NY TRAVEL PREPARATION

Travelling Solo in New York


It’s the first time for me to visit USA. The first time get a bite of the Big Apple. As a solo woman traveller, it is important to plan everything ready prior to this journey…or on every journey indeed.
This will be the first among a series posts about my journey to New York City. So, here’s some helpful tips to prepare for your trip:

1. Prepare your itinerary
   To plan my journey, I use combination of Tripomatic application and Google map. Tripomatic is my favourite travel planner as it can easily locate the famous sight seeing places in the map. You can filter the attraction according to particular categories such as architecture or food. You can, then, create the trip on your desired date and save it for later. Mine will be something like this:
   
   
   
   Since the app does show the way to go on foot or by car but not by public transportation, here the Google map plays an important role. Alternatively, you can also use the official trip planner provided by MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) at 'http://goo.gl/DKJn3d'. This will inform you the best itinerary options by subway and bus with minimum transfer or walking distance. However, many points of interest in Manhattan, the heart of New York, is close to each other. So, you better off sightseeing on foot. Plan ahead to minimise the transportation riding time and cost.
   


2. Subway map
   You may want to download New York City subway map on your mobile device. Since I’m using iOS the best app for me is mTRO NYC. It is working well on my device with intuitive interface. You can set the departure dan arrival station and select which trip you prefer.
   


3. City passes
   Many places in New York require expensive entrance tickets. Without even knowing, you could easily spend several hundreds dollar just to get into one attraction to another. There're several options of city pass if you want to save your bucks. Here’s some of them:
   
   -New York City Pass: 'http://goo.gl/5yk8VY'
   This is useful for those planning to visit the most popular places in the city. With $144, you can get 46% discount for six top attractions including Empire State Building Observation, Statue of Liberty, and American Museum of Natural History. You can use the pass within nine days. Please refer the link for full information.
   
   
   
   -New York City Explorer Pass, two types:
   Flexible: 'http://goo.gl/TokeJz'. This pass is great for those who desire flexibility in the trip as they can select any 3, 5, 7, or 10 attractions combined from 57 attractions available. The pass available within 30 days.
   
   
   
   Customised: 'http://goo.gl/Tt47tc'. The pass that is perfect for those having a fixed itinerary already. You can build your pass by select any number or attractions available from 65 attractions.  Pass is valid for 30 days after the first visit. Note: Please don’t mistaken the 9/11 Tribute Centre Tour available in the options with the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
   


4. SIM cards and data plan

   Travelling alone means you will highly relied on your mobile devices to help you go around. I highly recommend you to prepare a data plan to go along the voyage. There are several providers available but I think Ready SIM will be the most convenient for the short time traveller. You can get it here: 'http://goo.gl/SY7yeZ'. They offer Talk+Text+Data package, the Data Only package, and the so-called Long Distance option for making international calls. First you have to choose which plan do you want and choose the data quantity, like 500MB, 1GB, or 2GB.
   
   
   
   I was using the 1GB Data Only card which was enough to go around for a week. I use it for extensively checking Google maps, browsing, and sometimes social media. You can get it shipped to your own country or to your booked hotel address for convenience. The second option, of course, cheaper. Don’t forget to ask the employee there to receive your package though. My package arrived within a week from the day I placed my order. Once you received it, insert to your device, and send your hotel ZIP code in an SMS to number 7850. You will, shortly (about 5~10 minutes), get a response of card activation, and the phone number for that card. Really easy.
   


5. Electrical Plug Converter
   The best is to have the international converter, like the one that you can reassembled according to the countries. Here is the guide:
(https://goo.gl/ql22aQ)