Hello,

My husband, myself and our one year old are planning a trip for two nights to nyc (Manhattan) at the end of October. We are looking for a place to stay that is a one bedroom (separate living space) so that when our son goes to bed we can still watch TV in a separate space without waking him. We're looking at rentals on homeaway.com, but are unsure what areas are safe. Any suggestions? Also, any recommendations for places to stay outside of the city with easy transportation to get us to the city?

Generally, short term apartment rentals in NYC are illegal, and it is recommended to avoid them. The Radio City Apartments, the Affinia Hotels, places like Doubletree Suites or Residence Inns are a better idea.

The end of Oct. can be extremely expensive just before Halloween and leading into the NYC Marathon. If you could tell us where you're coming from (airport? car?) and what you plan to do while here so we can gauge the best location for outside the city it would be helpful. If you want to post exact dates we might be able to help you find something specific. As for a 1 bedroom hotel suite, in addition to the places abram lists, Beaconhotel.com and Milburnhotel.com on the upper west side are very good. Do NOT try to rent a private apt. Most buildings don't allow them and there are too many scams online. The guarantees offered by booking sites are worthless once you arrive and don't have a place to stay.

Can only agree not to "rent"an illegal apartment. there was an article in the local paper only last week about an apartment house that has had more than 30 groups arrive this summer with "contracts' to stay in the building. Of course, the building does not allow any such rentals and the people were

1) out all of the money that they had paid - sometimes in the thousands
2) had to scour the city to find a place to stay that night - at prices much higher than they could afford (since that's all that's left at the last moment)

You do NOT want to be doing this in Oct when the city is even more crowded and with a small child in tow.

Agree that if you give us dates, a budget and what you intend to do people can make specific recos on where to stay.

Wow ... you've waited so late in trying to find a place during one of the busiest weeks of the fall. There's an Embassy Suites in Battery Park City, and there are also some other suite-style hotels (most of the Affinia properties have 1-bedroom suites), as well as others.

Again, like everyone else has said, the budget is the crucial question. The rooms exist, but are you willing to pay what they cost?

The one thing I am in complete agreement with everyone else on is to avoid apartment rentals, which are almost universally illegal in NYC.

Actually, the Embassy Suites that Doug mentions is a really great idea. Their rates are ~ $279/night for the last weekend in Oct. which is very good value considering there are hotels in NJ charging about the same then and not nearly as convenient or nice. The Embassy Suites is also one of the few hotels in NYC that includes full cooked breakfast in the room rate.

Thanks so much for that tip everyone!! I had no idea it was illegal. We have used that website before but that was for Maine. We would like to stay any 2 nights the week of Oct 25th. We're coming from Massachusetts by car. As for what we would like to do... that's pretty open since both of us have only been to the city once and it was too cold to do much of anything. Thanks again!