Anything & Everything New York (PART 2) - [please search thread before posting]

sophieschoice

greenface wrote: »

Plus you wont find too many NYC haters on a NYC forum

Well, it did say 'anything and everything New York'! :cool:
By the law of averages I don't suppose everyone who visited loved it!
I'd better stay away from the Vegas and Orlando threads too!

M4RKM

sophieschoice wrote: »

Thanks Greenface and Mark. Neither of the hotels you recommend have availability. I've left it a bit last minute as we fly the end of this week! Any other recommendations along those lines would be most welcome though.
I'm trying hard not to condemn the place before we go (OH loved it) but I detest London and disliked Vegas intenely. Guess I'm not a city gal!
I did love San Francisco though.

What are your dates?

take a look at quikbook.com and also travelzoo.com for last minute deals..

Post back what hotels you find... areas like Greenwich Village, SoHo, Tribeca, Upper West Side are quieter than Midtown. Personally, I do anything to avoid Midtown for a hotel...

M

sophieschoice

Lady_S wrote: »

Oh, and the views at the Affinia were to die for.

This hotel is not available either!
Is New York always full?
At this rate we'll be sleeping in the car!

sophieschoice

markymoo wrote: »

What are your dates?

take a look at quikbook.com and also travelzoo.com for last minute deals..

Post back what hotels you find... areas like Greenwich Village, SoHo, Tribeca, Upper West Side are quieter than Midtown. Personally, I do anything to avoid Midtown for a hotel...

M

Thanks but I haven't a clue where Midtown is. Is that the centre? Apparently (according to OH) New Jersey may be an option? I haven't the foggiest where that is in relation to the middle of New York either! We will be 'doing the sights' but not shopping (I'm a rare bird - a woman who loathes shopping) and the only thing I've heard of which I believe is a 'must see' is a railway station in the vicinity. I'm hoping it's a bit special because I'm not into trains at all.

thatsfabulous

I think because you have left it last minute that your finding trouble finding somewhere Oct, Nov and Dec are very popular times to go.

Try the Pod hotel, although the rooms are tiny its very clean and central. And the new yorker hotel, its huge so maybe they have avaliablity.

sophieschoice

markymoo wrote: »

What are your dates?

take a look at quikbook.com and also travelzoo.com for last minute deals..


M

23/25 October. Had a look at quikbook for Tribeca. Cheapest is $99 but I refuse to share a bathroom and average seems to be $250 dollars. Seems very expensive, is this the average? I take it that's per room not per person?

thatsfabulous

greenface wrote: »

central park ice rink is much much better & cheaper imo.

sophieschoice;

NYC like most big cities is a working city where businesses have to get on with their businesses NYC is hard, harsh,brash and very fast moving > Your on holiday so standing on the pavement going wow as you look up at ESB in total awe is a fantastic experience for you but you are in someones way who is already 5 minutes late for work. We noticed there wasnt many kids in % to adults . We as a family with a wheelchair couldnt keep up with the rush and the pace and had people jumping infront of us to get through doors ,cross roads without batting a eye lid >>>> were they rude? no they just couldnt wait .Did they know? possibly who was the worst ??? young white females by far followed by young white males. Who seemed notice we needed a little more space and time?? slightly older females all races possibly mothers. If you have been sunning on a beach getting a all inclusive in the med or indian then get dropped into NYC Midtown the culture would bring a nun out fighting.
We loved NYC but you have to adjust into i city running at 100MPH Once away from the hubba and bubba the streets quiet down and its a pleasureable experience and people go out of their way to open doors and assist without ask or gain.there are many sides to NYC and NYpeople such a vibrant and cosmopolitain city but very marmite too .

Plus you wont find too many NYC haters on a NYC forum

All very true greenface:T

New yorkers are such nice people, every time we would stand there lost within seconds someone would come over and ask if we needed help.
We did see the other side to new yorkers though when we ran across the street trying to get a cab at 6pm on a friday night. Us and two new yorkers were running for this cab, we got in one side of the cab and them the other:rotfl: It was like something out of a movie. Needless to say the new yorkers got the cab ( Stay on the right side of them )

Greenface did you say you had a trip comming up?
We went into the Liverpool shop the other day to look for something to take to the Liverpool bar however didnt find anything suitable but were hoping to find something in a few weeks when they get there winter range/gifts in.

M4RKM

sophieschoice wrote: »

23/25 October. Had a look at quikbook for Tribeca. Cheapest is $99 but I refuse to share a bathroom and average seems to be $250 dollars. Seems very expensive, is this the average? I take it that's per room not per person?

$250 ain't bad at a last minute when things are busy... Is NYC always full, well most time during the year it does hit over 80% occupancy, so yes, it's always rather busy. Anyway... onto my finds...

