How Much $$$$

We will be travelling to New York at the beginning of June. for eight days. We will be purchasing tickets ahead for Broadway shows and our room is reserved. So, setting aside activities %26amp; lodging, what is a reasonable amount of $$$ per day for meals and transportation? We don%26#39;t really eat breakfast other than coffee and a roll, are two women who don%26#39;t eat huge amounts. primarily looking at lunch %26amp; dinner at reasonably priced restaurants (well, maybe a splurge here and there!). Thanks

How Much $$$$

Just like in any city, you can eat fast food or in fancy restaurants, or in between. All price ranges can be found in NYC. Re: transportation, you can walk all over and not take any cabs to save $. Subways and buses are $2 each way. If you really want to save $, don%26#39;t buy broadway show tickets in advance (for full Price, $100 per ticket). Wait until day of the show, and go on line in Times Square Tickets booth for 1/2 priced tickets. By the way, we eat bagels in NY, not rolls.

How Much $$$$

Transportation: purchase unlimited weekly metrocards for $21.00....good for just about your entire trip. Good on both buses %26amp; subways. Forget cabs, train it, bus it or walk it (by the way, the best way to really know NYC).

Food:

Lunch on the run? There are many places to stop for a quick bite, reasonably prices $5 - $10.00. Not difficult at all.

Dinner: Chinatown is always a great place for an inexpensive, good meal for either lunch or dinner.

Check some previous posts for reasonably priced Italian restaurants in Little Italy ( Ruffian has some great suggestions).

Theatre districts has many good restaurants for good prices, being that you are seeing shows. Restaurant Row, 46th St between 8th %26amp; 9th Avenues, boasts many good, prix fixed dinners for about $25.00-30.00, including tax %26amp; tip. I recommend Becco,Da Rosina (both Italian), Joe Allen (American), %26amp; Dannys Sea Palace. On 9th Avenue, from 42nd - 52nd Streets, are many good place also, such as Rachels %26amp; Zunis (American), Pietra Santa (Italian, and they have a great $10.00 brunch that can%26#39;t be beat), Casa Mia, Zen Palate (vegetarian), and many, many more. If you like Spanish food

that has basic food also, try El Quijote, on 23rd St between 7th %26amp; 8th Avenues in Chelsea, for great food %26amp; great prices...lobster dinner is $20.00,including salad %26amp; side dish!.

You can check out the menus %26amp; prices on www.menupages.com.

Pizza - there are many options, but try Johns on 44th Street between 6th %26amp; 7th Avenue (pies only) and for great BBQ, Virgils.

Ejan -- you CAN buy discounted Bwy and off-Bwy tickets in advance! And you should! Avoid waiting on long lines for TKTS, where you won%26#39;t know what%26#39;s available until you reach the box office, and then you can%26#39;t choose your seating. And on TKTS, some shows are 50%, others only discount 25%, and you pay a service fee on top of that. You are much better off buying in advance and having your tickets waiting for you at the box office. Take a look at the selection on www.broadwaybox.com -- much better choice than TKTS. To get an idea of what shows were available the previous week at TKTS, go to www.tdf.org.

As for dinners, you can certainly save by eating on the run. Average dinner at a nice place is around $40, but of course it%26#39;s a lot more at the ';splurge'; restaurants. And cocktails and even wine add up quickly. A typical martini can cost anywhere from $11 up to $18.50!

Make sure you bring more money than you think you are going to spend! NYC is pretty expensive, so you want to make sure you have enough money!! A cup of coffee and a pastry can easily set you back $5.00, and there are sooo many great places to eat around here, i am sure that you will eat more than you were planning to!!

Bettina - Are you sure you can get discounted B%26#39;way show tickets for June?!! I%26#39;ll look into that website... thanks. I know about ';Seasonofsavings.com'; offering 45% off many shows, but that expires end of March.

Bettina - In answer to my own question, looks like most Broadwaybox.com offers expire in March or April. Seaspirit will have to wait to see if new offers show up closer to the date. Thanks for the info though. I%26#39;ll keep it in mind (love those shows)!!!

I am leaving for NYC on Thursday with no broadway tickets so far - Yikes! I checked out broadwaybox.com but for some reason that site wouldn%26#39;t let me buy tickets directly - said something about my pop-ups being blocked. When I went to ticketmaster and used the codes mentioned in broadwaybox, however, it gave me the discounts. Does anyone know if it would work okay to buy them through ticketmaster and then just print them off. This is one of the options and because I%26#39;m in a time crunch I%26#39;m wondering if this would work - has anyone done this or have an opinion. Thanks for any help.

You can call Ticketmaster and purchase the discounted tickets over the phone with the codes. I believe they will email you a receipt, but you will be picking up the actual tickets at the box office. Check with them. The # is 212-307-4100. By the way, I always purchase my tickets over the phone so I can specify seating requests. (My husband won%26#39;t go unless he has an aisle seat.) They%26#39;re always very nice to work with you. Good luck and have fun!

Oh, I forgot to tell you, there%26#39;s a pretty hefty service charge (per ticket). Another possibility is to print out the coupons (seasonofsavings.com) and purchase the tickets yourself at the box office. I%26#39;ve done this the day of the show numerous times. (You may have to run from one box office to the next, looking for good seats though... but that%26#39;s actually not too hard since most of the theatres are in the same area.)

Just back, we had brunch including rolls and not beagles for two for 8 dollars at one end of the scale and 30 dollars for a similar meal at the Carnegie Deli, which was best value? they were both great. Dinner ranged from 53 dollars for one of the best chinese meals we have eaten to 70 dollars for an excellent steak dinner both for two and we were stuffed these included imported beers!