A free Time’s Up bike ride around Union Square with a DJ
Of all the questions I field from friends coming to town , I think the most common one is “what can I do in NYC for free or on a budget?” That’s not to say that they don’t come in with plans that get expensive, but if you have a week in NYC and you’re blowing most of your budget on 3 days, having a couple of resources to help you run around town for the other 4 and have a great time without going over budget or having to eat ramen for every meal on your last day can be clutch.
Here are just a couple of resources that I use every week which can help you to navigate and explore the city while doing the sort of things that feed your Instagram and make your Facebook friends jealous without dropping much if any money. These aren’t necessarily the first sites that would pop up on a google search (with the exception of TimeOutNY), but I find that places like TripAdvisor, while great when you’re blowing through a small town in Ecuador, just won’t give you the in-depth information and feel that local writers regularly contributing and going out on their suggestions will.
If you’re interested, I have a few more resources on my site (shameless self promotion: NYCNomadic):
1. The Skint
The Skint, British slang for “cheap”, says of itself “Two underemployed friends used to tip each other off to cool bargains and free goodies they'd hear about. now we list them here. We'd like to think that the skint proves you don't need to be rich to enjoy the best of the city.”
The Skint is a great place to go to for last minute ideas. While they have a recurring events section where you can often find some cool weekend events, often the events here are listed the day of, so you’ll probably want to check the site early the day of when you want to go out. The really nice thing about this site is that, if you’re restless and ready to go, they’ve got a place for you to run to somewhere.
2. NYCGovParks.org
NYCGovParks.org/events has the best listing of free stuff to do in the Spring and Summer. From outdoor movies to kayaking on the Hudson and East River to yoga on the beach in Rockaway, they have dozens of suggestions for free activities every day in every burrough.
Want to do a free fencing class in Bryant Park outside of one of the world’s most beautiful libraries right on 5th Avenue? How about a martial arts fitness class out on the pier? Feel like catching La La Land with a couple hundred people after missing it in the theater, or are you looking to sing along to Bohemian Rhapsody with Wayne, Garth and a hundred hipsters outside in Williamsburg? It’s all there.
3. Meetup
Meetup a great website or app to go for listings of things that you can do for free or cheap with a group anywhere, sure, but in NYC we have a critical mass of eclectic tastes that gives you a far greater selection: I find way more Meetups here that match my taste for gaming, martial arts, languages, comic books, hiking, surfing or whatever it is that I’m looking for.
This site is more for people who want to go out with a group of new people to do something. For example, I’d hit a bar to watch a UFC alone, but why not with the MMA in NYC Meetup group and have more experienced martial arts analysts give you an excited breakdown or predictions as the fight is going? Or there are also the language meetups I occasionally hit to brush up on Japanese, German or Spanish, none of which I could practice speaking very well on my own.
Of course, don’t limit yourself to my humble suggestions, just hit up the site and plug in whatever outlandish interest you have and, chances are, there are other New Yorkers that have it too.
4. TimeOutNY (TONY)
TimeOutNY is a site that, if you’re looking for things to do in NYC, you’ve likely heard of. It’s one of the big sites like TripAdvisor that operate in several cities, but TONY definitely digs in a bit deeper with their own contributors who make great recommendations.
They have great suggestions for every month and week, and if you’re really stuck on what to do I’d recommend taking a look at their bucket lists. In fact, swiping items from other people’s bucket lists is a great practice since there are a few of them out there with some great recommendations for NYC.
This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just the top 4 that I use. There’s also Groupon, Eventbrite, the Thrillist, Brokelyn and about a thousand free comedy mailing lists that you can join. With a little bit of planning, you can make your money go a lot further, meet more people who share your interests and get more out of a city which has more potential than anyone can truly take advantage of.