Everything & Anything New York City

Savvy_Sue

cooking-mama wrote: »

which guide book do you all recommend??

Main thing is to have one for each person in the party, IMO. Ideally read and compare notes beforehand to plan what to do. Or just wing it, as we had to ...

And leave off with the Tiffanys talk! I'm still aggrieved that I never got to go there, or to Macys, or anywhere really ...

greenface, apologies if I intended you. I didn't mean to, I was truly grateful to you for asking what IFE was because I hadn't got round to it! :rotfl:

Lady_S

I have been really happy with brits guide to new york, has a wonderful tube and bus map which made it worth its weight in gold

Philippa36

I have two Rough Guides to NYC (one is seriously outdated now!), a Lonely Planet guide and A Hedonists Guide to New York ( which was a gift - very nice but not the most useful).

I use the Rough Guide most.

emilyjade

Hi there

My husband and I plus our two children (14 and 11) are booked to go 1st week in June for a 5 night stay but can't decide between two hotels, the Sheraton Hotel & Towers or the Novatel in Times Square, both seem to have good reviews but wondered if anyone has stayed at either?

phatbear

emilyjade wrote: »

Novotel in Times Square, both seem to have good reviews but wondered if anyone has stayed at either?

Yup ive stayed in the novotel on our last trip, which was 4 of us me, mrs phatbear and her 2 young'uns aged 15 and 13.

Hotel is nice and clean and well located for a subway, 50th street, and well located for times square.

The good points:

As above
+ free gym but its tiny
+ nice bar
+ lovelly terrace area on the foyet floor which lets you overlook times square, which looks great at night

the negatives:

silly foyet configuration where you have to get one of two very small lifts to the foyet to then access another lift to get to your room, when its busy it can take a while to get upstairs.
Fridge in the room but it was full of mini bar stuff which we asked to have removed but it kept getting refilled, we wanted it empty for drinks and snacks etc.

Thats about it on the downside apart from the ice machine didnt work on our floor and soaked the hall carpet but accidents happen i guess.

I'd happily recommend it to anyone as a well placed, reasonable, functionable hotel.

emilyjade

Thanks for that phatbear, was the one I was tending to lean towards. Do you know if they provide a shuttle service between them and JFK? As its our first visit really don't fancy doing the sub way or buses as they don't take you direct to the hotel.

Philippa36

I don't know of any hotels in NYC that do a transfer?

Its probably easiest for you to get a taxi from JFK - its a fixed price $45 & tolls & tip $5.50. Ignore the taxi touts waiting just outside the airport and stand in the official taxi queue.

The airtrain is very simple though and on the way back to the airport is definitely worth considering, its a lot cheaper than a taxi.

phatbear

Philippa36 wrote: »

The airtrain is very simple though and on the way back to the airport is definitely worth considering, its a lot cheaper than a taxi.

Im inclined to go the other way airtrain there and cab back as i always my bags always seem a tad heavier on the way back to JFK than on the way to the hotel.

You can work out how easy is to get from JFK to any hotel here:

http://www.mta.info/nyct/

alas im at work at the mo so cant do it for you as our system wont allow the script to run

phatbear

and nope they dont have a shuttle bus for the hotel, however there may be ones that will take you to the hotel however the main problem with these is you will share the bus and therefore it can take you ages to get to your destination

von

Hi,

We're off to New York next Monday for 4 days and have read so much about where to go that my head is spinning, so I hopeyou good people on here could help me. We want to visit the following places but would appreciate some help as to how to get there and when so that we don't waste our time:

See Statue of Liberty from Staten island ferry - don't want to get off so any idea where we go to catch it, how much and how long will it take?
Grand Central Station - is it worth a visit?
Central Park - any suggestions for which area?
Top of the Rock or Empire State Building - which one is best?
Macy's and or a shopping mall - any suggetions?
I also want to go to Little Italy for a meal - is it near Times Square as I'm staying at the Marriott Marquis - although won't believe it until I step in my room (it's an organised trip)

Also, sorry to go on but as it's the St Patrick's day parade on Wednesday and I don't really want to spend too much of the day watching the parade will everything be open and will it be easy to get around or will the traffic grind to a standstill?

As I said I'd relly appreciate some help - please....