CliffRS4

iTrader: (1)

Thinking of going to New York next week for a few days. Never been before.

What are the best websites to look on. Good places to stay etc?

I know there's loads of people on here who have been. Any advice before we book would be appreciated

Things apart from the obvious to do. Places to eat, visit etc.

Many thanks

p17fld

Here's a good start , also are you on backpacker or flashpacker budget?

CliffRS4

iTrader: (1)

Not on mega bucks as I'm buying another house next month.

Lets call it a medium budget. Not fussed about eating in the hotel. We'll eat out.

Location is quite important I think. We won't be spending much time in the hotel so the room doesn't have to be amazing.

p17fld

Look @ late rooms, sme really good deals on there.

Clicky

percybigun

we stayed in hotel pennsylvania, easily affordable and clean/spacious rooms with the spec you want, but its just in need of a fit-out therefore they dont charge big money (unless it has been fitted out since i was there in 2002/2003)

it is just over the road from madison square garden (which has an underground station), and its round the corner from the empire state building. i.e. very central.

we found that the city buses and subway were quite easy to work out.

there is the usual obvious sites/attractions, otherwise i would highly recommend taking a trip with http://www.libertyhelicopter.com/ , it costs about £100 but it is something you will never ever forget and you see manhattan in all its glory! and there is only 4 passengers in at once, so it isnt going to be full of chavs, noisey squarking kids and rabble.

Statton island ferry is cheap and goes near the statue of liberty, so saves you money on a hudson river cruise (and again there is awesome views from the ferry).

also recommend taking a guided bus tour, you see much more of the city in a short space of time and the guides we had were all funny as fuck (unlike the boring misery guts you get over here).

there is a bus service from JFK airport to manhattan, much cheaper than a taxi but takes twice as long (so we opted to taxi it back to the airport on the last day so we had an extra hour in the city)

BM08

This is one of the places that i want to go to sometime in the future

Anyone got any pictures that they took?

rsnissan

iTrader: (9)

Make sure you do the circle line tour http://www.circleline42.com/

CliffRS4

iTrader: (1)

Which airport is best to fly into?

Newark, La Guardia or JFK?

percybigun

we went to JFK, it came with the package from fleetway travel (it worked out much cheaper than getting flights/accomm separately back then), i dont know about the other airports.

JFK is pretty smart, compared to heathrow which is an absolute abortion!

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

when you going? I am next out there weekend of October 16th. Will show u around if its same weekend.

CliffRS4

iTrader: (1)

Lee; we're trying to go next week. Appreciate the offer though

I bet you have celebrities jealous of your lifestyle

AGAR-COSWORTH

I'm just back from NYC about 3 weeks ago now. First and only time i'd been and I really enjoyed it. We were really (un)lucky with the weather (depending on what way you look at it) since it was 37 degreesC when we were over.

Aside from the usual tourist spots here are a few places i'd recommend:

- The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum - based on an aircraft carrier on the Hudson River, and contains all sorts of planes inc Concorde, Blackbird (fastest ever jet), Tomcat etc. The Intrepid aircraft carrier itself was used during WWII, Vietnam and during NASA's space missions to collect astronaughs from the sea. There is also a submarine that you can go down into but we ran out of time.

- The East Village - take the subway up there and spend an afternoon/evening looking about. By far the best area to buy food in NYC. Things are really cheap, and the shops may look grubby on the outside but the quality is first class. The locals recommended this area to us because of its good reputation. Look for a place called Pomme Frites - old style diner that serves chips along with various delicious sauces.

- Rockefeller Centre - an alternative viewing deck to the Empire State Building's one. Far more space on top of the deck to see around, and the bonus is that you actually get to see the Empire State Building from where you are standing.

- Central Park - go to the pond where the boats are and hire one for an hour ($12 I think) - great way to relax within the city for a while.

- Red Lobster - an excellent sea food restuaraunt just off Times Square (by far the best meal I ate whilst there).

- CitySightsNY Bus Tour - we booked this online in advance for £42 each, and it included 3 guides bus tours (plus one evening tour), 75min pass for the circle line (see above), ferry tickets to the Statue of Liberty, and entrance to either the Empire State Building or the Rockefeller Centre. Extremely good value and will easily fill in a couple of days. The tickets are valid for 72hours after collection and we used the tour buses to get around the city rather than the subway during this time.

For accomodation we stayed in the Ace Hotel, on West 29th Street (I think) just off broadway. We found it slightly too far away from Times Square and found the walk there quite long, so I'd recommend somewhere further up Broadway.

Our package was by Virgin Holidays - I phoned them up and got a far better deal than they had advertised online (through in free return flights from Glasgow - London for our connecting flights, plus an extra £350 off the holiday).

Hope this helps you out a bit.

Cheers