The Staten Island ferry is free? How does it stay afloat?
My feelings about the Empire State Building are mixed. If you go to it from street level, you’re going to have a hard time appreciating its height. You can lean back and look up but you’re not really going to be able to see it very well. If you go inside, it has a nice lobby but that’s not really why it’s a landmark.
Going up to the main deck isn’t going to happen on your budget; tickets cost over forty dollars apiece.
So honestly, one of the best ways to view the Empire State Building is to go to New Jersey and look at the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River.
The Tenement Museum is really good.
This is true. I had forgotten that museum tickets can get expensive. The American Museum of Natural History tickets are $23 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art tickets are $25. (Museum of Modern Art tickets are also $25.) And those are the basic adult admission tickets - it will cost more if they have any special exhibits you want to see. (But tickets for seniors or students will be less.)
Start off at The Transit Museum, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge visit The South Street Seaport, check out Wall St., see the World Trade Center memorial.
Might I suggest Mmuseumm and the Native American Museum?
Some that either weren’t suggested or that I missed while skimming the thread:
Rent a Citibike to get around
Walk/bike the Brooklyn Bridge
Take the Staten Island Ferry
Take the Roosevelt Island tram
ETA: And I had the thread open so long that Biggirl snuck in and also suggested the Brooklyn Bridge. 
It’s not as impressive these days since it’s largely obscured by the Hudson Yards and all the new residential supertalls sprouting up all over the city.
You might want to check some of these various non-Central parks and their surrounding neighborhoods: Bryant Park (Midtown), Madison Square Park (Flat Iron), Union Square Park (Union Square), Washington Square Park (East Village), City Hall Park (Tribeca) and Battery Park (Lower Manhattan).
Some questions that would affect your agenda:
-How are you getting into Manhattan? Are you taking the PATH into Penn Station or are you getting dropped off? Does the drop off have to be at Penn Station? If you are getting picked up, does it have to be at the same place as the drop off? Remember, the PATH also stops at One World Center in Lower Manhattan.
-What day of the week would you be coming? Most museums are going to be out of your group budget, but many museums have certain periods when they are free (Friday from 4pm to closing, etc). Also, most museums are closed on Monday.
-What time would you be arriving/leaving? Also would you be taking this trip sooner (i.e. this month) or later. Locations like Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park are much more iconic closer to the holiday season, once the skating rinks, Christmas trees, and winter markets get set up.
In the meantime, here is a list of free admission NYC museums.
The Museum of Natural History is actually “pay what you like”, but you have to wait in the long line to get to the counter (can’t use the ticket vending machines) and face the scorn of the cashier.
The Met (and its branches The Cloisters and the Met Breuer) are also “pay what you like”, but only for NYS residents, or students from NJ, NY, and CT.
And, there is an inexpensive ferry which stops near Wall Street which goes to Roosevelt Island, Long Island City, Astoria, and I think 34th street. Well worth it.
You can walk all around Roosevelt Island, from the light house on one end to the UN Park on the other, and get a nice view of the UN. If you get tired there is a free bus. Then take the tram back.
When I was in NY last October I walked the High Line, and was disappointed. The weather was not great (I canceled my plans to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.) To a New Yorker all that space is great, but if you live in other places maybe not so much.
Check the museums before you go for special exhibitions which might be as much fun as the normal exhibitions, especially for the smaller ones.
I agree about the High Line. I thought it was a waste of time. Crowded, too. I also agree about seeing tall buildings close up. Much better to look at them from some distance. I’d walk from Penn Station to Rockefeller Center, then take a free tour of the library and go to Grand Central. Take a train from Grand Central down to the battery and take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. Then back up to Greenwich Village and walk around. Maybe hit Washington Square Park before heading back to Penn Station. Fit in food/drinks when and where it’s handy. If you have to see Times Square do it at the end of your day when it’s dark.
I really have to go and see the new Indiabn Museum. The old Indian Museum that used to be on Audubon Terrace (155th Street and Broadway) that I had gone to in the past closed in 1994 and moved out. This new one at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan contains some of the old stuff in it.
We’re assuming what… 2 meals in 10 hours? (lunch & dinner) for seven people? That’s a total of 14 meals.
200 / 14 = $14.28 per meal. Unless you’re eating fast food or fast-casual, that’s going to be tough to accomplish anywhere, especially NYC. And that’s meals alone… some things cost money- the subway, etc…
If it was me, I’d spend my time foot-touring a few of the various famous neighborhoods and maybe Central Park. Wandering around the Bronx is a pretty interesting experience, as is the Bronx Little Italy on Arthur Avenue, for example. So is wandering the Upper West Side (where a lot of sitcoms are set).
Loudon Wainwright III has some suggestions:
Well, lets go fly a kite in Central Park
Go & see a Shakespeare play
Have a lot of fun at the planetarium
And museum all the blues away
Well, Rockefeller Center and the UN too
Baby don’t make me wait
I want to elevate up & down with you
In the building of the Empire State
not quite within your budget of $200 for 7 people as it is $50.00 per person for an adult but i would do the hop on hop off bus tours. i found them entertaining. I bought the 3 day pass as part of a package deal with a bunch of other things on the City pass and often used the bus as a means of transportation to visit other things as sometimes the other public transportation didn’t go where I wanted to go easily.
For instance, my hotel was on the west side of Central park and several museums I wanted to visit were on the east side. prior to activating my hop on bus pass I walked across Central park (and got terribly lost) in the morning but in the evening did not want to walk late at night even down a the brightly lit 86th street transverse late at night. I ended up riding the subway to Queens and then back to my hotels local stop. probably could have worked out a different subway route with a lot more train switches which would have taken about the same amount of time,
Once I had the pass, that bus went more directly to some museums I wanted to see.
The Tenement museum was very interesting but a little pricey. Loved the Met, the Cloisters, The Morgan Library, The MOMA. Also the Strand bookstore, did a shopping tour and a food tour that were a lot of fun. Visited Mood (fabric store that is always shown on Project Runway). I have been a couple of times for a week long visit.
a couple of years ago I was in NYC for a day just before Christmas, visited the Morgan Library, The Met museum, a couple of Christmas markets and road the city bus from the Met back down 5th avenue to see the shop windows decorated for Christmas. I am hoping to go back again this year if I can work out the transportation to NYC.
This can be incorporated in my Transit Museum/Brooklyn Bridge walk.
Gennaro Lombardi’s pizza, any major art museum, a movie on Times Square that hasn’t released nationwide, Washington Square Park, a first-rate bookstore or toy store, hang around outside 30 Rock.
No, it’s not. Times Square is a giant mall. A tourist trap with the same crap you’ll see anywhere. You don’t need to come to New York to eat at Applebee’s.
All excellent suggestions.
THis is a must.
The Transit Museum is fantastic! Well worth a visit. And afterwards, you can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Yep.
[Moderating]
While some things to do in NYC would fall under the gambit of “arts”, many of them won’t (especially on such a tight budget), so I think this thread will fare better in IMHO. Moving.