I spent 8 days in NYC around mid-April, which happened to be school vacation week. This will be a fairly brief report - I'm a budget traveler so I mostly want to share some of my money-saving tips that allowed me to enjoy as much NYC as I could afford.

I go to NYC multiple times a year, so there's no must-see attraction for me. Instead, the main goal of this Spring trip was attending a couple of operas at the Metropolitan Opera.

Transport
I took Megabus r/t from Boston to NYC. Since I was able to jump on the $1 fares as soon as they were released, my bus fare was a whopping $2.50 total. Considering that one ride on the NYC subway costs $2.25, it's amazing I can travel for >400 miles for just $2.50.

Megabus is okay; I prefer Boltbus as I find Bolt more punctual and the seats are more comfortable. If the ticket prices were the same, I would have no doubt chose BoltBus over Megabus.

While in NYC, I bought a 7d metrocard for $27. I also took a number of cab rides when I got out of the opera too late.

Lodging
Free - I stayed at my friends' apt in Murray Hill

Sightseeing/Museum/Tours
I only visited 2 museums on this trip:

1) Neue Galerie - I've been to the Neue Galerie many times before, but this time was to see its current exhibition: Vienna 1900. I'm a huge fan of Vienna's Fin de siècle. This exhibition takes over the entire mansion: mulitple paintings by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka. Upstairs on the third floor has furniture, decorative arts, from the Wiener Werkstätte to Adolf Loos to Otto Wagner.

http://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/vienna-1900

2) Frick Collection - I was interested in seeing the Rembrandt exhibition; and I could get in for free (have reciprocal museum membership). The Rembrandt ended up being a bit disappointing; after all, it was my fault... I am just not that interested in drawings and etchings. The exhibit is in the basement galleries; it was hot, crowded, and claustrophobic. Since most drawings and etchings are quite small in scale, it quickly became very uncomfortable for me. I ended spending a lot more time in the main floor. I also have been to the Frick a number of times, so the paintings are all familiar. However, a few months ago I read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, so it was a nice treat to see the 2 portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger: one of Thomas More and one of Thomas Cromwell.

I took 3 tours on this trip:

1) Greenwich Village tour by NYCbyFoot.
I've taken another tour (Lower Manhattan) w/NYCbyFoot last fall, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to take another one. These tours are "free" - gratuity-based but completely voluntary. Our guide was Renee who also led the Lower Manhattan tour that I took. It was very informative and educational, never a dull moment. It was neat to learn the history of the village (including the Stonewall Uprising and the Triangle Factory Fire), as well as the people (past & present) who has lived in the Village. Highly recommended:

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/nyc/g...ch-village.asp

2) Metropolitan Opera BackStage tour
I had taken this tour a year ago. The only reason I took it again was because I was part of an organized group for this. Anyway, it is definitely worth taking if you are an opera fan. You really get to see the real backstage: from the stars' dressing rooms to costume shop to carpentry dept to the actual stage. And of course the auditorium as well. Tour lasted over 2 hours (even though it was advertised as 90mins).

3) Lincoln Center campus tour
I won 2 free tickets for this tour, so I took it with my brother, rkkwan, who happened to overlap a few days with me in NYC. On our particular tour, we visited 4 theatres: David H Koch Theatre (home of NYCO & NYCB), Met Opera House, Vivian Beaumont Theatre, and Avery Fisher Hall. Of the 4, the only one I haven't been to is Fisher Hall, so it was a bit boring to me. (We only visit the public areas: lobbies & auditorium.) But for out-of-town visitors who haven't been to any of these places, it's a fun tour to take.

http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/in...p/guided-tours

As for sightseeing, I went to the NY Botanical Gardens to see its "Orchid Show on B'way" (now closed). I have subscribed to Groupon NYC for months prior to this trip, and when there was a Groupon offer for NYBG a few weeks ago, I bought one ($10 for the $20 admission).

The Orchid Show is inside the conservatory - fairly crowded even though I was there around 11am on a Thursday. The display is quite amazing. Once I left the conservatory, the rest of the NYBG grounds is pretty much devoid of people. I took a long walk along the periphery. My last visit to NYBG was in the summer; I like this Springtime visit better as lots is blooming: magnolias, cherry trees, and fields of daffodils.

http://www.groupon.com/new-york/deal...tanical-garden

Here are a couple of photos:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7meTherk6h...0/IMG_6205.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZRZo5WLRK...0/IMG_6186.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B5H1vDvDTa...0/IMG_6217.JPG

To be continued.

