Traveling to New York on vacation – with the whole family – doesn’t have to cost a fortune. With some planning, there are many things you can do for free.

The hotels in downtown Manhattan tend to be, by their very nature, tend to be extravagant and fun to browse compared to the average hotel (You can see what we mean by checking out the New York hotels listings on Orbitz).

Toys R Us on Broadway cannot be missed. It’s not just any Toys R Us store, there’s a ferris wheel in the store that kids can ride for free! And Ray’s Pizza? Always packed but always a hit with the kids with every slice.

That being said, there is so many more attractions to visit while in New York that you simply must experience for yourself and through the eyes of your children.

Below are a few of our favorite places to bring the kids in no particular order.

Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is a great place for kids of all ages. The zoo contains more than 4,000 animals, the bug carousel, camel rides and more; although, additional charges may apply. There’s also Prospect Zoo and Queens Zoo but we are partial to the Bronx Zoo.

New York Aquarium

Jump on the subway to Coney Island and enjoy a day at the New York Aquarium. It’s rainy day friendly and boasts more than 10,000 species of marine life which is great fun for you and your toddler. During your visit, don’t forget to check out the Planet Earth: Shallow Seas, 4-D show.

PuppetWorks

Located on Sixth Ave. in Brooklyn, PuppetWorks caters to children ages 3 and up. They perform classic fairy tales such as Aladdin and Cinderella.

Big Apple Circus

Acrobats, clowns, horse and more! This one-ring circus is two hours and 15 minutes long and runs from October through January at Lincoln Center and May 14 through 30th in Cunningham Park in Fresh Meadows.

Rockefeller Center

From soaring views of Top of the Rock to a backstage pass at NBC Studios, outdoor gardens and historic buildings and more. This is a must see, particularly if you are visiting during the holiday season. They host the biggest Christmas trees in the area.

New York City Fire Museum

Little ones enamored with firemen and fire trucks will love visiting the New York City Fire Museum, which houses one of the nation’s most prominent collections of fire related art and artifacts from the present back to the late 18th Century.

World of Disney

Like Toys R Us, World of Disney is more than a store. Located in Times Square it houses several exhibits and activities for the kids which also includes a chance to meet some of the Disney characters. It’s worth the visit.

A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour

You can’t visit New York and not have pizza! Adding in a tour only makes your pizza experience that much better. Learn the history of pizza, visit locations from movies, Coney Island’s landmark amusement park and boardwalk and more. While on tour you also get to sample their thin-crust pizza and Sicilian style pizza.

Empire State Building

Kids of all ages will get dizzy with delight at the views atop the Empire State Building, which also has the New York Skyride. Parents will enjoy it just the same, even if they’ve already been there.

If you have time, also try to squeeze in Books of Wonder, NikeTown and Dylan’s Candy Bar, for a Willy Wonka experience.

And there you have it, some of our favorite New York City attractions for the whole family! And most of them are affordable which is always nice when going on vacation.

Rae is a mom of four, a work from home mom and owner of various small niche websites, including ApronAddicts.com which highlights the best in women’s aprons and gives tons of ideas on simple recipes, including slow carb recipes.

For moms, entire days can be spent trying to keep kids entertained in order to finish simple tasks like washing the dishes, doing laundry, or cooking meals, in a timely manner. Outside of the home, waiting for a dinner table at a restaurant or trying on clothes can be excruciating with bored and fussy children.

Luckily, Android phones and thousands of apps available in the Android Market can be a great distraction for kids, while helping them learn and keeping them creatively engaged.

Kids Finger Paint

The Kids Finger Paint app unlocks the endless creativity of your child with no mess or wasted paper. Kids can use their finger to draw and paint on colorful, seasonal backgrounds or simply on a plain white screen.

Designed with young children in mind, Kids Finger Paint lets kids choose their own background, brush size, and paint color from a color wheel, and comes with a “back” key to undo mistakes. Shaking the phone clears the screen so kids can start over with a new picture, and when the artwork is finished, it can be saved to the gallery and easily shared with friends and family via email and Facebook.

This is a particularly great app because there’s no limit to the fun. As long as your child has an imagination, Kids Finger Paint is in style.

iStoryBooks

The iStoryBooks Android apps are the next generation of storytelling for children. Integrated with the latest technology, iStoryBooks lets children to enjoy their favorite stories without needing an adult read them aloud.

Each book published by iStoryBooks is a picture book with audio included, so bedtime stories and fairy tales read themselves. With new books downloaded to the app automatically every two weeks, kids won’t run out of new stories to enjoy. In addition to classic tales like Cinderella and Snow White, iStoryBooks includes educational books to help children learn the alphabet, solve riddles, and identify national monuments.

The iStoryBook website also offers games, puzzles, and coloring pages so kids can have fun offline with some of their favorite characters from the stories.

Kids Numbers and Math

When handing off your Android to your kids (I tested all of these on my daughter’s T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S as an FYI), you want to be confident that the time they’re on your phone isn’t wasted. The Kids Numbers and Math app a fun way to not only keep kids busy, but also help them learn numbers and build basic math skills.

And with fun, engaging games, parents find that their kids actually enjoy learning math skills – from basic counting to addition, subtraction, and advanced exercises.

Kids Numbers and Math doesn’t overload children with too many audio and visual stimuli, making the game a delight for children and a winning choice for parents. The app strives to give children just the right balance between education and fun, so it doesn’t feature fun at the expense of education – or education at the expense of fun.

Kid Mode

The Kid Mode app is packed with hundreds of fun, educational games and videos perfect for kids ages eight and under. Babies can listen to baby songs, lullaby music, and videos about shapes, letters, patterns, numbers, the alphabet, and animals, and older kids can play math, reading, brain, and action games and try their hand at logic puzzles all from the same app.

For parents, the app’s biggest advantage is its Child Lock feature, which keeps the phone inside Kid Mode. Even when kids press the home screen button, the phone will remain in Kid Mode, eliminating the risk of having a child email your boss, call an acquaintance, or get on the Internet.

Parents can also add other favorite apps, such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, to the app, so kids can play without accidentally or intentionally accessing apps intended for adults. Wi-Fi and Flash are required for many of the app’s features, so make sure your phone has these capabilities.

Air Penguin

On the non-educational, non-creative front, Air Penguin is a game that appeals to every kid’s “just one more time” instinct – and parents will love it, too (even CNet loved it)!

The goal of the game is simply to jump, fly, and dodge by tilting your phone to guide Air Penguin through Antarctica to save his family from melting ice caps. With adorable graphics and easy-to-play design, Air Penguin will keep kids hooked and entertained for hours on end.

Rae is a mom of four, a home based business owner and owner of various small niche websites, including ApronAddicts.com which highlights the best in fashionable aprons and gives tons of ideas on simple recipes and other creative kitchen ideas.