NCMomto2boys

We are driving from North Carolina and are a little nervous about driving into the city.
We are staying in Manhattan/SoHo area. The hotel does offer valet parking, but we still would need to drive to the hotel
Once we arrive we will not use our car till we leave. We are staying a week.
Is there someplace to park outside of the city?

Thanks in advance!

mclaurie

MetroPark in Iselin, NJ has parking and train service from there. It looks like parking is $9/day but I'm not sure. https://www.nexusparkingsystems.com/...g-facility.cfm

For $10/day you can go to the ferry terminal called Port Imperial in Weehawken, NJ (just across the river from midtown Manhattan) then take the ferry over to Manhattan. The service has a free shuttle bus on the Manhattan side and should have some service to Soho. There may be a better ferry terminal further south in NJ for access Soho, but I don't know. You could contact nywaterway.com and ask.

You can find cheaper parking than the hotel offers in Manhattan by using bestparking.com

nytraveler

Parking overnight in Manhattan will be at lest $30 per night - so if you're here a week $210. If you park at the ferry terminal that would save you $140. You would then have to pay ferry fares back and forth (I think about $20 per person RT - but check) and cab from w 39th to SoHo. So - for 4 people for a week the savings might be someplace in the region of $100. And you would have to haul your luggage in and out of NJ.

To drive into the city, drop off luggage and passengers and then drive back out to NJ and trek back into the city (and do the same in reverse) would be a major pain. And if you are driving in to drop off your luggage you've done the hard work already. I would just find the least expensive garage near your hotel. You might also try iconparking.com for garages.

NCMomto2boys

We didn't want to drive into the city at all if we could avoid it... could we park at the airport and then take a taxi to the hotel? Is one parking garage at the airport better than the others? We would need to leave our car there for 5nights/6days. We would park at New York/La Guardia-LGA since that is only 8 miles from the hotel.

Thanks again.

vjpblovesitaly

Have you looked at a map to see where LGA with respect to the direction you would be coming from? LGA is in New York City - in Queens.

joethekay

The nearest airport parking for you would be at Newark airport right off the NJ turnpike (Rt 95)
You have 3 options to get to NYC from there.
1. Taxi direct to your hotel. Expect to pay $ 60-70 plus toll
2. Airport Bus direct to NYC ( Midtown area)
3. combination of people mover from parking lot to NJ Transit station at Newark airport where you can catch a train direct to NYC ( Penn Station)
Before I would do this I would seriously rethink what it is you want to do, as you would still have to schlepp on and off trains,and/or buses with your bags, and take a still take a taxi to your hotel from the stion or bus stop. The cost via train is arond $ 12 per person ea way and the bus I think is $ 13 pp ea way plus parking at airport which can run as high as $ 33/ da depending on which lot you use. ( There are economy lots for around $ 12/day)
You may be better off just biting the bullet and go directly to NYC and your hotel and deal with the parking there.And at $ 30 per night may equal what you may save doing the off site thing.
If you travel into NYC between the hours of 10am and 3pm traffic is usually at a minimum (such as it is by NYC standards).
Your tunnel of choice should be the Holland Tunnel easily accessed off I-95 via the Turnpike extension ( I-78).
So I would google your hotel and plot out a route to your hotel and enjoy yourselves.
Welcome to the Big Apple.

ellenem

Soho is quite close to the Holland Tunnel. To get to your hotel you would be driving for only a short time in Manhattan. Really, truly, you are probably adding about 2 hours of unnecessary agony to your trip by opting to park outside the city and use public transport, since most public transport would drop you in midtown and you would still have to get downtown to your hotel in Soho. Your actual driving in Manhattan will be so little of the trip. It makes much more sense to me to just drive all the way and park in Manhattan.

As other's have said parking at LaGuardia Airport is a truly bad idea. You would have to drive through some of the worst metropolitan area traffic and over two bridges to reach LGA. Newark Airport is right along your route from NC. But I still think you should just drive all the way to Manhattan.

Ryan

I'll toss this out, but I don't think it's a great option.

You can park in Hoboken at a lot just across from the PATH Station. The PATH will take you to Christopher or West 9th, which will put you near your hotel.

The outdoor lot on Observor Highway and Washington St is the best best. (My wife parks here every morning.)

The reason I say it isn't a great option is that to get to it, you need to go through Holland Tunnel traffic. At that point, might as well just drive in the city.

If you really want to park in NJ, then options at MetroPark or Newark Airport are the easiest. The latter wouldn't require that you exit the NJ Turnpike and take another Highway to park.

