1 New York on a ShoestringDon a scarf and gloves to take on Manhattan at its uncrowded best. After the holidays, tables at trendy eateries are easier to snag, hotel room prices drop below the cost of a mortgage payment, and you don’t have to settle for “Phantom of the Opera” if you’re looking for show tickets.

Digs on a dime: Don’t be deterred by the Times Square address of The Muse Hotel. The recently renovated, four-star boutique is a welcoming refuge amid the neon lights of this prime location. In the marble-floored lobby, you’ll find mostly theater-going tourists and business people lounging on love seats beneath a mural-adorned ceiling. You may be startled for a moment by the Greek bust gazing at you in your room, but that will pass once you sink into the bed’s plush pillow-top mattress. Rates start at $169 a night, and The Muse regularly runs special Broadway packages. www.themusehotel.com

Prime time: You don’t even need to leave the hotel to find one of the city’s hot new night spots. Adjacent to Muse, Nios is an excellent pretheater destination, with signature Broadway-themed cocktails such as the Mama Mia mojito and a prix-fixe menu of American comfort food. The lounge is also known for its fantastic happy hour, featuring deals on tapas, beer and wines selected by master sommelier Emily Wines (yes, that’s really her last name). www.niosrestaurant.com

Skate away: Forget about the long lines for skating on the postage-stamp-sized rink at Rockefeller Center. Instead, walk an extra 15 minutes to the spacious outdoor Wollman Rink. This historic Central Park spot—built in 1949 and renovated 20 years ago by Donald Trump—is open seven days a week November through March. It’s an NYC bargain at $10 per person, $14 on weekends. www.wollmanskatingrink.com

High tea: After your skate, cuddle beneath a blanket for a clichéd but nonetheless romantic carriage ride, then warm up at afternoon tea across the street in the Palm Court at the legendary Plaza Hotel. www.theplaza.com

2 Thrifty TahoeCalifornia’s South Lake Tahoe offers up some of the best ski deals in the West. Aside from the remarkable lake views that you’ll have right out your window, you also get deeper-than-deep powder, sophisticated restaurants, and Vegas-style casinos and entertainment. And while most folks end up taking their turns at Heavenly—after all, the resort has a gondola that rolls right into town, plus 4,800 skiable acres and 360 inches of snow each winter—you can also take a day trip to charge the steep lines at Squaw Valley or rip it up in Kirkwood’s big bowls. Lift tickets cost between $69 and $83 a day, but you can often get better deals by booking a ski package online.

Swell Motel: The Paradice Motel is a deal-hunter’s dream, with rates starting at $160 a night. From the outside, it looks like a typical ’60s-era drive-up, but the 14 cozy rooms are primly decorated with upscale Scandinavian furniture, and owners Jason and Perrine work hard to provide homey, Four Seasons-esque service. (For evening turndown, they place chocolates and Perrier water on the pillows.) And you’ll save money on transportation since the Paradice is just one block from the Heavenly gondola in the center of downtown. It bills itself as a “boutique” motel—a bit like selling a “gourmet” SPAM burger—nevertheless, it’s a welcoming, wallet-friendly place to rest your head after a rewarding day on the slopes. www.paradicemoteltahoe.com

Eatin’ green: You can’t go wrong by eating at Sprouts Natural Foods Café, where the generous portions are both healthy and wallet friendly. Try a huge breakfast burrito or fill up on a yummy, cheesy turkey melt. This Tahoe favorite has brought many a junkfood lover over to the organic side.

Good Bet: For après-ski fun, a quick walk east from the center of South Lake Tahoe will take you across the California state line and into the casinos along the lake’s Nevada shoreline. Who knows? Maybe you’ll win back what you spent on lift tickets.

3 Low-cost Las VegasLonging for a taste of that “pre-Great Recession” excess? Such illusory time travel is possible thanks to the hoteliers of Las Vegas, who offer the grandiosity of the past at a frugal, modern price. Now that no-holds-barred business junkets to Sin City are largely off-limits, deals are easier to find than ever, meaning you can party here like it’s 2007.