Thrilled to see (yet another!) yk NYC trip report. I've gotten so many great tips from your reports and look fwd to reading more. I'm taking my daughter for her 3d trip to nyc next month, so I have extra keen interest. Was planning on Big Onion Greenwich Village tour but am going right now to follow your freetoursbyfoot link!
Lovely pics ☺

Thanks for the link on the free tour. Interesting about the comfort of megabus v. bolt. I booked mega for a $1 in Aug ( bolt schedule isn't up yet). I found the curved seats of Bolt uncomfortable after awhile. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

lantana, absolutkz - thanks for your comments!

FOOD
Since I was traveling alone and on a budget, these are a couple of things I did to save on dining out.

1) I signed up for Groupon NYC months ahead and checked its daily deals. I looked for casual cafes, take-out places that are convenient to me. In the end, I bought 6 food Groupons (5 are $5 for $10-worth of food; 1 is $10 for $20-worth of food). I'll give a brief review of these 6 places.

2) Since I was staying at my friends' apt, I was able to have breakfast in every morning. I eat fairly healthy, and I was able to find organic items at the neighborhood Food Emporium supermarket. I also skipped a few actual meals and snacked at home on fruits, salads, cheese & crackers, hummus, trail mix etc.

Nanoosh
http://www.nanoosh.com/
This is my newest fav place - it's an organic Mediterranean hummus bar. They have 3 locations, and I ate at the Lincoln Center location multiple times. The first time I went was w/my groupon, but then I returned many more times and even brought along others with me. Their food is healthy and fresh. On the multiple occasions I ate there, I tried: hummus plate, lentil soup, tabouleh salad, quinoa salad, and hummus mushroom wrap. All were delicious. And I love it that you can grab a light meal there before a show at Lincoln Center. Prices are very reasonable too. It's a place I definitely will be returning in the future.

63 Bites near Lincoln Center
http://www.63bites.com/
This place is located inside the YMCA on 63rd street. The space is pleasant, but I probably won't return. The staff gets overwhelmed easily. I ordered a tuna melt and it took over 10 minutes for me to get my food, and they weren't particularly busy. And the food was just so-so.

Soutine Bakery near Lincoln Center
http://www.soutine.com/
Another place I won't be returning. I got a caprese sandwich which was okay. I also got a few fruit tarts to-go: pear, strawberry, and lemon. The lemon tart is so sweet that you can't taste the lemon. The pear and strawberry tarts are average. Perhaps they were overwhelmed with passover orders when I was there, the cashier was rather snippy with me.

Sullivan Street Bakery on W 47th
http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/
They are most famous for their bread, but I didn't get it. Instead, I got desserts for my friends whom I stayed with. I bought 2 bombolini (their signature Italian-style doughnut) and 2 banana bread with espresso chips. My friends liked both very much, esp the bombolini. The banana bread was a tad dry, but it was perfect when we ate it with milk.

Crisp near Grand Central
http://www.eatatcrisp.com/home
I REALLY liked their falafel sandwich. I had the "Crisp Mediterranean" and it was delicious. However, it costs close to $10 which I thought is quite pricey for a falafel sandwich. I may go back there if I'm in the neighborhood and need something quick, but I won't make a special trip there due to the price.

Nooi pasta to-go near Grand Central
http://www.nooitogo.com/
I got a 26oz box of multi-grain pasta with tomato fresca sauce, and added some veggies to it. Overall, it tastes quite good; but again, at close to $10, it's a bit pricey. However, having said that, I was able to split it into 2 small meals; but anyone w/a good appetite would easily finish it in one setting. Positive note: the staff is very nice.

Finally, a couple of places I ate at without Groupon:
Cafe Sabarsky inside Neue Galerie
This has become my must-go place every time I'm in NYC. This visit I went with Fodorite MademoiselleFifi. I love the ambiance, as well as the coffee. This time I tried the Milchrahmstrudel, which is a quark cheese strudel. It's excellent.

Mapo tofu in Murray Hill
http://mapotofunyc.com
My friends like to order delivery from this Szechuanese restaurant, so we got dinner delivered one night. I think my friends' favorite is their General Tso's chicken and dan dan noodles; though they said other dishes are mostly very good.

P.S. My friends have tried their signature mapo tofu once, and they said it was so spicy that they couldn't eat it. So order it at your own risk.

To be continued.

yk - enjoying your report! You must come back soon. The azaleas are coming out at the NYBG and they are exquisite!

