No matter how thirsty you are, keep walking to the nearest bodega. The cvs down the street, as well as the local bodega, are good places to buy a bottle of water. (you can refill your water at water fountains usually found within parks!) paying with a card shouldn’t be a problem. I wrote a guide about finding the best souvenirs in new york on a budget, so skip the aggressive street sales and go straight for stores with set prices. If you’re visiting new york city and you have a car, the best thing to do is to find a parking lot near a new jersey transit station or newark airport and park it there.

With a lot of your trip spent outside, you’ll need to wear clothes that align with whatever the weather  happens to be, while of course, achieving a few fashion points along the way. Remember, pickpockets and others hoping to pull off petty crimes are opportunistic. They’re looking for anyone who has an unzipped bag or isn’t paying attention to where their belongings are. Everyone has a smartphone but don’t flash other expensive electronics. In an emergency, there are bathrooms at grand central terminal. Nearby bryant park has one of the cleanest public bathrooms in the entire city.

If you take certain precautionary measures and apply common sense, you won't have anything to worry about in new york. That's why the most convenient option is to book a shared or private transfer to your hotel in manhattan, where you'll travel aboard modern vehicles that are fully equipped with every comfort. Times square is where the unsuspecting tourist is lured in by the bright lights and spends their funds on overpriced meals at ordinary food stores. It’s super crowded at all times and most locals will do anything not to go near it.

Queens is the largest and most diverse borough in the city, and as a non-queens resident, I’ll admit that they have some of the best food in the city. In any case, inform your bank of your travel plans, lest overseas purchases are misconstrued as fraud and your card is cancelled. As one of the busiest international air passenger gateway into the us, jfk is well connected to manhattan. The airtrain stops at each terminal (with the exception of terminal 4) and connects to the subway. Take the airtrain to jamaica station, hop on the subway and you’ll be at penn station within 50 minutes.

If you want to visit an iconic new york city attraction, do so, but avoid doing anything else nearby. Restaurants, cafes, and shops around them can be double the cost of the same product or Have fun in Big Apple service a few blocks away. Buy the new york pass online to save time and hassle. In addition, you will save extra money off the retail price. If you have to be somewhere at a certain time, then this might be an extra stressor when taking the subway.

The local trains make all the stops on the line, while the express trains bypass many stations stopping only in select places. The atmosphere at the holiday markets is festive enough to warm even the coldest of grinch hearts. Even “hardened” new yorkers can’t help but feel the christmas spirit.