Boat Rides and Bike Tours in New York City
New York City, despite all the preformed ideas people have about it, doesn’t have to be one of the most expensive trips you ever took in your life. There are a lot of things you can do which are completely free or are so cheap they end up saving you a lot of money. Two of these types of activities are boat rides and bike tours. New York City is famous for its ferry rides and also for its world class bike paths. These travel tips will help you find one to your liking and budget.
Staten Island Ferry
Don’t listen to all the rubbish about the ferry being “the cheapest date ever”, just enjoy the fact that you can take an hour long boat ride from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan to Staten Island, with all the gorgeous views that NYC has to offer, for completely free. You can see the Statue of Liberty up close and all the beautiful skylines all around you. The ferry is free on weekdays but even on weekends you can find free or very cheap trips.
Apart from the free ferry service, there are many other affordable tours and cruises around New York City and even to other nearby cities in the Eastern Seaboard.
Cycling in New York City
No guide about cycling in New York City would be complete without elaborating on some basic travel tips. Generally, you will want to stay on the bike paths and in the parks when you are cycling. NYC traffic is very busy and its often very dangerous for cyclists. Even locals have a hard time coping with cycling in traffic so as a tourist you should generally stick to the bike paths. You will enjoy your cycling trip in the city more this way anyway.
A great starting place if you’re planning to cycle in New York City is This site will show you all the current bike routes in the city and give you some ideas for special trips as well, such as themed trips.
Extensive bike paths exist in all five New York City boroughs – Manhatten, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. There are also special Manhattan Waterfront Greenway Maps and even a North and South County Trail map if you’d like to get out of the city a bit.
Some of the themed bike tours currently being organized are the New York City Century Bike Tour. This is a showcase of all the greatest views of New York City and takes place regardless of the weather. There is also an Escape New York bike tour, which gets out of the city by going across the George Washington Bridge and exploring the West Hudson Highlands of Bergen, New Jersey and Rockland, New York. There is also a Tour de Brooklyn, which is an annual international event that starts at Coney Island and goes all the way through Brooklyn for a total of 23 miles.