Everything & Anything New York City

Backbiter

Katykat wrote: »

Any suggestions? Me and OH have booked flights to Vancouver, with 5 night stopver in NY. Not booked hotels yet. Our flight on to Vancouver is 7am so this means being at Newark airport about 4am. After looking at hotels, we will probably be paying in the region of £200 a night and I'm a bit dubious about paying this much for what might only be a couple of hours sleep. On the plus side we would have somewhere to freshen up before we go out for the evening, and not have to bother about luggage storage. We havn't thought about our itinerary yet as we're not going until April so mot sure exactly what we would be doing that last evening, We're not doddering pensioners but neither would we be up to a 24 hr marathon. We also intend to use the Olympia shuttle from Newark when we get there, but would it be running to get us back by 4am? What would YOU do?

Why not do 4 nights in a nice NYC hotel and spend the 5th in an airport hotel in Newark? It should be much less than £200 a night and would mean you wouldn't have to be up so early for the Vancouver flight. Use the money saved on the cheaper hotel to do something you wouldn't have done in Manhattan.

VestanPance

andy1886 wrote: »

I have been to New York before and stayed at the Affinia Manhattan and am planning to return . This time I am thinking of renting an apartment , I have flicked through this thread and read it is illegal to do so , am I correct ? and if so then why are there so many on VRBO and if it is not illegal has anybody booked via them or any recommendations on there or any other website ? Thanks .
I am looking for a reasonable property for £1000 a week budget , 1 bedroom for 2 people with kitchen hopefully with washing facilities for clothes as it will be part of a longer trip !

Short term apartment rentals in NYC are illegal. VBRO doesn't care if they are legal or not. The contract is not between you and VBRO, it's between you and the letting agent. If you book an illegal apartment you run two risks. Firstly that you get scammed and have no accommodation on arrival. Secondly that the apartment exists but gets reported and you get thrown out while on your holiday.

Look for a legal hotel. There are a few apartment room type hotels in the city, but those places like the Affinia do tend to be a bit more expensive.

Backbiter

Trip report: 3 nights in Manhattan 5-8th August.

We had a stopover on the way to Orlando with our 3 children (23, 19, 14). We flew with United from LHR on a multi-city ticket booked last October with Expedia, having been alerted by a post on this forum that Kayak was showing some bargain airfares that evening. We found prices to be £200 less than they had been (having been tracking August fares for the previous year or so), so took advantage, paying £650 pp for the LHR > Newark > Orlando > LHR round trip. That night my daughter had no idea about her annual leave so I had to wait before booking her flight, but the next day the prices had gone back up to £800+ and it eventually cost me £850 for the same flight. Still, a saving of £800ish was a great start.
The next step was finding an affordable hotel. I scoured all the usual sites and this forum. Came close to booking the Cosmo but settled on the Hampton Inn SoHo, as we have had great experiences with Hampton Inns and this hotel accepted 5 in one room. The prepaid, non-cancellable rate was £460 for 3 nights including breakfast. (The website said rollaway beds were available but on arrival we were told they weren't allowed with two queen beds, but they did provide extra cushions, pillows and bedding for my our 14 year old, who was happy and didn't complain. But at least they allowed 5 in one room, which was a huge saving for us.)
We booked airport transfers with Carmel Cars using the code on p1 of this thread which saved $4. A minivan cost $80 from the airport incl. tolls ($12) and tip (20%). They were great. The return cost $10 more, but we were OK with that. The round-trip transfer came to £112 for the 5 of us, paid by card.
The flight with United was great. Legroom in Economy was fine, as was the food, and there were over 140 films to choose from. However, on landing we found one of our cases had been damaged in transit - a handle had been torn off - so we took it to baggage services where they gave us a brand-new replacement.
The hotel was as good as we could have hoped for. Two mins from the Subway (Spring St), with free tea, coffee, apples, cookies and fresh juice on offer all day. The room and bathroom were pristine, and the view from the 17th floor was stunning. It has a rooftop terrace as well. We'd definitely go back there.
Our 19 year old walks with a stick and can't cover long distances, so we knew we'd have to use taxis and the subway for getting around. Obviously taxis are for 4, not 5, so I planned to be walking or using the subway on my own. First stop on our first day was Ground Zero, about 15 mins walk south of our hotel. We got a taxi, and the driver even allowed me onboard rather than make me walk, so we tipped him generously. $10 incl tip was less than the subway would have cost.
Ground zero is free, and that Sunday afternoon was fairly quiet and we got in with no queueing (we hadn't prebooked).
After a cheap pizza and beer/ cokes ($30ish for all of us) we wandered across to Wall St, before a storm drove us back to the hotel. Got another taxi, and again the driver let me onboard, which was very good of him given the rain (these were the only 2 occasions they allowed that in our 4 days in NY).
Next day. Breakfast was excellent - great choice of items, including fresh fruit salad, eggs, sausage etc.We met up at Grand Central (taxi for them, subway for me. Bought a $10 Metrocard) and then went to the Chrysler Building, followed by Bryant Park, the NY Public Library and Times Sq. Our son managed the shortish walks between these along 42nd St. From here we headed off to the pier for a harbour cruise. Given our son's problems with walking we decided that bus and boat tours would be the best way to see as much of the city as possible, so we booked the City Sights 48-hour hop-on hop-off ticket http://www.citysightsny.com/tourpage.php?item=AAT, using a 5% code found here: http://www.savings.com/m-CitySights-NY-coupons.html. This costs $49pp for 5 separate tours, and came to £31pp. It was a short walk for me and a cheap taxi for the others. The 90-minute cruise was great - around the south of Manhattan, up the East River, then over to the Statue of Liberty.
From there we went to Macy's for a snack and some shopping (again, a walk for me, taxi for them), before having a late afternoon meal at a deli: http://www.bensdeli.net/, where it was happy hour. Food was great, and it came to around $100 incl. tip.
From there it was back to 42nd St to take our night tour of the city and Brooklyn, which we really enjoyed, and then a taxi/ subway back to the hotel to watch the Olympics (mens 100m), which NBC had delayed showing for the benefit of people like us.
The next day we caught the lower Manhattan bus tour on 5th Ave, a short walk from our hotel. We hopped off at the Soouth Seaport by Brooklyn Bridge, which was very nice, and after hopping on again we got off at the Rockefeller Centre, where my sons wanted to visit the NBC store. We had lunch in a Korean restaurant nearby where you paid by the pound for the food you selected from a huge array of dishes. It was not bad and came to around $70 for all of us incl. drinks.
From here we hopped on another tour bus to have a look around Central Park, the Upper West side, Columbia Univ, Harlem and Central Park East. We didn't hop off at all but found it fascinating and the guide was great.
For the evening I had booked tickets for the Mets v Miami Marlins baseball game, out in Queens. I booked online on the Mets website, paying $116 for 5 tickets ($20 each plus card and booking fees). That's ridiculously cheap for top level sport but what was incredible was that these were 'Power pack' tickets, which included a hotdog and fries (actually proper UK style crinkle -cut chips, not 'fries') and a large drink, which would have cost around $12 at least. All in all phenomenal value, even though the game was pretty dull (the Mets lost and the fans were not happy). We were even given free Mets license plate holders when we got there - a cheap free gift is common at baseball games. We got there by Subway, for which I had to buy another Metrocard, which are valid for up to 4 travelling together. As I knew we wouldn't be using it the next day, I only topped up the other card for the amount necessary for the round trip. It seems that you can top up by any amount after you've bought the initial $10 card.
The next day, we didn't bother going on the Brooklyn tour. The others went shopping on 5th Ave in SoHo, while I went on a long walk through Little Italy, Chinatown, the Flatiron district, Union Sq and Greenwich Village, which was great. Our minivan picked us up from the hotel at 2.30pm and we headed off to Newark airport for the flight to Orlando.

