Well, it was past time to take a romantic get-away with my wife. So, my wife and I recently took an anniversary trip to New York, NY. This was a fabulous trip and we loved it.

Here are some of the things that made this trip so enjoyable:

1. VRBO, Vacation Rental By Owner. This service allowed us to stay in a great NYC apartment with a bedroom, living room, full kitchen, and full bath for equal or less than a hotel room. The location we found was awesome, and the staff in person and by phone was great. We felt like we experienced the city in a very unique way.

2. Flex your schedule. We used the City Pass. This allowed us to plan broadly for what we wanted to do, then flex our schedule while there. For instance it rained a bit while we were there, so since we weren’t tied in to seeing things at specific times, we could see things in the best conditions (Empire on a clear night, harbor cruise on a clear morning). The City Pass also was so easy to use; just print off a page at home to use at the first spot you visit to be exchanged for your pass book.
Highlights of City Pass:
Harbor Cruise on the Circle Line
Empire State Building

3. Continental Airlines direct to Newark Airport. For our city, Continental had a direct flight, which translates to a 7am takeoff and a landing around 11:30am. How cool is that! No full day in the air and airports. The other benefit is Newark (EWR) has rail service that connects directly to Penn Station in NYC. So that means a 27 minute (NJ transit) train ride directly to the heart of Manhattan with connection to the subway system (MTA).

4. Broadway tickets at the TKTS booth Times Square. We used this service twice and it is great. Easy! We purchased Phantom tickets 20 minutes before showtime. Again flexibility, the weather was bad, we knew we wanted to see Phantom, get in line, purchase, done.

5. Great Freebies! My wife and I had a great experience at the Today Show (NBC) and even got free Letterman tickets from a page looking for attendees in Times Square. The key again was flexibility. Other freebies of note: Central Park, SoHo, Wall Street, and a particularly moving experience at the World Trade Center’s St. Paul’s Chapel. There are so many things to see and do that simply cost $0, Chinatown, Tiffany’s, Macy’s, and more!

We loved the trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone. If you’ve been to NYC, what are some of your insights?