Spring Break Journey Recap: DC & NYC

by Ashley

We’re again from our Spring Break journey to DC and NYC and I’m glad to report again that it was a good time!

I wrote again in October about our deliberate journey, and I made it a problem to remain beneath $6k for the entire thing. Did it occur? Hold tight – I’ll let you recognize in a bit. However first, let’s rewind.

The Plan 

I used to be excited going into this journey, however I used to be additionally a bit nervous to be touring away from dwelling with the children as the only grownup for the primary time (hubby has restricted day without work work, so we deliberate this as a woman’s journey). 

My mother joined us for the DC portion, however then the women and I boarded a practice and traveled to NYC for one more couple of days with simply us! Equal components thrilling and mildly terrifying!

Price range Breakdown

Right here was my finances going into the journey:

As all the time, I owe a hearty THANK YOU to you, the readers, for giving me so many low cost/free and FUN concepts of issues to do whereas on Spring Break! Let me let you know about our journey after which I’ll break down the numbers….

Washington, DC: Surprisingly Inexpensive

We spent 4.5 days in DC, and practically every thing we did was free.

We packed in a ton:

• Pure Historical past Museum
• Museum of American Historical past
• Holocaust Museum
• Nationwide Archives
• Capitol tour
• Sculpture Backyard
• The Individuals’s Home (instructed donation)
• DC at Evening Tour (our solely expensive tour)

We ended up taking extra Ubers than anticipated as a result of my mother’s knee was flaring up, and I coated these for the reason that app is already on my cellphone. However she insisted on paying for many meals (regardless of my repeated makes an attempt to get the test – why do they all the time hand it to the retiree?! Wouldn’t it make extra sense to provide it to the middle-aged particular person? However I digress…)

Backside line: I got here in properly beneath finances in DC.

On to NYC!

We spent an extra 2.5 days in NYC. I’d initially budgeted $1150 for tourism however spent method much less!

We ended up NOT going to the Statue of Liberty. We went to Battery Park and noticed it from afar, after which we rode the FREE ferry to Staten Island and again the place we had AMAZING views from the water (because of readers for that gem of a tip!). That was $500 saved. 

Superb view of the Statue of Liberty from the free Staten Island Ferry!

Additionally, I’d initially deliberate $650 for Broadway, however we had been in a position to get last-minute tickets to the manufacturing & Juliet. It was really an unbelievable efficiency and was wonderful to see with teen women (it’s a coming of age story with a robust feminine lead). As a result of we waited and scored last-minute offers, it was lower than $300 for all three of us!

Whereas in NYC, our solely “sit down” restaurant was on the well-known (and overpriced however enjoyable/iconic) Ellen’s Stardust Diner. All our different meals had been on-the-go: scorching canine cart, sandwiches, bagels, pizza, and related. I’ll be sincere, just about every thing we ate was lackluster (besides the bagels – these had been divine!). I KNOW NYC has wonderful meals, however our journey centered extra on tourism than meals, so we didn’t go to any nice meals locations. However that trade-off (meals that was simply “meh”) was price it to do all of the exploring we did! Bikes via central park, strolling via Occasions Sq., attending a Broadway present, and extra!

I wish to share one loopy story that I hadn’t talked about in my final/planning publish.

Jellycat Mania

My women are obsessive about Jellycat Diner. If you recognize, you recognize. It was actually of their TOP 2 issues to do in NYC (together with Broadway). To go to Jellycat, you want reservations. They e-book 4 weeks upfront and promote out INSTANTLY. I knew this forward of time, and obtained myself reservations for the day we had been set to reach in NYC. 

As soon as at Jellycat, we obtained checked in and stood in line, ready for our reservation time. Right here’s the factor – Jellycat is costly. I’d forgotten to incorporate it in my authentic finances breakdown, however I knew this was a non-negotiable for my youngsters. I instructed them they may every choose one Jellycat (regardless of the identify “Diner” Jellycats are stuffed animals within the form of meals. And so they go for about $80 a bit!). 