All in all - a memorable trip that went off without a hitch. We barely scratched the surface of what NY has to offer but still saw a lot, and did so without spending too much! Yes, August is hot in NY but it was never excessive, and the evening temperatures were delightful.

cambb

Mark,
Having followed your advise 2 years ago and stayed in the Cosmo and sampled the wings at Mudville9 (both great choices) I'm looking for some more advice about this years trip in December.

I'm staying at the new holiday inn on 31st midtown(booked with points) therefore any bars that you would recommend like Mudville9 in the area also you mentioned the nightlife in the lower east side again any recommendations?

M4RKM

cambb wrote: »

Mark,
Having followed your advise 2 years ago and stayed in the Cosmo and sampled the wings at Mudville9 (both great choices) I'm looking for some more advice about this years trip in December.

I'm staying at the new holiday inn on 31st midtown(booked with points) therefore any bars that you would recommend like Mudville9 in the area also you mentioned the nightlife in the lower east side again any recommendations?

The two decent beer pubs I can think of nearby (I'm not a huge midtown fan!), are Ginger Man (it is awesome), and Rattle N Hum. There are a few near Rattle N Hum as well, but can't remember off the top of my head.

The best wings... just head back down to Chambers Street and go to Mudville 9....

cambb

M4RKM wrote: »

The two decent beer pubs I can think of nearby (I'm not a huge midtown fan!), are Ginger Man (it is awesome), and Rattle N Hum. There are a few near Rattle N Hum as well, but can't remember off the top of my head.

The best wings... just head back down to Chambers Street and go to Mudville 9....

Any recommendations regarding the night-life on the lower east side?

M4RKM

cambb wrote: »

Any recommendations regarding the night-life on the lower east side?

What kinda nightlife do you want? I don't go in for late night party time drinking, or things like that, I don't go clubbing either...

M

captain_insano

M4RKM wrote: »

Delta are just as good if not better than Virgin, Free beers, same baggage allowance, 1" more legroom in Economy over Virgin and BA. So to pay £50 for a lower quality service isn't sensible according to me.

So who are generally considered the best airline to fly to NYC? (Economy )

Or are they all much the same?

merchcon55

Examine hotel + flight packages with british airways - there are times where the combo deal works out considerably cheaper than booking flight and hotel seperate.
This could very well apply for other airlines too - but i know with BA there can be some decent deals.

Flew delta from AMS to EWR in February on a 767 - for economy, i was relatively comfortable, decent movies and free booze.


Someone earlier mentioned about being at newark for 7am flight - definitely stay at airport hotel or Newark Hilton (you can have a nice evening meal at several Portuguese restaurants nearby - really good too).

Just check what time the hotel shuttle to the airport starts - otherwise you will need a short taxi rides as most airport hotels are near airport but not at airport (I think marriott have an at airport hotel)

andy1886

VestanPance wrote: »

Short term apartment rentals in NYC are illegal. VBRO doesn't care if they are legal or not. The contract is not between you and VBRO, it's between you and the letting agent. If you book an illegal apartment you run two risks. Firstly that you get scammed and have no accommodation on arrival. Secondly that the apartment exists but gets reported and you get thrown out while on your holiday.

Look for a legal hotel. There are a few apartment room type hotels in the city, but those places like the Affinia do tend to be a bit more expensive.

Ok , Thanks for that , better look at Tripadvisor for suite only hotels , does anyone know of any either on Manhattan itself or further afield ?