I took my kid down to Brooklyn at the end of the summer and stayed with a friend. I will say that while I found some freebies I dropped a ton of $$ on frivious unnecessary crap, mostly for my kid. Please note my financial mistakes. Although I have no regrets the places I dropped the most unnecessary money were:
Museum of natural history, where there is a suggested donation, and I gave them the full $25 for my son and I to enter. I know someone else who went in for $1. Also bought the picture packs where you pose against a dinosaur background and whatnot, which ran $20-$25 each. Could have done without those. Justified a $30 sweatshirt as a 'back to school' clothing purchase. Bought 2 books from 2 different gift shops. Worst of all, we ate in the musuem cafe. This is always a mistake. My father used to make us carry a fanny pack (back in the '80's) which contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a capri sun, and a granola bar. I don't KNOW that i would cheap out that much with my kid. However, I do think it's worthwhile to eat before going, maybe have a small snack (cookie and soda probably is reasonable), and stop a diner afterwards. We also paid the suggested donation at the Brooklyn Museum and ate in the cafe there as well.
The worst $$ offense that we just HAD to commit (although the place was great fun) was the Jeckyll and Hyde resteraunt, where I dropped $50 on a lunchtime meal of: one cheeseburger, one plate of plain pasta, one sprite, and one coke (I had 1 refill). They charge a small fee for addmission to the resteraunt as it is interactive entertainment. The food was mediocre, about the quality of Friendly's. We were there about 1 hour. I'm glad we went but we certainly don't need to do it again.
Anyway, one inexpensive afternoon went like this:
We hopped on the subway to go to the Museum of the American Indian down at the Bowling Green stop. This Musuem is 100% free as it part of the Smithsonian Institution, which is always free. When we left the subway I saw a sign for Staten Island and thought we'd look around a bit. We saw the statue of liberty (not up close). There were fountains that sprayed out of the ground so kids could get completely soaked. It was a very hot day and mine happened to have his trunks on. This kept us busy for a good 45 minutes or so, it could have been longer but it was already 3pm and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through the museum. We also walked around the memorials to fallen soldiers and around the area where the Ellis Island tours start. I bought my son a $3 ice cream. There were also options to have a portrait sketched for approx $5, which would have made a great souvenier (which we did not opt to do). I looked at the cost of the tours to see the statue of liberty and they were $20 for an adult and $12 for children 12 and under. I have heard you need to book this a day in advance and you wait in line and hour, so we opted not to. So, our total cost was $3 plus subway fairs. I will say the museum was sparse compared to the other location in DC, although there are other things to do in the area.
another totally worthwhile activity was the Ferris Wheel in the Times Square Toys R Us. $4 each. We spent an hour and 48 minutes in the store, and there was no line for the ride. I gave Dominic a budget of what I was willing to spend and let him pick out a toy for himself. We also did this when he was 4 years old and he had picked out just a small $7 stuffed T rex.
The Central Park Zoo cost us $19 total to enter. We stayed for hours, and that was JUST going to the zoo, never mind all the other things to do in central park.
anyway, should you find yourself in the area of New York City, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, although it can.
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