driving from RI
 

can someone please help me i want to visit new york on a day trip in the next couple of weeks. I have never been there before and am anxious and excited. what i need to know is where is there a good place to park my vehicle , both safly and cheaply, and in walking ditance of time square. i would also like to see many things would it be worth it to get a new york city pass to local attractions??? Please help i am in need

Park outside the city and take the train into either Penn Station or Grand Central.

What do you want to see in Manhattan?

I would go to your local library or bookstore and buy a NYC guidebook.

For parking facilities in NYC, I often use this site:
http://nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/parking/pidpdownloads.html

In the midtown area, there are usually a couple of garages per block. However, you probably won't consider it cheap.

Taking the train works on weekends, but on weekdays the suburban train lots usually have restricted parking and fill up early.

Have fun!

can you suggest a good parking garage i mean i dont mind paying 50-60 to park its just that the train is about a 68 a person so i dont mind spending the money. i want to go to rockafellar and the world trade site, if you could suggest something i would appreciate it thanks

When I used to live in RI, I'd just park my car at the Kingston AMTRAK station (free) and take AMTRAK to NYC. I love driving, but to not have to deal to traffic is worth the cost of the train ticket.

You can drive your car to New Haven, CT and park it for about $7/day. From there the round trip train is something like $10 and takes about 1:45. Definitely worth doing over driving into NYC and parking! It drops you at Grand Central, just a few blocks from Times Square.

is the grand central station ny penn station?? because when i looked that up it was rt about 136 for four people. i am assuming that we are both talking about amtrak

No, Grand Central is pretty central - just a few blocks south of Central Park. Penn Station is, I believe, near the World Trade Center site on the southern part of Manhattan.

And nope, I don't mean Amtrak. Commuter trains go frequently in to the city, though less frequently on weekends. You can find info on fares and schedules here:

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mnr/index.html

Penn Station and Grand Central are two separate facilities. I do day trips up to Manhattan every time I'm in Bucks County, PA (visiting family), driving over to Trenton and taking NJT up into Penn Station, and it's the only way to go as far as I'm concerned. Why bother fighting Midtown traffic?!

Penn Station, to clarify, is NOT near Downtown-- it's on 34th Street, by Madison Square Garden and right off of Herald Square. Grand Central is on 42nd St at Park Ave-- now THAT'S a great Manhattan address!

I doubt that Citypass would be all that worthwhile for a 1 day trip. The biggest benefit tho is that you won't have to wait in lines as long for a ticket once you have the Citypass.

Look at motorcoach trips from your home area that go into NYC. Most in my own area (Albany) provide non-stop round-trip same-day service to Manhattan for less than a 1-way Greyhound or Amtrak ticket. Even consider a PeterPan/Greyhound/Bonaza bus.