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

sophieschoice

realised wrote: »

Hi everyone

I hope someone can help

I'm going to new york in dec and my partner has insisted we hire a car (He is public transport-aphobic) Therefore, I'd like to book a hotel that is slightly out so we can drive into manhattan and we can also go to jersey too. It means the hotels will be slightly cheaper (I dont really want to pay £100 per night!) Does anyone have any recommendations of any nice safe areas with cheap hotels?

We feel the same. We've (the Royal 'we'!) have decided to keep hold of our hire car and stay at the Sheraton which has free parking.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=951

Philippa36

I would never consider driving round NYC - they are completely mental! Its a walking city - you can see almost everywhere without any need for public transport.

However, when your feet are killing you and you just want to get back to your hotel, the yellow taxis are everywhere, the subway is pretty easy and very cheap or there are open top buses.

I really wouldn't recommend a car in NYC.

M4RKM

realised wrote: »

I'm going to new york in dec and my partner has insisted we hire a car (He is public transport-aphobic) Therefore, I'd like to book a hotel that is slightly out so we can drive into manhattan and we can also go to jersey too. It means the hotels will be slightly cheaper (I dont really want to pay £100 per night!) Does anyone have any recommendations of any nice safe areas with cheap hotels?

realised wrote: »

My budget would be about £50-80 a night.. The location is what i'm not too sure about
although as traffic is as horrendous as it is, we may have to get public transport whilst in manhattan. I wanted to know a few areas around that area, maybe jersey, where hotels won't be that expensive.

Brooklyn and Queens sound idyllic on paper.. but some areas aren't supposed to be safe? How about Staten Island? Is that too far?

OK, lets look at this a different way.

Your budget is £80 a night for a hotel. Add on top of that the car rental, which will be around $60 a day, (so call it £40), add on Parking, which can be around $40 for up to 6 hours if not more, but lets call it that much, so that's £26, your actual per day budget is £146 ($220 ish per day)

You'll be out of the way, Brooklyn and Queens are perfectly safe, and I've already given a few posts ago a list of cheaper places to stay there, and then it's only $2.25 on the subway. Millions of people use the subway daily, and it is normal to use it! The trains, subway, and buses are nothing like the UK, they run on time, they are reliable and they are safe. New York City is the safest big city in the USA. It's not like CSI:NY or 24, or all the hollywood movies. It's a normal city, and I feel safer there than my home town!

Staten Island is a fair trek into Manhattan, and will cost $10 upwards tolls to get into if you're driving, but is free on the Staten Island Ferry (foot passengers only), oh, but that's public transport.

You could easily find a reasonable place to stay for around $200 a night in Manhattan, and as you've said you'll probably use Public Transport in Manhattan, what's the problem. If you stay in Manhattan, you won't have that car to worry about, and you'll still use PT anyway, I just don't see the logic.

Really, don't drive, it's a waste of money, you probably won't get to see much, because you'll be thinking too much about the $12 per hour parking garage, and if you look at the budget like i've laid out above, you'll see that if you're spending money on a car, just to save on a hotel, you're not actually saving anything!

Now, let me tell you this, just to put it in some perspective I say this and I drive miles for a living in this country. This week alone I've driven over 800 miles in the past 4 days, and I have another 400 to do before the week is out. I don't like public transport in the UK either, however, I wouldn't ever get a car in NYC, as you DON'T NEED IT. Parking is awful, and expensive, the rental rates are extortionate, but the public transport is cheap.

You can do a day trip from Manhattan to NJ easily for less than $20 each on a train, which may be slightly more than the tolls back into Manhattan, and the tolls on the NJ Turnpikes etc, but it is more relaxing.

But, it seems like you've made your mind up anyway, You can easily stay in Queens and Drive into Manhattan every day. The Pan American Hotel, as i've recommended before is reasonable, but without actual dates, apart from the generic "December" I can't tell you how much this will be. Also, to get from Queens into Manhattan, you'll use the Queen Midtown Tunnel, the toll on this is $5.50 each way. So that's the same each way as 2 people on the Subway at a full fare, but most people use a discount metrocard. So you could still stay in Queens, get the subway in and then you are SAVING MONEY.

I think that's enough of a description, and reasoning why you should not rent a car in NYC. However, if I haven't swayed you, I will say no more...


