Hotwire Hotel: NYC Hotel

[babyface6]

Thank you for maintaining such a wonderful forum to help people!

We will be visiting NYC Aug 14-Aug 17. We have 4 adults and 3 little kids. We were hoping to have 2 rooms with 2 beds in each room. We will be driving from another state so we would need to park our car. So take consideration of the hotel cost, transportation (we have lot of people) and parking, could you please recommend an area to stay? We wish to stay close to the city or at a place that can can easily get to the city.

Our budget is under $200 total per night.

Thank you!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages

You actually have quite a few options...

1) the Holiday Inn Downtown is available for $185/nite. While this doesn't include parking, it still may be feasible given transportation costs of staying outside of the city. Let's say you stayed in Secaucus NJ, bus far is ~$2.50/ow (it may even be $3.xx now as it recently went up), but even using the $2.50 figure, you're looking at at last $20 roundtrip for the 4 adults (and up to $35 roundtrip if you have to pay for the children, you don't mention their ages) so paying for parking up to $30/day in the city may not be too much when you consider the cost of bus transit. You could park outside of the city and leave your car at a less expensive then Manhattan lot and take mass transit in, but at $25-$30/day that seems 'fair' relative to bus costs, and you get the convenience of staying in the city (yeah, it's Downtown) but still convenient enough for 1-2 adults to take the kids back to the hotel to rest while the other two go do some 'grown up' things or down time without the kids... not so easy to do when staying outside of the city. As well, there is a great park there along the Hudson River for the kids :)

2) The Holiday Inn Midtown is avaialble just over your budget at ~$219/nite. More convenient then the above option and probably start to stretch your budget.

3) what apears to be the Holiday Inn Harmon Meadow in Secaucus is available for $100/nite. It's much cheaper then your other options and parking is free, but it's much less convenient then the other options of staying directly in the city. If i'm correct on this ID, there is a bus near the hotel to take you into the city (but again, add $20-$35 per day to your 'true' cost) and it's within a small 'strip mall type' complex with a movie theatre, fast food restaurant (i think Burger King) and some other restaurants as well as a Wal-Mart for anything items you may need for the kids.

I think #1 and #3 are your best options, and depending upon how much you weigh budget vs. convenience will likely determine your decision. I think the city offers much more options and would be a better overall experience, but not if the cost will prevent you from doing other things once there.

Let us know your thoughts and we'll take it from there.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

EDIT to ADD: you could also stay on the Queens side in Long Island City, which would be similarly 'outside of the city' as Secaucus NJ, but you'd take the subway in which would save on transportation costs assuming you'd get an ulimited metro card. HOWEVER, i'm not such a fan of this area as it just doesn't give a 'warm and fuzzy' feeling and while not 'bad', just doesn't feel very clean, and i favor less so with kids; but i mention it just to cover all the basis and you can make up your own mind.

[babyface6]

Thank you so much for spending time to respond and thank you very much for the information!

Where could I find the hotels you mentioned? Should I use Hotwire or priceline? I've never been to New York and am not familiar with the areas/zones on Priceline map. If I use Priceline, which area or zone are these hotels located respectly?

Thank you!

[thereuare]

Please start by reading your messages

Please read your messages and click this HOTWIRE link... then reply to this thread and we'll continue this thread.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[babyface6]

I did some reasearch following the HOTWIRE link in your post and have some questions.

1) Is there a area that we could just walk to all the attractions?

2) Is it ture that if we live in Hoboken or secaucus we will need to take PATH. But if I live in Brooklyn and Long Island city, we would need to use subway only? How far are they from Mannhattan (I assume it is where all the attractions are close to)?

3) Should we buy unlimited subway pass to get around no matter where we live?

3) Right now on Hotwire, there are several hotels that are under $100 per night. Which one do you think is not too far and is cost effective? Could you guess what hotels are they?

- Hoboken 2* $79

- Secaucus-Meadowlands 2* $54

- Brooklyn Area hotel 2* $89

- Long Island city 2and half* $95

Thank you very much!

[thereuare]

1) Is there a area that we could just walk to all the attractions?

As far as cities go, NYC is big geographically, maybe 5-6 miles in length and another 2 miles wide, so there is no place where you'll be able to walk to everything. However, the subways are relatively inexpensive, convenient, and the quickest way to get around, making it easy to get from pointA to pointB.

2) Is it ture that if we live in Hoboken or secaucus we will need to take PATH. But if I live in Brooklyn and Long Island city, we would need to use subway only? How far are they from Mannhattan (I assume it is where all the attractions are close to)?

Secaucus - commute by bus (or possibly NJ Transit Train... but most likely bus). 20-25 minutes to Manhattan depending upon traffic... if the Lincoln Tunnel is backed up (entirely unpredictable) it could take an hour or more.

Hoboken - PATH Train (10 minutes to downtown... 15 minutes to midtown... except weekends which are a few minutes longer for each as the routing changes)

Long Island City - subway... depending upon where your hotel is it's just 5-10 minutes

3) Should we buy unlimited subway pass to get around no matter where we live?

Most likely. The 'break point' is like 4 trips per day... so if you intend to get on the subway at least 4x in a given day, the unlimited pass makes sense. Having the pass also gives you more flexibility as yo don't mind so much go uptown, then down, then back up again, then east, then up, etc, etc as you're not paying for each ride, so you simply decide where you want to go without thinking if you're doing everything in the immediate area first.

4) Right now on Hotwire, there are several hotels that are under $100 per night. Which one do you think is not too far and is cost effective? Could you guess what hotels are they?

- Hoboken 2* $79

- Secaucus-Meadowlands 2* $54

- Brooklyn Area hotel 2* $89

- Long Island city 2and half* $95

As per my post above none of these are my recommendations. In Hoboken you need to be at a higher rated hotel or you'll end up on Rte 1&9 where you 1) don't want to be, 2) don't have good mass transit options without getting in your car and heading to the nearby Park n Ride. For the others you'll likely get a much better experience going with a higher rated hotel, in these area(s) we don't often recommend the lower level hotels (2* ist he lowest rating in HOTWIRE's system) as the quality can very so greatly from one property to the next... there may be some 2* hotels which meet your needs, but others which may not. As well, with the lower rated hotels, it's often a neighborhood/environment issue more so then quality of the actual hotel.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[babyface6]

Thank you so much for all the info, they are very helpful!

Basically our goal is to find a hotel that is safe and is easily accessible using subway. We have three little kids and our parents do not speak English. So we just wanted to do some sight seeing and did not plan to go out at night. Our budget is tight at this point. Could you recommend some hotels or bidding strategies?

Thank you!

[thereuare]

Our budget is under $200 total per night.

Oh, this was for both rooms??

I would go for the 3* Secaucus NJ hotel for $94 on HOTWIRE which appears when searching for 2rooms/4adults/3children with Restaurant, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business (which i'm guessing is the Holiday Inn Harmon Meadow)

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[babyface6]

Yes, that is for two rooms.

Thank you very much for all your help!

[AaronJB]

Please let us know what you decide and if you have additional questions.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.