NYC Flights + Hostels - Late April

topherxp

Jamp wrote:

Hi All

I'm wondering about doing an internship in NY for a year so want to visit before I apply in order to decide if I like the place enough

Looking at going the last week of my uni easter hols so say April 17 - 23; can be a bit flexible but must be back in Sheffield for the 25th. There might be just me going or possibly up to 4 of us. Any suggestions of cheap places to stay? Don't mind hostels etc so long as they're safe, clean and fairly well located.

Expedia shows flights with Virgin or AA for £243 or Continental for £246 from LHR to JFK or some Virgin flights are to EWR. Which would be the pick of these? Flights from MAN would be easier but more expensive and/or not direct from what I can find.

Being a bit of a plane geek I'd quite like to have the individual screens that you can see pilot's view camera on - I believe (Virgin's) A340s have this but what about their 747s or the others' 777s? Other more sensible considerations are leg room, veggie food, and power facility for laptop.

Lastly, is this a good time to go to NY? I could postpone it to late September if that would be more sensible (it certainly would from a revising for uni exams point of view!) Anyone know of a good online tool to see what gigs (indie rock) are scheduled for when I'll be there?

Cheers,

Ben

I visited NY for a week last April.

I got flights and accom for £300.

I managed to get a flight from Heathrow to JFK with AA for £216 inc taxes and they had individual screens in the seats. I stayed at a backpackers hostal which greatly reduced the cost of the stay. Not only did I get cheap accom by staying at a hostal but it also came with free tea and coffee and every weds evening it was free pizza.

I stayed at the Chelsae International Hostel which is in Chelsea (name a bit of a giveaway) and was located about 40 blocks north from battery park (where the statue of liberty is) and 40 blocks south from central park. It mean't I was pretty good location to visiting a lot of the attractions and during my one weeks stay, I onlt ventured out of that 40 block radius when I went for a walk through the bottom end of central park.

April is a good time to go because flights will be cheaper and the cheaper accom is more likely to be available.

If you visit a mini-site I did as part of my website you might get a good idea of what to do on the cheap whilst there.

The address is http://www.gullick.biz/ny

KK

I have flown twice to North Carolina with AA and I think they are a wonderful airline. We are going to SF and LA at EAster with Virgin, so it will be interesting to compare. Not looking forward to the long flight though.

marshmeister

Hi
You might want to take a look at a a hostel called Jazz on the Park. https://www.jazzonthepark.com
It is near Central Park (hence the name) and is only a short underground ride to the madness of Manhatten. Basic but clean and quite funky accommodation with coffee and bagels for breakfast. Tried its sister hostel Jazz on the Town also but even though the location of this one was slightly better, the hostel was pretty disappointing.
I would delay until June if you can.
Have a great time!

topherxp

marshmeister wrote:

Hi
You might want to take a look at a a hostel called Jazz on the Park. https://www.jazzonthepark.com
It is near Central Park (hence the name) and is only a short underground ride to the madness of Manhatten. Basic but clean and quite funky accommodation with coffee and bagels for breakfast. Tried its sister hostel Jazz on the Town also but even though the location of this one was slightly better, the hostel was pretty disappointing.
I would delay until June if you can.
Have a great time!

Looks Good

Jamp

Hi everyone. Thanks for the further helpful replies

Still wondering what to do about my NY trip as my surgery date has been moved to mid June. I could now either go April 17-24 which is a bit close for comfort to my exams, or some time in late June/early July as I will have a leave of absense from my uni research project, BUT will be in a sling Would late June be a better time to visit NY than April or does it make no real difference?

Best I can find on flights is Continental LGW-EWR 17-24/4/06 for £230, or US Airways MAN-PHL-LGA 26/6 - 3/7 for £332. The latter has the advantage of being a bit flexible on dates so I could stay a bit longer than a week. I can't find any reasonable prices for mid July which would be better from my shoulder's point of view! Not so fussed about airline quality now I just want to get there for reasonable money. Does anyone know if the July prices will come down as we get nearer the time? Seems a bit unlikely but they're above £500 direct from London at the moment.

dk143

For accommodation, I recommend Venere.com. Lots of really good info on there, and very useful even if you decide not to book through them.

If you do, you can get a 4% discount with the code BK5HX8W

Hope this helps.

Jamp

Thanks for all the posts about this

I've decided to go April 17-23 with Continental. Booked through Airline Network and their "Vendor Locator" reference isn't working with the Continental site to select seats, maybe it needs a while to go through, that's what I'm hoping anyway.

No doubt I'll have lots of questions to add, but I'd better get a guide book to try learn as much as poss myself - any recommended guide book? I've heard the Eyewitness one is good.

I believe you can get a weekly metro pass for the subway and bus for $24 which sounds good, anyone know if this works on the PATH aswell for travelling to and from Newark and visiting Jersey City?