How Much does a 3 Day Trip to New York City Cost?

It’s no secret that visiting New York City can be a bit pricey. Many people often wonder how much a trip to New York cost and what they should budget for. This guide will walk you through exactly how much we spent during a three day trip to New York city. If you are planning to stay more days, this will still give you a rough idea of how much you can expect to spend per day.

Trip to New York Cost

Below is an overview of how much you can expect to spend in each category. In the rest of this article, I will go into more detail about what’s included in each of these categories. I traveled with two other people, so I included the total cost and how much it was for each person (split 3 ways).

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Transportation

Flights

We flew from Atlanta to JFK and paid $136 per person. If your flight is from the west coast, you can expect to pay more since your flight will be longer. Since this was a short trip, we all just took carry-ons so we didn’t have to pay for a checked bag.

AirTrain

We took the AirTrain from JFK to Jamaica Station, where we hopped on a Subway to take us into the city. The AirTrain is $8.50 per person and since we took it to the city then back to the airport, we spent $17 per person.

The Subway

We took the subway quite a few times in New York City and the bus twice. Each time you enter the subway(or take the bus) you pay $2.90. In total we spent $34 per person. $34 is actually the max you should expect to spend on the subway in a week, as long as you use the same device or card every time. This is because of the new fare capping program New York has, you can learn more about it here.

Ferry

We took the ferry once from the East 34 Ferry to Dumbo and it cost $4.50 per person.

Accommodation

We stayed at The Holiday Inn – Times Square for three nights and paid $337.69 per person. This is the price for 4 nights because we stayed arrived early Wednesday and left mid day Sunday. This makes our total nightly $253. The Holiday Inn is a 3-star hotel, and the nightly price was pretty average. If you want to stay in a fancier hotel, you will definitely pay more; however, this hotel was nice enough and in the perfect location.

The time you visit also contributes to the hotel prices. We went in mid-November, so the prices weren’t too bad. However, if you wanted to visit for Christmas, you should expect to pay around an extra $100 per night.

Hotels Options

Food/Restaurants

Our hotel didn’t offer complimentary breakfast, so we ate out for all three meals every day. New York City has some really good restaurants, so you don’t want to skimp in this area. However, that doesn’t mean every meal needs to be eaten at a sit-down, 5-star restaurant. If that’s what you like, definitely go for it, but most of the food we ate was at casual spots. We spent $217.78 per person on food, so around $75 per day, per person.

Attractions

There are numerous attractions you can do in New York City so this category will vary depending on what you choose to do. We did visited the Statue or Liberty ($25/person), The Edge ($49.99/person), and the Friends Experiences ($59.88/person). For these three, we spent $133.87 per person.

There are also plenty of free things to do around the city so you don’t have to spend too much in this category. A few free things we did include explore Central Park, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, visit Little Island,

Souvenirs

Lastly we have any souvenirs or shopping you do in the city, which can add up pretty quickly. We aren’t big shoppers and only bought a few souvenirs and spent around $25 per person.

Trip to New York Cost

Overall, a trip to New York City doesn’t have to cost a ton. For 3 days in the city, we spent $850.32 per person and hit a lot of the iconic NYC spots. If you want to lower this number, you can cut out the attractions and only do free things, or be flexible with your dates and go when hotel and flight prices are cheaper.

If you are ready to plan your trip to New York City, checkout my 3 Day NYC Itinerary!