By Christevie Ngoma, University of Toronto, Canada
I decided to take advantage of being close to North America and travel to New York! All I needed was a travel buddy! I have a friend in Montreal whose doing an exchange year at McGill University, and she had a visitor from the U.K. so we all decided to be tourists together!
First thing we needed to do was book a ESTA (US Visa) that would allow us to cross the border, which was £20 and quite easy to access. Next we booked transport and accommodation. To save money we took a 9 hour coach from Montreal to New York, which was $260.81 (£216) in total. Then we booked a hotel for 3 nights at the Manhattan Wall In for $184 each (£152). I recommend travelling with as many people you feel comfortable with to save money on accommodation!
Day 1
We got to New York at 8am and checked in the Hotel, we took a trip to Dunkin Donuts and tried everything in extra large to see the portion sizes that Americans are having. After, we went on a tour of the Statue of Liberty for $40 (£33). One of the best places we went to eat was Los Tacos, I would 100% recommend. Then, we went to see The Death of Salesman in theatre and got cheap last minute tickets (£35), with great seats!
Statue of Liberty
Day 2
Day 2 was Brooklyn Day! We explored Brooklyn by first going to the Brooklyn Bridge where we got really cheap souvenirs, then went to Dumbo to take the infamous pictures in front of the bridge. Then we went to the Brooklyn Museum to look at the Mugler Exhibit which was amazing! For any Musical enthusiasts, I’d recommend going to Ellen’s Stardust Diner, the waiters sing musical soundtracks whilst serving you. It was an amazing experience, they also have great milkshakes.
Brooklyn Bridge & Dumbo
Day 3
This was our final day, we explored the Met Museum which was interesting. It’s not like the Tate back in London but it was great experience! We tried some food trucks to get hot dogs and we had to end our trip with seeing the Empire State Building!
Empire State Building
That was a quick summary of our trip to New York! I would definitely recommend going across the border if doing a year abroad in Canada, especially with a group makes it affordable and more fun!