If I were going to New York for a week, the last thing I would want to be doing is spending an entire day on a bus getting to/from Toronto.
Exactly, who wants to begin their holiday fresh off the plane with hours on a coach?! Attempting to get to sleep on a coach is not a pleasant experience.
There's also no need for it, as you can get a direct flight to NYC for less than £400.
What annoys me about trying to book a hotel room in NYC, is how difficult it is to find a room with en suite facilities for a reasonable price (it seems like such a room in Manhattan simply doesn't exist). One for less than £100 per night, inc. charges.
As an alternative to overpriced hotels, I'd recommend Airbnb - you can rent a room in someone's real New York apartment or even have the entire place to yourself.
I've not used the site myself, but have heard good things about it.
We spent 6 days in Oct, used Trivago in conjunction with trip advisor to pick our hotel, Distrikt Hotel on 40th Street, cant recommended it highly enough. Great location, fabulous rooms and the friendliest staff ive met on my 3 trips (so far) to NYC. Flew from Glasgow with Icelandair, with a short stop in Iceland.
It's also worth emailing the hotel directly and asking if they can match or beat the price given by a 3rd party. It is in their interest to do so and will try their best.
Moneysavingexpert forums have a great NYC thread for tips.
We spent 6 days in Oct, used Trivago in conjunction with trip advisor to pick our hotel, Distrikt Hotel on 40th Street, cant recommended it highly enough. Great location, fabulous rooms and the friendliest staff ive met on my 3 trips (so far) to NYC. Flew from Glasgow with Icelandair, with a short stop in Iceland.
Distrikt Hotel does look nice, but it's not cheap! Over £1100 for 6 nights in May, just to give an example. I'd be looking at £600-800 for a hotel room, maximum.
What annoys me about trying to book a hotel room in NYC, is how difficult it is to find a room with en suite facilities for a reasonable price (it seems like such a room in Manhattan simply doesn't exist). One for less than £100 per night, inc. charges.
As an alternative to overpriced hotels, I'd recommend Airbnb - you can rent a room in someone's real New York apartment or even have the entire place to yourself.
I've not used the site myself, but have heard good things about it.
Yes, I'd also recommend Airbnb. Have used it several times, in fact I'm a host too, and it really is a good option. Just be sure you book with someone who has plenty of good reviews. Although it's been quite controversial in NYC and has had a lot of bad publicity, there are still plenty of legal and excellent places to stay.
Yes, I'd also recommend Airbnb. Have used it several times, in fact I'm a host too, and it really is a good option. Just be sure you book with someone who has plenty of good reviews. Although it's been quite controversial in NYC and has had a lot of bad publicity, there are still plenty of legal and excellent places to stay.
(Contrary to the idea that the US is the "land of the free" they have lots local laws banning things that we wouldn't think twice about here. In New York it is illegal to jaywalk and in many towns you are not allowed to dry your clothes outside!)
Yes, New York has some very strict housing laws indeed. The whole subject of Airbnb is probably worthy of it's own thread! But to the OP - take a look at it, honestly, it's really excellent.
Many thanks for all the replies, I haven't posted in a few days but have been reading! I've been doing some digging around and also have been given advice by a friend who has use airbnb a few times, he recommends that website too. After receiving a couple of quotes from a Thomson travel agent that were quite high, I am now thinking that booking a room and the flights separately will give me the best value.
On airbnb, a quick search found a nice apartment at around £1300 for 6 nights, 7 days - I am sure I can get flights for around the same for the four of us too.
I'm sure there are cheaper rooms a little further out [ the one above is very close to Times Square ] but with an 8 year old, I want to be within walking distance of things as much as possible.
I still have this worry about taking the plunge and booking something, its a lot of money and I want to get it right! Using something like airbnb takes a certain amount of trust I guess but I like the idea of a private apartment, it will feel more like we are living like a New Yorker for the week! Just need to be confident of tying the flights in.
Just did a search for airbnb reviews and it came back with a lot of negative ones, where people turned up at places and it wasn't what they expected.....this has kind of put me off, even though my friend has used them and found them to be ok!
Just looking at Wimdu - any opinions on using this site?
