Everything & Anything New York City

poormaria

Thanks Mark, any help from your experience would be great

Vikki_74

poormaria wrote: »

Thanks, they were all similar prices £1200 and below but I will get them up again and post.
I've seen a lot that you can book now but then they have a free cancellation. Was thinking of doing that cos if they end up coming down then i could change

I would definitely do that (once Mark's given you his thoughts!) if you can cancel easily enough online without penalty - the hotel I've got booked was my fourth reservation, just kept booking and cancelling things as I found something better! I always do it for US trips as at least then you've got something as a back up whilst you keep looking.

Vikki_74

Ok just had a very quick look for you and for 1st to 8th November which I think we're your dates, the Country Inn and Suites in LIC is $130/night plus tax so round about £700. The Verve in LIC comes out at about £850.

Both are in good locations for the subway and recommended consistently on here and on TA forums - I think either of these would be better than your current LIC choices personally and the rates are fully cancellable so would be a good back up whilst you carry on looking elsewhere.

M4RKM

poormaria wrote: »

Ok this is what I am currently looking at and my thoughts:

Z hotel
Sanctuary Guest house
Tribeca Blu
BMP brooklyn
HOward Johnson soho
wyndham grd china town
Ravel
Stay Smart Midtown,

LIC - alot of the location seem to be light industrial, i know i cant have everything for the cash i have to spend but i feel i want to be able to walk out the hotel and be able to nip to a coffee shop etc

Brooklyn - any advice on the area would be great, the hotels i can afford seem to be further away

Hey... Finally got around to responding.. Firstly, the Metro and the Subway in NYC are 2 totally separate things. Metro North is a commuter railroad that leaves Grand Central, so don't call the Subway the Metro in NYC when asking for directions or you may get directed the wrong way.

Anyway.. Hotels... Shall we start off with the No's

Sanctuary Guest House - It's an illegal hotel - don't bother - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d1776886-r122421669-Sanctuary_Guest_Suites-New_York_City_New_York.html

Stay Smart - Illegal - http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k4669521-Staysmartnyc_com_good_or_bad_value-New_York_City_New_York.html

Onto the ones that are ok.

Z Hotel is a great hotel, and only around 10 minutes away from the Subway.

Ravel is just around the corner, but the Z is better IMO.

Country Inn & Suites is always recommended, but the Z is nicer IMO.

Long Island City has plenty of places to grab a coffee, corner deli's and convenience stores.

BPM in Brooklyn is a music based hotel, it is a little out of the way, especially if you want to visit Manhattan, for me, It'd be fine, as I spend a lot of time in Brooklyn anyway, but for a first timer, it ain't great.

Tribeca Blu - Yeah, it will be noisy, it isn't actually in Tribeca, but just off Canal Street which puts it in Chinatown IMO.

HoJo Soho - It's in Chinatown, and they're reasonably basic.

Wyndham Gardens Chinatown is probably a good choice too, as would be the Best Western Bowery Hanbee which is nearby.

Other hotels to look for in Brooklyn, check out the Hotel Le Jolie, which I've stayed at quite a few times, and Williamsburg is an awesome place to visit too.

Hope that helps.

[Deleted User]

There's a new article in the NY Times which may be of interest to anyone thinking of taking children on holiday with them.

I've c+ped it because the NYTimes has a paywall of sorts in operation.

As ever in the NY Times the comments section at the end is a mine of good info.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/travel/travel-guide-new-york-for-kids.html?ref=travel&_r=0

New York is an overwhelming city to visit with children — crowded, loud, expensive and larded with a seemingly infinite number of landmarks and showstoppers that your children simply must experience.

If it’s any consolation, even people raising children in New York are daunted; at any given moment another family is certainly doing something more enriching and entertaining than yours. But from experience comes wisdom, and local parents have learned how to take advantage of New York in manageable portions.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art as one of five things to do on a Saturday? Not unless you feel like losing sight of your 4-year-old. Try something smaller or skip it. Need a roomy bathroom in Midtown? Department stores present an all-too-rare opportunity. What follows is carefully culled advice from New Yorkers on how to cover the city right, whether your brood includes a toddler or a teenager.
Lesson Plan


