Ayun Halliday, author of No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late, is a girl with an eye for a bargain.

She’s slept on the cheap all over the world, and once traveled through Italy for a week with only one restaurant meal to show for it.

Fast forward a few years.Now Ayun has two kids, New York savoir faire, and her very own underground parenting magazine called The East Village Inky (a venture undertaken partly because she’s “always loved telling people where to go.”)

Here are Ayun’s Top 10 activities with kids in New York. Just like Ayun, they’re fun, funky, and easy on the wallet:

1. Eating coconut buns at Nice One Bakery on Bayard Street in Chinatown.

2. Climbing on the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.

3. Cooling off in the shady sprinklers at the top of Tompkins Square.

4. Swapping outgrown duds for new (used) finery at Jane’s Exchange.

5. Pointing out graffiti of interest.

6. Visiting the MOMA (kids get in free!).

7. Giving quarters to anyone playing music in the subway, regardless of musical talent.

8. Examining the unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters.

9. Facing the wall in opposite corners of the foyer outside the Grand Central Oyster Bar, which is built in such a way that if you whisper into the wall, the person in the opposite corner can hear you plain as day! Enjoy the funny looks from passerby who don’t know about this magical architectural phenomenon.

10. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

Excerpted with gratitude from Mommy Has a Headache where it originally appeared as part of Ayun’s Mamalamadingdong Virtual Book Tour. Find Ayun online at www.ayunhalliday.com.

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When it comes to hotels in New York, bargains are hard to come by.  Try these:
Second Home on Second Avenue
Embassy Suites, Battery Park City

May 19th, 2008 | by Jamie Pearson 1 comment