Everything & Anything New York City

KarenG

I'd just like to say, regarding Tiffany, I have a few bits from there (the Tesco Value range ) and I've always found them very helpful. I have tended to say, here is my budget, what can I choose from? And the staff have really helped. My budget was only $100 once and they were still absolutely charming.

The only place where the were off was in the Crystals Shopping area in Las Vegas. Having told her my top budget was $400 she brought my earrings marked at $2400. Needless to say I didn't progress further

paddyposh

Might be going in April for WM29 for 3 or 4 nights, either 5th-9th or 6th-9th. Currently booked in the La Quinta, Meadowlands as it is close to the MetLife Stadium, a decent price (235 for 3n, 310 for 4n) and also apparently doesn't take long to get to the main areas eg central park etc.

Would like to visit ground zero, times sq, rockerfella centre, empire state, statue of liberty, ellis island and maybe would be cool to go to the bronx zoo.

Is that too optimistic for 3 whole days?

Anything else people recommend to see? as chances are we won't be going back for a couple of years at least.

Price wise, it seems we are looking at around 450£ direct return flights with Virgin, £400 with 1 stop but ideally want direct and have had good experiences with Virgin before

VestanPance

I wouldn't say the Meadowlands is a good location for a base for exploring NYC. What is your budget for hotel rooms? If you are in Jersey staying on a line directly on the PATH into Manhattan is better, the Meadowlands Metlife Stadium isn't, or even better many of the cheaper Long Island City hotels are a short subway ride away from midtown Manhattan are much better budget accommodation bases.

Your plans are possible in three days. Ground zero (WTC Memorial - needs to be booked in advance), statue of liberty, Ellis Island are all is the same area so you could do those in one day. Times sq, Rockerfella Centre and the Empire State Building are in fairly close proximity, so possible to do in one day. Although if you are planning to visit the Top of the Rock and the ESB, many would argue that you'd be better off picking one than doing both.

paddyposh

VestanPance wrote: »

I wouldn't say the Meadowlands is a good location for a base for exploring NYC. What is your budget for hotel rooms? If you are in Jersey staying on a line directly on the PATH into Manhattan is better, the Meadowlands Metlife Stadium isn't, or even better many of the cheaper Long Island City hotels are a short subway ride away from midtown Manhattan are much better budget accommodation bases.

Your plans are possible in three days. Ground zero (WTC Memorial - needs to be booked in advance), statue of liberty, Ellis Island are all is the same area so you could do those in one day. Times sq, Rockerfella Centre and the Empire State Building are in fairly close proximity, so possible to do in one day. Although if you are planning to visit the Top of the Rock and the ESB, many would argue that you'd be better off picking one than doing both.

I believe he said it is about a 15-20 bus ride into Manhattan, which would be ok for me. I really am looking at about £300 for 3-4nights, which I know is low but is because our main holiday is like 2 weeks before this lol. Will have a look at the LI hotels. Only thought of Meadowlands because it is near to the stadium.

Thanks, that is good to hear. Can you still go to the top of the SoL?

Found 2 nice hotels in LI City, The Verve and Country Inn & Suites. Both seem very nice, but very cheap!! What gives? Is the area rough? Heard things about Queens but then again could just be "talk"?

curlygirl1971

If you want to go to Ellis Island, and you're staying in NJ, then look into going from Liberty State Park rather than Manhattan.

We did this one year with relatives who live in NJ - it was mid-week in October, hardly any queuing time at all (I think there was maybe 20 people in front of us).

IF you stay at Meadowlands then perhaps see about getting a taxi down to LSP (looks like maybe a 20 min journey?) first thing one morning, do Ellis and Liberty Island and then get off the Ferry at Battery Park.

I think this is still a half a day activity though, but if it's possible you would beat any queues that can sometimes occur.

jtr2803

Hi All,

I am very secretively planning a 4 or 5 night break to NYC mid Feb as a surprise xmas present for my fiance and my 12 year old daughter and neither of them have a clue - which is great! Still very much in the planning stages as am not in a position to be able to book until later next month or mid December.

I(We) want to do most of the 'major' tourist bits - TOTR, SoL, TSq, Grand Central etc but I also know there are a lot of things we are likely to miss being first time visitors and I wondered if anyone would be so kind as to let me know the one thing they would recommend that perhaps isn't so well known. Or maybe an area to visit that most wouldn't know about? Am trying to make the actual activities as cheap as possible so lots of things to see would be great!

Thanks

Jody

bb69

Lethargy wrote: »

Wow that looks amazing i'd book in a second to witness something like that....

Can i ask what you paid for flights? I was looking last week and for my dates they were around the 470 mark with 1 stop off and 660 direct but seem to have jumped up a couple of hundred since then.

Hi
Sorry for the delay in replying. We booked 10 days before and flights were 700 (I think) for premium economy with virgin. That was way cheaper than Ba.

Personally, I wouldnt book anything yet, but keep an eye on prices.

VestanPance

paddyposh wrote: »

I believe he said it is about a 15-20 bus ride into Manhattan, which would be ok for me. I really am looking at about £300 for 3-4nights, which I know is low but is because our main holiday is like 2 weeks before this lol. Will have a look at the LI hotels. Only thought of Meadowlands because it is near to the stadium.

Thanks, that is good to hear. Can you still go to the top of the SoL?

Found 2 nice hotels in LI City, The Verve and Country Inn & Suites. Both seem very nice, but very cheap!! What gives? Is the area rough? Heard things about Queens but then again could just be "talk"?

I stayed at the Country Inn and Suites earlier this month. It's a nice hotel. My only gripe with it was that the breakfast room is too small for the number of guests they house, but that's a minor complaint and hey unlike most places in NYC it's a free breakfast.

The LIC area is fine. There isn't much to see or do in the area and it's not much to look at, but it's perfectly safe. It's very well serviced for access to Manhattan though. Queensboro Plaza station is about a two/three minute walk from the Country Inn & Suites and is serviced by the N, R and 7 trains. I never waited more than five minutes for a train and the very next stop is in Manhattan. A couple of stops later and your in Times Square, ten minute ride on the train. The Queens Plaza station is serviced by some other trains and is only another few minutes away.

I believe The Verve is highly regarded and the Country Inn was in my opinion a great budget choice for NYC. You won't look and the Counrty Inn and think wow, but it's a good base. The 24hr petrol station next to it is handy for picking up drinks/coffee etc for taking up to the room.

I was out and the Meadowlands for a Jets game at the start of the month. There is nothing much out there bar the Stadium. The bus would be 20 minutes, as long as you're not in rush hour (or when a game is on) then it would be closer to an hour. I'd also check how frequent those buses are and do they run all night?

Not sure about the SoL, I didn't visit it this time around as I've been over to it and up it a good few years ago now.

M4RKM

paddyposh wrote: »

I believe he said it is about a 15-20 bus ride into Manhattan

That is if you don't take into account traffic. You could get stuck at the tunnel for an hour at times.

If you were visiting New Jersey and the Meadowlands area, then stay there. If you're wanting to visit New York City, then stay in New York City, rather than another state.

Country Inn & Suites, which is in Long Island City is always recommended and this is normally cheap too!

M

wake6

malkie76 wrote: »

<SNIP>

If anyone else has comments on immigration (see my post #4999 on the last page), I'd appreciate it!

We went on Mon 15th Oct 2012 and arrived at 16.40 and queued in immigration for about one hour (Virgin Upper class so also allowed off the 'plane first). There was also a one hour queue for taxis. But at least the taxi queue has now been moved indoors.