leenstra

Hello, I will be travelling to the US with my husband in June 2007. Would appreciate help/recommendation and or/ideas on the following:
Accommodation in San Diego, New York and Seattle not more than 120USD. Conviently situated for first time visitors. Please can you also recommend what to definately do and see. We are thinking of taking a bus tour from New York to see the Niagara falls. Any comment on this. We will be in these cities for approximately 5 nights each. Thank you

happytrailstoyou

The bus ride from NYC to Niagra Falls is long and tiring. You will spend 14-16 hours on the bus.

You will need a car in San Diego.

I am curious why you have decided to visit only San Diego in California.

rjw_lgb_ca

The choice of cities does seem slightly random, being that they're so far-flung (example: New York City to Seattle: 2,915 miles). People DO love San Diego-- what's not to love? Southern California beaches without the LA attitude. However, June Gloom (our well-known marine layer that blankets coastal California in late spring/early summer) may dampen the beach thrills.

But the main rub is $120 USD per night for lodging.

You MIGHT find that in Seattle. You MIGHT find that in San Diego. That rate is LAUGHABLE in New York City. Reduce the number of nights in each city and/or kick up the lodging rate ($200 a night in NYC might get you a small room in a clean budget hotel, nothing better). Unless you use Priceline. Expertly.

Niagara Falls is over 400 miles from Manhattan. Unless you do an overnight, I don't think it's really worth the trouble.

TahitiTams

rjw is so right on the money on advice for you leenstra..
In regards to San Diego, the month of June is considered "June Gloom" and possible deals could be had at the coastline, so check places like Expedia and others for some deals but $120 can be done but it will probably be a La Quinta Inn & Suites which are great properties in the US that are clean, free breakfast and internet too.
Best Western would also be another option.
La Jolla.. a gorgeous part of San Diego right on the coast with stunning beaches and great restaurants and hotels..try the La Jolla Village Lodge..great location and in your budget.
Good luck to you.

lajollavillagelodge.com

janisj

OK - a bit of reality check is in order here. Even w/ Priceline you will likely not get a decent place in NYC for $120.

In Seattle the nice city center hotels will be much higher - again unless you use PL. And in San Diego at that price you will pretty much be limited to motels - nice but motels and not usually convenient to most public transport.

Those three cities are so far apart is seems as though you just threw darts at a map and those are what you hit.

- How long total do you have for this trek? Just the 15 days you account for in your post?

- A particular reason you chose those 3 cities?

- Have your flights already been booked? If so, in to where and out of where?

christy1

There are some older threads that give advice about inexpensive lodging in Seattle, if you search. It will be nearly impossible to get a good, well located hotel for that in Seattle in June unless you use Priceline or Hotwire (two very good options). Or, bed and breakfasts tend to be less expensive, and though they are not located downtown or too close to many of the tourist sites, they are often in nice neighborhoods that are worth exploring.

MFNYC

For kicks a put in a week in mid june into Kayak.com. The only hotel in Manhattan that showed up for < $200 was WooGo Lincoln Center Apartments which gets awful reviews (search 'woogo' in this forum), and that's $141. Anything is is located in places like South Ozon Park, Queens or Newark, NJ, neither of which I'd recommend.

You NYC budget isn't going to work, unless you stay at a hostel type place, or possibly a shared bath hotel like the Larchmont (which actually gets decent reviews in Tripadvisor and is in a great neighborhood).

nytraveler

Except for Jan/Feb $120 is a VERY low budget for NYC. Since there are only 2 of you you can bid on Priceline (but don;t do below 4* since some of the 3* are quite unpleasant)., Check betterbidding.com or biddingfortravel.com to see how this works and what prices people are getting for your time frame. You might also try Radio City Apartments. These are in a great location, but VERY basic and kind of tired - but will help save money since you can make breakfasts - and even bring in other meals if you want (since I assume you're on a super tight budet.)

With only 5 days in NYC I would not do Niagara Falls. It's a very long trip just to look at a bunch of water falling. (We saw it on the way to Toronto - but otherwise would never have seen it - and we're both native New Yorkers). Don;t misunderstand - it is impressive - but not at the cost of losing 2 of your 5 days in NYC.

As for what to see and do - check out the destination section above and read a couple of guidebooks. Then come back with specific questions. If you just want a general list - versus one tht matches YOUR interests - there are a lot of posts if you look below.

nytraveler

One other option you might want to consider is the Hotel Newton on the upper west side. the hotel is very basic and right on Broadway - so a lot of street noise at night. but they're showing double rooms with private bath for $150 plus tax for your time period.

This is a very nice neighborhood (mid/upscale residential) with tons of good inexpensive restaurants and 2 subway lines - so convenient to almost everywhere in the city.

