Taking a trip to New York can create some spectacular memories. More often than not, once people make the trip, it becomes a tradition for them and their friend group or family, meeting up in the big apple every year or every other year. There is an unbelievable amount of things to do and see and a thick sense of humanity in the air itself. No matter the culture or the idea or the food or song, it’s happening somewhere in New York City.
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This being said, when planning a trip, there are several things you need to get situated before you head out, and some of these things are specific to New York City itself. In particular, most people don’t quite grasp the size of New York City before they’ve been there just once, and so they aren’t adequately prepared for the things that happen as a result. One of the major mistakes travelers often make is not thinking they need to book their tours, concerts, plays, sports games,, or other events in advance. In a city as big as New York, things can get full pretty quickly, sometimes months in advance.
The following will explore some of the reasons you might want to book travel tours in advance before going to New York City. Of course, it is critical that you also speak to the people you’re travelling with when booking tickets. You want to make sure you’re not signing someone up for something they’re not interested in (like, your friend that is terrified of heights and the Empire State Building, yes it’s beautiful but not everyone likes being so high up in the sky).
Avoid Scams
One of the most important reasons to book things in advance is because it reduces the risk of you encountering a scam. It’s all too common for people to pick out travellers in a crowd and offer them tickets for an epic show for a really good price. Then when you show up to the show, you discover they flat out lied about what the ticket was for, and you can’t get a refund, of course. These sorts of scams are particularly common in Times Square and other areas where tourists tend to congregate.
Prevent Missing Out Due To Full Bookings
In a city as big as New York City, tours and other events can sell out really quickly. You might love the idea of going on tour, but only have a certain time you’re free to do it on your trip. If that particular hour is already fully booked, you might end up missing out. Likewise, when it comes to concerts, sports games, or other live performances, sometimes tickets sell out months (and occasionally years) in advance.
Keep Everyone Together
If you’re waiting until the last moment to get tickets for tours and events, you might stumble upon the issue of only a few seats or tickets being left, and this means that either no one in the group can go or some of you need to sit this one out. If you’re travelling with a bigger group, it is a really good idea to book in advance so that you can keep everyone together.
Get Deals
Another wonderful benefit of booking tickets for tours and events in advance is that you can often find deals that save you a fair amount of money. Sometimes tickets at the door or beginning of the tour are more expensive than those online, but also, you can find deals where you pay one price for several tours, events, museums or sights. The price of admission to all the different places you want to see can quickly add up if you’re not careful. This can help you save quite a bit of money. As well, if you’re in a group, you might be able to get a group deal for buying a certain number of tickets.
The above reasons should have made it clear that booking tickets for tours and events in advance might be a good idea for you and your travel companions. It is important that if you’re booking a tour for a specific day and time that you have a map application open and that you check how long it is going to take you to get there at the time you need to (you have to account for rush hour, for example, if you’re taking a taxi to the tour start location). Don’t expect that you’ll be able to get from one event to another in twenty minutes unless you’ve verified the distance (New York City is huge).