by Ashley
My girls are in 8th grade this year and our U.S. readers may (or may not) be aware, but that’s the year when children from across the country travel to Washington D.C. for a field trip. My girls have had overnight field trips in the past (last year they went to the Catalina Island Marine Institute – such a cool experience!), but this is a big one. Not just in terms of the distance….but in terms of the cost!
For this academic year, the price of the field trip is $3,000 per child (and $3,400 if a parent wants to join as a chaperone)! I have twins, so that price tag is $6,000 for my two daughters, for four days/3 nights in Washington D.C. Where, by the way, pretty much all the museums are free.
Insert: mind-blown emoji.
I want my kids to have the educational experience of visiting D.C. But we don’t need the social aspect of the field trip (like I said, they’ve had other overnight field trips before, so they’re not deprived!), and we certainly do NOT need the enormous price tag.
So the thought occurred to me….I bet I can do it for cheaper!
DIY Field Trip Planning
Once the idea took root, I really started to run with it! We live in Arizona. It’s quite a hike to get to D.C. And if we’re all the way over there anyway…..why not also jump on a train up to N.Y.C. and let the girls see the city for a couple days, too?
And that’s exactly what we’ll do.
Even more fun – it will be a girl’s trip! I’m planning to take my girls to D.C where my mom will meet us for 5 days (4 nights), then just my daughters and I will board a train up to NYC for an additional couple days (2 nights) before flying back to Arizona.
My goal is for the *entire* trip to cost less than $6,000 – the price if I were to send just my two girls on their 8th grade field trip. Only there will be 3 of us, a longer timeframe, and two cities! Can we do it?
Here’s my budget breakdown:
| D. C. Night Tour x 4 people | $125 |
| Museum entry – FREE | $10 |
| Capital or White House Tour – FREE | $0 |
| Flights | $2023 |
| Train from DC to NYC | $99 |
| NYC Hotel | $758 |
| D.C. Hotel | $300 |
| ESTIMATED FOOD ($200/day x 7 days) | $1400 |
| ESTIMATED NYC Tourism $500 statue of liberty & 9/11; $650 Broadway | $1150 |
| ESTIMATED souveniers | $150 |
Total: | $6015 |
Some of the numbers are known costs because I’ve already booked the things (e.g., flights, hotels, train, D.C. night tour). Others are estimated costs.
Food – I’ve estimated at $200/day (approx $67/person per day). We won’t be drinking alcohol, and will mostly dine at casual dining type of places. I also plan to pack some snacks with me for the travel days.
NYC Tourism – I’ve estimated $500 for a statue of liberty and 9/11 tour (based on Viator pricing), and one of the girls’ top wish list items is to see a Broadway show, so I’ve estimated approximately $650 for that (tickets are expensive!!!). Much of our tourism will be just walking around through Central Park and Times Square, too.
Souvenirs – I’m budgeting $150. I collect Christmas ornaments and coffee mugs so I’ll get one from each city. I’ll give the girls $25/each (out of this budget), but if they go over they’ll have to use their own spending money.
A note about the D.C. Hotel – it’s so cheap because I’m splitting it with my Mom and she picked up more of the cost.
All-in, the total comes right out to my $6,000 budget. And I’m hoping there’s a little bit of padding in my estimated NYC tourism costs (meaning, I hope it will actually be less than these estimated figures).
I’m a bit worried about food. I googled estimated costs for food in these cities and $60/person per day was at the lower end of the spectrum, so this would definitely be going cheap, but I think we can do it.
What are your thoughts on the feasibility of my budget?
Have you ever skipped an “official” school trip and planned your own version instead? Did it save you money?
It’s been so fun to have this little challenge for myself, and I can’t wait to experience DC and NYC with my girls! I have been to NYC once before, when I was 15, only two years before 9/11. I’m looking forward to returning with my kids this time to experience the magic of the city!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I’d expect you’ll ride metro/subway a few times in each city, so I’d add some money for that into each budget. We eat a lot of bagels and pizza when we’re in NYC which helps keep food costs down.