M

M4RKM

sophieschoice wrote: »

We feel the same. We've (the Royal 'we'!) have decided to keep hold of our hire car and stay at the Sheraton which has free parking.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=951

*shakes head, walks away, cries*


M

KK22_2

I totally agree with the points made above by markymoo.

My bf detests public transport aswell. He would rather pay for parking, petrol costs and sit in traffic in his own car, rather than on a bus with other people. However, in NY he realised that the public transport there was a lot better and we ended up using the subway loads when we were there.

You should maybe not commit to anything before you get there, then you can always hire a car for a couple of days when you're there to see more further afield sites.

Markymoo - I've meant to ask you this for a while, when you are booking your many NY holidays which sites do you usually use? Any help appreciated! Cheers

sophieschoice

markymoo wrote: »

*shakes head, walks away, cries*


M

Aw, don't! You make me feel bad!
I just don't think I'm going to enjoy New York after two weeks touring New England.
I'm only going along with OH who wants to do it all. Again.
NY is so far removed from my favourite cities that I just don't see it comparing favourably.
I stand to be corrected though.....

M4RKM

KK22 wrote: »

Markymoo - I've meant to ask you this for a while, when you are booking your many NY holidays which sites do you usually use? Any help appreciated! Cheers

Flights - Normally, the airlines own website, but i do use kayak.co.uk to get an idea. I book through the airline, as I join the FF scheme, so I know I'll get miles, and I can check in online. I've rarely found scraper sites these days like expedia, or opodo etc, cheaper than the airline itself

Hotels - When i book the Hotel Cosmopolitan, which is my usual location for Manhattan, I normally book through https://www.hotelconxions.com You have to pay in full at the time, but it is normally the cheapest around, cheaper than the hotel itself.

I'm now venturing into Brooklyn for my stays, and have found a good Hotel there, which this time I booked through travelocity.com (the US version, as the prices were cheaper than anywhere else!). Previous trips I've booked through hotels.com (for the affinia 50), or the hotels own website.

Other sites I always look at are quikbook.com and also travelzoo.com just to see if there are any deals etc around.

Hope that helps..


M

M4RKM

sophieschoice wrote: »

I just don't think I'm going to enjoy New York after two weeks touring New England.

Honestly, if you go with that attitude, you won't enjoy it. There are people who i've spoken to who said the same before, and didn't like it. People who have no preconceptions, and want to explore, actually enjoy it.

Personally speaking I think that being over 4 miles away from the nearest train station, and over 50 miles away from Manhattan you're not really going to see NYC, you're going to see a lot of New Jersey.

However, a bit down the road from where you are staying in Red Bank, NJ, I can recommend Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash as the best comic book in the whole world.

M

KK22_2

markymoo wrote: »

Flights - Normally, the airlines own website, but i do use kayak.co.uk to get an idea. I book through the airline, as I join the FF scheme, so I know I'll get miles, and I can check in online. I've rarely found scraper sites these days like expedia, or opodo etc, cheaper than the airline itself

Hotels - When i book the Hotel Cosmopolitan, which is my usual location for Manhattan, I normally book through www.hotelconxions.com You have to pay in full at the time, but it is normally the cheapest around, cheaper than the hotel itself.

I'm now venturing into Brooklyn for my stays, and have found a good Hotel there, which this time I booked through travelocity.com (the US version, as the prices were cheaper than anywhere else!). Previous trips I've booked through hotels.com (for the affinia 50), or the hotels own website.

Other sites I always look at are quikbook.com and also travelzoo.com just to see if there are any deals etc around.

Hope that helps..


M

Fantastic, that's a great help. Thanks!

sophieschoice

markymoo wrote: »

Honestly, if you go with that attitude, you won't enjoy it. There are people who i've spoken to who said the same before, and didn't like it. People who have no preconceptions, and want to explore, actually enjoy it.

Personally speaking I think that being over 4 miles away from the nearest train station, and over 50 miles away from Manhattan you're not really going to see NYC, you're going to see a lot of New Jersey.

However, a bit down the road from where you are staying in Red Bank, NJ, I can recommend Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash as the best comic book in the whole world.

M

My favourite city is Florence. How far removed from NY is that?!
We will leave the car at the hotel and travel into NY by public transport.
The only reason for this is that we don't want to be lugging two suitcases back and forth.
OH has already decided we will 'do' the sights even though he's seen them all before.
I'm just humouring him!
I am looking forward to seeing Grand Union station and the Statue of Liberty.
Who knows, after the relative peace and openess of New England, I may even enjoy a bit of city life.