On airbnb, a quick search found a nice apartment at around £1300 for 6 nights, 7 days - I am sure I can get flights for around the same for the four of us too.
That seems like a lot of money for what is really just renting someones flat for 6 nights. That's £216 a night. When are you looking to going?
You can easily get some nice hotels in central NY for less than that depending on the time of the year.
Going May 23rd next year, sadly has to be half term due to the two boys going, one of whom is doing exams at the end of this school year. Staying for a week, so either 6 or 7 nights. I have been told NYC isn't really affected by half term price hikes but not sure! We really want walking distance to be high up the list of priorities.
Just been told about the Homeaway.co.uk site so having a look on there too.
Many thanks for all the replies, I haven't posted in a few days but have been reading! I've been doing some digging around and also have been given advice by a friend who has use airbnb a few times, he recommends that website too. After receiving a couple of quotes from a Thomson travel agent that were quite high, I am now thinking that booking a room and the flights separately will give me the best value.
On airbnb, a quick search found a nice apartment at around £1300 for 6 nights, 7 days - I am sure I can get flights for around the same for the four of us too.
I'm sure there are cheaper rooms a little further out [ the one above is very close to Times Square ] but with an 8 year old, I want to be within walking distance of things as much as possible.
I still have this worry about taking the plunge and booking something, its a lot of money and I want to get it right! Using something like airbnb takes a certain amount of trust I guess but I like the idea of a private apartment, it will feel more like we are living like a New Yorker for the week! Just need to be confident of tying the flights in.
Looked at Skyscanner for you, direct flights are about £600 per person for the dates you are wanting.
I was just in NYC last week and picked up my flight for £275 return! Yes! I couldn't believe the price when I paid for it.
If you can alter your dates slightly you can go on the 19th and come back the 27th for £364.
For the hotel you can go to 'The Row NYC' for £1370, it's a four star in the centre of NYC.
You could get a place to sleep a lot cheaper than the hotel by using AirBnB but it's actually illegal in the NY state. It's the risk you want to take, I stopped in NJ, just literally a bridge away where it was legal.
Total price: Around £2700 for 8 days in a four star hotel, direct flights to JFK.
We did both the empire state and top of the rock. Enjoyed both but agree TOTR has better views. We didn't find queuing for ES too bad, was about 30 minutes or so. Lots of walking round all the empty queue lines. I could see you being queued for hours if it was very busy.
Just got back from a week there. Completely agree Top of the Rock was so much better than Empire State, the whole experience was just far more enjoyable - better staff, smaller queues, fantastic views and more space. Empire State - which, thank God, I'd taken heed of the advice on TripAdvisor and paid extra for express tickets - had queues worse than I had ever seen anywhere before!
My son (13) and I stayed at the Econo Lodge on 8th and 47th - a 2 minute walk from Times Square. It's classed as a budget hotel and the rooms are pretty small (although I don't think you get much space for your money anyway in NYC) but the location was fantastic and the staff were great. Even if I had more money to spend on a hotel, I'd stay there again by choice. Port Authority bus terminal is less than a 10 minute walk on the same street and there are several subway stations close by too.
One website I found was Free Tours by Foot. I'd definitely recommend this. We took part in a guided (by a New Yorker volunteer) walk of Central Park but they do loads of walks, all free although you can give a tip at the end (suggested rate is $20 but there's no pressure whatsoever).
Circle Line also do great cruises to take in the Manhattan Skyline (we did the twilight one). My son thought it would be boring but loved it.
Dylan's Candy Bar is also a great place to visit (opposite Bloomingdales), a massive sweet shop which is like going into Willy Wonka's place! The café is worth trying for the hot chocolate alone!
We also went to Woodbury Common (a retail outlet) in New Jersey. You can get bus from the Port Authority but I'd recommend buying your tickets online beforehand.
Again, many thanks for all the posts and to those that went and did some searching elsewhere! Very cool!
Last night, after a fair bit of searching online at places such as Airbnb and Homeaway and then trying to find deals on flights, my head was beginning to go strange, almost too much choice. I then went to Expedia and searched on there for flights and hotels combined and eventually found something that looked promising. Initially I found the Distrikt Hotel mentioned previously on this thread, which looked lovely inside but I noticed the street it was on, looked a little dodgy.
