beachgirl86

Hi everyone,
I am having my bachelorette party the weekend of July 17 in NYC, coming from the Boston area. There will be about 7 of us girls in our mid-twenties, and I have a couple of quick questions:
1.) Any recommendations for cheap but clean places to stay in the Times Square area? Thinking of the Super 8 in that area...
2.) What might be some fun places for dinner and drinks that night?
3.) Any tips on fun bars?
4.) What is a great place for Sunday breakfast/brunch for when we wake up the next morning, before we head out?
Thanks so much!

beachgirl86

ttt

mclaurie

1. The Super 8 is a great idea. Another option is to go to applecorehotels.com and check their Comfort Inn. In fact any of the Applecore hotels are good but the Comfort Inn has the best location.

The Broadway Inn also gets some good reviews on tripadvisor. I happened to notice a review about a girls' weekend stay there you might want to read

ttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d112016-r2110660-Broadway_Inn-New_York_City_New_York.html

But my question is why stay in Times Square if you're not going to the theater? You might have more fun staying downtown or maybe the upper west side. Another consideration is maybe getting 1 or 2 large suites rather than a bunch of inexpensive rooms. Affinia.com is a group of all suite apt/hotels. They even have some 2 bedroom suites.

2. Choices for dinner & drinks are endless depending on type of food, ambiance, budget, neighborhood.

4. I'll leave bars to the younger set

4. Again, the options are endless for restaurants depending on where you want to be and what kind of ambiance (fancy, casual, trendy??). A favorite midtown place for breakfast (huge portions & good food but not cheap) is Norma's at Le Parker Meridien Hotel. But you might prefer some place where you can sit outside if it's nice. Isabella's is a popular place near the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side with tables inside & out. Balthazar is very popular/trendy in Soho.

Mazey

I would have to agree with the other poster...why Times Square? It is probably the last place I would pick to stay in Manhattan. Times Square = Overpriced Mediocrity. If you are hell bent on staying there, there is a Comfort Inn.

As for dinner and drinks, I have been to a couple really fun bachelorette parties at Lucky Chengs (transvestites are the entertainment and servers at your table).

My current favorite brunch place is Aquagrill on Spring Street in Soho.

KikiLee

1.) Times Square is convenient. But it is touristy, crowded, and you may have trouble finding cabs. I agree with UWS or below 34th St.

2.) Also agree, need info about price, location, atmosphere, cuisine. If you do stay in Times Square, Ruby Foo's is fun. Spice Market would be my choice for new and trendy, uber-scene (call SOON for reservations). Sala for tapas. Hudson Cafeteria for the style, and as a precursor to the three bars in the hotel (although the food ranges from good to barely passable.) Fugiyama Mama for sushi, sake bombing, and loud 80s music. Peep for cheap, stylish Thai and fun bathrooms. Keep in mind that Luchy Cheng's is known for the entertainment, NOT the food. Give more info, and I'll provide more specific recs.

3) "Fun" bars also depend on what you want in terms of price, atmosphere (club, bar, lounge?), location. If you are doing the veil and such, head to Hogs and Heifers for a frat party and dancing on the bar, or Brother Jimmy's for a frat party with Southern boys in white hats, or Tortilla Flats for a frat party with hula hoops. Culture Club is an 80s club practically swarming with bachlorettes. For a classier girls' night out, maybe the rooftop bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel? Although I don't really care for it, people seem to love Tao. Or there truly is at least one bar on every corner, you could pick a neighborhood and do a bar crawl.

4.) Jane in Soho. Any Steve Hanson restaurant. (see www.brguest.com - Blue Water is proabably my fave.) Any place on the UWS.

