Anyone Ever Been To New York City?

Zealand4530 wrote: »

Was in nyc back in 2015 for a week. Best city ever. Stayed at the marriot in Times Square was about 400usd a night in February good central location but if I went back I'd find a cheaper hotel

Cutaway_Collar wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Cutaway_Collar wrote: »

While I won't say NYC is unsafe, it has the potential to be seedy especially in the outlying areas.

Just 2 days ago, a jogging woman was found dead in the bushes, I saw in the news. She was found dead with her pants pulled down or something.

If you are looking to cut cost and are staying deep into the boroughs... much of interior BK and the Bronx are infested with thugs and criminals. I will not touch certain areas of BK and probably all of Bronx with a ten foot pole after 11pm at night.

Also, you cannot find a hotel deep inside Harlem and take late night walks. Harlem is okay nowadays but there still are some dudes who stand out there and sexually harass women as they walk by. While they won't take it to the next step like they used to in the 80s, they definitely look fcuking scary.

For your own sanity, stay between the union square and central park perimeters of the city. Hundreds of hotels are out there. I named a few in my earlier post which are in the 300$ to 400$ range and have the prime NYC experience.

When my wife and I go to the city, I love waking up and taking a walk 2 blocks to get coffee. Early am in the city is lovely, you can smell fresh bread being cooked in the bakeries. It is absolutely useless to wake up in BK, the Bronx or Jersey city.

What are you even talking about? Nobody is telling tourists to go stay in freaking Brownsville for god's sake. I don't even think tourists could FIND some of the unsavory neighborhoods.

I suggest walking across the Brooklyn Bridge too. When you get to DUMBO on the Brooklyn size you can grab a slice of pizza and take the F train back to Manhattan one stop if you don't want to walk.

You know BK and BX inmates are always in denial that their borough has issues. They often cite the uber-gentrification of Brooklyn heights, esp the Jay street area as the shining example of Brooklyn's redemption.

I have lived over there before escaping to connecticut long time ago. Also, spending 80% of my week in the city gives me perspective.

I agree with your tour guide recommendations, but I don't think I said anything wrong with suggesting to the touring OP that staying in Manhattan provides 100% NYC experience rather than selecting a place in BK or Queens for that matter.

It's like, oh we woke up and what do we do.... Take the R train and then transfer into the 6 to go see rockfeller center. That is so pleasing. Oh wait... we got into the wrong 6. We should have take 6 uptown across the street.

King_Spicy wrote: »

Zealand4530 wrote: »

Was in nyc back in 2015 for a week. Best city ever. Stayed at the marriot in Times Square was about 400usd a night in February good central location but if I went back I'd find a cheaper hotel

Comfort Inn in China Town was $81 a night. For comparison, some of the *kitten* hostels in Times Square were $80-100 a night. lol

samer_shu wrote: »

Manhattan resident here, so I'll tell you what I've told many other out of town visitors throughout the years. I won't get into the itinerary because there were a lot of great suggestions. Just don't listen to that woman who talked about slashing and the subways being unsafe. That was seriously ridiculous.

- New York is expensive. Suck it up and deal with it. If you are going to be money conscious about everything, it will ruin your time here. Just expect to pay more and be pleasantly surprised when you don't. With that said, you you can do/eat a ton of things here on the cheap. But doing mostly touristy things, expect the touristy areas to be more expensive. My suggestion is to look up "cheap things to do in NY". There are a ton of lists with ideas of things you can do that are on the cheaper side.

- If you are only here for a couple of days, it's really not worth it trying to save money by going to another borough or New Jersey. You simply don't have the time. Also, you're 25 years old so you'll want the hustle and bustle of the city. And nothing beats stumbling home drunk after an amazing night out and to just walk a couple of blocks to your hotel.

- When people ask me for hotel suggestions. I just tell them to check hotels.com or Kayak or something like that. What might be a good recommendation today might end up being 700 dollars tomorrow. Deals come and go all the time. With that said, I just checked hotels.com and there are a ton of hotels under 200 dollars in Midtown. I usually use hotels.com because most of the hotels there have a free cancellation policy. So you can book something now and when the time comes closer and if you find a better deal, just get that one instead.

- Central locations are usually the best. As a local, I personally avoid Times Square like the plague but if you've not been here before you'd probably love staying in that area. There are many hotels in the West 20s that tend to be cheaper. Just check whatever has a great deal online.

- Food: If you do stay in the Times square area. Do not eat there and DO NOT eat in any of the chain restaurants. They are expensive and awful. Just walk over to Hell's Kitchen on 9th Ave (anywhere between 42nd and 55th". There will be a ridiculous amount of restaurants there that are cheaper (again, that's a relative term)

- Parking. Don't bring a car. If you do, don't valet park at the hotel. Depending on where you find a hotel, just look up parking garages in the area. I just found this site for example: http://www.parkwhiz.com/p/new-york-parking/map/ Tell Siri to drive you there directly and just leave your keys until you are ready to leave the city.

- The city is too big and there is too much to see in two days. I am a walker. I love walking everywhere, but given your lack of time, you might want to consider the hop on/hop off buses. Maybe do that for one day and then walk around the following day. I do want to say that the statue of liberty tour might take up too much of your day. If you do the Staten Island ferry then you'll get a very close look at Lady Liberty. Just consider cutting some things so you can spend more time on other things. You'll be back again.

- If you are going to do a Broadway show, TKTS has the best deals but the lines are long and it will take up too much time from your day. Either go to TKTS by Southstreet Seaport which has no lines (if you happen to be there) or just look up "discount broadway tickets" and websites like Theater Mania will have shows up to 50%. It's what I tell everyone to do.

- Oh, and please be mindful of the people around you when you walk. Don't walk in a row of 3 or 4 people and take up the sidewalk. And don't just suddenly stop when there are a ton of people walking behind you, especially when walking up the subway stairs. And don't hog the sidewalk when trying to take a picture of your friend (do it at an angle). And don't be afraid to ask people questions. We might seem to always be in a hurry but we'll stop and answer questions.

My my! I came to this forum to look up if I should set my Activity Level to Sedentary or Lightly Active seeing how I walk everywhere in NYC and here I am writing a novel.

Good luck and hope you have a blast and let us know the trip turns out!