Nikki Yeager

For those of you who haven't heard, I've recently discovered the wonder of Couchsurfing. We just hosted our second guest (an amazing Turkish guitarist) and are already confirming another. Through each email and every couch request I feel like I end up repeating myself a dozen times. Still, I can't seem to share everything I want with new New York visitors. After all, the city can be entirely overwhelming if you've never been here before.

So here's my little guide for all of you coming to visit, feel free to pass it on

1. The subway isn't as hard as it might seem and will save you a ton of money. First of all, always buy a day pass or week pass if you're going to be using public transportation. With just 4 rides (two round trips), you pay for the entire card but if you buy a single trip each time you'll waste time and have to pay 2.25 over and over again every time you enter a station.

Next, there are maps inside every train station but if you're lost ask someone. Trust me, New Yorkers are a lot more helpful than you'd think.

 And most importantly, if you know where you need to get, check out MTA Trip Planner or Hopstop and get directions. Both sites will give you detailed directions using public transportation/walking and will tell you exactly how long you'll be in transit. There's no shame in looking it up. People who live here do it all the time. 

2. Which neighborhoods are safe? Everyone always hears horror stories about NYC and clings to them no matter what. Few visitors realize those stories are from 20 years ago and everything about the city has changed since then. But if you want to know if the couch you're staying on is in a decent location, find out the neighborhood it's in and then google that neighborhood. For example, Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn can get a little shady and has a horrible reputation (oh! And Jay Z. is from there!).

As a general rule of thumb, anything on a map of Manhattan that's below 110th street is incredibly safe. Generally, the higher the numbers go the more you have to watch out. The exception is the very, very west side of Manhattan. If you stay on that boarder it's decent all the way to the top. 

In Brooklyn you want to watch out for Bed-Stuy, Brownsville and East NY. Not always, but generally. In the Bronx try to stay more to the north since the South Bronx can scare the pants off almost anyone. 

3. Places to kill time while waiting for your host to get off work. It happens more often than not - your plane gets in at 2pm and you have to kill a few hours until your host gets out of work at 5. So grab a Village Voice and head to one of the following places: 

Starbucks- Has free internet, public bathrooms and coffee! Plus, a ton of people use Starbucks for the internet so no one will bother you if you need to hang out for an hour or two. Bonus- there's always a Starbucks within a five  block radius of you in the city. 

Argo Tea- These only exist in Manhattan so if you're in another borough you're out of luck. The tea is delicious though, the bathrooms are sparkling clean (for the most part) and they have free internet if you make a purchase. The best part is that they have dozens of outlets so if you need to charge your computer or your phone it's a great place to be. 

Central Park - If it's not too cold outside go to Central Park. Trains stop along the West and East sides of the park so it's easy to get to and the people watching is second to none. The only downside is that bathrooms are scarce and sometimes it can be hard to find anyone else in the park because it's 50+ blocks long. 

4. What to do? If you need help finding things to do while you're in New York you have to check out the places and sites below. The great thing is, if your host doesn't want to hang out you can always get away with going solo. New York is one of the best places to make friends at random! 

UCB - The Upright Citizen's Brigade has amazing comedy shows for $5-$15 dollars. When I first moved to NYC I got to see the entire cast of Saturday Night Live during one of the free nights. 

Time Out New York - This website has a list of things to do every day. You can limit yourself to cheap/free events or branch out to more popular plays. They have everything and anything you could possibly want to do. It's just a matter of looking. 

Museums - All the museums in NYC have a free night. Check out the websites for the MoMa, Guggenheim and The Met to figure out when.

Parks - Especially in the summer you can find everything from huge concerts to chess tournaments to to break-dancing to Shakespeare in one of the parks. The best part is that it's usually free! Just check out the NYC Parks and Recreation website. 

For now I think that covers the basics. Also, if you're thinkign of staying for a while it's definitely worth doing a Welcome Tour (if you have the extra cash).

I'm sure I'll add more and feel free to comment so we can all share tips  

Happy travels!!