Travel Tips - Best months to visit NYC?

Due to the nature of my job, the easiest times for me to travel are January and August. However, often the new Broadway shows I want to see have already closed. I've just been refunded for my Tammy Faye ticket. And it made me wonder what months producers particularly want folks to see their shows? I'd guess December but a lot of these shows are closing before the holidays. So when? October/November? I've also been told to see shows before the Tony Awards as several close right after if they don't win. So May?

What do folks here think? Is there a science to it, or is it just the luck of the draw?

Another vote for end of April - beginning of May. Even flops still play because of the cut-offs.

August is usually uneventful on Broadway, but can be worth a visit because of some interesting limited runs that sometimes get produced between bigger projects.

January is a dead month, you can score deeply discounted tickets and take advantage of the Broadway week, but that's when struggling shows close.

I'd go in spring, when in a week you can easily see 9-11 shows, especially with the new Thursday matinees that shows started to offer.

Updated On: 12/9/24 at 03:34 PM

Given the increasing prevalence of limited runs (and of shorter runs for most things that open even without an announced limit), it's inevitable that with one trip a year you're going to miss a lot of things you might want to see. I typically do two big trips a year, one in early November and one in late April/early May, and I've found those times generally work well (though even then there are many things that fall in between that I'm sorry to miss - like Eureka Day). If I was only going in April/May, I would never have seen some of the highlights of my trip last month, including Ragtime, Yellow Face, Swept Away, Hills of California, and (possibly) Maybe Happy Ending.

But if you can only swing one trip a year, I'd go with late April/early May. The weather is better, the hotels are generally cheaper than in November, and many of the prime Tony candidates will have just opened. Another perk is that because you're in the middle of nominations and voting, there's usually less of a chance that any particular performer who you really want to see will be out.

Mid- to late-April and early November are my go to choices. I'll often add late January because hotels are ridiculously inexpensive and discounts to shows are more plentiful. My hotel for my next trip in January is $120 a night and include breakfast.

If you want to catch the fall ones that close before Christmas, the. November/Thanksgiving is when producers want you to come. I would say there are an inordinate number of shows closing unplanned before Christmas this year, the Swept Aways, Notebooks and Tammy Fayes of the season.

Two of the times I went to NY (first week of July and the week between Christmas and New Years) to be the best. I say that because those weeks shows had alternative schedules, so there were options for shows when there usually wasn't any (a Friday matinee of Curtains with the full cast, or a Thursday matinee preview of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Scarlett Johansson when there was still a "Ghost Skipper"). The only downside to those is that the December date can get expensive for tickets and accomidation, and the week in July shows that didn't get the Tony boost closed the week or two before.

I did a trip mid May, and the options are bountiful, however, the big shows are sometimes harder to get tickets to, because the Tony nominations are out and everyone wants to see what might win, but its a nice time.

This week what looks like the Met Opera's 25/26 schedule got leaked. The official announcement won't be until late February. The leak shows Arabella with Lise Davidsen in November. An adaptation of novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon opens the season in September - that's been known for a while.

So looks like I'll try for November again next year. Made hotel reservations for 2 different weeks since not sure which will be best yet, and canceled hotel reservations for X-mas 25.

The biggest thing I learned this year was to be more patient with Audience Rewards, and also waiting for other discount codes. When I didn't see my dates listed for some shows - like Outsiders - I went ahead & bought full priced tickets, only for the same dates to later get added to Audience Rewards. I also bought Once Upon a Mattress too early. I did manage to change that ticket to a different date and move to a better seat for $10, but it took some work & the ATG box office was really only helpful because they could see I was coming in from the West Coast. If I had been local without a long sob story about airlines, they wouldn't have done anything.

JasonC3 said: "Mid- to late-April and early November are my go to choices. I'll often add late January because hotels are ridiculously inexpensive and discounts to shows are more plentiful. My hotel for my next trip in January is $120 a night and include breakfast."

May I ask which hotel?