I was thinking of driving to NYC from MA
with my daughter. I don't drive in Boston
and I know NY city is worse. Should I get
a hotel outside of the city and take
some kind of other transportation into the
city?

I really want to keep busy and see as much
as we can in three days. But i really
am afraid to drive in the city.

Any advice?

Am from NYC and now live in Boston - have driven a lot in both places. The surrounding area to NYC is worse than outskirts of Boston - many more decisions, bridges, etc. However, while in most of Manhatt., grid-l;ike nature of streets and rational naming/numbering of streets is saner than Boston's layout. Are you sure you want to drive at all - why not take train? It is much greater in time and distance to get "outside city" of NY than Boston and will take you about an hour to get back in to city. Parking is as much an expensive nightmare in NYC as Boston. Try to leave the car at home.

Drive, drive, drive. You can park the car on the far west side (near the Hudson River) for three full days for less than $60. With the right routing you would only have a few blocks of city driving.
Even factoring in cost of taxi to and from your hotel total cost would be much less than the bus, train or any other means of transportation. If you decide to drive directions can be provided. One further note - driving in the city is not all that bad nor is it difficult

Check the Amtrak schedule from Boston. Then drive to the last stop in Connecticut, park your car and take the train into New York. If you don't drive in Boston, the last thing you are going to want to do is drive in NYC. The cost of the train is very reasonable, and the trains are frequent.

Otherwise you could take either the Peter Pan or Greyhound Bus from South Station, Newton, Framingham or Worcester. They leave almost every hour. They have some special fares as low as $20 each way on certain routes. From Boston to the Port Authority, the ride is about 4 to 4.5 hours.

you can stay in long island and take the long island railroad in durng off peak it is only 4.00 each way
driving in the city is a nightmare with the cabs and the conventions, i am originally from nyc and i neer had a car there, you can also stay in jersey city and take the path train in that is cheap. you can also stay in westchester or rockland county and take the other train i forgot the name that goes into grand central.

good luck have fun and watch your beongings. the city is beautiful to visit

Just heard a story on a radio travel show. The caller was asking about driving in NYC. The host explained that he grew up in NYC, and his father was a doctor - the old-fashioned kind who made house calls, which was why the father had a car. They also used the family car for trips out of the city. When the host went to college, his father gave him the car which was 8 years old. It had 28,000 miles on it.
Figure out how often they used the car in the city.

I lived in NYC for a few years in the Wall Street area. Two of the people in our building had a car, both for out of city trips. They used to park it in New Jersey. One of them worked in the Bronx. She happened to have the car in the city one week, and drove it to work. On the way back home that evening, she saw a good (free) parking space at around 24th Street. She parked the car and took the subway the rest of the way.

Other stories abound.

When you're in the city itself there's no way you're going to drive it. If you're only going to drive in and use public transport all the time, it's not even worth considering. If you want to stay outside of the city, then Long Island is not that great a choice since the resonable hotels are a ways from the city. The best bet there is probably along Route 3 in NJ, Westchester and CT are both more expensive and further away.

If your aim is to keep busy, most likely you won't go that route though. You're best off picking a Metro North stop in CT or Westchester, parking, and commuting in and out only once.