Five nights in one Manhattan hotel, and a city built for walking. The view from the top, the memorial downtown, the harbour by boat, and two days with nothing booked at all.
FromUS$965per person, twin share — five nights’ hotel, New York hotel tax included, and four booked tickets. Compare the three hotel tiers
Fly in and out of JFK where you can. Newark (EWR) works too but sits in New Jersey; LaGuardia has no rail link at all and is a bus or a cab. Tell us which airport your ticket uses and we will tell you the cheapest way in.
Confirmation
Book at least 14 days before departure. New York hotel rates move faster than anywhere else on our list, and the low-season pricing here does not survive a late booking. We confirm within 24 hours and hold the tickets on your dates.
New York is the easiest city on this list to do without a guide: the grid is numbered, the subway runs all night, and everyone speaks English. That is why nothing here is escorted. What we have done instead is book the four things worth booking, cover the hotel tax that normally ambushes people at check-out, and leave two whole days empty.
The trip at a glance
Manhattan
Days 1–4 · 5 nights
01
Arrival
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Arrival in New York AT LEISURE
Arrive at JFK. The transfer is not included: the AirTrain to Jamaica then the subway runs about US$11 and takes an hour, a yellow cab is a flat US$70 plus tolls and tip.
Tap in with a contactless card or phone — OMNY caps at US$34 a week, so after twelve rides the rest are free. There is no card to buy in advance.
Check in and rest. Rooms rarely open before three, and the desk will hold bags.
After dark, twenty minutes at Times Square. It is worth seeing once and it is not worth an evening.
Eat early. New York kitchens run later than London but the good ones book out — the hotel can usually get you in somewhere at 18:00 without notice.
02
Midtown
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Midtown from Above TICKETS INCLUDED
Top of the Rock at opening, ticket included. Go up first thing: the queue is shortest and the light is behind you looking downtown.
It faces the Empire State Building, which is the view people actually have in mind — and the one you cannot get from inside that building.
Down Fifth Avenue on foot. St Patrick’s Cathedral is free, open late, and unexpectedly quiet.
Afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art, ticket included. Starry Night, the Water Lilies room, and the soup cans.
Nobody is guiding you today. Both tickets are booked and paid; the order and the pace are yours.
In your price today — go at your own pace
Top of the Rock observation deck
The Museum of Modern Art
03
Downtown
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Downtown & the Harbour TICKETS INCLUDED
Start at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, ticket included. Allow two to three hours — it is a heavy morning and worth every minute.
The plaza above is free and open to anyone. The names are arranged by who people were standing with, not alphabetically.
Walk ten minutes to Wall Street for Federal Hall, Trinity churchyard and the narrow lanes the city started in.
Late afternoon, sail from Pier 78 on the 90-minute harbour cruise, included. Past Liberty Island, under the bridges, back along the skyline as the lights come on.
The cruise passes the Statue of Liberty; it does not land. If you want to climb the pedestal or crown, that is a separate ferry and a separate morning — tell us and we will book it.
If there is light left, walk the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side, about thirty minutes.
In your price today — go at your own pace
9/11 Memorial & Museum
Liberty, bridges & skyline cruise, 90 minutes
04
Uptown
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Central Park & the Met AT LEISURE
Nothing is booked today. Enter Central Park at the south-east corner and walk north through the Mall and Bethesda Terrace — about an hour at a stroll.
The park is 3.5 km long and wider than it looks. Do not plan to cross it and be somewhere else twenty minutes later.
The Metropolitan Museum sits on the east edge. Two million objects, an Egyptian temple indoors, and a roof garden in season.
The Met is not free for visitors. Pay-what-you-wish is for New York State residents only; everyone else pays about US$30. Old guidebooks still get this wrong.
Upper West Side for the evening, or back down for a show — see the menu below.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtAbout US$30Pay-what-you-wish is for New York State residents only. Visitors pay the full ticket, whatever an old guidebook says.
The American Museum of Natural HistoryAbout US$28The better choice with children, and it backs onto the west side of the park.
Staten Island FerryFreeRuns 24 hours, passes the Statue of Liberty, and costs nothing. The cheapest good view in New York.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
Brooklyn
Day 5 · across the river
05
Brooklyn
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DUMBO & Williamsburg AT LEISURE
Ten minutes on the F train to DUMBO. Washington Street frames the Manhattan Bridge tower with the Empire State in the arch — the photograph on the front of this itinerary.
Brooklyn Bridge Park runs along the water with the best free skyline view in the city, and Jane’s Carousel sitting in a glass box on the promenade.
North to Williamsburg: record shops, roasters and the Saturday flea market.
Take the East River Ferry back at dusk instead of the subway. It costs the same as a bus ride and does the job of a harbour cruise for US$4.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
A Broadway showFrom about US$80Book aheadTKTS in Times Square discounts same-day seats 20–50%. Long-runners are cheapest midweek; a Saturday night costs double.
