Hotwire Hotel: HELP: NY from 12/4 -12/8

[shangta]

My wife and I will be visiting NY from 12/4 - 12/8. This will be our first visit to NYC. I've read some of the reviews regarding hotels, tourist sites, and restaurants. I have two questions which I hope someone could help answer.

The first is where should I stay? Most of my friends recommend near time square. That's fine, but I'm looking to keep my hotel budget down to $220/night. I don't need anything SUPER nice. I would actually prefer a place with some charm. I've called some places and most places are booked for 12/4 - 12/5, but have availability for 12/6 onward. These places are within my budget. Some of the more upscale hotels have availability, but they are in the $300-400 range. Is it worth it to split my vacation between two hotels? Anyone have WH or PL recommendations?

The second question is whether anyone has a good restaurant recommendation? Local recommendations? Must try recommendations? We're willing to go out of the way.

Thanks

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I don't feel the need to recommend users stay in Times Square... in fact many don't choose it after the first time since it's always crowded with slow moving tourists (no offense intended if you're one of them :) ) every time you leave your hotel. I feel any hotel in the general midtown areas are fine as most are convenient to many transportation options.

Most of us here don't choose our hotels but instead go for the best value that we can get, ultimately using smart bidding techniques in order to find that value and staying in whatever hotel Priceline assigns us.

As far as splitting your stay, this is a personal decision (one which i highly suggest you discuss/clear with your wife).... some will move to save $10 while others wouldn't move to save $100. Given the prices your talking about in your post above it sounds to me as if i was in your shoes that i would indeed be changing hotels. I would probably need to save $40+ per nite in order to make it worth my while to change hotels.

What are the some of the hotels you've called and prices that you've been quoted?

As far as food, you'll need to provide a bit more information as far as what you like and more importantly, your budget. Is atmosphere important or just the food... or is atmosphere more important than the food (heaven forbid i hope not)