I think you can save on the Statue/911 tour costs. I took my kids a few years ago and we booked the Statue of Liberty tickets through the National Park Service authorized vendor. You’re just paying for the boat, basically, and it’s $25 a person or so. The rangers do free informational tours, you really don’t need to pay someone else to guide you around. Then you can buy 9/11 Museum/Memorial tickets that include guided tours directly from the Museum for $80 a person. Or you can visit the Memorial for free depending on how strongly you feel about visiting the Museum. That frees up $200-400 from your budget.
These are great tips – thank you so much!
Have you asked your daughters whether they would prefer to take the trip with their classmates or with you?
Yes, we’ve discussed this. They are VERY excited for it to be a “Girls Trip” with their Grandma. 🙂
$99 for 3 one-way train tickets seems incredibly low. Even the cheapest fares I’ve seen are more like $40 each. Have you bought them already?
Yes, I already purchased the train tickets. The total was actually $96 (I just double-checked confirmation)
hi! I think you are underestimating daily costs in NYC but you are smart and a good planner so I know you are fine making a pivot where needed. We spend a lot of time in NYC. The 9/11 Museum cannot be missed. It is an incredibly touching and impactful part of our history. You can do it self guided with an audio tour, which should be fine. I agree on lots of great bagel, egg and cheese, etc breakfasts that will help your costs. Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty are interesting, the Tenement Museum is a good add on. I don’t think you mentioned when you are going. If you are going during Spring Break when all the schools go, etc you may find it so incredibly over crowded it isn’t worth it. Doing it on a more “off” time will be far more fun and you will get to see a lot more. Time Square is gross, I would do a quick walk through once if you have never been (night is more impactful as it is so lit up) but would not spend much time there. Central Park is fabulous, you can start at Natural History Museum and make your way down (after egg and cheeses at Zabars!). Try the app “Broadway Box” for discount tickets if you are not tied to what you see on Broadway. Chelsea Market, The Highline, Little Island are all really neat to walk through. A cheap/free way to see the city at sunset from a boat is the Staten Island Ferry there and back at sunset! Sounds like a delightful trip!
Excellent – thank you for taking the time to give all these great tips! I will have to incorporate some of these into our itinerary (and maybe plan a little extra padding just-in-case since, yes, NYC is $$$)!
The free Staten Island Ferry was super cool for watching the sunset, very worth it and you can ride the subway there. The app citymapper is wonderful for getting around NYC on public transportation. It’s fun to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge as well.
I think if you bring snacks and water bottles, and remind the kids that there’s Panera and Starbucks at home, so… try a hot dog from a cart, split a pizza or two at a place in NYC (and take your leftovers!), and so on, you can… probably make it work?
Great tips! I’ll definitely try!
only question is Washington open with the government shutdown?
Currently, yes. This trip isn’t until during our Spring Break so I’m betting on the fact that it will be re-opened by that point.
I would do both the White House and Capitol. When I went a few years ago our representatives office booked both when we asked for the White House tickets. We did both on the same day, took most of our morning.
Don’t forget the Library of Congress. It’s possibly the most ridiculously opulent building in DC.
If you can, hit the most popular Smithsonian museums M-Th. Hit no lines at Air and Space and American history, but the natural history museum on a Saturday was claustrophobic.
Great tips! We’ll see how much we can pack in!
The good news is that most stuff is really close together, very walkable, and most things are self paced and free. Plan out things requiring tickets, then make a priority list of what you want to see. When I was making our itinerary, I tried to group things based on proximity to each other. If you’re lucky and get light crowds, you might get really far down that list. We (two adults) ended up seeing maybe 50% more than I’d planned.
You’ll be very tired. Wear shoes that are good for walking long distances. We still ended up going back to our hotel a couple days to rest before dinner.
Yes! This will definitely be a walking-heavy trip! It will be fun to see how many steps we get each day!