(NYC is huge - the basic tourist area is more than 8 miles long - plus several islands in the harbor - so no one place is convenient to everything - you'll have to use the subway a lot. But - it's conveninet, fast and inexpensive.)

leenstra

thank you all for your responses. Somehow there was a glich and I never received these replies until i went back to search for my enquiry. We have quite an extensive itinerary in california and the 3 cities mentioned where the only part of our itinerary that had not been fully arranged. Because of your comments we now 1. doubled our new York hotel budget 2. Niagara falls visit - have discarded the bus trip and likely to fly to Buffalo and hire a car (your comments)?
We are from South Africa and because of poor exchange rate we are more sensitive to prices.
Our trip to Niagara falls will be outside of the 5 days in New York. We have 4 nights extra to spend elsewhere, so thats where the idea of Niagara came in. Is it worth the trip and should we maybe visit Toronto. I get the feeling from other posts that Niagara isn't a top attraction. As far as travelling is concerned we are happy to hire a car and travel reasonable distances.Thank you again

zelle_us

Hi leenstra, I live in beautiful San Diego! You may want to stay in Downtown, where you will be close to everything. It may be pricey, though. And for sure you will need to rent a car to get around. Another option is to stay around Hotel Circle, a bit more on the budget side. There are many hotels like; Marriott's Residence Inn that comes with full breakfast (great new hotel), Doubletree, Red Lion, etc...

Great Tourist Spots: Old Town, Gaslamp District, SeaWorld, World Famous San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park,Balboa Park, Seaport Village, La Jolla Shores, are just a few places to see.

I hope you have a wonderful time here in our beautiful city.

sdtravels

Would you please post your complete itinerary? That way people might be better able to comment on you extra 4 days. Is this your first trip to the US? If not, where else have you been? I might consider going south from NYC to Washington DC. It is only a 3 hour train trip from NY. Niagra is beautiful but for me, no much to once you've seen it.

Fairhope

You want to see Niagara Falls but you might think of staying at Niagara on the Lake in Canada on your way to Toronto

mclaurie

I think seeing the falls is a fine idea and flying to Buffalo, NY and either renting a car there or hooking up with a tour is the way to do it. Kayak.com is a website I like to check which airlines fly which route. There are a few discount airlines (like Southwest) that are not included on kayak, but for NYC to Buffalo, that's not an issue. Jet Blue (jetblue.com) is one of the best discount airlines here and they fly from JFK to Buffalo and also to an airport known as Monroe County which also looks close. I don't know anything about it though.

Here are 2 previous posts with good info on Niagara Falls

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=34860014
talks about helicopter ride of the area

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=34854253
excellent trip report with details on different tours and mention of lodging. Niagara on the Lake is a pretty spot near the Falls that you might want to consider. One thing that I don't think is mentioned in either of those posts is the nightly light show and Fri. night fireworks at the falls, something worth seeing. So if you can arrange to be there on a Fri., I would.
Here's also a good article I found online on the must see/dos of Niagara Falls
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport...garafalls.html

For accomodation in NYC, you might want to take advantage of one of the apt/hotels where you'd have some extra space and a kitchen. Affinia.com is a group of 7 of these, all well run and reasonably central. The Affinia Dumont, Shelburne Murray Hill, Affinia 50 and the Benjamin are, imo, the best located and in good condition. The Eastgate which is cheapest is a bit rundown looking and the Beekman Towers is lovely (old deco building) but not as central--still fine though. Do you know about tripadvisor.com? There are reviews of almost every hotel in every city and you should definitely use it to screen hotels.

Quikbook.com is another hotel booking site that's well regarded. Most of their rates are as good as and sometimes better than the hotels' own sites (but always double check). They are also one of the few third party sites that doesn't require prepayment and allows free cancellations. Just look for "book now, pay later" near the price. (There are a few special rates that do require prepayment so pay attention.)

June is a busy time in NYC with lots of graduations and weddings. Unless you find the ideal place at a fabulous price, I'd book something that's cancellable and keep your eyes open for better deals/lower prices closer to your trip. Travelzoo.com is a terrific website that lists specials usually 1-3 months before a trip. Some of the Affinia hotels are occasionally on special.

For getting to San Diego, if you don't already have your airline arranged, I'd recommend Jet Blue again. They fly non-stop from JFK to SAN. In San Diego, I like staying either on Coronado (island just over a bridge from downtown with a gorgeous beach) or La Jolla, an upscale town on the beach.

Don't miss Balboa Park (museums, gardens and the famous zoo). Just be warned San Diego gets something called June gloom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Gloom

mclaurie

The link to that article won't work. You'll have to copy and paste the entire URL.

enzian

leenstra---do you still need a hotel in Settle? The Sxith Avenue Inn has rooms in June for $120 a night (according to Expedia). The location is great, and the property, while not a fancy hotel, is fine.

ellenem

<<Somehow there was a glich and I never received these replies until i went back to search for my enquiry.>>

That is indeed the only way you will receive your replies. The quickest way to do so: Click on your screen name at the top left next to the "hello" and all the threads you've written in appear at left.

ellenem

Excuse me, the screen name is next to "Welcome"