I then found next to it on the page, the Row NYC [ coincidentally just mentioned above ] http://rownyc.com/ which came up with a decent price considering location and the dates we need [ having to strictly stick to half term week at the end of May ]. I couldn't force the website to move to the flights screen so phoned them up and a helpful chap assisted me through the next steps.
A direct flight with Virgin would have taken the costs up near £3700 which was out of our budget range but he suggested a one stop flight instead, which brought it back down to a tad over £2880. It was with Air Canada [ who I had flown with before and knew to be good ] and it meant a flight to Toronto on the way out [ and a 90 minute wait ] then to La Guardia and a 2 hour stop at Montreal on the way back. So, admittedly not perfect, especially with an 8 year old in tow but they are not massive stops and the 17 year old is excited to even step foot in Canada too!
Its an early flight from Heathrow on the first day but that means we get to NYC in daytime, which is quite nice and a mid-afternoon flight back on the last day.
From what I have seen online, I think £2880 for 2 adults/ 2 children, including such a nice looking hotel right off Times Square, isn't too bad a deal.
Now just need to do all the slightly duller things such as update passports! And to work out whether its cheaper to pay for a taxi from home to Heathrow and back [ apparently around £250 for both trips from Somerset ] or if its much cheaper to drive, pay petrol and parking for the week.
I've been five times and only returned from my last trip on Friday. I usually book with Expedia but BA website came out best this time. Depends where you will be flying from but checking my luggage in at newcastle and not having to pick it up again till New York is a big bonus for me.
My colleague stayed at the Row about two weeks ago (8th Avenue?) and said it was comfortable and very clean. You should also try the hampton over the road. My friends stayed there last week and it was reasonably priced and included a full breakfast which is unusual for NYC.
Flying from Heathrow - been told that luggage is all taken care of even at the switchover, so not too worried about that bit.
Very much looking forward to staying at Row, looks like a decent place!
Double, double check about your checked in luggage - we went with Air France from Birmingham via CDG. I was assured at Birmingham that both our cases would go straight through to Newark. Needless to say, on arrival into Newark, our luggage was still in Paris! It should have been put on the ongoing flight but it wasn't and we didn't get our cases for 2 days, which meant we had to spend our first night shopping for clothes and toiletries!
The Row was round the corner from our hotel and it is in a great location.
Double, double check about your checked in luggage - we went with Air France from Birmingham via CDG. I was assured at Birmingham that both our cases would go straight through to Newark. Needless to say, on arrival into Newark, our luggage was still in Paris! It should have been put on the ongoing flight but it wasn't and we didn't get our cases for 2 days, which meant we had to spend our first night shopping for clothes and toiletries!
The Row was round the corner from our hotel and it is in a great location.
Air France is one of the worst airlines in the world for luggage problems. It's always a good idea to have a change of clothes in your hand luggage in case of any delays.
Air France is one of the worst airlines in the world for luggage problems. It's always a good idea to have a change of clothes in your hand luggage in case of any delays.
Yes, something I definitely know for next time. And that wont be with Air France!!
I'm surprised to see posts in this thread complaining about hotel prices in NYC. Whenever i've searched through booking.com it looks like there's quite a lot available at the £70-£80 a night level. You might not get a doorman taking the bags from the boot of your taxi or a roof-top pool but as long as it's a room with a bed does it really matter? Location-wise these places are the equivalent of being on the circle line in London.
Air France is one of the worst airlines in the world for luggage problems. It's always a good idea to have a change of clothes in your hand luggage in case of any delays.
Nothing to do with NYC, but I was sorry to hear of people's baggage problems with Air France.
In the 80s I was flying regularly between London and Toulouse with them, also to Paris, Nantes, and Bordeaux.
On two occasions I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via CDG with AF, and once to Papeete, Tahiti, via CDG and LAX, we're going there again next May.
Never, ever, did anything go wrong luggage wise, but if it happened to anyone, I would agree, even once is too often.
