I am going to be traveling to NYC with my 19 year old daughter to see a Broadway show. Most likely we will fly there, but I am open to the possibility of driving (about 5 1/2 hours for us) if we stay somewhere outside of the city. I have only been to NYC once, so am not all that familiar with the ease of getting from place to place, etc. Also, I spent a small fortune on the show tickets so I would love to save some money on other parts of this trip. I have some questions::
Does it make financial sense to stay outside of the city at a hotel that has easy access to public transportation or are there some relatively inexpensive hotels near the theater district? Any specific hotel suggestions would be much appreciated!
How difficult is it to get from the airport (not sure which one yet) to the city?
Do you have any restaurant recommendations? Not looking for anything fancy, but definitely better than fast food type places.
It is not necessarily appallingly expensive to stay in the city. For example, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express near Madison Square Garden, and it was exactly like every other Holiday Inn Express on the planet and less than $200 a night.
You will save a ton of money by getting a hotel outside of Manhattan, but you can probably find something cheapish in Midtown for around $175-200.
Not too hard! There's the AirTrain from JFK and a constant stream of cabs.
I'll recommend what I did last time there was a thread about this, Trattoria Trecolori. Amazing Italian food - still thinking about the pasta puttanesca I had.
I would stay in NYC - the hotels outside the city are not going to save you that much, if anything at all. Get up on Hotels.com - there is a large selection of hotels for under $200 that will put you in the general vicinity of the theater district. Rates around the Christmas holiday will obviously increase.
I live in NYC so I am not familiar with hotel prices but I would go on one of the websites like hotel.com and see what the range is for the time that you will be there. The closest of the three airports is LaGuardia so that will be the cheapest cab fare by far. There are also vans from all the airports and a train from JFK. Depending on traffic, it could take 20 minutes to an hour to get to the theater district from LaGuardia, 45 minutes to 2 hours from JFK and about the same from Newark. What kind of food are you looking for? We have some old standby restaurants in the theatre district plus there are a lot of interesting ethnic restaurants on 9th Avenue in the 40s and 50s. Some of our standbys: Osteria del Doge on West 44th, Becco on West 46th (restaurant row) (they have a nightly special which is all you can eat of three pastas and a salad), Five Napkin Burger on 9th and 45th (which is next door to Shmackary’s, where my kids love to stop for cookies in interesting flavors).
I would stay in the city. Time is money, and you’ll waste time traveling back and forth. You’re going to want to have the ability to go back and forth to the hotel during the day, whether it’s to rest, set down packages, change clothes, whatever. I defer to the Manhattan-ites to find the cheap places, but it’s really not as bad as you may think.
OT: one of the funniest threads on CC was someone (I believe it was a young person) who was visiting Chicago and thought they had “such a deal” by staying in DeKalb, IL. DeKalb is 60 miles away - it’s not even remotely a suburb of Chicago, but much farther out - it would be like planning a trip to see the Liberty Bell in Philly and thinking you had a great hotel deal by staying in Newark!
If you fly into Newark you could take the airtrain and train into Penn Station (33rd st/madison square garden), and it is only $15/person. It is most efficient during rush hour. JFK flights maybe cheaper, but it is more of a pain in the neck to get in the city - a lot of construction on the road, and it is an hour plus on public transportation. I use Dial 7 for car service because it is cheaper and reliable.
I would also stay in the city. There are a lot of hotels for under 200. There are great restaurants in NYC for all price range. Use Yelp to get reviews.
Stay in the city. Hotels accessible by mass transportation are not much cheaper and you are missing out on being in the city. Fly and don’t look back - have fun.
If you drive, you will pay a lot for parking in Manhattan. How long are you staying? And where is the theater that you will be going to–it’s nice to have a pretheater dinner that’s not too far away.
Also try hotwire.com. You specify the area you want and the number of stars. You can see information about the hotel amenities and reviews, but not the actual name of the hotel. If that’s OK with you, you can get really good deals on nice hotels. We have paid around $100-$150/night for resorts and for 4-star hotels in SF, LA, DC, etc.
I would recommend flying into La Guardia if you can get a good fare. If you drive in and stay outside the city, you will then have to pay to get in via public transport. For example, I could recommend hotels in White Plains, a 30 minute train ride into the city, but they might charge for parking and then metronorth would set you back from 18-24 per person (depending on peak times) roundtrip into NYC.
From LGA, there are supershuttle vans. Given, two people, it might cost the same to take a taxi.
Just today, someone sent me a picture of the Library Hotel, across from the NY public library. It includes a breakfast buffet, evening wine and cheese and wi-fi. It looks quite interesting and rates did not look too bad, unless you are coming around the holidays.
If you are coming for the holidays, check out Bryant Park and the Christmas markets. Everything is expensive but pretty to look at. Ice skating is free. Skate rental is available. However, lines are long. We have been successful only in the very early morning to avoid long lines.
OP, are you seeing an evening show or a matinee? Just remember that if your hotel is “over the river and through the woods” you will have to do that all in reverse, and after an evening show it could be a bit late at night and you (but not the 19 year old) could be tired.
If you decide to look around for hotels, try downtown Brooklyn: bunch of hotels and easy access into Manhattan on the subway. Look around the Jay Street stop, for example, and take the F. In other words, consider the subway map.
I would definitely stay in the city if you can, but I just want to note that if your trip is in December it may be hard to get the good deals that people are talking about on Priceline and Hotwire, etc. In my experience, hotel prices in Manhattan tend to go way up in December and many hotels sell out completely. So book early if possible.
I personally would recommend staying in Manhattan and you might have to spend more than $200 per night to do so… didn’t see how many nights are involved. I work near Herald Square and increasingly there are hotels like Hampton Inn, Courtyard Marriott, Hilton Garden Inn and lots of independent hotels on the side streets heading up to Bryant Park on 6th Avenue and the same on the west side.
There are lots of fine dining restaurants and more casual places throughout the theatre district and beyond.