Everything & Anything New York City

dseventy

Hi al

Sorry for the delay.

Trip report here

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k7050742-Trip_Report_Pre_and_Day_1-New_York_City_New_York.html

Would like to thank all for the help here.

Someone asked me about the madison towers, if its not too late, happy to take questions.

I hope you enjoy my trip report.

D70 / Dash

vanilla8

Great report (been following on tripadvisor)
I'm staying at madison towers next week. By the sounds of it, it will be fine- perfectly located.

bb69

dseventy wrote: »

Hi al

Sorry for the delay.

Trip report here

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k7050742-Trip_Report_Pre_and_Day_1-New_York_City_New_York.html

Would like to thank all for the help here.

Someone asked me about the madison towers, if its not too late, happy to take questions.

I hope you enjoy my trip report.

D70 / Dash

I had tears in my eyes.. where is day 2?

catz1ct

Thank you for your responses to my last post they were very helpful. I forgot to say that we are flying from Heathrow to JFK. I have a couple of other questions:

Does anyone have any advice on how much we should tip? I have never been to the USA before so this is a bit alien to me.

I have heard that we can claim the tax back on our shopping, how does this work? Sorry this is a bit vague.

How long would you say it will take to clear security & customs once we arrive at JFK? Our flight is due to land at 13:05pm and I’m wondering what will be the best time to book a taxi for.

Thank you!!

LadyL2013

Looking for hotel recommendations for 5 nights in late March/early April....

Our criteria:

On Manhattan island.
No more than £700 all in per person including flights. Would be willing to pay a little more if they throw in breakfast too or transfers or if the hotel is extra special.
Good and safe location.
Don't mind if the rooms are smaller as long as they are nice and have good amenities. Preferably a good view.

How reliable is TripAdvisor with how good the hotels are? I have been using it to guage what hotel would provide best value for money but am a little surprised at how low or high some hotels have been rated considering what they look like and offer. For example The Seton is rated quite highly but I've heard bad things.

How do you tell what is good and what isn't?

bb69

LadyL2013 wrote: »

Looking for hotel recommendations for 5 nights....

Our criteria:

On Manhattan island.
No more than £700 all in per person including flights. Would be willing to pay a little more if they throw in breakfast too or transfers or if the hotel is extra special.
Good and safe location.
Don't mind if the rooms are smaller as long as they are nice and have good amenities. Preferably a good view.

How reliable is TripAdvisor with how good the hotels are? I have been using it to guage what hotel would provide best value for money but am a little surprised at how low or high some hotels have been rated considering what they look like and offer. For example The Seton is rated quite highly but I've heard bad things.

How do you tell what is good and what isn't?

Hello
When are you going?

M4RKM

catz1ct wrote: »

Thank you for your responses to my last post they were very helpful. I forgot to say that we are flying from Heathrow to JFK. I have a couple of other questions:
Does anyone have any advice on how much we should tip? I have never been to the USA before so this is a bit alien to me.

I have heard that we can claim the tax back on our shopping, how does this work?

Sorry this is a bit vague.

How long would you say it will take to clear security & customs once we arrive at JFK? Our flight is due to land at 13:05pm and I’m wondering what will be the best time to book a taxi for.
Thank you!!

1) Tipping. Taxis, around 15% is ok. Restaurants, 20% or double the tax Remember, the price you see if for the food, then you have tax, then you tip for the service. So, that $20 entree, is actually $21.75 plus then $3.50 for the tip. I'd just leave $25 and all would be good.
Drinks at a bar, $2 for the first drink, then $1 per drink (maybe $3 for first, $2 thereafter if you're a couple), try and always get served by the same bartender, they'll normally remember what you're drinking anyway.
They are the main ones.

2) you cannot claim tax back. Certain large department stores offer a 10% discount card though, which is slightly more than the tax anyway.

3) I've landed at that time, but it really does depend on what terminal and what other plans are around. I've been out of the airport with my luggage in 25 minutes before, I average around 40 minutes, but I do sit at the front of economy so i'm one of the first off, and I walk FAST!

I would personally allow 1 hour. You can't book a taxi, you'd just queue up for the dispatcher. A Car Service you can book, but you have to call them to pick you up when you've cleared customs.

LadyL2013 wrote: »

Looking for hotel recommendations for 5 nights....