No one can expect children to spend a week traipsing through museums, but some of New York’s boutique institutions are of special interest to young people. The Tenement Museum (103 Orchard Street near Delancey Street; tenement.org) on the Lower East Side offers a riveting glimpse into urban family life. Guided tours reveal the daily routines of generations of Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrants who made their mark then quickly moved up and out. Pick up a copy of “All-of-a-Kind Family”or a vintage toy in the museum shop, one of the city’s best.
MoMA (11 West 53rd Street; moma.org) does an excellent job making modern and contemporary art accessible to children as young as 4. On weekend mornings, guided tours are divided into age-appropriate groups in which children can observe a number of works and draw; later they gain free admittance to the entire museum. The cafeteria is both grown-up and child-friendly, and there’s an art laboratory with hands-on activities and even an audio guide for young people.

Ideal for balmier days, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum (Pier 86, 12th Avenue at 46th Street; intrepidmuseum.org) has expanded its exhibits and family programs since I spent chilly, bored afternoons there as a child in the ’80s. The most significant is the Space Shuttle Pavilion, which is scheduled to reopen in July, showcasing the Enterprise, NASA’s first space shuttle, which arrived last year. The U.S.S. Intrepid, a World War II-era aircraft carrier, is worthwhile in itself. While the complex suffered damage during Hurricane Sandy, most of its facilities are once again shipshape. Families may want to consider Operation Slumber, which allows for overnight visits with special activities for children 6 and older.
The New York Transit Museum (Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn; mta.info/mta/museum) is a favorite with train-obsessed grown-ups and children alike. The permanent exhibits include old turnstiles and vintage subway cars.
An entire book could be devoted to kid-literary New York, but highlights include the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, a standard photo-op; Grand Central Terminal for the finale of “The Cricket in Times Square”; the genteel neighborhood of Yorkville, specifically East 88th Street, for the “Lyle, Lyle Crocodile” books, and the same neighborhood for “Harriet the Spy.” Also, the Plaza hotel for “Eloise” and the Met for fans of “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” (a downloadable guide is available online).

Snack Time
Chicken nuggets and chain restaurants can be found anywhere. For fresher food, head to the Union Square Greenmarket, a mecca for top restaurateurs (open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; grownyc.org/unionsquaregreenmarket). You may get a green or two into your child’s mouth, or at least a wild strawberry. There are ample samples of jam and maple sugar candy.
If you’re not up for the interminable wait for a table at Serendipity 3, try Alice’s Tea Cup (three locations; alicesteacup.com), where children can get a sprinkle of fairy dust before their Alice’s s’mores (“served melted and messy”) and admire murals of Lewis Carroll-inspired images. The astonishingly moist scones are not to be missed, and there are healthful salads and sandwiches as well (try the Lapsang souchong smoked chicken).
For more sweets, head to Economy Candy (108 Rivington Street near Ludlow Street; economycandy.com), an overstuffed emporium of candies both oldfangled (Astro Pops, Sugar Daddy) and new (gummies galore).
Recess


