the wife wants to go to new york city in oct. we have never been and would like some help on where to stay and some hotels. we both like to sight see and shop by day and hit the bars at night any tips? thanks

If you do a search on New York and hotels above you will find about a million threads on this. Also if you read the New York guide here and review one or two guidebooks you can determine in which areas you might want to stay and some of the things you want to do.

then if you come back with specific questions - dates, price ranges, neighborhoods etc - I'm sure people can provide detailed recos.

I also recommend you check out biddingfortravel.com for information and prices on hotels as well as tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews.

I can no longer travel without visiting these sites along with this one of course for insight on my trip.

My wife and I stayed at the Library Hotel. It is around the corner from Grand Central Station (I think it's at Madison and 41st). Since we wanted to travel all over manhattan, it was great being that convenient to grand central. The hotel is very nice, too. It's a boutique hotel and all the rooms have a literary theme. Their rack rate is a little high, but we booked through an online site and paid less than we would have paid for the comfort inn! I think it was quikbook.com, but I'm not sure.

Regardless of where you stay, be sure to eat some pizza at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn. It's located right next to the brooklyn bridge. It's the best NY pizza you can get. After your meal, take the walk back to manhattan over the brooklyn bridge (the view is 100 times better going in this direction). Have fun!!

Considering your interests you may like staying in the VIllage/Soho area where there is lots of shopping and good nightlife. The Union Square W, Soho Grand or 60 Thompson are all very nice (and trendy) hotels. As far as site-seeing, the sites are spread all over town but the subways can get you to most places in minutes.

What is your hotel budget?