THANK YOU!
Your report is almost too good to be true. I love hummus and other Med foods, so nanoosh is an awesome tip - especially since it's just 10 blocks up B'way from our hotel

And we are finally going to the Neue this trip. Never made it last year but I won't let that happen again. I'd really like to get to Cafe Sabarsky early enough to go for b'fast before touring the museum. My daughter is going to love that place.

Crisp's menu has me salivating!

CPG, maybe next Spring for NYBG! My next trip to NYC probably won't be until mid-Fall, after the new opera season kicks off!

Shows/Performances
I saw 8 performances during my 8-day stay: 6 operas, 1 play, and 1 symphony. Of these 8 performances, I paid full price for only 3 of them (all Met opera productions).

Play
I bought a discounted ticket (30% off) for WAR HORSE at Lincoln Center via Broadway Box about 1 month before. I am glad I did, as there are no more discounts left, and the shows are selling out quickly. I highly recommend WAR HORSE, even if you have to pay full price.

I had hoped to see a couple more B'way shows by getting discounted tix from TKTS. However, I forgot it was school vacation week, so basically none of the shows I'd want to see were offered. FYI, if you don't mind going to the TKTS South Street Seaport booth, you can sign up for a daily email alert. It's sent out around 11am every morning, listing the tix being sold at the Seaport booth. Then you can decide if it's worth your trek there. OR, if you sign up for TKTS twitter feed (@TKTS), it tweets the tix available at the TIMES SQ booth each day. The tweets usu come out around 11:30am. Again, you can check it and then decide if it's worth your while to visit the TKTS booth. The Seaport booth opens at 11am, Time Sq booth opens at 3pm (2pm on Tues). TKTS also has an iPhone App which lists the updated list of tix for sale. I don't have an iPhone so I can't tell you how well it works.

Symphony
I bought a half-price ticket to see the Chicago Symphony/Riccardo Muti at Carnegie Hall. They were in town for 3 concerts and those were HOT tickets. All 3 shows were sold-out. I bought my ticket also about a month prior; mine was a "restricted legroom" seat in the Balcony. Seats in Balcony were $52, but mine was discounted at $25. I have full view of the stage and the acoustics was great up in Balcony; however, they weren't kidding about the "restricted" part. At 5'2", I never had any trouble with restricted legroom seats. However, even I was challenged by this: basically when I sat down, my knees were up against a banister. So, my advice is to avoid these seats unless you're 5' or under. Fortunately, the people next to me never showed up so I had some room to stretch out my legs.

http://www.carnegiehall.org/Tickets/...cket-Programs/

Operas
Of the 6 operas, 5 were at the Met and 1 was at NYC Opera.

For the NYC Opera, I bought a half-price ticket on the day of the performance at the Lincoln Center David Rubenstein atrium box office: http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/in...scount-tickets

You don't know which tix are offered (or what discount) until you get there, but since NYCO never sells out, it's safe to assume one can always get a discount ticket for it. On that day, there were 2 price categories available. I took the pricier one: $100 discounted to $50, + $4 fee. My seat was excellent: front row in 2nd Ring just off to the center. FWIW, it was opening night for Seance of a Wet Afternoon, and there were many empty seats...

I also got discounted tickets to 2 Met productions. One was Wozzeck on the weekend, for which I "won" the lottery for weekend rush tickets. http://www.metoperafamily.org/metope...ing/index.aspx For $25, you can get an orchestra seat for any of the w/e productions IF you win the lottery. The $25 includes all fees, even if you buy it online.

For another performance, Il Trovatore, it was sold-out. I ended up buying a Family Circle standing room ticket on the day of performance for $17. As long as you don't mind standing for 2-3 hours, I think $17 is a steal. Beware that the Family Circle standing room is usually rather warm and stuffy, so dress accordingly. Also, the standing space is rather narrow; fortunately, people on either side of me left after the intermission (did I smell???) so it was much nicer afterward.

For the 3 full-price operas I saw, 2 were Le Comte Ory and 1 was Die Walküre (opening night). Since these 3 were MUST-SEES for me, I bought these tickets back in August 2010: the first day of ticket sales to non-subscribers.

*I think that's all I have to write about! Thanks for reading and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. I hope some of my money-saving tips will prove useful to someone.*

Wonderful report and gorgeous photos. Thanks so much for posting.

Thx for the Groupon tip, yk. I just got discounted tix to the Guggenheim for my trip!

Thank you, YK, I got so many ideas from this report to send to my son who's going at the end of the month!!