Plan A Budget Holiday In NYC

Please check out my newly published article about planning a trip to New York City this holiday season. You'll discover some affordable, yet exciting ways to enjoy your stay in NYC! To read the article that appears on LowFares.com, click here.

For the past two months or so, I've pretty much been spending time at home in Boston, working on two new books which will be published early next year. Watch for the release of How To Do Everything Digital Photography (McGraw-Hill) and Using iPhoto '11 (Que Publishing).

Starting next week, however, my travels begin once again. First, I'm off to San Francisco for a week to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, I'll be spending a week in Nashville, followed by a visit to Norway. In January, I'm really excited to be taking a cruise aboard Disney's Cruise Line's newest ship, the Disney Dream.

I'll be writing about my travel experience, and offering tons of travel tips and destination reviews right here at JasonRichTravel.com, but for real-time updates and photos, be sure to follow me on Twitter!

CityPass Offers An Inexpensive Way To See Popular City Attractions

Vacationers don't have to spend top-dollar to experience some of a city's top attractions when they pre-purchase a CityPass (888-299-6633) prior to visiting New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hollywood, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Southern California or Toronto.

Inside each CityPass booklet are admission tickets for one person to a handful of popular attractions. For example, the New York CityPass for adults is priced at $74.00 ($54 for kids, ages 12 to 17) and offers admission to:

• The Empire State Building Observatory
  
• The American Museum of Natural History
  
• The Guggenheim Museum
  
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  
• A two-hour Circle Line sightseeing boat tour around Manhattan (or admission to the Status of Liberty / Ellis Island)
  
• Discounts to additional attractions and popular shopping destinations

If purchased separately, admission to these NYC attractions would cost more than $134.00. This is a great money-saving opportunity for first-time visitors to a city, or even locals looking to experience their city's popular attractions at their own pace. 

One perk to utilizing CityPass is that the admission tickets often allow visitors to avoid waiting in long entrance lines, allowing tourists to save time, as well as money. If you're planning a trip to one of the participating cities, consider picking up a money-saving CityPass, or give one as a gift.

Another way to save money when visiting a city is to purchase an Entertainment book (888-231-SAVE) for the city you'll be visiting. These Entertainment coupon books are city-specific and contain discounts (up to 50 percent off) for dining, accommodations, attractions, shows, movies, rental cars and local shopping. Each book can be ordered online or purchased from a bookstore in the city you're visiting. There are more than 150 local editions of the Entertainment book, and in many instances, a portion of a book's purchase price is donated to charity.