Once the children are hopped up on sugar, they’ll need to burn off the energy. Try the Children’s Museum of the Arts (103 Charlton Street near Hudson Street; cmany.org). All the artwork is made by children, and visitors can make their own (bonus: you don’t have to clean up). An area for younger children includes sand, Play-Doh and guided music activities. Children go berserk for the Ball Pond, a closed-in area of oversize balls. Is it experiential art? An installation? Children need not bother with such imponderables.
For those more in need of a gambol, New York has hundreds of playgrounds, with 21 in Central Park alone. Some of the best truly shine in summer, when the sprinklers are turned on. Heckscher, Central Park’s oldest playground, just off Central Park South, is hard to beat with its rivers of water and sprinklers separated into areas for older and younger children. Behind the playground are massive glacial rocks that bolder children like to climb on and slide down. (It’s also within striking distance of the manageable Central Park Zoo, with its fanciful musical clock and accessible feeding zoo.)
Adventure Playground at 67th Street in Central Park also offers excellent water play, as does the Arthur Ross Terrace, a free outdoor water fountain park on the north side of the American Museum of Natural History. The gentle play is especially good for toddlers and very small children. On the East Side, Ancient Playground, just north of the Metropolitan Museum of Art near 85th Street, includes pyramid structures for climbing.
Downtown, Teardrop Park in Battery Park City is a haven of walkways, playgrounds and Hudson River views, with one of the grandest slides in the city. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park near Chambers Street includes a wading pool.
Adults and children of all ages (with smaller children in strollers) may enjoy taking the pedestrian walkway over the Brooklyn Bridge, one of New York’s great pleasures. Once in Brooklyn, Jane’s Carousel (janescarousel.com), a gorgeously restored 1922 ride in Brooklyn Bridge Park, gives children a spin while offering parents a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline. Dumbo, one of Brooklyn’s newly glitzy neighborhoods, has a number of boutiques for local loft babies, as well as Jacques Torres Chocolate (66 Water Street near Main Street, mrchocolate.com), where children can gawp at the factory within.
CHEAT SHEET
Where to Set Up Base
Midtown is close to everything but is crowded and expensive. The West Village is picturesque and more manageable. The Upper West Side is a kiddie haven. Union Square has its Greenmarket and subways to points in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
How to Feed Picky Eaters
Delis and diners are two key operative terms. Delis will make everything from an egg-and-cheese sandwich to tuna melts, and many offer huge hot-plate selections. Diners have immense menus that include pasta and sandwich basics. And there’s always the New York pizzeria, where a typical $2.50 slice is enough to fill a 5-year-old.
Where to Go for a Pit Stop
The New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street) is a welcome refuge, with exhibits centered on children’s literature and illustration, and a large children’s library with reading room.
Where to Find a Potty
The city’s dirty secret is that beyond the parks, there are few public bathrooms. Try Starbucks or dash into a restaurant looking sheepish; having a desperate child on hand usually expedites matters. A few chain stores have bathrooms, as do nail salons and public libraries.
Which Must-Sees to Miss
Dylan’s Candy Bar, which draws hordes of sugar-mad tweens, can be skipped. So can the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, which is small compared to similar museums elsewhere. And sadly the glorious Neue Galerie does not admit children under 12.
Where to Take a Field Trip
Coney Island hosts the eccentric and colorful Mermaid Parade on June 22, with revelers in shimmery scales and oversized tails. Afterward, young children can ride the low-scare Mermaid Parade ride at Luna Park (lunaparknyc.com). In the fall, the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park (whidc.org/home.html) is a great excuse to explore the Cloisters, the medieval branch of the Met, with the added bonus of princesses and knights. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri Festival, a weekend-long celebration of cherry blossoms in the spring, is a local favorite.

poormaria

Thanks Mark & vikki, the illegals are def off the list. And thanks for help with Metro & Subway too!

Ok the prices I got are:

Z hotel £940 no cancel
Country & Inn LIC £717 free cancel
The MAve £1090 free cancel
Western Bowery Hanbee £1400 ( out of price range)
Le Jolie - not available

My intinct was the Z and I would love the view. I could have the option to cancel on Z but that would be £1100 instead What do you think of Mave - dont think it came up on previous searches.

thanks again for your help

M4RKM

The MAve isn't a bad hotel at all, but is it worth the extra.

I'd personally encourage you to go towards the Z hotel, mainly because then you can take photos and tell me what it is like, as I've considered staying there myself, but never got around to it.


M

martmonk

Might help someone looking at Wyndham Garden Chinatown;

http://www.travelzoo.com/hotels/new-york/-169-NYC-Hotel-in-Summer-incl-Weekends-50-Off-1498528/?utm_source=top20_us&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=us_top20_2013_25

For $169 per night, check in to the Wyndham Garden Chinatown Mondays-Saturdays, June 30 - Aug. 29, including Independence Day.
Bonus: Sunday nights during this travel window drop to $139 per night and include the welcome cocktails.

Rednipkin

Just planning our first visit to NYC in December, flights and hotel all booked and happy with the deal though Expedia (trouble tracking claim through Quidco as usual though)

Now starting to look how to spend our 5 days including finding some great places to eat.

Went to Vegas last year and used the MSE forum to pick up some great Restaurant.com recommendations, does anyone have any for NYC? We are staying in TriBeCa which looks good for restaurants but the choice is overwhelming and restaurant.com choice limited.

Are there are any must visit restaurants I just should not miss? (Not necessarily rest.com)

Thanks and I look forward to checking the forum over the next few months for great ideas.

richardw

Flying tomorrow to JFK on AA, flight arrival is 9.55pm, there's an LIRR train from Jamaica to Penn at 11.42pm, if the flight is on time, do you think we'll make the 11.42?