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New York City - booking tips
BluesTrainRadio
Posts: 990 Forum Member
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I know that there will be previous threads about travelling to NYC, so apologies for this! Having last been to New York nearly nine years ago for our honeymoon, my wife has just been given some cash from her family and its enough to get us back for a week!
But I am out of touch with travelling and websites that could be the best places to book through, so anyone that has been recently and can offer advice would be welcome to post. We are not madly clever about this kind of thing and would ideally be after a straight package deal, although if there are easy ways to cut costs, I am open to that as well.
In the past, I have been to both a budget hostel type place [ when I traveled alone ] and a decent hotel for the honeymoon. For this one, I think we'd be happy somewhere in the middle....it will be my wife and I and two boys, 17 and 8...so as long as its fairly central and clean, that'll be good enough!
So...to sum up....any NYC specific travel websites....or tips on places to search....bring them on!
But I am out of touch with travelling and websites that could be the best places to book through, so anyone that has been recently and can offer advice would be welcome to post. We are not madly clever about this kind of thing and would ideally be after a straight package deal, although if there are easy ways to cut costs, I am open to that as well.
In the past, I have been to both a budget hostel type place [ when I traveled alone ] and a decent hotel for the honeymoon. For this one, I think we'd be happy somewhere in the middle....it will be my wife and I and two boys, 17 and 8...so as long as its fairly central and clean, that'll be good enough!
So...to sum up....any NYC specific travel websites....or tips on places to search....bring them on!
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I booked my hotel and flights on the British Airways website, but flew with American Airlines.
When you've decided what you're going to do, its a good idea to book tickets online before you go. I'd booked tickets for the 9/11 site, Empire State Building and an evening coach tour which helped to cut down on queuing time.
Whatever suits your budget and time frame, personally, being quite familiar with NYC, I'll often book a flight, then do the accommodation separately.
That way you can often get a break on an apartment, or studio rental as opposed to a hotel.
With Expedia and Travelocity you can choose to be offered accommodation in various areas, Midtown, Lower Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island etc.
Obviously if you want to DO the sights then go for Midtown, somewhere between 24th St. and 72nd. St., between either 1st. Ave and 10th. Ave., or stretch it out to between the FDR Drive and 12th. Ave.
Also Check out Niagara falls on the way.
You also Don't need an ESTA doing it that way.
for hotels check out the article below
http://www.newyork.com/articles/hotels/10-top-family-friendly-hotels-in-nyc-43337/
If you just want to visit the island though, then that dosent need advance tickets but you can get it as part of the many combo deals to see all the big sites.
The only thing we booked before getting there were tickets to see Wicked as we knew it was popular and wanted decent seats. Everything else we just sorted when we were there. Maybe didn't get things as cheap as we could have if we had booked in advance but we didn't want to commit ourselves to things.
We searched most of the big travel sites and airlines, travel agents etc and for the hotel we wanted and when we wanted to go, bookings.com had the best deal. Doesn't mean to say it will be for you though, just takes a bit of leg work to get the deal you want.
In what way? if anything Canada tends to be more expensive to fly into, purely because there is very little competition on these routes.
Cheapest Flight Round Trip
1st December Return 5th December
London Gawick - Toronto Air Transit £369 - 365
Toronto - New York Bus Cost £50
London - New York City United Airlines Non Stop £891
Average Cheap fares Below
London - Toronto £369 - £365
London - NYC
£520 - £560 seemed the Most common and one as low as £430 rare.
Cheapest Bus
Can be as low as 1 Dollar found a fare for £30
With enough people Renting a car may be option as well.
The other benefit is Flying into the US Customs is a lot worse than Flying into Canadian Customs. Crossing the Land border is a lot better for US than Flying in.
Don't have to Deal with TSA which is big plus in my book.
You Don't need ESTA for US Either when crossing land border.
Only required to complete the paper I-94W form
Niagara Falls is on the way to NYC from Toronto.\
Don't ask me why it is cheaper to flyer to Canada though.
Might because business travel. or the fact Toronto further north.
Lot more Flights to NYC.
A good budget option is Long Island City, Queens, it is near the 7 line and only 10 minutes to midtown Manhattan, just across the river.
Make use of the 7 day unlimited subway and bus Metrocard, the best bargain in NYC, and try lots of new food, avoid chain restaurants.
Only because you haven't included a Sat Night in your stay, add a Sat Night in and £400 is quite common.
Or compare like for like BA/Air Canada (AC is £1009 on those dates) not a charter...if you wanted to compare like for like than compare Air Transit against Norwegian.
Don't know what the big deal is with an Esta, takes a few minutes on the computer at a cost of $14.00...with a border crossing you still need to complete I-94W form and pay $6.
Absolutely. So many people think they need to be stopping in Times Square and ending up paying a fortune for the please. The subway and rail network is so good that you can easily stop further out.
