New York advice.

[rivka]

It has come to our attention that our Spanish exchange student harbors a secret inner desire to visit New York City. curiousangel and I don't know New York, neither of us having been there since high school, but we're willing to entertain the possibility of a weekend trip. What's holding us back is the fear that it will be incredibly expensive.

Does anyone have advice about how we might manage a New York visit on a moderate budget? I'm pretty sure Maria will want to do all the bog-standard New York Tourist things - the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, that sort of thing - but I'm also open to other suggestions.

Comments

[rosefox]

New York definitely doesn't need to be expensive. If you post to nycnobody or nyc_for_free you'll get lots of great suggestions that will be more up-to-date than most of what I can offer.

I would advise not visiting the Statue, since it's summer tourist season and the lines will be hours and hours and hours long just for the ferry to the island, plus more hours to actually get in. However, the Staten Island commuter ferry is absurdly cheap--last time I took it, a few years ago, it was fifty cents, and it can't have gone up that much--and gives you a fabulous view of the skyline and the harbor, including the pretty green lady with the torch. So I'd suggest that instead.

Priceline does New York hotels. Just be aware that one of their favorites is the Millennium Hilton, which is directly across the street from Ground Zero the WTC construction site. If you can swing it, I'd suggest a B&B somewhere in the Village, but everything's going to be pretty booked this time of year. Definitely do look into hotels, pick the three that look best for within your budget, and then post the names and locations to nycnobody to make sure they're not in awful neighborhoods or otherwise sleazy.

New York is very much a walking city. The heat will make frequent stops imperative, so I suggest strolling through SoHo (start around Broadway and Spring and head south) or the East Village (Avenue A around 8th Street and head south and east) where there are lots of lovely cafés and funky stores and so on to duck into and get air conditioned. Don't miss the musems up on Museum Mile--the Metropolitan in particular, which is also right next to some of the loveliest bits of Central Park--or walking down Broadway from 46th to 42nd at night past all the theaters. There's tons to see just by looking around, and to my mind that's the best part of the city, really.

I hope you have a lovely time!

[redbird]

The Staten Island ferry fare has, in fact, gone down: it's free, and has been for the past few years.