Review: New York on a Budget: The complete guide to saving money on accommodations, attractions, restaurants, shopping, and more

New York on a Budget: The complete guide to saving money on accommodations, attractions, restaurants, shopping, and more by Laura Peruchi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world, but when you travel there, it doesn't have to be. The key to saving money while traveling in NYC is to plan ahead. This guide is a helpful addition to those who are getting ready to travel to New York and don't want to confront high prices when it comes to shopping, food, and tourist attractions.

There was a lot of information within in this book about saving money. However, it certainly isn't everything you can do, see, and eat that is more affordable than what's on the surface for tourists. What I found most strange about this book is some of the topics that it focused on. This book spends a lot of pages with the basics of booking a hotel or hostel online--something which most people are familiar with. However, it spends a lot less pages talking about New York's transit system, which to outsiders can be a mess of confusion.

The book also explores how you can save money while shopping, but it lists a lot of pretty standard discount stores that happen to have locations in New York, rather than unique local places that are also affordable. This is when I realized that the book is not focused for domestic travelers like myself, but for international travelers who already know how to navigate big-city transportation and who may not be familiar with a place like TJ Maxx (and the fact that most Americans live within 50 miles of one).

The biggest clue to discovering who the real audience for this book was that the last 20% of the book is dedicated to the topic of how someone can buy used high-end electronics on Craigslist while traveling. A domestic audience would know that this sounds crazy dangerous and most Americans simply wouldn't take the risk, not only with their own safety, but the risk that the products may be damaged or stolen.

Still, I will be using this book when it comes to the attraction and restaurant listings, though I do hope since the book lists operating hours and prices that it is updated on a regular basis to reflect any significant changes.


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