As we’re standing in line, a person approaches us, giving us a narrative about how he’s solely on the town for in the future and his daughters have begged for a Jellycat and he’ll do something for them, and would I be prepared to purchase one in every of each Jellycat for his women? He would pay. Not solely that, he’d pay for my women’ too. And he’d give me an additional $100 only for the difficulty.

I really thought it was a rip-off at first. Counterfeit payments or one thing shady. He pulled out his pockets and began counting out lots of. Then I noticed his daughters – about the identical age as mine – and the unhappy look on their faces. I stated positive. He gave me the cash, I obtained his women all of the Jellycats, he paid for all of it and I made 100 bucks for the “problem” (which was no problem in any respect). 

And so that’s the story of how we obtained FREE Jellycats and truly got here up on cash on our first day in NYC.

Sorry that is blurry, its a display screen seize from a video I took on the Jellycat Diner. Right here, they had been “cooking up” my daughter’s burger.

Okay, I’ve left you in suspense lengthy sufficient… 

Did I keep Inside Price range?

Sure!

Complete spent: $5,213

That’s practically $800 beneath finances!

In full transparency, I’ve a journey bank card with rewards that I exploit to “erase” travel-related bills from my invoice. I had rewards stacked up and I used these to erase the cost of our NYC resort, which was $758. Had that erasure not occurred, I’d’ve spent extra like $5971. That also places me beneath our $6,000 finances however my precise out-of-pocket spend was simply over $5200.

If anybody is thinking about my card, they’ve a promotion now with as much as 75,000 miles free for brand new cardholders (that might cowl a NYC resort for a pair nights, simply sayin ;)). If you happen to’re and use my hyperlink, I get a couple of bonus miles thrown my method, too. No strain!

Sudden Bills

There have been some surprises – like spending extra on transportation than I’d anticipated! I spent a pair hundred on Ubers in DC I hadn’t deliberate for. And the Uber to the airport in NYC, alone, was $70! We additionally did a bit Lime Scooter rental across the Washington Monument in DC (extremely advocate), and boy did that add up fast! It ended up being a $50 trip for perhaps 20-Half-hour? I hadn’t anticipated these bills.

What Helped Us Keep Below

Regardless of the surprising bills, general, we spent method much less on “tourism” than I’d anticipated. Between skipping out on the $$$ Statue of Liberty tour and having a random stranger purchase our costly Jellycat objects, we had been method under-budget. And whereas we had been just about proper at $200/day for meals in NYC (which was my estimated expense), we had been under-budget in DC as a consequence of my mother’s generosity.

Reminiscences Made

Greater than something, although, I’m simply grateful I used to be in a position to make these recollections with the women. I used to be apprehensive about navigating town through subway and whereas I had a few navigational mishaps, nothing was disastrous.

The largest “OOPS!” was on the practice from DC to NYC. I may have sworn I heard the conductor say “New York” so we jumped up and obtained our baggage, exiting the practice…solely to right away sense one thing was fallacious (I’d by no means been to Penn Station, but it surely didn’t appear proper, and I used to be assuming many others would even be exiting, however most had been persevering with to take a seat).

I circled and requested the conductor, “is that this New York?!” He stated, “No, it’s NEWARK!” Cue the panic! I’m positive it’s in all probability not allowed? However my women and I jumped again on so fast! They had been mortified. I used to be harassed for about 30 seconds. However now it’s a enjoyable inside joke now we have amongst ourselves. These recollections – they’re price greater than gold! I’m so glad we had this time collectively.

Do you may have Spring Break plans this yr? Any memorable Spring Break journeys from the previous?

Hello, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at coronary heart. Lover of working, running a blog, and all issues cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mom of two, working in academia. Making an attempt to lastly (lastly!) repay that ridiculous 6-digit scholar mortgage debt!