I terms of sight-seeing, I always recommend that people don't try to do everything in one short trip as you will just tire yourself out dashing between places and not relaxing and enjoying yourself. Better to pick a few things then save some others for another time. Like many big cities, some of the best experiences can be found by just wandering around and see what you come across.
Top of the Rock is better than the Empire State Building. It's not as high, but it isn't as busy and I think the view is better.
Norwegian Air is still mostly more expensive and you have to pay an extra £50 for a meal and checked Luggage.
You Don't have to on Air Transit.
I am mostly concerned with the Overall Price, Experience of the Trip and how nice it was. I don't care if its charter or not.
Questioning and Customs checks Etc Flying into US is just Terrible and how long it takes. Not as bad at land border. Flying into Canada is a lot better.
You haven't mentioned that it is a 12 hour bus trip from Toronto to New York each way, so you actually lose a whole 24 hours, plus you maybe hanging around at Toronto for your bus. Best option is try to include a sat night in your stay and fly to New York that way you will get fares for about £400.00 maybe less and not lose 24 hours travelling.
Your dates for example you wouldn't actually get into New York until the 2nd and then would have to leave on the 4th.
You only lose 24 hours if Travel during the day. if you take it overnight you save money. and sleep on the Bus. Last time I went to NYC this what I did. flew to Toronto Spent day there took Bus to the Falls took night bus to NYC. spent a few days in NYC. and took Bus Back (from DC) all for less than flying to NYC.
or you Can rent car roadtrip it and see the Many sights on the way.
But you can get indirect flights to New York for about £350 - £360 taking a total of 12 hours, still less time than your way, so why would you bother, unless you wanted to see Toronto or The Falls, you just wouldn't as it wouldn't make sense unless it was a hell of a lot cheaper and it isn't.
Must admit I have never had any trouble with US Customs, doesn't really take that long at all, flew to Boston last year and that took about 30 minutes including disembarking the plane and getting luggage.
Boston is generally very good these day (it used to be terrible until the international terminal was rebuilt) but it does depend on the schedule. If you land just behind to fully loaded 747s then the queue is going to be longer than if you are the on the first plane.
If visiting NYC then a good idea is to fly into Boston, spend a 2-3 days there then get the train (or bus) down to New York. You can then fly home from JFK/Newark
I will have a good look at a couple of the websites mentioned above and see if anyone has done a similar trip, I can probably handle booking flights and accommodation separately, although ideally an all in one would be better, unless it turned out much more expensive.
Having been before, I have a good idea about not trying to do too much in the time we have, however, the two boys will not have been and I want to find out what they would like to see. I'll look at Top Of The Rock as an alternative to the Empire State Building, I've been up there twice and not sure the 8 year old will fancy such a long queue!
Accommodation - happy with something like a 3 star place, as long as its clean and safe and not too far out. I personally would love to visit a Blues club while I'm there which may mean leaving the 17 year old to 'kid sit' for that night! Interesting maybe to look at Long Island City and popping over via the Subway.
A lot of people recommend booking separately to save a little bit of money (and to be honest it isn't always the case that it's cheaper), just bear in mind this doesn't offer you the financial protection like a package would, also not all travel insurance's recognise it as a complete booking either and may not insure all parts.
If you go down this route just think of the scenarios, for example if your flight was cancelled due to bad weather/ash clouds etc.. then your accommodation is still booked depending on the rate you have paid this might be non refundable.
I stayed there the other year for Christmas with my other half and can recommended it. It's a nice hotel, nothing too special. But the rooms were a decent size and of course clean. I emailed in advance and they upgraded us for free to a room with an amazing view of the Empire State building which is only a few blocks away.
As for location its perfect. Really close to Penn Station where you can get the train all the way to JFK. Across from it is Madison Square Garden and Times Square is only a 5min walk away.
On the corner of the hotel is the Tick Tock diner which gets really busy at the weekends but is great. We went there a few times for breakfast (use the entrance via the hotel lobby and not the main entrance, you get seated quicker.) and also went a couple of times at 3am after a night out
As for Empire State vs Top of the Rock, I would say Top of the Rock. There was no queue and the view is amazing. Plus I liked the viewing platform a lot more, was more room and because of the split levels, the higher level doesn't have any high glass blocking your view.
As the trains run all the time, travel isn't really a problem.
The Staton Island Ferry is free and even if your visiting Liberty Island it's nice to see the statue from the distance, really enjoyed the ferry ride as well.
Anyway - perhaps less useful if the OP is going to be flying from London, but if you're starting off elsewhere in the country it might be worth looking into Aer Lingus via Dublin. I've had a couple of really well-priced flights into JFK with them over the last couple of years. Also has the bonus of the US pre-clearence facility at Dublin.
When I went back in 1998 it took 3 hours to clear customs ( they were very rude ), then an hour and a half wait for a taxi. It was also an unholy mess of a place so I guess it's improved somewhat since then