Planning our child free trip to New York!

Last Updated on 7 April 2025 by Colette

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So, you already know that when it comes to travel plans for 2020, the big focus is our trip to New York – 5 nights in the Big Apple with no children to celebrate our 40th birthdays and we can’t flipping wait.

This trip has been a long time in discussion. I couldn’t even tell you when we first started to chat about it but it has been a good year or so I think, probably more. I thought I’d share with you the stages of our planning so far from arranging childcare to applying for an ESTA !

1. Making arrangements for the children

The first thing we needed to do was check that Mum and Dad would be happy to have the kids for us – I know that going on holiday without the kids isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but from the start this was very much a trip that was about Dave & I.

We got married 8 years ago and didn’t have a honeymoon for a number of reasons – firstly because we got married at the end of my maternity leave so not only did I have to go straight back to work but we simply couldn’t afford another expense on top of the wedding. Secondly, we had two really young children – Ben was 2 when we got married and Chloe almost 9 months so a traditional honeymoon really wasn’t going to work. It’s probably one of the only things I would change about our wedding but it’s not like we had any choice, we couldn’t really have done things any differently.

So, back to New York. As I said, from the start, we wanted this to be just the two of us – a special treat for our 40th birthdays – so we asked my parents to look after the kids. This is, of course, a big ask as it eats heavily into my Mum’s leave for the year and anyone who knows my parents knows how precious their holidays are to them! We agreed that it would be best for us to travel during term time, partly to make it cheaper for us but mainly as it would be much easier for Mum & Dad to take care of Ben, Chloe and Amy when they were in school all week!

So once the children were sorted it was on to booking flights . . .

2. Booking flights to New York

Booking flights to New York was something we procrastinated over for months. Researching dates, flight times, routes … Do we fly from Manchester for convenience or travel to London if it’s cheaper? Do we go via Iceland or Ireland or anywhere else that happens to knock a bit of money off the flight? Is it cheaper to go this week or that week, Monday or Saturday? Is this the best deal we can get or do we risk waiting for the January sale? I’d also had a lot less work in the autumn than I usually do and we were suddenly faced with the prospect we might not be able to afford the trip at all!

Eventually we bit the bullet on New Years Eve and booked the flights. We found direct flights from Manchester (hurrah for not adding hours of driving time on or faffing about changing flights!) and discovered that it was considerably cheaper for us to fly out on Saturday afternoon than Monday morning – so much so that we actually ended up being able to book an extra night away!

Dave has never flown long-haul before and the last time I went to America I was 12, so I’m genuinely looking forward to the flight – all those hours to sit and read, watch films or listen to music with nobody pestering me and no distractions!

3. Booking a hotel in New York

I must admit that I found booking the hotel really stressful. There are so many areas in New York, and having never been before, it felt a bit like trying to book a hotel in London and not knowing if you wanted to stay in Kensington, Soho or Brixton!

We had so many recommendations from friends and social media that it all felt a bit overwhelming – we discovered that basically hotels in New York are expensive and the rooms are super small. However, we’re not there for the hotel – we’re there to see the sights, to eat the food, to experience the city and to spend time together – so as long as the hotel is clean and comfortable and well located it doesn’t really matter!

Dave spent ages looking at the map and then looking at different hotels and comparing prices, I rather lost the will to live as he was showing me them all so was relieved when we finally booked something. I can’t even tell you what we’ve booked because I can’t remember – I’ll try and add the info in later!

4. Planning to see a show!

When we were chatting about the things we wanted to do in New York, Dave suggested we look at booking a show. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I knew there was no question about what I wanted to see . . . Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was top of my list (particularly after chatting to my friend Sally about it who has previously seen the show in New York). Dave looked at dates and prices and we decided to book tickets for the Sunday, the day after we arrive. The plan being we can have a steady morning of exploring and brunching, watch the show in the afternoon / early evening and then go to bed ready for full adventuring the following day! (I know friends who have travelled to New York recently have said they found themselves up and about pretty early in the mornings thanks to jet lag!)

5. Planning how to spend our time in New York

I’ve got a right old list of things I want to do when we are in New York – places to visit, food to eat and so forth – this is the bit I’m most excited about planning – booking flights and hotels felt a bit stressful but planning what do do with our time is the fun part!

I’ve read loads of blog posts, chatted to friends and am regularly scrolling and saving things on instagram – we need to spend some time working out a bit of an itinerary – not because we want things to be really structured but just so we know which things are in the same area and can be done on the same day or which things we might need to pre-book. For example, Mini Travellers pointed out to me that the High Line leads to The Vessel – both things we really want to do but hadn’t quite realised were essentially connected. As you have to book tickets for The Vessel, this is something we need to plan for!

We have also arranged New York CityPASS mobile tickets which are a great way of seeing six of New York’s top attractions whilst saving 42% off the cost of purchasing the tickets separately. * These should actually cover most of the things we wanted to do so I’m really pleased we’ve got that sorted now!

6. Applying for our ESTA

Making sure we apply for our ESTA is next on the to do list and whilst definitely less exciting, it’s really important we get it sorted! The ESTA is not a physical document but an electronic authorisation to travel to the USA – without an ESTA we would be refused check in for our flights. The ESTA is so much more convenient (and cheaper) for UK travellers than the cumbersome visa process.

The application for your ESTA should be done as soon as your trip is planned to make sure everything comes through on time. Once your ESTA is approved it lasts for two years, covering multiple trips in that time.

The ESTA form is completed online and should only take around 5 minutes to complete – the ESTA is often issued on the same day though can take a couple of days so don’t risk leaving it to the last minute in case you do encounter problems like my friend Sally!

7. SAVE!

I think the last thing we need to do to prepare for our trip to New York now is just save, save, save! This isn’t a trip we intend to repeat so we want to make sure we do anything and everything we want to do while we are there. We don’t want to be scrimping or budgeting on this trip but we know that New York will be expensive, so we are working hard to make sure we’ve got as much money as possible. I’ve taken on extra teaching work over the next couple of months and we’re reining things in where we can . . . three and a half months to go!

If you’ve got any suggestions of things we need to do before we go or must see places to add to our list let me know!

* Our CityPass tickets have been gifted for the purpose of review

If you’re planning a trip to New York in the winter, read this post next.