Hopefully the Smithsonian will reopen bythen
Goodness, if it will cost around the same, just let them go on the trip with their friends and classmates and be “normal” ! My sister is uber frugal and her now 26 year old daughter is scared from years of having to live an uber frugal life- she tells us now how hard it was to be the kid who was “poor” even though they were not poor- my sister just was excessively frugal. If you have the 6k, just spend it and let them go a typical kid!
Actually, very few of the 8th graders from our school go on the field trip due to it being cost-prohibitive, so I would not call it “normal.” Last year only 8 kids went from the entire grade, and none of my girls’ friends are currently planning to go. They’re actually super excited to have it be a “Girls Trip” with their Grandma! 🙂
You might be able to save on food costs if you download too good to go. I assume those two big cities will have a lof of places off loading end of day meals. NYC may be the most expensive part, 6k for three of you seems doable though.
I’ve never even heard of that app, so I’ll check it out – thanks! And yes I agree, its looking like 2.5 days in NYC will be more expensive than the 4.5 days in DC!
If you’re booking for enough in advance, look for the tickets where you can walk up within the crown of the Statue of Liberty. We did this with my son last year and it was amazing. No need to see the Statue of Liberty beyond through the park service and it is very inexpensive. Ellis Island is also included in the ticket and it is very good – – look for the Park Ranger tours there. They are free and great.
I probably would not do the September 11 museum with someone that age. It is great, but probably not a great fit for that age category. The tenement museum is good and not terribly expensive. Walking the Highline is a great activity and just taking in all the sites. If your kids are Harry Potter fans, the store in New York is absolutely amazing. Look for discount tickets to Broadway—if a show isn’t currently a hot show, you can easily get tickets half off.
Half price Broadway tickets would be GREAT! That looks to be the single most expensive thing on our entire itinerary! And we don’t need to see any specific show. Anything will do (within reason/appropriate for 13 year olds)!
I dont have any suggestions/tips since I was in 8th grade about 30 years ago, but daaang… the cost sure has gone up. We had fundraisers for both years of middle school to help pay our costs, but it was only about 300 back then! We rode in greyhound buses… about 16 hours or so.
That is WILD! A 100x markup! A 16-hour bus ride sounds like an adventure all of its own!
A friend recommended Atlas Obscura to me a couple of years ago and I’ve used it on a couple of trips including NYC, Nashville, Chattanooga and NC and love it. NYC is one of my favorite cities and having done a lot of the more touristy stuff on previous trips, I largely deferred to Atlas Obscura on my last finding several free or low cost experiences – the lick and key museum, a museum located in an elevator shaft, and the Winnie the Pooh exhibit (the original dolls) that inspired the books at a branch of the New York Public Library.
The site contains a lot of random, quirky places. It may not meet your needs for this trip especially with younger people and an already pretty packed itinerary, but hope the suggestion will come in handy for someone.
Oh I had never heard of this site/app. Thanks for the tip! I had to chuckle at the lick and key (I know you meant lock) and key museum, lol!
Oops…yes, lock and key. LOL.
I’ve never heard of Atlas Obscura before, but this is fascinating! We will probably do more mainstream stuff this trip since its a “first time” trip, but I will absolutely use this in the future! I even looked at it for our own city and there was some really quirky/unique stuff that came up!
Longtime DC resident and frequent NYC traveler. You can do it for this budget, but you’ll have to watch the food costs. Do the pizza dinner and bagel breakfasts now and then. Also, we will order Indian takeout one night and bring it to the room. The weather should be good enough for picnics on the Mall or in Central Park. Both cities have Trader Joe’s in central places to pick up some snacks and sandwich stuff. But, there are a ton of free options in both places (more in DC), public transportation is affordable and just walking around is an adventure. Have fun!
I agree I think food will be a big factor! Great tip about pizza dinners and bagel breakfasts. That’s the exact type of NYC experience I want with my kiddos! I can lean into more “foodie” type activities if I were traveling with adults, but I like the idea of this type of chill vibe. And Indian Take-out and TJ’s snacks = YES!!!