New York cheap?

[Soir]

Have never been & trying to price up cheap 3 or 4 night stay for the wife & I (flexible on dates maybe early December)

Can anyone offer best advice/tips on this?
Flights so far around £600pp (from Manchester)
Hotel (no idea what location is good?) park land hotel with view of Central Park looks basic but more realistic price wise around £1200 for room 4nts

So £2400 plus spends?

Any suggestions things to see & do?
Won't be any fine dining, more man v food! & somewhere nice in the Italian district

[Lost soul]

Aer Lingus are blabbing on about flights to NY from £229 PP I did have a look at them flying in Oct and it worked out at £750 PP but you never know

[BoRED S2upid]

£1200 accommodation cheap?

Try Airbnb for cheap!

[surveyor]

We paid circa £600 for perfectly nice hotel on Times Square, 3 nights

[mike80]

Might be worth considering hotels outside of Manhattan? I don't know if they are any cheaper, but it's easy to get there on the subway.

[jazzybee]

Just looked at Hotels.com, and you can get 4 nights at the Waldorf Astoria or the W Hotel Times Square for £930 inc taxes & fees...

[matsoc]

Finding a flight at around £400 shouldn't be difficult, I recently paid €460 departing from Italy.
For £1200 it is not difficult to find a nice hotel, I would suggest something in Soho, Noho or Nolita, much better to hang out at night at not far from everything you want to see in Manhattan during the day. Last time I stayed at "The Nolitan" hotel and I enjoyed much more than the Palace Hotel in Midtown.

[Soir]

surveyor said:

We paid circa £600 for perfectly nice hotel on Times Square, 3 nights

Which hotel was it?


Sorry, budget isn't £1200 for hotel that was just cheapest quote for something that had a nice view in the room (Central Park) others around it were about £5k!

More than happy to pay less for something central with view of the city if anyone can recommend anywhere

[Soir]

matsoc said:

Finding a flight at around £400 shouldn't be difficult, I recently paid €460 departing from Italy.
For £1200 it is not difficult to find a nice hotel, I would suggest something in Soho, Noho or Nolita, much better to hang out at night at not far from everything you want to see in Manhattan during the day. Last time I stayed at "The Nolitan" hotel and I enjoyed much more than the Palace Hotel in Midtown.

Thank you for the post, I'll look into those hotels.

Is Manhattan best place to base yourself?
Plan is just to go shopping, see few sites (rockefella centre?) and few meals but ideally not trecking all over the city (knowing my wife it will be a mission just to head to a few clothes shops & back to the hotel !)

Thanks for the replies

[BlackST]

When I wanted to go it was roughly £1000 for flights and up to £1200 for a hotel.
Then spends of £1000+.
So cheap? No it isn't for me because i'm saving up for a house deposit but i'll get there the end of next year

[RedWhiteMonkey]

We stayed at Pod51 in August, great location in Manhattan and reasonably priced. The rooms are small (pod like) but have all you need.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

If you want man v food go to Katz's Deli and have a corned beef or pastrami sandwich.

[jmorgan]

Don't forget tips.....

Depending on weather. USS Intrepid.
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org
New York High Line
http://www.thehighline.org
Top of the Rock and Empire State, take your pick or do both. Excellent restaurant at the bottom of the Rockefella centre.
http://www.tritipgrill.com they shove it in a plastic tray and eat at the shop or take it to a communal eating area

Watch out for the people flogging the sky ride at the empire state, apparently it is a waste but the sales staff are insistent.

Edited by jmorgan on Wednesday 24th September 21:52

[pincher]

Sky Ride is ste - the film is that old it still has the Twin Towers in it (or at least it still did at Easter).

Really not worth the $$$ IMO.

[Shaman]

First time we got a good deal in the New Yorker (near Madisson Square Gardens), last time we got this place http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g60763-d... for £300 for 3 nights. Spent very little time there! Theres that much to see and do in NYC that the hotel doesn't need to be amazing - its a bed for the short nights.

[Soir]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

If you want man v food go to Katz's Deli and have a corned beef or pastrami sandwich.

This is what I like to hear!

[Soir]

Thanks for all the advice & tips

Tipping, now there is a post on it's own! Who do you tip & best to do 15% on all food /drinks then how much to any service people (god knows which one you include!)

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Soir said:

Plan is just to go shopping, see few sites (rockefella centre?) and few meals but ideally not trecking all over the city (knowing my wife it will be a mission just to head to a few clothes shops & back to the hotel !)

You sure you're taking her to the right place then? I've been a lot of times & personally New York is all about getting out there and amongst it all.

It's a lot of money and a long way to go to be fed up of traipsing around!

I personally prefer staying downtown, but that's because we loved wandering the streets.

[jmorgan]

Soir said:

Thanks for all the advice & tips

Tipping, now there is a post on it's own! Who do you tip & best to do 15% on all food /drinks then how much to any service people (god knows which one you include!)

We nearly missed this on our first trip elsewhere in the states. So what we did was look at the menus on line, picked the most expensive meal, starter, main and all that. Did that for breakfast lunch and dinner and added 15% and made sure we could cover it. Of course we did not have the most expensive but it meant we were covered and had spare cash to boot. Then, when we went for New York, we picked a mid priced eatery on line (hsing trip advisor reviews etc) and worked on that.

[surveyor]

Soir said:

Which hotel was it?


Sorry, budget isn't £1200 for hotel that was just cheapest quote for something that had a nice view in the room (Central Park) others around it were about £5k!

More than happy to pay less for something central with view of the city if anyone can recommend anywhere

http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/nycrt-renaissance-new-york-times-square-hotel/

The bar actually overlooks Times Square near the show ticket booth.