SUMMIT One VanderbiltAbout US$60The mirrored deck above Grand Central. Different enough from Top of the Rock to be worth both if you like heights.
Smorgasburg, WilliamsburgUS$15–25 a plateSaturdays, April to October only. Dozens of stalls on the waterfront with the skyline behind them.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
The High Line & Home
Day 6 · departure
06
Departure
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The High Line, then Home AT LEISURE
Walk the High Line, a freight viaduct replanted as a park 2.3 km above the west side. Twenty minutes end to end.
It sets you down at Chelsea Market — a former biscuit factory, now food halls, and the last good meal in the city that needs no booking.
Allow at least three hours from Manhattan to the gate at JFK or Newark. The AirTrain is reliable; the roads at 16:00 are not.
Bags can stay at the hotel after check-out. Every hotel in every tier here will hold them for the day.
Your Hotels
One hotel for all five nights, in Manhattan, chosen so you can walk out of the lobby into the city rather than commute into it. Rooms in New York are small for the money — that is the city, not the hotel. Every tier below includes the hotel tax, which is quoted separately almost everywhere else and adds up fast.
Comfort · 4★
Midtown, walking distance to a subway lineTimes Square, Gramercy or the near west side. Compact rooms, a lift, a 24-hour desk and a location you can walk home to at midnight. This is the honest New York three-star experience with a four-star sign on it.
Deluxe · upper 4★
Bigger rooms, and a building with a lobby worth sitting inStill Midtown, but the kind of hotel with a bar people meet in. Rooms run a third larger than the Comfort tier, which in Manhattan is the difference between a suitcase on the floor and a suitcase open.
Luxury · landmark 5★
A name you already know, on a corner you have seenTimes Square, Fifth Avenue or Central Park South. Doormen, a concierge who can get a table, and in several cases a building that is itself a landmark.
You will know exactly where you are staying before you pay a balance. We name the property in your confirmation, in writing, as soon as the room is held — and if it is ever unavailable for your dates we substitute at the same tier or better, never below it.
Restaurants worth trying
No meals are in the price on this trip, so all of them are yours to choose. Here is where we would eat. We do not arrange any of these and you would pay for them yourself. They are simply places we rate, near where the trip goes. Tick any you like and they appear on the map.
Suggested, not included. Opening hours and prices are theirs, not ours — and a place that is busy at eight will be busy whether or not you booked through us.
Tour Price
All prices are per person, twin share, in US dollars — the figure below is what you pay us. It covers five nights’ hotel, the New York hotel tax, and the four tickets named above. Travelling alone is possible; the single supplement covers sole use of the room and its tax.
Hotel tier
Per person, twin share
Single supplement
Comfort — 4★ Midtown, twin share
from US$965
+US$570
Deluxe — upper 4★, twin share
from US$1,195
+US$740
Luxury — landmark 5★, twin share
from US$1,745
+US$1,155
Included
5 nights’ accommodation in the Manhattan hotel tier you choose · New York hotel tax and occupancy fees, which most quotes leave for the client to discover at check-out · Top of the Rock · the Museum of Modern Art · the 9/11 Memorial & Museum · the 90-minute Liberty, bridges and skyline cruise
Not included
Flights, excluded on every tour so the advertised price does not move with the airfare · Airport transfers — the AirTrain and subway is about US$11 a head and we will quote a car if you prefer · The subway, about US$2.90 a ride or US$34 for a 7-day OMNY cap · Meals · Broadway, deliberately left to you · The Met and other admissions on free days · Travel insurance, which is not optional in a country where an ambulance is billed · Tips
How the flexi tour works. Choose any departure date and a hotel tier → we confirm availability and the exact price within 24 hours → pay a deposit to hold it → your final documents and vouchers arrive by email a week before you fly. There is no group to join and no fixed departure day.
Seasonal pricing. February and January are the cheapest weeks of the year here and the reason this price works. From late September to mid-December rooms run about half as much again, and the week between Christmas and New Year is closer to two and a half times the February rate. Spring sits in between. The trip is the same; only the hotel line moves.
Budget separately for: Allow US$90–150 a day per person beyond the price above. Meals are the bulk of it: a deli lunch is US$15, a sit-down dinner US$45–80 before drinks. Add the subway at US$34 for the week, the Met at US$30, and a Broadway seat at US$80–300 if you want one. Tipping is not optional — 18–20% in restaurants, US$1–2 a drink, US$2–5 a night for housekeeping.
Start your booking
Tell us who you are and when you want to go.
We’ll reply within a business day with the price and what’s available.
A deposit holds it, and comes back in full if we can’t get your dates.
✓
That is with us
If you do not hear from us, email
info@dltravel.net and we will pick it up.