I've finished planning my Christmas trip to the US. Originally I only wanted to go to New York, but I'll end up checking out Los Angeles and Washington.
I describe in detail how I plan the entire trip here. In first part I focused on choosing the places I wanted to see in New York. I planned everything out. itineraries and figured 7 days would be enough. Here I have to catch the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center during Christmas and New Year's in Times Square. In second part I was thinking about buying plane tickets and thanks to the Turkish Airlines promotion I completely changed my plans. In third part I planned a stay in Los Angeles.
The last piece of the puzzle is the actual flight from Los Angeles to New York, the train trip to Washington, securing accommodation and roughly planning the individual days.
From Los Angeles to New York
Of course, if you choose a date during Christmas, it will cost a fortune. This also applies to domestic flights in the US. Everyone is flying during the holidays and it shows in the prices.
I searched for tickets again via google flights. The choice of flights and airlines is really large. At random American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue and more. Flights are direct (you can also find ones with transfers), air tickets range from around 4,500 to more than 10,000 CZK during Christmas, and even less outside of this period. It also depends on the destination airport.
In addition to JFK, where the tickets are the most expensive, you can also fly to Newark and LaGuardia Airport. The direct flight takes about 5 hours, with another 2 hours of time difference. So the total journey takes 7 hours.
I thought a lot about when I wanted to land in New York, of course with regard to the price. Afternoon flights land at night and I didn't feel like moving from the airport and driving through New York at night to get to my accommodation. That's why I chose a flight from LA at 11:15 PM with Delta Airlines and landing in Newark around 7 AM. Ideal. I'll get an extra day in Los Angeles, I'll sleep on the plane and I won't have to pay for accommodation for the same day in LA and NY. And the journey to the accommodation will also be easier. The flight ticket cost an acceptable 6,600 CZK.
How to get from Newark to Manhattan
You can find a lot of descriptions on the internet about how to get from the airport. They say it's easy. By train. At the airport, just follow the AirTrain Newark signs, get to the Newark Liberty International Airport RailLink Station (by AirTrain) and from there take the AirTrain train every 15-30 minutes. NJ Transit or Amtrak to Penn Station in Manhattan. The ticket price is around 15 dollars and the journey takes less than half an hour (route map).
Accommodation in New York
There are a lot of options for accommodation in New York. You can choose from booking or airbnb, for example. It just depends on what you expect from accommodation. I'm more or less just sleeping, so I don't need any luxury. Hotels on booking for 9 nights were not cheaper than 25 thousand, so I chose aribnb, a separate private room in a shared apartment for about half. In Brooklyn, close to a subway station with a commute to Manhattan in about 25 minutes.
Itinerary
I think I'll be quite busy and I'm sure I won't be able to do everything. Plus, the weather might ruin my plans. Anyway, I won't be bored.
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Manhattan Bridge (incl. Dumbo Lookout)
- 2 boat trips as part of CityPass
- Summit One Vanderbilt
- Chrisler Building
- Cable car to Roosevelt Island and back
- Intrepid Sea–Air–Space Museum
- New Year's Eve in Times Square
- Central Park
- Trump Tower
- Hotel Plaza
- Patrick Catedral
- American Museum of Natural History
- Empire State Building
- Bryant Park
- Flatron Building
- Washington Square Park
- High Line Park
- Wessel
- Edge (Hudson Yards)
- The Mills at Jersey Gardens (outlet shopping)
- Battery Park
- Liberty Island
- Statue of Liberty and museum
- Ellis Island
- Emigration Museum
- Manhattan views
- National Museum of American Indians
- Wall Street
- MJ The Musical
- By boat to Staten Island
- Empire Outlets (more shopping)
- Museum of Modern Art
- Guggenheim Museum
- Fifth Avenue
- Park Avenue
CityPass
S CityPass Save up to 50 % on admission to New York's biggest tourist attractions. It offers three price options and a total of admission to up to 11 attractions. It is valid for 9 days from first use.
The cheapest option C3 offers 3 attractions for $96, the middle option offers 5 attractions for $138, and the highest option C-All offers all 11 entrances for $194. Of course, I take C-All. Another option to save on admission is New York Pass, which includes a bunch of attractions and tours and works on the principle of the number of days you purchase and then it's up to you how many attractions and places you can visit. But for me, CityPass is more interesting.
Transportation in New York
Subway
Subway It is open 24/7, but not all entrances and ticket offices. Metro direction – Downtown – down south, Uptown – up north. The direction is often indicated at the metro entrance, so it's good to know where you want to go.
The lines are marked with letters and numbers, all lines are served by local and express trains, which do not stop at all stations. On the map, a black dot indicates local trains and a white dot indicates express trains. Local trains stop at all stations, express trains only at stations marked in white.
Metrocard
The best way to travel around New York is to use a Metrocard. Weekly travel on the subway and buses costs $32, or a single ride costs $2.75.
Washington
While I'm in New York, it would be a shame not to take the opportunity to go to Washington. The train and bus connections are great. The train takes about 3.5 hours, the bus about 5 hours. The price is comparable. I chose the train and the return ticket with Amtrak cost about 1,500 CZK. I'll leave early in the morning on December 28th and return in the afternoon a day later.
I probably don't need to list everything there is to see in Washington. Planning here is easy. This is also thanks to the fact that all the tourist attractions are located close to each other, you could say that you just have to walk straight from Congress and you won't miss anything. The interesting thing is that museums and other tourist attractions are free. You just need to make reservations for most of them in advance. I also wrote down the places in Washington in my clear guide. If you're interested in more, feel free to write about it.
Overall summary and costs
Even though my trip is scheduled for December, I started planning and researching about six months in advance. I gradually created a plan, an itinerary, bought flights, booked accommodation, thought about what I wanted to visit and see, looked up transportation information, and planned three cities in the US during the 17 days that my vacation would take.
Total costs will be around 68,000 CZK + I estimate approximately 1,500 CZK/day for food and small purchases + clothing purchases in outlets.
- 14,229 CZK flight ticket Prague – Istanbul – Los Angeles, New York – Istanbul – Prague
- 6,661 CZK flight ticket Los Angeles – New York
- 9,800 CZK accommodation 22-26 December Los Angeles
- 12,728 CZK accommodation 27.12.-5.1. New York
- 2,500 CZK accommodation December 28-29 Washington
- 1,570 CZK ticket New York – Washington – New York
- 460 CZK Esta
- CZK 1,300 for travel around Los Angeles
- 1,600 CZK Warner Bros. Studios Hollywood
- 3,300 CZK Universal Studios Hollywood
- 4,400 CZK CityCard New York
- 2,700 CZK additional entrance fee in New York
- 1,500 CZK Public transport New York
- CZK 3,953 MJ The Musical New York
- CZK 1,500 for travel around New York
And that's all for planning the trip. Now I just have to hope that nothing goes wrong and most of my plans work out as I imagine.