Our criteria:

On Manhattan island.
No more than £700 all in per person including flights. Would be willing to pay a little more if they throw in breakfast too or transfers or if the hotel is extra special.
Good and safe location.
Don't mind if the rooms are smaller as long as they are nice and have good amenities. Preferably a good view.

How reliable is TripAdvisor with how good the hotels are? I have been using it to gauge what hotel would provide best value for money but am a little surprised at how low or high some hotels have been rated considering what they look like and offer. For example The Seton is rated quite highly but I've heard bad things.

How do you tell what is good and what isn't?

I'd love to help, but you've missed some key criteria to be able to find you deals. Firstly, dates, when are you travelling? That is key to be able to see if your budget is realistic. Flights themselves are around £450 these days, maybe slightly less at times, so your budget if you're 1 person is tiny. Rooms are sold PER ROOM not Per Person, so a flight budget is one, and a hotel budget is second, makes life easier. Secondly, how many are there of you? 2 or a family? that's key in choosing a hotel room!

Breakfast isn't thrown in. it's included in the price, also, if it is thrown in, it's basic at best. A decent NY Breakfast sets you back less than $10 each. I pay around $4, for a bagel, and a coffee.. Does the trick, so I wouldn't let that swing your hotel choice at all.

Transfers are never included in a hotel price, no hotel in NYC does that, unfortunately, this isn't like a beach holiday, and package deals that include transfers the cost is built in, and the probability is that they are on a shuttle service which isn't recommended.

All of Manhattan is safe, and you need to look to be near a Subway Station.

You pay for a view, your budget doesn't stretch to a view IMO.

TripAdvisor, take reviews with a pinch of salt, I always ignore the gushing over the top, everything is amazing, perfect, awesome, kinda reviews, mainly because they annoy the hell out of me, and it sounds like that person never leaves their own house, and I also ignore the ones that are everything is awful, no one smiled, or said anything to me, and it's terrible, and it's awful, and I'll never stay there again, on the basis of that you could probably never please this person, and even if you did, they'd still find a fault with it..

That said, you'll then have the mid portion, of sensible, factual reviews. What bad things have you "heard" about The Seton? I've glanced at some TA reviews, and many of them do seem very genuine. Maybe what you've heard is one of them people that you just can't please.

Hotel rooms in NYC are small, if you want big, double your budget. I don't stay in Manhattan for that very reason, my budget goes further, and I spend 15-20 minutes travelling around. It's less than I spend travelling in London, so all is good.

dseventy

Hi

@bb69 - Its all there, just added the last day and wrapped it up. You need to click at the bottom right to go on to the next pages, there are currently 4 pages there.

@vanilla8 - The location is perfect. We had a deluxe room which had a great big bathroom, in room tea, coffee, safe. Only the deluxe room have these. If your cool with that, then thats fine. the hotel do offer a cheapo upgrade to deluxe if you do it before you arrive, its double on the day, worth it IMO. Think it was 25$ a night in advance.

D70

LadyL2013

Sorry M4RK, I always forget something!

Looking at end of March beginning of April for 2 people (me and my partner). So about £1500 all in. Breakfast and transfers we know are often seperate so that's OK.

The hotels within our price range that we've been looking at are:

Marmara Manhattan (although I've heard lots of subway construction at the moment).
The Seton (apparently nasty rooms, unpleasant clienetele)
Bowery Banbee (but heard Chinatown isn't very nice???
Jolly Madison Towers (same criticisms as Seton)

In your opinion are those criticisms fair?

Also slightly over budget but possibly affordable are King and Grove, The Franklin and Affinia Dumont.

It's our first time to NYC do want to be able to do most of the touristy things, go shopping and have some great food.

lizzielie

dseventy wrote: »

Hi

@bb69 - Its all there, just added the last day and wrapped it up. You need to click at the bottom right to go on to the next pages, there are currently 4 pages there.

@vanilla8 - The location is perfect. We had a deluxe room which had a great big bathroom, in room tea, coffee, safe. Only the deluxe room have these. If your cool with that, then thats fine. the hotel do offer a cheapo upgrade to deluxe if you do it before you arrive, its double on the day, worth it IMO. Think it was 25$ a night in advance.

D70

Wow simply THE best trip report I have read! Thank you so much for sharing it!