Ok... i've looked on quikbook.com and Cosmopolitan Hotel (cheap, clean, cheerful, great location by the subway, I've stayed there less than a month ago), is available at $200 before tax, and it's a cancellable rate...
if you 100% sure you want to stay, https://www.hotelconxions.com has the same hotel available at $189 before tax, so that's a bit cheaper. (I paid $189 for that hotel in sept)

New Jersey is cheaper, but you need to factor the costs of getting into Manhattan (bear in mind NJ is another state, so the subway doesn't go there!). If $189 a night is too expensive, there are a couple of hotels in Queens that have been recommended over on TA, Pan American Hotel is one, and that's available at $115 a night before tax. This is only 3 blocks away from the subway, and then a $2.25 ride into Manhattan. With NJ, you could be paying up to $15 depending on hotel location. (http://www.panamhotel.com/)

Your other option in Queens is the La Quinta Inn, and that's available at $149 a night. (http://www.lq.com/lq/properties/propertyProfile.do?ident=LQ6014&propId=6014)

If you're going to visit New York, I personally think you should stay in NEW YORK, and not a different state.. maybe that's just me...

M

Savvy_Sue

sophieschoice wrote: »

I'm trying hard not to condemn the place before we go (OH loved it) but I detest London and disliked Vegas intenely. Guess I'm not a city gal!
I did love San Francisco though.

OK, I am a Londoner by birth but couldn't live there again, I was appalled by my last visit by train (arriving Friday night rush hour!) that I actually used to commute every day! :eek: So that's my city credentials.

I didn't WANT to go to NYC, it was only because my sons wanted to go to a 'meet' (ie meeting their online friends IRL) on the east coast - we couldn't really do anything else to make it a proper holiday (and if you want a place to avoid AT ALL COSTS that would be Wildwood :rotfl:).

But NYC wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be! In fairness it was July, so perhaps quieter than usual, and absolutely sweltering, if it had been cooler I would probably have enjoyed it far more. And I did enjoy it, whereas I hadn't really expected to.

I'm not a convert like markymoo, but I would probably go again if there seemed like a good reason, eg if DH really wanted to go again, I wouldn't object.

If you do your homework beforehand and work out what you think you would enjoy, you will probably get a lot more out of it than if you leave it all to him to show you what wowed him. If you're not a city gal, then I'd have thought that spending time in Central Park is a must - we stayed an extra night because the boys wanted to 'do' that. It's so huge, and you could almost forget you are in a city. MoMA on the edge, zoo (we didn't go in), lots of statues, boathouse ...

sophieschoice wrote: »

At this rate we'll be sleeping in the car!

:eek: You're not planning to have a hire car in NYC are you? Ditch it! Before you arrive. Unless your OH is used to driving in NYC ...

Parking, traffic, traffic, parking ... hard to tell which will give you more grief. And the public transport is SO good, and runs 24/7, you really won't need it and it will be more hassle than it is worth.

What we did was travel from NYC to North White Plains, by train from Grand Central Station (of which more below), where the Hertz depot is as close to the station as the booking office at a typical large UK station. We picked up our car there, and drove off into the sunset. We then returned the car to JFK at the end of our stay, which didn't require driving through the middle of Manhattan, just round the edge on motorway type roads. It worked brilliantly and I wish I could remember whose bright idea it was to thank him again!

sophieschoice wrote: »

Thanks but I haven't a clue where Midtown is. Is that the centre? Apparently (according to OH) New Jersey may be an option? I haven't the foggiest where that is in relation to the middle of New York either! We will be 'doing the sights' but not shopping (I'm a rare bird - a woman who loathes shopping) and the only thing I've heard of which I believe is a 'must see' is a railway station in the vicinity. I'm hoping it's a bit special because I'm not into trains at all.

Yes, midtown is in the centre, and New Jersey is not NYC at all, but one of the states at the edge. Further to travel, may be quieter.

I am not a train person at all, but I must say that Grand Central Station was one of the high points of our stay. It is simply MAGNIFICENT! I was confusing it with a different station - the one featured in that film about the !!!!! bosses being caught because their accountant testified to tax evasion and there's a classic shoot-out scene with a baby's pram bouncing down the steps - so was struggling to make sense of that film scene, but that apparently is a different and equally magnificent station.

Now bear in mind that we'd only gone there to catch a train to North White Plains, but we ended up staying all morning. :rotfl: All the boys had a good look round, and then they camped out in one of the many refreshment areas with our luggage, while DH and I carried on wandering round gawping.

OK, so you're not into shopping, but they have several arcades, one of them dedicated to food - we found drunken goat's cheese there. And they were just so wonderful.

It really is a must see.

Savvy_Sue

Have just read markymoo's thread, if you can get the Cosmo, go for it. It wasn't too noisy, it was clean, staff were helpful, and the Irish Soda Shop was the most wonderful place for breakfast (if not the cheapest!) I know markymoo usually takes breakfast back to his room, but if we hadn't got the boys up and out, they'd have wanted breakfast in bed and we'd never have got going.