To Blues Train Radio, if you're in Somerset, (I don't know where), maybe you could take the train to Reading, then connect with the RailAir coach to Heathrow?
I'm surprised to see posts in this thread complaining about hotel prices in NYC. Whenever i've searched through booking.com it looks like there's quite a lot available at the £70-£80 a night level. You might not get a doorman taking the bags from the boot of your taxi or a roof-top pool but as long as it's a room with a bed does it really matter? Location-wise these places are the equivalent of being on the circle line in London.
A lot will depend if you re travelling with kids or not. If you are travelling alone or with a partner then I agree that all you need is a bed and a shower since you'll probably be spending 18 hours a day out of the hotel and just use the room for sleeping. With kids it can be useful to have a pool, restaurant and other facilities.
Many hotels in the US have a self-service laundry which can be useful to help you to travel light and leave room for plenty of shopping to bring home.
Comments
Exactly, who wants to begin their holiday fresh off the plane with hours on a coach?! Attempting to get to sleep on a coach is not a pleasant experience.
There's also no need for it, as you can get a direct flight to NYC for less than £400.
As an alternative to overpriced hotels, I'd recommend Airbnb - you can rent a room in someone's real New York apartment or even have the entire place to yourself.
I've not used the site myself, but have heard good things about it.
Moneysavingexpert forums have a great NYC thread for tips.
Distrikt Hotel does look nice, but it's not cheap! Over £1100 for 6 nights in May, just to give an example. I'd be looking at £600-800 for a hotel room, maximum.
I've never used AirBnB myself as I prefer hotels to stopping in someone's home but Iknow lots of people who have used it. The controversy in NYC and other US cities is that it supposedly illegal under local laws even if you are the property owner: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/business/airbnb-listings-mostly-illegal-state-contends.html?_r=0
(Contrary to the idea that the US is the "land of the free" they have lots local laws banning things that we wouldn't think twice about here. In New York it is illegal to jaywalk and in many towns you are not allowed to dry your clothes outside!)
On airbnb, a quick search found a nice apartment at around £1300 for 6 nights, 7 days - I am sure I can get flights for around the same for the four of us too.
I'm sure there are cheaper rooms a little further out [ the one above is very close to Times Square ] but with an 8 year old, I want to be within walking distance of things as much as possible.
I still have this worry about taking the plunge and booking something, its a lot of money and I want to get it right! Using something like airbnb takes a certain amount of trust I guess but I like the idea of a private apartment, it will feel more like we are living like a New Yorker for the week! Just need to be confident of tying the flights in.
Just looking at Wimdu - any opinions on using this site?
That seems like a lot of money for what is really just renting someones flat for 6 nights. That's £216 a night. When are you looking to going?
You can easily get some nice hotels in central NY for less than that depending on the time of the year.
Just been told about the Homeaway.co.uk site so having a look on there too.
Looked at Skyscanner for you, direct flights are about £600 per person for the dates you are wanting.
http://www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights/uk/nyca/150523/150529/cheapest-flights-from-united-kingdom-to-new-york-in-may-2015.html?rtn=1
If you can alter your dates slightly you can go on the 19th and come back the 27th for £364.
For the hotel you can go to 'The Row NYC' for £1370, it's a four star in the centre of NYC.
You could get a place to sleep a lot cheaper than the hotel by using AirBnB but it's actually illegal in the NY state. It's the risk you want to take, I stopped in NJ, just literally a bridge away where it was legal.
Total price: Around £2700 for 8 days in a four star hotel, direct flights to JFK.
Just got back from a week there. Completely agree Top of the Rock was so much better than Empire State, the whole experience was just far more enjoyable - better staff, smaller queues, fantastic views and more space. Empire State - which, thank God, I'd taken heed of the advice on TripAdvisor and paid extra for express tickets - had queues worse than I had ever seen anywhere before!
My son (13) and I stayed at the Econo Lodge on 8th and 47th - a 2 minute walk from Times Square. It's classed as a budget hotel and the rooms are pretty small (although I don't think you get much space for your money anyway in NYC) but the location was fantastic and the staff were great. Even if I had more money to spend on a hotel, I'd stay there again by choice. Port Authority bus terminal is less than a 10 minute walk on the same street and there are several subway stations close by too.
