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Frugal Tips for Getting Out of New York City for the Weekend
By Jay | January 28, 2008
I’m feeling much better today and, after a weekend of forced internet deprivation (my connection in Hartford went down), I’m ready to do some posting.
If you live in New York, getting out of the city for a weekend can be an expensive proposition. Once you add in a car rental, tolls & gas, and meals & accommodations, you’re looking at $1,000+ for a quick weekend break. I’ve learned how to do it for far less though. Here are some of my tips.
First, many of us in New York City do not have cars, so to get out of the city we need to rent one. This can be expensive. In most US cities, due to business travel, car rental prices are higher during the week and cheaper on weekends. In New York it’s the opposite. A majority of New Yorkers, even wealthy ones, do not own cars. Which means that it costs a lot of money in New York to rent a car on a weekend. The average rate is about $90 per weekend day, but on holidays I’ve seen rates go as high as $300 per weekend day.
I’ve learned that a short train ride out of the city can lead to big savings. Since I usually go to New England when I rent a car, I take the Metronorth commuter train to Stamford, CT, a 50-minute ride. There are Avis and a Budget car rental offices right next to the train station, and rental rates are half of those in the city. I have rented cars cars in Stamford in the Summer, for Christmas and other holiday weekends, and I have never paid more than $60 per day. The weekly rate is rarely more than $250, vs. $450-$600 in Manhattan.
Another tip is to start your Manhattan rental on Thursday night and keep the car for four days. First, rental rates are cheaper on Thursday than Friday, and you keep the lower rental through the weekend. Second, if you rent for four days you often get a significant discount. Check the weekly rate too, as it can be even lower than the four-day rate.
If you sign up for “Preferred Customer” status, you’ll get a 10% discount on top of these savings.
The second major expense when leaving the city is accommodations. I have this part of my weekends away down to an art. I use Kayak.com to book my rooms. If you enter your search into Kayak, it searches across Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, and several other travel websites for the best deals. Often I’ll let the best deal dictate where I go. Last fall searched for deals on Thursday night, and was off on Friday to Washington, DC where found a perfectly good room for $45 per night.
In the summer I simply camp if I get out of town for the weekend. I know camping isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but you do save a lot of money. One of my favorite campgrounds is only 2 hours from the city, in People’s State Forest, near Barkhamsted, CT. They have 30 wooded, secluded sites right next to the Farmington River, for under $25 per night. Reserve early, as campsites sell out quickly.
The final thing I do when I leave the city is buy groceries, lots and lots of groceries. Groceries in Brooklyn are at least 25% more expensive than anywhere else in the continental US. In Manhattan it’s more like 50%. So when I rent a car I always leave a couple hours to buy groceries. I figure if I buy $500 worth of groceries, I’m saving at least $100, which almost pays for the car rental. I especially concentrate on pantry items, toiletries, and bulky stuff like paper towels.
Trader Joes, once I get past the kitschy marketing crap, is my favorite for organic meats & dairy. I love their prepared frozen meals as well. For bulky stuff I go to Shaw’s and to Stop & Shop. Get a customer card and you can save up to 25%. I keep reading about how cheap Wal-Mart is, but I never feel like I save much money when I go there. And I don’t like their groceries at all.
So there you have it, my tips for getting out of the city for a frugal weekend. By following these tips you can spend less than $300, and make a good bit of that up in savings on groceries.
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