Experience with Itineready New York?
 

Has anybody here used this itinerary service? www.itineready.com I will be going to NYC for the 1st time from Sept. 29th to Oct. 2nd and as usual have left the planning to the last minute. Everything I've read on this forum so far has been very helpful but I just don't have enough time to sort it all out & plan my itinerary based on what I'm learning here & the other internet research I've started doing. I found this website and thought it looked like a good deal but I'm wondering if anyone here has used them before & could tell me what their experience was like. Thanks a lot!

Something tells me you know a lot more about this website than you're letting on, tapcrazy.

Advertising isn't allowed here & I think it's fair to say that it tends to alienate most of the regular posters.

Jim

Jim,
I'm not sure what you mean. I'm not a regular user of forums like this, I read them sometimes but I've never posted on one before. I thought it was okay to mention a company's name and ask for info because I've seen other people do it with hotels and restaurants etc. But if that's bad form, I'm sorry. I'm definitely not affiliated with them in anyway. I was looking on this website www.nycvisit.com which says its NYC's official tourism site and found the itinerary company. I came back to this forum to ask a question about getting Wicked tickets but thought instead I'd ask about the company before I booked. I thought I was doing what everyone else was doing here. I'm actually sort of embarrassed now because this is why I was nervous to post on these kind of things. Just forget my question please if it's not appropriate.

nyc is big but you sooo do not need any kind of service to plan an itinerary for you - it has a life of its own and you can really do it yourself - what are some things you are interested in (i live here)...

It's not inappropriate - if it's real.

It's suspicious.

As for needing someone to make you an itinerary for New York - that's just silly. Just get a guidebook, read it and look at some of the posts here. You'll be able to figure it out from there.

Oh, this company is horrible. They'll promise you everything, take your money, then desert you in Jordanian Harlem. Avoid at all costs! They can't even spell.

Thanks Lori25j! I’m interested in seeing all the typical touristy things: Central Park, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, a Broadway show like Wicked, places from Sex and the City, etc. And of course I want to visit Ground Zero too. But after reading the posts on this forum and another one, I have three pages of notes of other places that are recommended besides all these! So, I got to feeling really overwhelmed about which were the best things to do and which I should skip because I only have 4 days to do everything and I’m leaving in 8 days. And I’m not sure how to get from one place to another because I don’t have a good NYC map to see where all these places are. I know I shouldn’t have left this all to the last minute. That’s basically my whole problem.

I know it’s kind of silly to pay someone else to do that work for you like nytraveler said. I was feeling a bit guilty about considering it. That’s why I was wondering if anyone had used them. I wanted to make sure that it was worth the money and I wouldn’t just end up with something that I could have done myself. Maybe I should have explained all that in my first message but I didn’t think anyone wanted to hear my life story!

Anyway, I appreciate your offer to help me. But I posted my questions on another forum after I posted my message here and I’ve got some helpful responses there (not berated like I did here). So, I’m going to carry on on that site. Everyone says pretty much the same thing, that I should be able to make my own itinerary so I’m going to keep on plugging away and do that.

tapcrazy,

If I read you wrong I apologise. To make up for it here's a link to my NY trip report;

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34778469

Jim

If you google NYC maps, you will see many sites for maps of the nyc, manhattan, the subway, other areas, etc - you can print a few out and it might help you determine distances and your planning, and to see how easy it is to walk between many popular sites.

It can be overwhelming to plan time in NYC, so know that in a few days you aren't going to see everything - impossible ! Do a good overview - maybe a tour (search on this forum for those links to reports on the more popular bus tours for an overview) - and choose the things that interest you most otherwise.

Also leave time to explore- if you like what is in Soho/Nolita area - spend some time just soaking it up, eating, shopping et. ( or choose the east village, or west, or union square area, etc)

Do the same for another area - such as maybe going to the MET if museums are your thing, starting at that end of Central park, then enjoying Central Park, from the paths and the heightened spots to see views (rooftop of Met) and then down to 5th ave, etc and onto St. Patrick's, Rockefeller ctr, and into Times Sq - all doable in a day if you are a walker -

Or if Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island interests you more, block time for that.

Once you narrow your interests and areas down, then search on this board for restaurants, on menupages.com, or put in a new request for restaurants in Soho or Nolita or East Village, etc. and the type of foods you like and price range for ideas.

The maps and your interests will help you narrow it down, then you can post for more specifics in those areas or help inc hoosing between two things (say if you need help choosing between two museums or figuring out how much time in each musuem, some of which depend on how much time do you like in a museum, do you look at everything, are you going to block off only 2hrs and see special exhibits and move on, etc)

But I would say leave yourself some time to enjoy sitting and people watching and enjoying something in an outdoor cafe all along the way so you can enjoy the city pulse and not be just running from one museum to another site to another. To me, that's when visitors get too tired and cranky and don't feel like they enjoyed the city.