Hotwire Hotel: PA to NYC evening trip- need advice!

[bxneurotic]

I've been stressing about this quite a bit and put about 8 hours of research into this and still am not sure of the best option, so I thought I'd come to the experts. 4 of us are traveling from PA to NYC on August 20th to go to a concert in the East Village, and I'm trying to figure out the absolute cheapest (yet safest / most convenient) way to make this happen.

I'm assuming the PATH trains would be the best / most affordable way for 4 people to get in and out of the city? I was thinking of going to either the Journal Square, Grove St, Pavonia/Newport, or Hoboken stations, since these have service straight to 33rd St, where I can hop the yellow subway line to the East Village, so any reccomendations on which station would be best (safest / closest / most affordable for parking) would be appreciated. Normally when I go to NYC, I take the NJ Transit from MetroPark and stay overnight in the city, but for 4 people, $64 in train fare is just too much when the PATH train will only cost us $14 as a group roundtrip, so I figured I'd give it a try.

The cheapest hotels I could find in the NJ area were around $50 and located by the Newark Airport. The Howard Johnson Newark Airport is only $42 with taxes on Hotels.com, but then they charge $15 to park, so I kinda hate to pay that parking fee, plus another $10-15 to park at the train station. Ideally I'd like to find something within walking distance to a train station, though I doubt this will happen on a budget, as everything I've found close to the trains seems to be around $150. I wouldn't be opposed to staying in NYC either, but the cost for 2 double beds in the city is outrageous.

As far as hotel accomodations, I don't need anything fancy. As long as I'm not overly likely to be mugged, have my car stolen, or catch any sort of disease or lice, all is well. Since we likely won't get back to the hotel until around 1am, we really just need a place to sleep since we'll be 4 hours from home. Reccomendations welcome!!

I thought about bidding on a place on Priceline, but not sure if it would be wise for 4 people, and Hotwire's prices aren't too appealing.

[dahammer]

please post your maximum budget per night before taxes and fees. Also, at what time of the evening will you be returning? Quad occupancy can be a problem when booking on PRICELINE as you are up to the discretion of the hotel to provide accomodations for four. You may want to look at HOTWIRE as you can request quad occupancy and at the minimum will receive a room with a double bed and a pull out sofa or cot. You will more likely get a room with two double beds.

First of all, I would not stay at the HoJo's by the Newark Airport, this place gets poor reviews and its in the flight path of the main runway and is bound by Rt. 1&9 and the off ramps to the airport. I would not stay in the EWR area either as you will spend a lot of time commuting into the city.

As I recently learned, there are numerous ways to get into NYC and all of them have their merits and deficiencies.

North Bergen Park and Ride: NJ Transit Bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Parking and Round trip bus fare is $8.25, additional round trip fare is $5.50. NJ Transit Park and Ride Schedule. This is cheap, but you must adhere to a bus schedule.

Secaucus Junction Park and Ride: located at exit 15x of the NJ Turnpike, the daily parking rate is $10 (up to 24 hours) and $5 on evenings and Saturdays, the round trip fare on NJ Transit by train to NY Penn Station is $5.75. There are plenty of trains that pass through and stop at Secaucus Junction, so if you miss one, another will follow....up to a point.

PATH Train: $1.75 fare each way, or $1.30 for a 10 ride ticket. I'm not sure of the parking rate or hours of operation for the parking lots nearby, but last year I paid $12 to park at Journal Square for a day (not 24 hours).

Using HOTWIRE, a 3* is available for $76 with Fitness, Restaurant, HS Internet, Business Center. These amenities are a match for the Holiday Inn Harmon Meadows Secaucus. You could walk out your hotel room and less than a block away is the NJ Tranist #320 bus which is $3.15 fare each way to the PATB.

Would this work for you?