Traveling! I can't wait to do it since life is currently too complicated for that, but in the meantime, I am having fun writing up about and sharing information about my 17 year old son, Lee's, frugal trip to the US and England this past summer.
I already posted about what my son did on his first day and a half in New York City, barely spending a thing. Then I wrote what he did on his 2 days in Washington, DC, again barely spending a thing.
At this point in my retelling, it's Tuesday afternoon in mid July, my son is on the bus to New York City, and Thursday morning he's already on the bus to camp. His bus from DC ended up being later than it originally was going to be, so he had less time in New York that first day than originally planned. Fortunately, I was able to reschedule things on the fly and help him figure out how to best make use of his limited time in New York.
As I wrote in my previous posts, I was paying for his transportation and groceries, but he paid for any activities he wanted to do and any restaurants at which he wanted to eat. He decided before going to New York that the things he wanted to do most were see the Statue of Liberty, which he did for free by taking the Staten Island Ferry. The other big thing he wanted to do was go to one of the observation decks to see the city from high up. This post that I found broke down the different observation decks, their costs, what they had to offer, and my son felt he'd get the most bang for his buck at The Edge (and it doesn't hurt that it also is one of the cheapest options).
So that my son didn't have to lug his luggage around with him in Manhattan while touring, I found him luggage lockers near Port Authority for him to stash his bag inexpensively. So after he dropped off his luggage, he went to the Edge and for $40 enjoyed himself looking out over Manhattan.
I had planned for him to go kayaking for free on the Hudson river, which you could do for free for 20 minute slots on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays in summer months, but because of the delay in arriving in New York, Lee wouldn't be able to stay so long up on the observation deck if he wanted to make it to the kayaking before it closed, and he said he wanted to get his money's worth and stay there longer. Unfortunately, doing it the following day before leaving to camp, and when he came back from camp, wasn't an option, but I wanted to include this option here for you because, hopefully, you'll be able to do it when you go travel in Manhattan.
After going to the observation deck, he saw the Vessel, a unique structure nearby that you used to be able to climb (but currently cannot since they are trying to make it safer)...
Then Lee went to walk the High Line, a park made along a former elevated train track.
It seems quite pretty...
A pleasant and calm place to experience in the middle of bustling NYC.
I also had more things planned for him, but he was tired and called it a night after that.
The next morning my son brought his luggage with him to Manhattan, because that evening he was already heading to my friend in New Jersey to take the bus to camp early the next morning, so again, he checked in with Luggage Hero.
Then was my son's other big expense of the trip. As someone who appreciates aeronautics, he decided to spend the money, $36, to go see the Intrepid Museum, an American military and maritime history museum aboard the USS Intrepid, a World War 2 era aircraft carrier.
It was recommended to him by someone who knew him well and it was spot on. It has airplanes and helicopters, mostly American military ones, but there are ones from other countries' militaries as well. In addition to so many cool aircraft, including a Concorde, it also has a submarine and the Enterprise space shuttle.
Money well spent.
He wasn't able to spend unlimited time there, because I had gotten him tickets to be in the audience to see the Late Night Show with Seth Meyers and he needed to be there at 2 pm despite taping starting at 4.
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I am a huge fan of Seth Meyers, I watch basically every episode of his that comes out (it's one of my favorite ways to keep up with American news) and I found out that you could get free tickets to Seth Meyers, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, all shows that I love watching, but you need to apply for tickets and there can be a waiting list. For Stephen Colbert's show you need to be 18 or 16 if accompanied by an adult, but for the other two you can be 16. (Photo ID is required and regularly asked for.)
My son said it was a whole experience, with a lot more security than he'd expected, with multiple different times that you're checked, and there were really fancy waiting rooms.
Past a certain point phones needed to be put away, so my son doesn't have any pictures from that point, but once they got seated in the studio, they were given instructions about how to act and respond to things, and then Seth came out and introduced himself. Like I expected, my son said he was a really nice and likeable guy, not a stuck up snob. There was Seth's monologue sections, the interview sections, and then a music performance at the end. It was a few hour production from start to finish, but a nice experience and, did I mention it, completely free? I'm just a little jealous and wish I could have been there, but I'm so glad my son got to go there.
It was very important for me that my son go see the 9/11 memorial, and he'd had to leave the tour early his first day in NYC, before he got to it, because of a mandatory Zoom meeting for camp, so after the show, he went down to the the memorial. My second cousin that I never had a chance to meet worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the North Tower and was killed, and my son paid his respects to him by finding his name on the Memorial and reading up about him.
After that, my son walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, just as it was getting dark.
He had a hard time finding where to go on it, and had to walk back and forth a few times because he didn't realize how far from the river the bridge entrance was, but, eventually, he found it...
Then he walked across it just as it was getting dark...
...The perfect and most iconic time of day to go there.
With that done, completely exhausted, my son took the subway back into Manhattan, picked up his suitcases from the luggage place nearby, got completely drenched from a sudden cloudburst which made his phone screen stop working, made it into Port Authority and caught the bus to New Jersey, and made it to my friend's house before his phone completely stopped working. Perfect timing. Because the next morning, he was already on the bus to camp with his friend. If his phone had stopped working just a few hours earlier it would have been bad. But at least he had the phone until the very end of his solo traveling portion of his trip.
Total cost for his activities?
On this day and a half, $40 for the Edge, $36 for the Intrepid, and $13 for the flight simulator. In New York his first 2 days, he spent $20 on the tour and $10 at the Queens Museum. Altogether, that was $119 for 4 days of touring and experiencing New York and seeing most of the iconic touristy things. Not bad, not bad at all. Quite frugal. And if you add in what he did in DC, that is another 2 days of free fun activities, so $119 for 6 days of tourism. $20 a day on average for 6 days of iconic touring in the nation's capital and largest cities, I'd say that's a pretty frugal trip indeed.
Which of these things have you been to? What did you enjoy best? What would you have suggested he do while in New York for a limited time? (He did end up spending a few more days in New York after camp, but I wasn't sure how much time he'd have so I wanted to make sure he saw everything that was a must before camp.)