Don't mean to overwhelm, just need more info and I'll give better suggestions... Kiki

beachgirl86

Wow, thanks for these great replies! I have been to NYC a couple of times before, and the only reason I picked Times Square area to stay in is because I remember it being relatively close to the kinds of things we girls will probably walk to and shop, Rockefeller Center, etc...Also, we will be taking the train in from near my friend's house Fairfield, CT -- where will we be coming into the city? Grand Central? How far is downtown or the upper west? Since we will only be there for that one night, we would like to be relatively close to the train, restaurants, shopping, etc...Any suggestions for cheap hotels? (We have about 7 girls and are looking to spend $40-$50 each when splitting rooms.) For dinner, we don't want anything too expensive, someplace casual, trendy, and fun, with plenty of variety of mixed drinks, and a big, varied menu. (We have one vegetarian -- maybe Italian??) As for the bars afterwords, we have looked into Lucky Cheng's and Culture Club, and they both look fun! We would like someplace with dancing, but not too club-ish and fraternity-like. We all have husbands, fiances, or boyfriends, so we are really just looking for a great, atmosphere with a mid-twenties crowd where we can drink, dance, but still be able to talk to each other and laugh a bit! And the breakfast suggestions are great, keep em coming! Thanks so much again, everyone!

Loki

Restaurant Suggestions: Sushi Samba for dinner, Balthazar for brunch, or Normas at Le Parker Meridian for breakfast all day.

Bar suggestions: Pravda, Temple Bar (quieter), the Library, McSorley's (just to say you've been there), if you're really into cocktails and want to go somewhere a little classy, the bar at Grammercey Tavern is great. Dinner in the Tavern Room at GT would be great too, no reservations, probably an hour wait.

missjanna

Just a piece of advice if you're considering going to Lucky Chengs.

We took my cousin there for her bachelorette party about 2 years ago. Keep in mind we all had boyfriends also, and she didn't want to do the "Chippendales" or strippers thing.

We were a part of about 7 or 8 bachelorette parties there, and while at first it was amusing, it got old very quick. There are only so many times you can watch a drag queen give a patron a lap dance which involves them standing on their head and putting their crotch in the guy's face. The first 15 minutes were amusing, after that, it was the same things over and over, and basically it got tired. The last straw was when one of them was singing and came over to our table and grabbed my breasts. (I kid you not!)

Now I am not easily shakeable, and I'm pretty open minded. But after watching the same things over and over throughout dinner and then getting "fondled", plus having to shell out $50 for food that was mediocre at best, I finally realized we would have been better off going elsewhere.

bradk

from fairfield, taking metro north, you come into grand central terminal which is between park and lex, 42nd-44th sts i believe. there is a subway station there that has the 4,5,6,7 and the S shuttle train to the Times Square station.

KikiLee

While I love GT, both the bar and the restaurant, there really isn't room for a group of 7 at the bar, and I would guess that the wait for 7 girls for dinner will be much more than an hour on a Sat night any time after 6.

Manhattan is small, the subways and cabs are plentiful, you will be close no matter what, unless you are staying in the Financial District or Harlem. I live here, so i cannot help with hotel specifics, sorry.

The vast majority of restaurants accomodate veggies. If you want Italian, Vento and Extra Virgin just opened in the Meatpacking District, though I haven't been to either. Lupa is one of my faves. While not Italian, I recently had dinner with a group of 7 girls on the roof at Sushi Samba Soho, and it was great. (It was also featured on SATC, if that means anything). Also, consider Dos Caminos if you want Mexican. Although I am not sure what your idea of "not too expensive" is. Those fabulous cocktails that make the night so glamorous push the check up quickly.

A word about dancing in NY: technically, a place needs to have a cabaret license to allow dancing, which pretty much limits it to the clubs (think $25+ cover). Although spontanteous dance parties have been known to break out at random bars when my friends and I have had a few cocktails... You might want to consider The Park, although the crowd was really young last time I was there...

ethaete

I went to Luckey Cheng's a few times -- only stayed on the first floor bar area, however we had a blast! We sang kareoke, hung out with the tranvestites, had great drinks...

I can't comment on the food, however I would recommend for a late-night-after-dinner-place to go.

mclaurie

I think to get any more help on a hotel, you have to tell us how you planned on sleeping-are any of you going to share a bed? The best (ie biggest) you're likely to find is a room/suite with 2 beds, each fitting 2 people (2 queens or 2 kings) plus a sofa bed for 2. So theoretically, you might find one room for 6 but not 7. If you each want your own bed, I think you're talking about 3-4 rooms.

The Affinia group (affinia.com) are all suite hotels. They have some 2 bedroom suites (with 2 baths) that they say will accomodate 6 people. You might phone them (can't book the 2 bedroom suites online anyway, must phone). Otherwise, if you're talking about $100 rooms for 2 girls each, you'll be staying in dumps IMO.