Make Ends Meet In NYC - Frugal (Or Even Free) Outings

Source: www.movieentertainment.ca - Melanie Reffes

New York City will never be cheap, but if you know where to look, the Big Apple is bursting with juicy bargains. Savvy travellers who do their homework will find plenty of low-cost and even no-cost options, from a bed for under a hundred dollars a night to a walking tour for absolutely nothing.

Although a cheap airline ticket is still a challenge, bragging rights go to those who find a good deal on a hotel room in a good neighbourhood (New York is all about the neighbourhood). Leading the pack of good deals, the Pod Hotel is high on style and low on price. Fashionable in east midtown, its rates include $89 U.S. for a bunk-bed pod and $199 U.S. for a townhouse that can comfortably sleep four peas in a pod. And for pod pals, the Pod Blog offers tips on how to get free stuff like tickets for Saturday Night Live tapings.

At the oh-so-groovy Hotel Gansevoort in the oh-so-trendy Meatpacking District, posh is no longer a four-letter word. There’s some relief from the credit crunch with the “Don’t Break the Buck” package, which includes a host of free extras like Wi-Fi, scrumptious breakfast for two, cocktails pour deux at the rooftop bar, souvenir CD, and a movie of your choosing for viewing on the flat-screen TV. A dip in the outdoor pool with breathtaking city views seals the deal. Best rates are typically for midweek stays and found online.

GOOD NOSHING

Celebrating its 100th birthday this year, Barney Greengrass still dishes up mounds of lox, cream cheese and bialys (read: flat bagels without the holes) to gaggles of locals who have made this West Side eatery part of their Sunday morning ritual. And at the famed Carnegie Deli, they’ll charge you three dollars for sharing a sandwich but the gargantuan pastrami on rye — $14.95 U.S. — can easily satisfy two. Sharing is also de rigueur at the crowd-pleasing Carmine’s, where a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs the size of baseballs is large enough to feed a family of four. “Value is our trademark,” says chef and owner Michael Ronis as he serves a prodigious platter of calamari to a table of hungry tourists. “We’re recessionproof because not only is our familystyle menu the best deal in town, but you’ll take away enough for lunch the next day.”

Made for meandering, Chinatown is bursting with tea shops and noodle joints, Little Italy has a pizza parlour around every corner, and in the rejuvenated Lower East Side a pickle at Gus’s is still a bargain at a buck, and a mushroom knish at Yonah Schimmel’s comes in at under four dollars.

For a warm weather experience extraordinaire, there is nothing more New York than a good old-fashioned street fair. Haggling with vendors is a Manhattan rite of passage, not to mention an idyllic way to while away a sunny afternoon, and more proof that a holiday in the epicentre of urban cool doesn’t have to break the bank.

CHEAP SEATS

For cheaper tickets for arts or sporting events, go to the will-call window at most stadiums or theatres and hang around until the curtain is just about to go up. seats reserved for family and friends of the stagehands, performers or athletes are sold last-minute at bargain basement prices. And although museums have suggested entry fees, they will often accept any amount you’d like to offer.

WHERE ON THE WEB

www.thepodhotel.com, 800-874-0074

www.hotelgansevoort.com, 212-206-6700

www.barneygreengrass.com

www.carnegiedeli.com

www.carminesnyc.com

www.knishery.com

www.nycstreetfairs.com