the airports, taxis, subway, bikes,

(33:07):
how to walk around, how to Orient yourself in the city, all
these things. It's 100% free.
You should go download it BetterTogether here.com.
There's a button that says transportation Guide or if you
just sign up for a newsletter, you also get access to that in
our curated Google Maps lists. It's going to go way into detail
on this topic, but know this, you do not need to take a taxi
to or from any of the airports. All of them have public

(33:30):
transportation options that are available that are going to
likely be much cheaper unless you have four people.
When you hit that four person mark, sometimes it is a better
option to take a cab. But in most instances you do not
need to take cabs around New York City.
You know, you might want to do it once to say, you know, you
hailed a cab and you took the Yellow Cab experience.

(33:51):
But cabs can get very, very expensive.
Cabs can get very expensive because they are, if I
understand correctly, they charge you either based on time
or mileage, whatever pays the cab driver more money so that
they're either incentivized withhow far they're driving or how
long they have you in the car. First of all, if you're going to

(34:12):
take a cab sometimes like Devin said, taking a cab is going to
be more economical or easier or whatever.
I have nothing against taking cabs in New York City.
I do tend to find them more convenient and or cheaper than
Uber and Lyft sometimes. However, never ever ever take a
cab anywhere around Times Squarebecause you are going to pay.
Just add 20 or $30 onto what youthink it will cost.

(34:36):
Because it's it's crowded like that is the most, one of the
most congested, slowest moving parts of traffic in Manhattan is
in Times Square. And again, like I actually said,
it's set up so that the cabbie makes money, which totally makes
sense, right? It's like if they're just
sitting in traffic, they still need to be getting paid.
And so if you're just sitting intraffic, not moving, not only
are you not getting to your destination, you're being

(34:59):
charged money. And you're going to be watching
the meter tick up. And that just that just makes
everyone anxious in my opinion. It's like the the meter goes up
like a chart and then like your stress and anger levels go up
perpendicular. Yeah, sitting in traffic in
Times Square and watching the meter increase, there's there's
nothing worse than that. So I would say and you're.

(35:19):
Expected to tip after. So I would say anywhere from
like 30th St. to 50th St. avoid getting in or out of a cab on
like 6th Ave. 7th Ave. or probably even 8th Ave. and
Broadway. Ideally, you make your way to
like 9th Ave. or 5th Ave. where traffic's moving a little bit
more freely. You're going to have an easier

(35:40):
time to get a taxi, all that good stuff, even if it means,
you know, 5:00-ish minute walk. Whatever it is, it's going to
save you some money. We had one experience where
we've just gotten out of a Broadway show.
I don't remember exactly where it was, but 46th St. and 8th
Ave. and we were with Ashley's dad and he was really wanted to
take a taxi. He thought it would be faster.
He thought it would get us to where we needed to be.

(36:01):
Didn't want to navigate the subway at night.
We were, this was before we lived here, so we weren't as
familiar with the subway and he just really wanted to get a
taxi. And we felt like we could have
figured out the subway. But, you know, again, it was
like, if he wants to pay for a taxi, great.
Like, we'll come along. We sat and waited for that.
I think it ended up being an Uber, what we did, but like he
booked that Uber and we sat and waited for like 15 or 20 minutes

(36:24):
because it was so crowded. All the Broadway shows had just
let out. The car couldn't get to us.
We could have walked to our destination faster than what it
ended up being for us waiting for that Uber because again, we
were in the heart of like Times Square, Broadway and it's just
too crowded so in. That instance we should have
walked to 9th Ave. and got in a car for sure.

(36:46):
That would have been way faster.So know that you don't need to
take taxis or Uber slash Lyft everywhere.
You can walk a lot of places. The subway is extremely
efficient. There are some routes where
taking a bus is very efficient, although again, you might end up
sitting in traffic. So the subway is a great way to
get around the city. It's $2.90 per ride, very

(37:06):
economical for most instances. All right, so we hope that you
learned a lot. We hope that you feel a little
bit more confident coming to NewYork City with 10 ideas for how
you can save some money and not end up wasting it.
If you have not already, please leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts, Rate US on Spotify, wherever you are.
All of the engagement helps thispodcast get seen more in the

(37:27):
algorithms. And please, please sign up for
our newsletterbettertogetherhere.com
back slash newsletter. We e-mail once a week with
information like this about how to save money, the best
restaurants that you should go to.
We talk a little bit about New York City history, events that
are currently happening that youmay want to go to while you're
here. We only e-mail once a week.
No spam, no AI, no BS, just likereal authentic expertise in your

(37:50):
inbox once a week. And other than that, we'll catch
you on the next episode. The last song on this spring.
Everyone please leave the spring.

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