Everything & Anything New York City

814man

I worked in NY back in 1990's and was taken to New Jersey beaches (Manasquan?) with friends. Am looking to take my family there is August this year and wanted some advice on beaches in the NY area in general. Plan is after a few days in city we'll head to a beach area for couple of days.

ixia

Hi Guineapig,

Just got back yesterday had a brilliant time, Re Ellis Island my hubby ad a backpack with all his photography gear and it wasnt a problem. I think you will be ok with juice and snacks too if all else fails yo can buy juice on ferry.

I would recommend going as early as possible we bought the 3 day flex pass and arrived on the first day at about 11am and the queues were 2 hours long, we didnt wait and went back the next day arrived just after 9 and it was fine got on the 9.45 ferry no problem.

just want to thank everyone for their help we had a great time and all your info wa very helpful.

Dave1979

10 days till we are off! We had planned a half day at Jersey Gardens but after reading lots about outlet malls and crap clothes produced specifically for the outlets we are wondering if it is worth it? We are just after things like Nike, Gap, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Finch etc. Is it worth going there or just shopping in the city - planning on 2 massive suitcases worth of shopping.

y2afuk

I actually went to Westfield Garden State Plaza and it's a good large mall. You would definitely save some money buying from there rather than in the city. The stuff in the mall shops is the same you'll get in the city. I shopped at Afflication and their gear was the same as advertised on their online store with the same prices. It takes 50mins on the 163 NJ transit bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street. Get to the bus station at least 20mins early to buy bus ticket (you can't buy them on bus) and find the gate as the bus terminal is big and can be tricky to find the actual gate. It cost $8.50 return. Enjoy.

SallyUK

Hello Folks

I've been promising my daughter and son that I'd take them to New York sometime, seeing as I had a fantastic time there back in 1990. At that time I stayed in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan and absolutely loved it. I flew from Scotland.

This time however, I live in England and live near Manchester and Leeds Bradford airports. I was thinking to go around Easter 2013.

I did also think about renting an apartment via Holidaylettings or Ownersdirect or one of those similar sites, as I'd like us to be together and not have to book separate hotel rooms, unless they're adjoining rooms.

So what advice would you lovely people have for me please. I think I've read somewhere about various passes etc that you can get now, is that right?

Sal
x

greenface

Apartments in New Yo........ Blah blah blah . Please look back on previous threads about renting a apartment in new York & the amount are actually illegal to rent if they are there at all. Plus if its just you son & daughter do you need seperate rooms etc .. Most hotels come with 2 doubles in a room & often a sofa bed too if lucky

M4RKM

SallyUK wrote: »

Hello Folks

I've been promising my daughter and son that I'd take them to New York sometime, seeing as I had a fantastic time there back in 1990. At that time I stayed in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan and absolutely loved it. I flew from Scotland.

This time however, I live in England and live near Manchester and Leeds Bradford airports. I was thinking to go around Easter 2013.

I did also think about renting an apartment via Holidaylettings or Ownersdirect or one of those similar sites, as I'd like us to be together and not have to book separate hotel rooms, unless they're adjoining rooms.

So what advice would you lovely people have for me please. I think I've read somewhere about various passes etc that you can get now, is that right?

Sal
x

1) Manchester is the airport you need to look at for flights. Though it is far too early to be booking an NYC Holiday over a year in advance. Maybe start looking around December time, and again in January when the hotel deals will start appearing.

2) Apartment rentals are illegal for under 30 days in NYC. You might want to look at Apartment Style Hotels. The Beacon, Affinia Hotels, Eastgate Tower, Radio City Apartments. This is are the ones that are legal.

Attraction Passes? Mainly a rip off, maybe only one that I'd recommend with a good chunk of research completed - Go Select Pass. Ignore the others, they're just very good marketing.

M

SallyUK

Thanks M4RKM - I wasn't aware about the apartment rentals being illegal for under 30 days, so learnt something new.

Many thanks.

Sal
x

M4RKM wrote: »

1) Manchester is the airport you need to look at for flights. Though it is far too early to be booking an NYC Holiday over a year in advance. Maybe start looking around December time, and again in January when the hotel deals will start appearing.

2) Apartment rentals are illegal for under 30 days in NYC. You might want to look at Apartment Style Hotels. The Beacon, Affinia Hotels, Eastgate Tower, Radio City Apartments. This is are the ones that are legal.

Attraction Passes? Mainly a rip off, maybe only one that I'd recommend with a good chunk of research completed - Go Select Pass. Ignore the others, they're just very good marketing.

M

guineapig

We have stayed in "Apartment style" hotels, The Beacon on the Upper West side (close to 72nd street subway) and The Marmara Manahtten on 94th & 2nd Ave.

If you book a one bedroom you will get a kitchen in each which will help you with meal costs ( you can eat breakkie in before setting off for the day) We liked the position of the Beacon ( right opposite the best supermarket in Manhatten IMO~ Fairways!) But we had a low room over the theatre and problems with the plumbing, the staff were po faced and mardy and whilst the room was comfortable and clean and the hotel in a wonderful location, we will be going back to the Marmara as the really do have better service and the apartment was comfortable and it is a very residential area so you feel like a local rather than a tourist ( that is more important to some folks than others, it depends what you are wanting to get out of your trip).

We are going back for 9 nights so that we can take things a bit slower this time ( we are very middle aged so about 20 plus years older than the average tourists!!!)

We do our own thing with lots of research/google maps, we have eateries and attractions and shops all plotted in such a way that we don't waste time zipping up and down, rather we do things in a logical geographic way ( if that makes sense?)

mynameisclare

Greenlight77 wrote: »

Hi, we're going to New York in July for 3 nights (2 adults and 2 teenagers) staying in midtown Manhattan and then will be heading to New England to see friends near Boston and tour round. We will hire a car but are nervous about driving in Manhattan so were thinking that we'd hire one from the airport and get straight on the freeway - we're flying into JFK but I suppose we could pick up a car from another airport if that worked better. Depending how things go we may spend another night in New York at the end so wouldn't necessarily need to drop the car at JFK. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where would be best to hire a car, thanks

We just did this last week (needed to get to Connecticut for a wedding). We took the commuter train from Grand Central to New Haven which is less than $15 each way, then hired a car from the Hertz branch that's very close to the station. The lady there was really helpful and even drove us back to the station when we dropped the car back.

I also hired a US satnav (from an ebay seller) which I thouroughly recommend if you don't have US maps already.