New york, lots of questions?

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blueshoes

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I know there is lots of threads on new york and ive looked at them all and got some good info of them. Ive never been to new york and would love to go sometime this year. Now im going to sound like such a dozy cow but havent got a clue whats near what etc. We were going to go for a week but hotels seem to be expensive so maybe only 4days, could you see everything and go shopping in four days? Not much into sight seeing but would like to see the main attractions, statue of liberaty,empire state building etc. I much prefer to shop especially for handbags!!!! :)

We were looking at flights with aer lingus in september for 1100 for 2 of us. Does anyone know who else fly's there? have tried delta and they seem a bit cheaper. Has anyone ever got special offers with AL? is it worth waiting and seeing if flights will get cheaper? (planes half full already!) What time of year is best to go at? Does the shops open throughout the year? Any idea's on cheap hotel to stay in near the main area nears shops, restaurants.

I have googled alot of stuff but its hard especially when you havent a clue what the main shopping area's etc are!

I have been lots of places but never here and would love to go but just want to know all the facts before spending a bomb on the trip. Oh and one other question how much euro's would you roughly need for four days..saying you didnt go mad buying lots of stuff. Just eating and couple of things :) 1000/1500 euro?

any tips/info greatly appreciated :)
 
Blueshoes you are looking for an awful lot of info there. The best source of info is probably a travel guide like Lonely Planet or Time Out New York. This will give you a broad overview of the various areas, where to shop/eat/stay etc and how to get to them. NY is well served by public transport so its fairly easy to get around.

There is an enormous amount of hotels from the very grim and cheap to the 5 star mega expensive ones. Many recommend the Radio City Apartments or similar as an alternative to hotels. I have used 1800hotels.ie in the past and found them to be very reasonable. Check out tripadvisor.com to view the latest reviews of any hotel that takes your fancy.

As with hotels there is a huge amount of choice when it comes to flights. I have found Continental to be the cheapest usually. They fly in Newark which is about 25 mins from downtown Manhattan by train. Its often easier to travel to/from Newark than JFK. If you don't mind flying through a hub like LHR you could probably get there much cheaper but it will take longer.

You will find that living expenses in NY are similar or lower than here. Eating and drinking is good value with the weak dollar as is clothes/bag shopping. For 4 days I would be bringing €100-150 per day and use the credit card for clothes shopping. You won't see everthing in 4 days or 14 days so its personal choice. I would suggest no more than 5 days. A week or longer would be just too long. Its a very tiring place! Enjoy!
 
The New York forum on Tripadvisor is a good place for you to start. They have stickied lists of travel reports by traveller/stay eg, couples, singles, weekend, 4 days etc - loads of info on there.

Why on earth are you waiting for AL specials? We NEVER fly them to the US, opting for Delta instead. An altogether more pleasant experience IMO. We've never done Continental, the idea of sitting for six hours in a plane with one aisle and 3 seats on each side just fills me with horror!

To see the best fares out at the moment use the flight search tool on www.itasoftware.com - however you can't book the flights through that site, you generally need to go to the airline's own page to book.
 
Have flown continental loads of times! It's a very pleasent airline and excellent value. They operate the small plane in the winter months and the larger planes for the rest of the yeat. To be honest the smaller planes wouldn't bother me and have been on them a load of times.
Newark is closer to an hours journey from Manhattan.
 
Just returned last week from a ten day trip to New York. Had a fantastic time and will be returning asap!

We stayed in Radio City Apartments and would highly recommend it. It was clean and comfortable and serviced everyday. What is fantastic about it is the location. It is around the corner from Times Square and just a five minute walk to Rockefeller Centre and Fifth Avenue. The subway is also right next door and u can take that up to Macys. For 9 nights it cost us just over €900 ($125 per night for room). We flew with Delta airlines and our flights were €350 each. Delta were excellent and so attentive. Check out tripadvisor for guest pictures of the rooms.

I had never been to NY before so I was clueless but it is such an easy city to get around and the people are super friendly (but not in a false way)! We packed a lot into our 10 days and it does get tiring but I wanted to see as much as possible. We did all the usual stuff...bus tour, empire state, top of the rock, ground zero, statue of liberty, broadway show, game in madison sq gardens etc etc. You will be hard pushed to get all this done in 5 days! The statue of liberty and ellis island took us five hours so be warned!! Out of all the above the highlight was the Broadway Show-we saw Chicago but I think any show would be amazing. Its a lovely night out.

On the shopping front-for men it is great, my partner bought loads but i was disappointed. American women dress very casually, you really have to go designer if you want anything dressy! I got some nice things for work but that was it! I did however buy a great new camera, ipod, jewellary and make-up so things like that are much cheaper!

We put all our shopping on the credit card and then just used cash for eating out, tours etc. It is good to be able to see the conversion on your card.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!
 
Just returned last week from a ten day trip to New York. Had a fantastic time and will be returning asap!

We stayed in Radio City Apartments and would highly recommend it. It was clean and comfortable and serviced everyday. What is fantastic about it is the location. It is around the corner from Times Square and just a five minute walk to Rockefeller Centre and Fifth Avenue. The subway is also right next door and u can take that up to Macys. For 9 nights it cost us just over €900 ($125 per night for room). We flew with Delta airlines and our flights were €350 each. Delta were excellent and so attentive. Check out tripadvisor for guest pictures of the rooms.

I had never been to NY before so I was clueless but it is such an easy city to get around and the people are super friendly (but not in a false way)! We packed a lot into our 10 days and it does get tiring but I wanted to see as much as possible. We did all the usual stuff...bus tour, empire state, top of the rock, ground zero, statue of liberty, broadway show, game in madison sq gardens etc etc. You will be hard pushed to get all this done in 5 days! The statue of liberty and ellis island took us five hours so be warned!! Out of all the above the highlight was the Broadway Show-we saw Chicago but I think any show would be amazing. Its a lovely night out.

On the shopping front-for men it is great, my partner bought loads but i was disappointed. American women dress very casually, you really have to go designer if you want anything dressy! I got some nice things for work but that was it! I did however buy a great new camera, ipod, jewellary and make-up so things like that are much cheaper!

We put all our shopping on the credit card and then just used cash for eating out, tours etc. It is good to be able to see the conversion on your card.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!
 
DrM are you hinting that you would like one of them brought back for you?? I dont think I will have space with all the handbags im going to buy!!!
 
Aer ingus have a USA flight sale on at the moment for travel up to the end of April. return flights available from as little as €390
 
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