All Things New York & £150 Flight Deals MERGED

sulliebear

Hi,
My OH and I travelled around the States for seven months and went to New York in July and then back there in December because we loved it so much.

My biggest tip is, that if you intend to catch a show on broadway (unmissable in my eyes), don't get taken in by people queing in Times Square at the TKTS stand. They stand there for hours and hours (something which my OH point blankly refused to do in the July sun). They sell cheaper same day show tickets but we went to the actual theatre box office, not really thinking that we would get any tickets and basically we just got the tickets that we wanted for that night's performance.

We were told by the theatre man that TKTS was basically a tourist trap, they make out that they have the only tickets left and it is just not true. They only get cheaper tickets that the theatres allow them to sell, i.e, obsructed views etc.

As I say we went to all of the major cities in the States and I have to say New York was definately one of the "safer feeling" places.

Having said that we blended in very well. So well in fact that we kept being asked for directions! Some pointers, no matter how hot is, the locals do not where shorts in the summer, they do not carry the cameras around on full view, they do not where bum bags and they do not walk around the city with their head permanantly looking up at the buildings. Oh yeah and they do not whip their maps out in the middle of the street.

Also take a dummy wallet with ten or fifteen dollars in and some worthless plastic, i.e, supermarket reward card to make it look real and then if you get robbed hand that over. Street thiefs will never accept that you are carrying nothing and are often happy with a couple of notes.

We used public transport with no probs.

Another tip, make sure that you take photo i.d when going to the Empire State Building as in the summer months they don't let you in without it.

If I can be of anymore assistance let me know.

student100

Mmm yeah OK, guess I could have been more helpful too.

Wikitravel is useful: http://wikitravel.org/en/New_York_(city)


Figure out the grid system (it will take about 10 seconds) then you can't get too lost. Streets run North-South and Avenues East-West, and Broadway sort of cuts its way at a funny diagonal. A little simple maths will enable you to work out how far away things are - it's 20 streets to the mile (that is walking north-south along the avenues), the blocks aren't square.

I would say stay somewhere uptown a little bit away from the main tourist areas - and then get the subway downtown when you need it. You'll then see a bit of the real "residential" New York as well as the business and touristy side. It'll probably be cheaper too. Just check reviews of the accommodation and local area as some are understandably less salubrious than others.

MetroCard is a must. The 7 day one is ridiculously cheap (compared with London or most UK cities for instance) - I think $24 - about £13 - and allows unlimited travel on subways and buses. (I wasn't brave enough to figure the buses out, and the subways go everywhere anyway...).

The Empire State Building is worth it but the Skyride thing is a bit disappointing and a waste of money, so give that one a miss.

The CityPass http://www.citypass.com/city/ny.html may save you money if you plan to visit more than about 3 of the attractions listed. If you do the Circle Line cruise I can recommend the 3 hour round-island tour which I'm sure was definitely worth the extra $5 compared with the 2-hour "semicircle" one. (You can upgrade your CityPass ticket by paying the extra $5). Make sure you take loads of water etc. on to the boat with you since the onboard refreshment prices are extortionate though...



Free things:

Ride the Staten Island ferry at least once. I did it twice - once in the daytime and once at dusk - which was pretty cool. It's free and they have no objections if you just get off at the other end and queue to get back on the next one.

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. View is definitely worth it.

streetspiritlondon

I'm off to New York City at the start of September and can't believe the price of accomidation. I'm going with a friend and most hotel searches are throwing back a $1200 dollar price tag on our nine night stay.

I know it's not the cheapest time of year but has anyone got any advice on the best way of finding a cheap hotel in New York City.

We're looking to stay in either the Greenwich area or Soho/Tribeca.

Thanks.

llh189

I went last year and can't really recommend where we stayed (Milford Plaza), it was better than the first place I booked as a friend suggested we look it up on Trip Advisor ( type this in to goggle and they will point you in the right direction ).

The site relies solely on peoples reviews, lots are up to date, you can search on either price or peoples ratings.

The first hotel we booked, not cheap not expensive had reports of being smelly, with rat droppings and altogther dirty, so changed very quickly to the one above, it was suggested by a different friend, and all I can say is our standards must be different than theirs, as I wouldn't recommend it and as it was recommended didn't check it out on the site - our mistake!

Any less rambling, check out the above site and others people comments will point you in the best direction lots of poeple also post pictures so you can see what the rooms are really like, I never now book any hotels without checking out trip advisor first.

Hope this helps

Lisa

richardw

Nine days in Manhattan may be too long, consider 3, 4 or 5 nights elsewhere with cheaper accommodation, thus bringing the total cost of accommodation down.

https://www.nyinns.com is worth a browse, check reviews at https://www.tripadvisor.com

streetspiritlondon

richardw wrote:

Nine days in Manhattan may be too long, consider 3, 4 or 5 nights elsewhere with cheaper accommodation, thus bringing the total cost of accommodation down.

https://www.nyinns.com is worth a browse, check reviews at https://www.tripadvisor.com

Oh well thank you for your thoughts but I think nine days is just right to spend in New York City thanks

However thanks for your hotel tips. I shall look into it.

Trip Advisor looks like a great web site but sometimes too much information is bad thing, know what I mean? :j

richardw

BTW if you want an en suite bathroom, double double check that it is what you are getting, same goes for aircon, often the cheapest rates include for shared bathrooms only.
Don't forget to add tax on of 13.625% plus $2 per night lodging tax as well.

It is worth having a good read of the reviews on tripadvisor, you get a good feel of what the situation is and if the reviewer was just plain fussy or malicious.

GlennTheBaker

You could try staying in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Some people have managed to get some great deals at this hotel via Priceline.

PM me if you want to know more about how to use Priceline and I'll be happy to assist or have a look here and here.

streetspiritlondon

It's just a minefield isn't it. I must have spent hours today looking at hotels and getting prices. But there is very little savings to be had is there?

Me and my friend are fussy gits, we want our own bathroom and we want to stay in Greenwich/Soho/Tribeca area but we really are looking at spending £1200. Quite a horrific figure when you think that you're not even getting a cup of coffee for that amount.

I know we could stay further out but we're going to be out quite late at night partying and we don't want to end up with long journeys home at 5 in the morning.

Thinking this through, an apartment with two single or two double beds would be ideal.

richardw

It is a minefield. Perhaps a search at http://travel.independent.co.uk/ and http://travel.guardian.co.uk might through up some other accommodation ideas.