One website I found was Free Tours by Foot. I'd definitely recommend this. We took part in a guided (by a New Yorker volunteer) walk of Central Park but they do loads of walks, all free although you can give a tip at the end (suggested rate is $20 but there's no pressure whatsoever).
Circle Line also do great cruises to take in the Manhattan Skyline (we did the twilight one). My son thought it would be boring but loved it.
Dylan's Candy Bar is also a great place to visit (opposite Bloomingdales), a massive sweet shop which is like going into Willy Wonka's place! The café is worth trying for the hot chocolate alone!
We also went to Woodbury Common (a retail outlet) in New Jersey. You can get bus from the Port Authority but I'd recommend buying your tickets online beforehand.
Have an amazing time - it's an amazing city.
Last night, after a fair bit of searching online at places such as Airbnb and Homeaway and then trying to find deals on flights, my head was beginning to go strange, almost too much choice. I then went to Expedia and searched on there for flights and hotels combined and eventually found something that looked promising. Initially I found the Distrikt Hotel mentioned previously on this thread, which looked lovely inside but I noticed the street it was on, looked a little dodgy.
I then found next to it on the page, the Row NYC [ coincidentally just mentioned above ] http://rownyc.com/ which came up with a decent price considering location and the dates we need [ having to strictly stick to half term week at the end of May ]. I couldn't force the website to move to the flights screen so phoned them up and a helpful chap assisted me through the next steps.
A direct flight with Virgin would have taken the costs up near £3700 which was out of our budget range but he suggested a one stop flight instead, which brought it back down to a tad over £2880. It was with Air Canada [ who I had flown with before and knew to be good ] and it meant a flight to Toronto on the way out [ and a 90 minute wait ] then to La Guardia and a 2 hour stop at Montreal on the way back. So, admittedly not perfect, especially with an 8 year old in tow but they are not massive stops and the 17 year old is excited to even step foot in Canada too!
Its an early flight from Heathrow on the first day but that means we get to NYC in daytime, which is quite nice and a mid-afternoon flight back on the last day.
From what I have seen online, I think £2880 for 2 adults/ 2 children, including such a nice looking hotel right off Times Square, isn't too bad a deal.
Now just need to do all the slightly duller things such as update passports! And to work out whether its cheaper to pay for a taxi from home to Heathrow and back [ apparently around £250 for both trips from Somerset ] or if its much cheaper to drive, pay petrol and parking for the week.
Very much looking forward to staying at Row, looks like a decent place!
Double, double check about your checked in luggage - we went with Air France from Birmingham via CDG. I was assured at Birmingham that both our cases would go straight through to Newark. Needless to say, on arrival into Newark, our luggage was still in Paris! It should have been put on the ongoing flight but it wasn't and we didn't get our cases for 2 days, which meant we had to spend our first night shopping for clothes and toiletries!
The Row was round the corner from our hotel and it is in a great location.
Air France is one of the worst airlines in the world for luggage problems. It's always a good idea to have a change of clothes in your hand luggage in case of any delays.
Yes, something I definitely know for next time. And that wont be with Air France!!
Nothing to do with NYC, but I was sorry to hear of people's baggage problems with Air France.
In the 80s I was flying regularly between London and Toulouse with them, also to Paris, Nantes, and Bordeaux.
On two occasions I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via CDG with AF, and once to Papeete, Tahiti, via CDG and LAX, we're going there again next May.
Never, ever, did anything go wrong luggage wise, but if it happened to anyone, I would agree, even once is too often.
To Blues Train Radio, if you're in Somerset, (I don't know where), maybe you could take the train to Reading, then connect with the RailAir coach to Heathrow?
A lot will depend if you re travelling with kids or not. If you are travelling alone or with a partner then I agree that all you need is a bed and a shower since you'll probably be spending 18 hours a day out of the hotel and just use the room for sleeping. With kids it can be useful to have a pool, restaurant and other facilities.
Many hotels in the US have a self-service laundry which can be useful to help you to travel light and leave room for plenty of shopping to bring home.