I have no idea what the long-term parking situation is, but you might want to also look at the Lautenberg NJ Transit Transfer station in Secaucus. Easy on and off the NJ Turnpike and you can catch whatever train comes first for the 10 minute ride into Penn Station. Train ticket shouldn't be more than $5, if that.

If cost isn't an issue and you want the least hassle of the options that still provide hassle by making you move your bags, then park at the airport and take a taxi.

In terms of geography, in order to not drive into New York City, you need to restrict yourself to options in New Jersey. Unless someone has another, I think you have the four most likely already suggested:

Metropark, Newark Airport, Hoboken, Secaucus transfer station.

tomfuller

This is the scoop on transport into NYC from Newark Liberty Airport (EWR). I don't know how much the daily parking rate is there but it has to be cheaper than inside the city.
http://www.nysubway.com/airport/newark.html

NewbE

Here's another vote for just driving into the city. The toughest part about NYC traffic is the highways and tunnels and bridges leading into the city, and none of the options you have for parking outside the city allow you to avoid those--there really ins't a way to avoid those. In the city, driving really isn't that bad, as it's nearly all stop-and-go. And I think all the schlepping involved in parking anywhere outside the city, no matter how you do it, is just godawful unless you throw the budget out the window and just take a cab. Drive into the city, you'll be pleasantly surprised that you can do it.

djkbooks

I agree that driving to your hotel will not be nearly as bad as you would presume. We always find the most favorable rate/convenient garage with IconParking or BestParking. But, do check with your hotel, as often you can self-park in the same garage the hotel uses for a significantly lower rate. One of the advantages of a road trip is not having to haul your bags.

nytraveler

LGA makes no sense - it is on the other side of NYC - and you would have to drive all the way through the city to get there. Also, parking is very limited and not cheap.

Coming from your direction Naeward is the only airport that makes sense. Car service into the city will be about $70 - so $140 reound trip plus the cost of parking the car - not very sensible.

Driving in NYC is not THAT difficult. Just find the simplest way to your hotel and then dump the car in a garage.

NCMomto2boys

Thank you everyone for your quick and helpful replies!! After reading here and doing some more research, we are going to bite the bullet and drive to the hotel....Once there, the hotel will kindly park our car for a mere $60.00 a day

Thanks again everyone!

vjpblovesitaly

Don't hesitate to check the bestparking website given above

tomfuller

If you really do not need your car while in the city, one of you could drive it to the Rokonkoma LIRR station and park in their huge lot for free and ride the train back to Penn Station.
The off-peak one way fare is $11.75 and takes 1.5 hours.
When you need the car again, get on at Penn Station before 4PM for an off peak train.

tuscanlifeedit

I think you've made a good choice, even though the parking rate is steep. We usually reserve a spot and get a coupon from bestparking.com or icon.

NYC isn't difficult to drive in. A grid with no hills.

NCMomto2boys

Thanks for the links to reserve a parking spot! We found one within walking distance of the hotel for more than half off of what the hotel wanted to charge us.

Thanks again!

Ryan

"Rokonkoma LIRR"

That perhaps is one of the worst pieces of travel advice I've read on these boards, ever. The OP wasn't interested in driving to NY but your suggestion is to drive 50 miles outside NY through Long Island traffic which is some of the worst in the country THEN take a 90 minute train ride?

jpie

We were worried as well-we did a cross country drive from California, and actually driving into NYC was easier than much of the driving we did to get there. Our hotel actually gave us a voucher for the best parking lot right next door so it was only $30/night. So glad we didn't park outside the city and schlep our luggage in. I would definitely go for it but I would also use the bestparking site to find a better deal. Chances are in Soho near your hotel there is something really close-the lot we were in was 50 feet away, so we definitely didn't need valet. They doormen just took our luggage and pointed across the street-very handy. In case anybody else faces the same issue but wants to stay mid-town we were at the Ameritania. Not terrific, since as we know hotel rooms in NYC are high in price and small in space. But since I needed mid-town, it worked out great with a car.

NewbE

A friend of mine who lives in NYC, and drives there often, recently visited me in Tampa, and she was appalled at how much harder it is to drive here, lol! Her theory is that in NYC it's so congested, people know to pay attention when they drive, and they communicate their intentions better; she thought everybody here in Tampa seemed distracted and erratic. and I think that's about right; the streets of NYC are very crowded, but they are, IME, anyway and for the most part, orderly.