Everything & Anything New York City

elflaede

Sedge123 wrote: »

Hi, Going to New York for the first time in March and have lots already planned. The last thing to book is the empire state building. Hubby is keen to go up at sunset but I'm thinking that this would be the busiest time of the day. I'm wondering if its worth buying the tickets to jump the queue?
This is probably the only time we will do NY and so I want to do the ESB the best way.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

If you buy the tickets in advance, you'll still have to queue for elevators and security but you'll skip the ticket line. However I think there is an express ticket that skips all queues but it's about $50. It's on the ESB's website.

jackieblack

becominganobsessivesaver wrote: »

I'm between 2 hotels (both booked on cancellable rates), the Best Western plus hospitality house (midtown east) or the hotel Beacon (upper west side). We're a family of 4, youngish kids, first trip to New York. We're staying for 5 days. We want to go to the empire state, hop on hop off bus, TOTR, AMNH, MOMA, Intrepid museum and circle line cruise. Both hotels are the same rate for a 1 bed apartment, but the best western includes breakfast (although cereal and juice will be fine!)

Which would you go for?

Personally, I'd go for the Best Western Plus because I wouldn't want to stay as far 'up' as 75th st, I prefer to be more central. Also, we've always found, whenever we've stayed at hotels where breakfast is included, that it has saved us time getting out in the mornings as well as money.

But, wherever you stay in NYC you can't be close to everything

greenface

And your never to far away from anything . Best western for me too .

cloz

We (2 adults and 2 children age 10 and 6) are planning to go to New York in May. We have been looking at hotels and are thinking of booking The Pearl hotel, has anyone stayed there?, really only need it as a base for the tourist bits. Any opinions gratefully received

becominganobsessivesaver

jackieblack wrote: »

Personally, I'd go for the Best Western Plus because I wouldn't want to stay as far 'up' as 75th st, I prefer to be more central. Also, we've always found, whenever we've stayed at hotels where breakfast is included, that it has saved us time getting out in the mornings as well as money.

But, wherever you stay in NYC you can't be close to everything

Thank you. We've actually decided on the Beacon. In London I prefer Pimlico to Covent Gardn/Leicester Square, so I think the more residential area and proximity to Central park won over in the end.

SW17

becominganobsessivesaver wrote: »

Thank you. We've actually decided on the Beacon. In London I prefer Pimlico to Covent Gardn/Leicester Square, so I think the more residential area and proximity to Central park won over in the end.

Either would have been fine, but the Upper West Side does have a nice atmosphere, and the Beacon is only a couple of blocks from 72nd St subway station, so easy to get to most midtown and downtown locations. Sadly, Big Nick's Diner, an NYC fixture on Broadway near the Beacon for over 50 years, is no longer there...

Butterscotch-

The hotels we are looking at and price per night are Fairfield Inn and Suites Manhattan (£174), Seton (£176), Wyndham New Yorker (£162) or Hampton United Nations (£166). We will be there 6 nights in April. Our last night will be at an airport hotel.

Any recommendations or comments on the prices?

vanilla8

Back from my recent trip, stayed at the Yotel, liked the location in Hells Kitchen and got a great rate in the cyber monday sale.
Thoroughly recommend Pony Bar and Kiabacca Bar(nice Pizza and cider) in Hells Kitchen
Also enjoyed the Dead Rabbit down near South Street Seaport.
Managed to finally get to Katz deli, lovely sandwiches!

Climbed the crown @ SOL - my legs ached the next day but glad i did it,
we ended up walking alot, average of 18K everyday (thanks to my iphone health app)
Picked up the usual bargains in century 21, Macys sale wasn't that great, probably missed the best of it!

elflaede

Butterscotch- wrote: »

The hotels we are looking at and price per night are Fairfield Inn and Suites Manhattan (£174), Seton (£176), Wyndham New Yorker (£162) or Hampton United Nations (£166). We will be there 6 nights in April. Our last night will be at an airport hotel.

Any recommendations or comments on the prices?

Are they comparable room types? Hampton Inn and Fairfield include breakfast in the room rate which will save you money, especially if you're on a budget. The Seton has some rooms with shared bathrooms, I'd double check that to make sure you've a private bathroom in your quoted rate. I know when I was looking at supposedly 3 star hotels I was shocked that they were selling rooms without a private bathroom.

Wyndham New Yorker is a huge hotel and the rooms vary. Some are apparently very cramped.

New Yorker and Fairfield are located near Penn Stn/Macy's. Hampton Inn and Seton are midtown east. Hampton Inn is 1 1/2 blocks from Grand Central. It depends what suits you better.

Butterscotch-

elflaede wrote: »

Are they comparable room types? Hampton Inn and Fairfield include breakfast in the room rate which will save you money, especially if you're on a budget. The Seton has some rooms with shared bathrooms, I'd double check that to make sure you've a private bathroom in your quoted rate. I know when I was looking at supposedly 3 star hotels I was shocked that they were selling rooms without a private bathroom.

Wyndham New Yorker is a huge hotel and the rooms vary. Some are apparently very cramped.

New Yorker and Fairfield are located near Penn Stn/Macy's. Hampton Inn and Seton are midtown east. Hampton Inn is 1 1/2 blocks from Grand Central. It depends what suits you better.

I definitely checked there was no shared bathroom!! We're down to Hampton and Fairfield now so will look more at the location of each. We don't mind a small room as we won't be there much but we've read some are so small it's difficult to store cases. That would be a nightmare. We're a week in Vegas before and will likely be in a huge room so it will be a bit of a change!