Luxe for less: When you stay at the Miami-themed Palms, you don’t need a cab—to spend a night hitting the hottest clubs in Vegas—you don’t even need to leave the lobby. They all can be found inside this vast resort and casino, where the rates start as low as $99 a night. Here, sunglass-sporting Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes crash the long lines at exclusive nightclubs like Rain and Moon, or kick back with a few drinks at The Lounge, the Playboy Club or the 55th-floor Ghostbar. The Palms also boasts a 20,000-square-foot spa and the only tattoo parlor inside a Las Vegas hotel. www.palms.com

Budget buffets: In the land of over-the-top buffet spreads, you do not have to look hard to find worth-every-penny dining deals. Try the breakfast buffet at the Bellagio for gourmet omelets, fruit, waffles and whatever else you can stack on your plate. www.bellagio.com. The all-youcan-eat-in-a-day buffet at Circus Circus rings in at $20 per person and features excellent prime rib. www.circuscircus.com

Best in Show: Cirque du Soleil it is not, but for the price (gratis), you can’t beat the show at the Silverton Hotel, where you can watch divers feed the fish inside a 117,000-gallon aquarium. They splash into the tank filled with 4,000 tropical fish three times a day to feed the stingrays and once a day to feed the sharks, all while talking to the audience through microphones in their masks. www.silvertoncasino.com

4 Kid-friendly PhoenixBy booking a family-friendly resort, you can pamper yourself guilt-free—the kids won’t be missing you, but they won’t be constantly underfoot, either. As you’re sinking that birdie putt on the 16th hole or enjoying a marine seaweed body wrap, your little bundles of joy are taking swim lessons, making magnets, playing soccer or having fun at some other well-planned activity. And in Phoenix, you don’t have to worry about a rained-out vacation—the sun shines here 334 days a year.

Amenities rule: The Arizona Grand has just completed a twoyear, $52 million remodeling project, which included renovations to nearly all of its 700-plus rooms. To entice people to see the improvements for themselves, the resort has been offering specials as low as $99 a night. Factor in that the little ones can stay busy with activities at the property’s Kids Club—which is free with your room and open seven days a week—and your vacation might be cheaper than babysitting. Here’s what you’ll find spread across the 164-acre property: a 20,000-square-foot athletic club, five restaurants, a golf course, a driving range, a spa, a lap pool and the Oasis Water Park—complete with three eightstory- tall slides and a wave pool encircled by a lazy tubing river. www.arizonagrandresort.com

Kid-style kitsch: The prices might be a little steep for family dinner, but a trip to Rustler’s Rooste, right beside the Arizona Grand, is a requirement. Sure, the two-story indoor waterfall and the “tin slide” you can ride down to the dining room are a bit over the top, but that’s the point in this 39-yearold faux Western saloon and general store. Performers play live country music nightly, and the menu is loaded with rib-sticking steaks, chops, chicken and rattlesnake. While it might not be your style, the kids will be ecstatic, and that’s priceless. www.rustlersrooste.com

Free and clear: Directly next door to the resort lies the impressive South Mountain Park and Preserve, one of the country’s largest municipal parks, which stretches across a patch of the Sonoran Desert twice the size of New York’s Central Park. You can rent a mountain bike from the Arizona Grand or get a map and hike some of its 51 miles of trails. www.phoenix.gov/parks

5 Austin for a SongDrawing musicians, artists and others who march to their own beats, Austin is pulsing with creative energy. That means high-brow entertainment—art shows, film screenings and poetry readings—are plentiful and often free. And don’t forget, this city is famous for its dauntingly long list of live music venues. Surrounded by the verdant beauty of Texas Hill Country, a scenic drive is an easy way to spend an afternoon—even better if it includes a wine tasting at one of the region’s up-and-coming wineries. Austin is a college town at heart, and many businesses here cater to the delicate state of the student wallet—meaning it’s easy to find value all over town.

Retro Rates: The exterior of the Austin Motel, built as a motor lodge in 1938, makes you feel as though you’ve just taken a turn off old Route 66. Fortunately, the rooms have been updated extensively since then. Each boasts its own style of décor— from modern Swedish minimalist to frilly garden-inspired. Throw on your retro swimsuit for a dip in the classic kidney-shaped swimming pool, built in the 1950s. Rates start at around $86 a night. www.austinmotel.com

Taco Heaven: Cheap—and delicious—Tex-Mex can be found all over Austin, but if you’re looking to fill up for just a few bucks, make your way to El Sol y La Luna. The quirky café recently moved to East Sixth Street from its former home next to the Austin Motel, but it’s still a local favorite. All day long, you can choose from more than a dozen varieties of à la carte tacos, including bacon and egg, vegetarian chorizo and egg, and beef fajita, for just $2 to $3 apiece. www.elsolylalunaaustin.com

Bargain Gardens: Austin’s hidden treasure is the 279-acre Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, founded in 1982 to preserve and display native plants. Something is always in bloom in this vast, impressive property, and you won’t want to miss the butterfly garden. Admission is $7 for adults, $3 for children. www.wildflower.org