As most of you know, I was planning on spending this year traveling through South America. However the opportunity came up last week to fly over to New York for a couple of weeks, and I just couldn’t pass it up.
I love NYC, it is in fact my favourite city in the world. So any opportunity I have to visit, I will. I’d been looking to come over to the states for the past few weeks for a few reasons. The first is that none of my clothing fits me now I’ve converted to a vegan diet. Since removing dairy from my daily eating weight has dropped from me, meaning that all the clothing I brought with me is now ridiculously large. As I’ve been spending the majority of my time in Ecuador, clothing that I both liked and could afford has been very difficult to find. There is a high tax on all retail products Ecuador, meaning the clothing is pretty expensive for the quality (or lack thereof) you’re buying. I’m also quite a tall person and, whilst I have lost a lot of weight, I’m by no means stick thin, so finding clothing to fit both my height and my behind in Ecuador has been difficult. In the US I don’t have any issues finding great clothes for a reasonable price.
We’re also coming up to Thanksgiving and Black Friday holidays here in the States. Finding flights that coincided with these dates means I can buy many things I want on sale and as well as getting to spend a couple of weeks in this awesome city.
But how can I afford this? I’m a backpacker on a USD$35 per day budget, isn’t New York out of my price range?
The first thing I will say is that this two week trip was expensive and yes it has definitely taken a huge chunk out of my savings that I would otherwise have lasted me for a month or two in South America. But I’m doing this NYC adventure as budget savvy as possible.
Flights
The whole New York idea started with Google Flights. The Google Flights search engine looks around the web and shows users with the least expensive flights it can find. I was able to find a flight from Quito, Ecuador where I happened to be last week, to New York via Atlanta, Georgia for USD$540 return. The dates matched perfectly with my other travel plans, as well as the Thanksgiving and Black Friday holidays.
Accommodation
I’m staying in an Airbnb apartment on the Upper West Side. As I’m here with my boyfriend I’m able to share the cost of the apartment with someone else. If I were here alone, I likely could not afford a whole apartment for myself. So being able to share accommodation costs with someone else allows more possibilities to become available.
I’m staying in a beautiful apartment with a park view on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for USD$600 per week. As I’m in Manhattan for just over two weeks, I was able to negotiate the price with owner through the Airbnb site. It’s a fantastic apartment in a great location. The cost of staying in a hotel would be at least USD$500 more per week without access to a kitchen and laundry.
Activities
There are so many free and inexpensive things to do in New York. Walking through Central Park, Times Square, or just wandering the Manhattan streets is so exciting in this city, and completely free. There are comedy shows for USD$5 or less, lotteries and rush tickets for Broadway shows that cost as little as USD$30, and you can visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for free on Friday nights.
Eating also doesn’t have to be expensive. As I have an apartment, I can buy food at the supermarket and cook myself. The Wholefoods supermarket makes it very easy to live a vegan life, even if I do need to pay a little more for organic produce.
But if I feel like eating out there are chinese takeaway restaurants on almost every block where for USD$5 per person you can eat freshly made rice and stir-fry vegetables until your stomach explodes and still not finish the box.
So for the next two weeks I’m exploring New York. Riding the subway around the city and out to Brooklyn, walking around the boroughs, buying clothing on sale, and living the best life I can in this awesome city.
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