Priceline Hotel: 4* Newark (Jersey City) Westin

[sip_99]

Hi, my wife and I are heading to NEW YORK for the first time this September.

Travel dates: sept 23 - oct 1.

We've already successfully bid on the following on PRICELINE for SEPT 23-SEPT 27: (unfortunately, it hit at my first bid of $100!) :)

Westin Jersey City Newport 4 Star

For 4 nights:

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $100.00

Subtotal: $400.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $73.35

Total Charges*: $473.35

This covers our FIRST FOUR DAYS of our trip to NY.

Our friends suggested that this is the cheaper option than staying right in mahattan, and I would definitely agree.

Our strategy (although not FIRM) is to stay in Jersey City for 4 nights to save $$$, then perhaps stay in manahattan for the latter 4 days of our trip.

2 QUESTIONS:

1) Obviously we'll be taking the PATH to get to say, 33rd street in Manhattan from the HOBOKEN station that's pretty much 5 min walk from the westin into Manhattan (14 min trip).

How is this...in terms of getting back and forth from manhattan to our hotel?

Convenient I would assume?

With a successful $100 bid (with the priceline offer of extending this stay)... should we even CONSIDER staying at the WESTIN for the full 8 days of our trip

and give up staying in Manhattan (but have to live with a 30 MIN ROUND TRIP daily to our 4* hotel)?

2) Why I'm consider to stay at the Westin for the full 8 days is because we've already attempted to bid for 4* in ALL of the possible 4* areas together (CPS, SOHO, Empire, MTE, MTW, TS, UWS)

for Manhattan for the period of Sept 27-Oct 1st, at a max bid of $140 for a 4* in the last couple of days...and NO SUCCESS.

Thus most likely we're looking at bids of $140 + for these 4 days, totaling $670 for nights (MOST LIKELY MORE) with taxes.

Is the $200-$350 EXTRA we'd be paying for 4 nights (maybe more!...compared to 4 extra nights in the WESTIN in Jersey city) worth it to stay IN manhattan and not to take the PATH to Jersey city daily? (Note again, it's our first time in NY)

(NOTE 2: PATH shuts down at 11pm nightly.....how that AFFECTS us, not sure....we're NOT big late night owls. :):), but we're in our 30's... :o)

We'll be doing the general tourist routes and sites...and would like to the keep the expenses reasonable (for accomodation). I personally wouldn't like to spend more than $120/night on a room.....I'd consider going down in * class to suit that constraint, but again, we're not sure what quality/cleanliness we'd be sacrificing, as we're not familiar with the hotels at all.

I have other questions regarding NY manhattan hotels and star classes that we could consider (and areas to avoid), but this post is already very long...I'll wait for any responses before I continue.

Thanks to the adminstrator and any other viewers for suggestions and tips...ahead of time! :)

Cheers

[AaronJB]

I think it's a tough decision - I understand being on a budget. However, as someone who is visiting NYC for the first time, it is a fantastic experience to stay in NYC. There's an incredible amount to do in NYC, and it is fantastic to be able to wake up and walk out of your hotel and be right in the middle of it. While not a huge factor, also consider that there is definitely some time cost and a bit of transit cost when you stay outside of NYC and commute in.

As I mentioned on a post the other day, the last time I was in NYC, on the first day I ended up walking about 15 miles just because I would get to something I wanted to see and then figure, I'm already here, why not keep walking to another attraction. I stayed 4 nights and was able to get in a good deal of the major things I wanted, but there were still a lot of things that I didn't get to and even though I did see the main things of interest, I was constantly moving and did not get to stop and enjoy them quite as much as I would have liked. Honestly, if I were to have enough time to see (and stop and enjoy) all that I would want to see on an NYC trip, it would probably take about a week.

I think it's worth going down a star level (preferably 3.5*, but 3* if it becomes necessary) in order to stay in NYC, if that is what it takes to keep on budget. However, I wouldn't stay in the Downtown/Soho area. I wouldn't stay at the Westin all 8 days - I would definitely try to stay in NYC for the second half (again, even if it meant going down a star level.)

Please use the site's PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to start your purchase, and please feel free to ask any questions at all. :)

[thereuare]

Correction to two of your points above:

1) you won't be taking the PATH train from the Hoboken station... the station closest to the Westin is the Pavonia/Newport Station

2) the PATH runs 24/7... it does not shut down at 11pm. Weeknites at 11pm the schedule changes and the train you need to take will take a 'detour' thru Hoboken, but you'll remain on the train and don't need to tranfer. On the weekends the train runs on a "nitetime" route, so you'll be taking the train that goes thru Hoboken on the weekends regardless of what time of day/nite.

I've edited your topic title to reflect your win of the Westin... please continue the discussion for the balance of your stay in your existing Priceline New York City thread.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.