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

[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

[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!)

[Soir]

Thanks for all the helpful advice, plan from this is:

Stay Manhattan (prob close to soho)
First week in December so we can see Xmas decorations
Delis/burger/steak houses & places in little Italy (will leave the fine dining to occasional trips to London/bucks)
Shopping

Just need few sight seeing places, definitely want to have a cocktail at top of the Rockefeller Centre
Will need to research others..

[Soir]

wobert said:

My family went in August on the way back from a business trip to Chicago.

£1200 did us 6 nights at the Waldorf, much better than Trip Advisor suggests.

Did all the bucket list stuff using a NYC explorer pass. I rated top of the rock as a better experience than the Empire State.

Some stuff is great that's free...... grand Central is fantastic, head down below to the food court and go to Juniors, great burgers and homemade cheesecake.

Bryant Park a bit of solace from the hubbub in mid town

Book Crown tickets for Liberty Island 3-4 months ahead, the have a daily limit of 300 tickets

We also did Broadway on a budget, got good seats at Matilda for £35 a head.

For a good steak dinner head to Bobby Vans Grill on 50th St.

Waldorf looking like £1350 for 3 nights beginning on December (basic room)
£1200 for 6 nts was a bargain!

[Soir]

majordad said:

I recommend Shake Shack, best burger anywhere.

Good man! Will definitely go on my list

So far it looks like only one place to visit other than shops (Rockefeller centre)

[Soir]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

had ham said:

Absolutely this - when there for pleasure, we normally stay at the Holiday Inn on Lafayette - in between Little Italy and Soho. Perfectly adequate. Like he says, you don't go to NYC to stay in your room.

For business I always stay at the Hyatt on the Hudson, which as the name suggests is right on the Hudson, directly opposite the Freedom Tower/1 WTC. Fabulous views of lower Manhattan from there, and it's right next to the Path station on Exchange Place - under the Hudson and one stop to WTC.

http://jerseycity.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Not stayed there myself but the Holiday Inn on Lafayette looks a great deal and is in a brilliant location.

Lafayette looks great but sadly no availability

[Soir]

fizz47 said:

Am off to NYC on Thurs for a 4 day trip...

This is the thrid time am going and I would agree that you will only spend a limited time in the hotel howver location for me plays a big part...coming back to a central hotel makes it very convieinient to freshen up before you head out for dinner in the evening again.

I found the Westin near Grand Central is good location and reasonably priced for manhattan -

Though I would say unless you are willing to pay through the nose the hotels are not that great in relation to what you pay.

A tip - Try and book a hotel part of the Hyatt group ( they have some excellent locations in Manhattan. They do a price promise where they will match the price of a hotel room PLUS and extra 20% of the lower price. In NYC I easily found a few websites that beat the Hyatt price- I got them to price match and on this trip am staying at the Andaz 5th Avenue for a really good price.


As others have echoed I would personally stay away from Times Square - You have to visit but wouldnt want to stay in that area...


Intercontinental Barclay is a great location but was very disappointed with the hotel...


Must visit places:

Shake Shack
Top of the Rock (better than empire state building)
Grimaldi's
Normas at the Parker Meridian for great brunch
Lukes for Lobster Rolls
Per Se ( though generally for a special occasion as its extortionate pricing)

Shopping - At both Bloomingdales and Macys we managed to get an extra 10% off by being foreign visitors so take your passport with you

Great suggestions, will certainly add some of the food places to the list. Great tip on the shopping!
Priced Hyatt but bit expensive

Looking at Hampton Inn, Soho - is this location pretty central?

Thanks again & any other tips greatly appreciated

[Soir]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

Soir said:

Great suggestions, will certainly add some of the food places to the list. Great tip on the shopping!
Priced Hyatt but bit expensive

Looking at Hampton Inn, Soho - is this location pretty central?

Thanks again & any other tips greatly appreciated

I stayed at Hampton Inn, Soho four years ago. The rooms are relatively small but have everything you need and were clean, comfortable, etc. It is a pretty good location, plenty within walking distance and there are cabs and the subway for further a field.

Thank you

[Soir]

Will be going to these (thanks to Fizz47 for the recommendations:

Shake Shack
Top of the Rock (better than empire state building)
Grimaldi's
Normas at the Parker Meridian for great brunch
Lukes for Lobster Rolls

Any other suggestions for food? Looking for maybe good steak place & an Italian (decent but not michellin level)

[Soir]

Thanks for all the great advice. Read taxis quite cheap (if 2 or more travelling)so are aiming to try and walk or get taxis

Staying in Soho so plan so far:
1) arrive late PM so taxi to Times Square for wander about then maybe evening meal at Smith & Wollensky
2) bus tour, lunch shake shack or Luke's. Shopping for the wife (bloom/Macy's) back to hotel then walk to little Italy for meal
3) breakfast at Le Meridien. Central Park, street hotdog, more shopping. Late PM top of the Roc. Back to Hotel then meal (grimaldis or Chinatown)
4) shopping (yes wife wears the pants here!) Shake/Luke's/Katz, Shopping. Back to hotel, walk Brooklyn Bridge. Meal little Italy or Chinatown
5) go home

The trip is for the wife as you can tell by the rough agenda, food for me!

[Soir]

fizz47 said:

Soir said:

Thanks for all the great advice. Read taxis quite cheap (if 2 or more travelling)so are aiming to try and walk or get taxis

Staying in Soho so plan so far:
1) arrive late PM so taxi to Times Square for wander about then maybe evening meal at Smith & Wollensky
2) bus tour, lunch shake shack or Luke's. Shopping for the wife (bloom/Macy's) back to hotel then walk to little Italy for meal
3) breakfast at Le Meridien. Central Park, street hotdog, more shopping. Late PM top of the Roc. Back to Hotel then meal (grimaldis or Chinatown)
4) shopping (yes wife wears the pants here!) Shake/Luke's/Katz, Shopping. Back to hotel, walk Brooklyn Bridge. Meal little Italy or Chinatown
5) go home

The trip is for the wife as you can tell by the rough agenda, food for me!

Looks like a decent plan....

If you can squeeze in time for another burger then again at the Le Meridian they have an excellent place. You will see a line of people queing around a red velvet curtain. Behind the curtain is a a not so 'secret' place called Burger Joint- if you google it, you will see that it has a great following and highly rated by many and a new favourite of mine.....

Great shout, will certainly get that on the agenda!