Is New York Safe in January 2026?

Operators run a shell game on folding tables near tourist-heavy areas like Times Square and Midtown. Shills in the crowd pretend to win to lure tourists into betting. The dealer controls the outcome and tourists never win once real money is on the table.

How to avoid: Never stop to watch or participate in street card or shell games. These are illegal gambling operations and tourists always lose. Walk away immediately even if someone nearby appears to be winning.

At Battery Park near the Statue City Cruises ticket booth, unofficial vendors approach tourists claiming to sell legitimate Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry tickets, often dressed to look semi-official. Some claim the official booth is sold out and offer "reserve" tickets at inflated prices. The NYPD has formally identified this as one of NYC's most common tourist scams, and Statue City Cruises has posted warning signs outside their own booth. Tickets purchased from street vendors are worthless — the ferry will not accept them.

How to avoid: Buy tickets only at the Castle Clinton box office inside Battery Park or in advance at StatueCityCruises.com. The official booth is the brick circular building near the park entrance. Ignore any vendor who approaches you before you reach the box office. Tickets to the Statue of Liberty never go on sale from individuals on the street.

Street performers near Times Square and popular tourist spots approach tourists claiming to be up-and-coming musicians, hand them a free CD, then aggressively demand $20-$40 in payment and refuse to take the CD back. They may follow or block your path if you try to leave.

How to avoid: Decline any item handed to you on the street by saying "No thank you" firmly before it touches your hands. Never accept anything framed as "free" from strangers in tourist areas, as aggressive solicitation nearly always follows.

Many Midtown Manhattan hotels advertise low nightly rates online but add a mandatory "destination fee," "urban fee," or "curation fee" of $20–$50 per night at check-in. These fees are disclosed in fine print but rarely shown in the headline price on booking aggregators. Tourists comparing rates on Google Hotels or Expedia frequently discover the true cost only when they arrive. New York City passed regulations in 2026 requiring upfront disclosure, but enforcement is still catching up.

How to avoid: Always click through to the full hotel booking page and look for a "fees" or "taxes and fees" breakdown before confirming. Search the hotel name on killresortfees.com before booking. If a fee was not disclosed at booking time, dispute it with your credit card company.

Currency exchange kiosks at JFK and LaGuardia airports and in Times Square advertise "0% commission" but apply extremely wide bid-ask spreads, effectively charging 10–15% above the mid-market exchange rate. Kiosks operated by Travelex and similar chains near tourist zones routinely offer rates far worse than any bank or ATM. Tourists changing large amounts of cash lose significant money without realising the fee is embedded in the rate itself.

How to avoid: Never exchange currency at airport kiosks or Times Square exchange booths unless it is an emergency. Use your debit card at a bank ATM to withdraw local dollars and pay the standard ATM fee — it will almost always be cheaper. If you must exchange, compare the rate offered to xe.com's mid-market rate; anything worse than 3% below mid-market is exploitative.