New York City

[cycloneworld]

The wife and I are wanting to book at trip to NYC for our 1-year anniversary. I've been there (12 years ago) and she hasn't...and since a lot of Cyclone fans made the trip to the Pinstripe Bowl, I figured we could get some good recommendations where to stay, places to eat, must-sees (outside of the typical Statue of Liberty, MoMA, Empire State Building, etc). We will be there for 5 days/4 nights.

We don't want to stay in a dump but we do what to stay in Manhattan, hoping to stay around $150-$200 per night.

Any recommendations?

 

[Triggermv]

If you are wanting to stay in Manhattan at all, I 100% recommend just using priceline name your own price. When my wife and I went to NYC last June, any hotels 3 star or higher on Manhattan were $250 and up. We ended up bidding priceline name your own price and won the 3 1/2 star Sheraton Tribeca hotel for only $110 in the Soho area. We also stayed for about 5 days. Use the link below and type in New York, NY to see what prices people have been winning lately for the different Manhattan areas with Priceline, start below those prices and work your way up bidding it higher each day:

Name Your Own Price Hotels, See Recent Winning Bids | Priceline.com

 

[CycloneYoda]

New York, New York, I won't go back
Indelible reminder of the steel I lack
I gave you seven years, what did you give me back?
A jaw grind disposistion to a panic attack

 

[Triggermv]

By the way, that trip my wife and I took last year was also for our 1 year anniversary. It was a blast. The priceline name your own price option is ideal for only a couple people as you can request the bed format you want but there is no guarantee you'll get it. But, when you have two people, whether you end up with 2 beds or one, you can make it work. You also have no guarantee on the exact hotel location with it but do at least know the area your hotel will be in based off where you choose when you are bidding. Anywhere in Manhattan works great for this since anywhere you stay will have good to great access to the subway which is one reason NYC is awesome.

 

[IcSyU]

Best places to eat = holes in the wall. We ate at a hole in the wall east of Ground Zero a couple blocks and it was absolutely awesome. The serving size was gigantic and New York style pizza >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Chicago style.

If you can, get passes to walk through the memorial at the bottom of Freedom Tower.

 

[Rabbuk]

The WTC memorial is worth seeing. It's sort of cathartic at least it was for me.

 

[Triggermv]

Best places to eat = holes in the wall. We ate at a hole in the wall east of Ground Zero a couple blocks and it was absolutely awesome. The serving size was gigantic and New York style pizza >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Chicago style.

If you can, get passes to walk through the memorial at the bottom of Freedom Tower.

Dito this. All the best places we went were hole in wall places, particularly in Chinatown and Little Italy. While most of NYC is very expensive for food, these areas are both super reasonable. In fact, most the places we went in these areas were as cheap as or cheaper than Iowa prices.

 

[Jambalaya]

If you are wanting to stay in Manhattan at all, I 100% recommend just using priceline name your own price. When my wife and I went to NYC last June, any hotels 3 star or higher on Manhattan were $250 and up. We ended up bidding priceline name your own price and won the 3 1/2 star Sheraton Tribeca hotel for only $110 in the Soho area. We also stayed for about 5 days. Use the link below and type in New York, NY to see what prices people have been winning lately for the different Manhattan areas with Priceline, start below those prices and work your way up bidding it higher each day:

Name Your Own Price Hotels, See Recent Winning Bids | Priceline.com

turned off be all the Welcome Back Kotter graffitti last time (2005 game vs Army) Couldn't wait to get out of that dump. I guess I'm partial to Chicago

We stayed at the Hampton in Chelsea (Upper West side). artsy, liberal, everyone wears black and never smile

I enjoyed the boat tour up the Hudson to the Rockefeller estate. A yankee game, and the triip to West Point.

We were so frustrated trying to find ANY restaurant open in our area one night, we had to settle for a McDonalds. Royally sucked. Plus Manhattan has no ALLEYS (unilke Chicago loop). Garbage always piled out on the stoops.

 

[jsb]

We stayed at the same place the Grid Iron Club did and loved it. I think it was the Millenium Hilton (across from Ground Zero). We stayed an extra night and I think the rooms were only $250/night around Christmas. It would be worth checking out to see if you could find a deal there. I was disappointed initially not to be staying in Times Square, but Lower Manhatten turned out to be the best option. A bit more quiet than Times Square. My 62 year old Dad said he felt safer walking around New York at night than he did walking around Waterloo at night.

We didn't have tickets for the Ground Zero Memorial, but could see it from our rooms. We did go into Trinity Church and it was really nice to see. We really liked Bryant Park, but that might be beause it was decorated for Christmas and less busy than Rockefellar Plaza. Go see a Broadway show. We saw Memphis. It was excellent. Ellis Island is pretty nice. Walk around a lot and just explore. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge was more fun than I would have thought.

I went with my parents, brother, and sister since my other 2 sisters were in the band. I think most of us weren't too excited about NYC thinking that we wouldn't like it. But all of us really did (my Dad said that if he was 40 years younger, he would want to move there and my mom who hates traveling still can't stop talking about how great the trip was). Part of that was circumstance....New York at Christmas is pretty awesome and we were lucky enough to have perfect weather, but it was still a pretty great trip (with the exception of the football loss).

Bottom line, I would tell you not to skimp on your hotel. I am convinced we had a much better trip than had we stayed in New Jersey like we had originally planned. Other than the hotel (and the broadway tickets), New York really isn't that expensive. You can eat good lunches for cheap and most dinners aren't too bad. I had heard the subways were hard to get around on, but they were actually pretty easy. The people were really, really nice. My mom talked with a couple of police officers who had some pretty sobering stories about what they were doing on 9/11.

