NYC: Embassy Suites, Salisbury, or other?

It can affect the quality of your trip if you stay far downtown, much less so on the Upper West Side. The real reason is that the Embassy Suites isn't very convenient to the subway, and there are few places to eat or things to do after dark downtown.

There are lots of restaurants on the UWS and in Midtown, and you're within much easier reach of midtown and most of hte tourist sights.

For a first trip, I'd stay closer to the action, but ultimately, I think what matters most is to find accommodations that you can afford. There's nothing wrong with any of these places, so I say pick the cheapest place.

Given the economy, I do think that $400 might be possible for July. What you ought to do is to make a completely refundable reservation at the Embassy Suites now and keep looking. I think hotel rates may go down this summer if hte influx of foreign tourists slows, as it seems to be doing.

Also check out Radio City Apartments. An excellent location and pretty cheap by NYC standards.

Unfortunately, you cannot use Priceline to get that kind of room configuration.

I think you'll be much better off in midtown than downtown - esp with pre-teens.

Agree to have a look at both Radio City apartments and the Affinia group of hotels. Both have lots of room configurations and prices are budget for the former to moderate for the latter.

Make cancelable reservations (now is not too early for Radio City) and then you can look at travelzoo.com etc about 4 months before the trip to see if any better deals are available.

Here's another hotel to look at: the Milburn. It's on the Upper West Side (76th and Broadway) and has several subway stops near by. You can rent 1 and 2 bedroom suites, with a pullout sofa bed in the living room. I believe they also have jr. suites. This hotel is very family friendly and the rooms are set up like little apartments. You also get a small frig and microwave. There are lots of grocery stores and restaurants all over the area. It's perfect for families. It's also close to Central Park, Museum of Natural History, and not far from the Columbus Square area. It's easy to catch the subway to get to Yankee Stadium. It's quite easy to get back to mid-town on the subway as well.

The hotel also offers free breakfasts in the mornings--Monday-Thursday. They may be offering it every day now but I'm not sure. We stayed over a holiday weekend, so we never got to try that out. We loved our stay here this past August with our toddler, and we hope to stay again the next time we're in NYC. Oh--the prices are family friendly as well (for NYC, that is!). Our 1 bedroom at the end of August was $224.00/night.

Thanks, I'll look into these other possibilities also. The sheer number of options in Manhattan is a bit overwhelming, so I appreciate the advice!

We stayed at the Embassy Suites. Convenient to get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Wall Street, Chinatown, Brooklyn and Ground Zero (it's just a couple of blocks away). Also great if you want to shop at Century 21. But it's pretty inconvenient for everything else and we didn't eat any meals near our hotel.

My wife, our college age son, and I stayed at the Salisbury last month in a large 1 BR suite with 2 double beds and a sofa-bed for < $300. Not fancy at all, but close to Central Park, Times Square, and 1/2 block from the subway.
Lots of foreigners stay there, so you'll fit right in (being from Kansas)

You're a funny guy, jimingso. Well, part of the reason we travel is to let our children (and ourselves) experience different things. It would be cool for them to hear lots of different languages being spoken, for example.

So you liked the Salisbury? The location looks great.Do you remember if there are two TVs in the suite? Believe me, this helps w/ the two kids, even if we're not in the room much. I really appreciate everyone sharing their opinion!