I say “California Girl” to be used interchangeably with any girl NOT from a huge city where no one in their right mind owns a car. For us suburban girls, a trip to New York can be quite the eye-opening experience. Some love it, while some, like The Hubster, hate it for all the hustling and bustling chaos. I’m kind of in the middle. I love to visit, but I dang sure wouldn’t want to live there. Unlike the burbs, Manhattan is rich with culture, shopping, and 1,000 other ways to become flat broke and homeless. So here’s a few pointers to remember so you can enjoy yourself, not die, or become a penniless pauper when you visit the Big Apple.

Find a place to hide

To an outsider, New York is scary. Thousands of people walk on the sidewalk at once and almost never say “excuse me.” In fact, you should just drop that line once you get to the city anyway, otherwise you’ll be saying it every 30 seconds. Then there’s the sea of yellow taxis and those one or two dumb schumcks who have cars entangled in the streets. People passing out fliers. The endless construction. Those distracting and deliciously smelling corner hot dog stands.

It is absolutely a MUST that you find a quiet place to retreat when it all becomes just too much. And unless you have rich friends who can lend you a room to yourself, you’ll need to get a hotel. Problem is, it’s not out of the question to discover that hotel rooms in Manhattan can cost $400+ a night. A. Night. My favorite place to crash is The Benjamin, a boutique hotel in midtown. It’s classy but not gigantic, and the rooms are amazing. Each room has a fully equipped galley kitchen, work station, HD flat screen television, and an ahhhh-mazing bed with a sleep menu. What’s a sleep menu? Sixteen different pillows to choose from: soft, firm, memory foam, body, pregnancy, organic, you name it, they have the pillow so you’ll get good rest before you brave the sensory overload again. The bathrooms are also wonderous, with floor-to-ceiling marble.

The Benjamin sleep concierge

Throughout the remainder of the summer The Benjamin is offering a special, $279 per night. If they give you any guff about restrictions (they shouldn’t but you never know) just tell them Beyond Black & White sent you.