 

[cycloneworld]

Thanks for the recommendations, keep them coming.

We are definitely staying in Manhattan. It's been so long since I've been there and I was in high school so I have no clue where to stay within Manhattan. Does it really matter if we stay in the Financial District or the Upper West Side or the Lower East Side? I assume its fairly easy to get around using the subway?

I think we are going to get the City Pass that will basically let us do all of the tourist stuff w/ the bus pass.

New York City Pass - Save on New York Sightseeing - NY City Pass

 

[heitclone]

Michael Scott always hits up Sbarro when he's in the Big Apple.

 

[Triggermv]

Thanks for the recommendations, keep them coming.

We are definitely staying in Manhattan. It's been so long since I've been there and I was in high school so I have no clue where to stay within Manhattan. Does it really matter if we stay in the Financial District or the Upper West Side or the Lower East Side? I assume its fairly easy to get around using the subway?

I think we are going to get the City Pass that will basically let us do all of the tourist stuff w/ the bus pass.

New York City Pass - Save on New York Sightseeing - NY City Pass

Great question. A lot of people fork out more money to be in Times Square, which we didn't and I would not recommend. Ultimately, while there are quite a few sites close around that area, there are still a ton that aren't. Most are spread out and you'll be riding the subway anyways. Therefore, the majority of your stops are really just a short subway ride away and if that is the case, any cheaper area (Soho, financial district...etc) is just as good. Like I stated above, we stayed in Soho and literally felt we were within 10-15 minutes of everything and all the places South of Central Park will have great Subway access, including the cheaper ones.

 

[CapnCy]

Love New York City!
We went there on our honeymoon and we stayed at a bed and breakfast (well, more bed, not a formal breakfast)....but they had some food provided in the room.

I did a lot of research and wanted something nice, but couldn't afford a nice hotel for 4-5 nights that was in the heart of NYC.

Found this: New York City, New York Bed and Breakfast Inn - 1871 House (a New York City style Bed and Breakfast) - New York Lodging - Introduction

Very cool experience...we felt like we were part of the neighborhood, etc. Actually was cheaper than a hotel, and looking back so glad we had this as a memory! I remember because it wasn't a "name" hotel as we got out of the cab I did a "oh please let this all be legit" type of prayer in my head and it was great.

 

[Triggermv]

We hit up a Mets game while we were there which also so happens to be right across from where the U.S. Open for Tennis is played so we walked around there too. Since the Yankees were out of town, we only got to see Yankees Stadium is all. I'd recommend probably going to a game at either one while you are there and both are easily reachable by subway. One other thing we did was see a taping of Regis and Kelly (Now Live with Kelly). Here is where we got our tickets:

LIVE! with Kelly - Get Tickets

They were free and we got them ahead of time. Fun experience for sure whether you watch the show or not. We personally don't.

 

[cycloneworld]

Any more advice from CF'ers that have made trip?

 

[cyguytillidie]

John's Pizzeria is a must!!!!
Best pizza I have ever had.
It's located in an old church really close to times square.

John's Pizzeria

 

[Clone9]

Go up to the top of a building for the views...it is amazing. We did 30 Rock and it was incredible. I've heard the Empire State Bldg has longer lines and the views aren't any better than 30 Rock. I could have stayed up there all afternoon....

Also, last time I was there we saw War Horse - it was fantastic.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Go up to the top of a building for the views...it is amazing. We did 30 Rock and it was incredible. I've heard the Empire State Bldg has longer lines and the views aren't any better than 30 Rock. I could have stayed up there all afternoon....

Also, last time I was there we saw War Horse - it was fantastic.

I did the top of the Empire State Building. The line was long, but the view was awesome (supposedly you can see 7 states from up there).

If you have the time, do the Liberty Island/Ellis Island tour. That was cool.

As someone said, Ground Zero is a great place to visit.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is a great visit and doesn't take a whole lot of time.

I haven't personally done it, but my sister has, and she says that the NBC tour was awesome.

As far as other things to do, go check out a Yankees or Mets game - one of the two is bound to be in town. And/or go see a Broadway or off-Broadway show.

 

[WhatchaGonnaDo]

The ground zero area really gives you perspective.

It's just one of those 'wow' moments. Hard to describe.

 

[superfan]

Hit NYC last year the weekend of 9/11 before going up to Boston and back down for the UConn game the weekend later. We did the NY Sightseeing buses and it worked out pretty good, it's good for getting your bearings and the tour guides tend to drop some good tips.
-If you want to do the WTC, make sure to book the date/time you want early online.
-We saw Wicked on Broadway. Great show. If you have the time to kill, you can wait at the TKTS booth in Times Square and get deep discounts.
-Statue/Ellis is worth the hassle of the ferry rides.
-We did the Empire State building but have heard Top of the Rock is just as good (possibly better, because your view includes the Empire State Building) and the lines are shorter.
-Go to a deli. Carnegie and Katz's are probably the two most famous. Skip breakfast and order the pastrami.
-If you're looking for food around the Times Square area, the place to go is west two blocks to 9th Avenue. There are a TON of good, reasonably priced restaurants there.
-If you're going after mid-July, the Enterprise shuttle exhibit will be open to the public at the Intrepid Museum, if you're interested.
-If the Manhattan hotel prices are blown way out of proportion, look in Jersey. If you stay in Newark or Hoboken the hotels are much cheaper and it's a 15 minute PATH ride to Times Square.