Below is a report of my short trip to NY with my mother. I received so much helpful advice on this forum that made the trip a wonderful success. I have grouped my report into the three areas I received help with: transportation, lodging, and itinerary.

Transportation:
We arrived early into LGA on Friday, May 22. Based on advice from this forum, I had decided to take a taxi into Manhattan. We found no line at the taxi stand at about 9:45 a.m. and were immediately on our way. We ran into some traffic on the way to the hotel, so the total fare was $36.00 + tip. This included tolls. Based on other posts, I suggested to the driver that he take the Queensboro bridge (to avoid the toll), but he said there would be lots of traffic. I took his word for it and later saw a sign on the way advising motorists of heavy delays on the Queensboro Bridge. So, I am guessing the savings of no toll would likely have been eaten up in traffic and I was glad to not get stuck in it.

Following our stay in Manhattan, we were headed to a family wedding in Allentown, PA. I ended up getting a Newark Airport rental car reservation from Priceline for about a third of what I was quoted to pick up in Manhattan. After seeing traffic in midtown, I was glad not to have to drive in it. And the trip back to Newark went surprisingly smoothly, thanks in large part to all of the advice from this forum. Our last stop was in SoHo, so we took the Subway from there (Prince St Station) to 34th St./Herald Sq. We walked a block over to Penn Station and took a NJ Transit train to Newark Airport Station. The AirTrain took us from the Newark Airport Station to the rental car counter. In sounded daunting in the planning of it, but in reality went very smoothly and quickly and cost just $17.25 each ($2.25 for the subway ride and 15 for the train). Getting out of the airport onto I-78 was also a straight shot and went very smoothly.

Hotel:
We stayed at the Park Savoy on W. 58th. Thanks to TDudette for the recommendation. After reading this recommendation, I checked the reviews online and it seemed like a good fit for what we needed. We had one queen bed and a bathroom for $165 all-in. As promised it was very basic with almost no amenities – though I was pleasantly surprised to find a mini-fridge in the room which we ended up using. The bed was reasonable, not great, but the room was clean and larger than I expected. There was also a flat screen TV and decent furniture. The staff was courteous, though not overly friendly (they seemed pretty busy). We were able to leave our luggage there when we arrived on Friday morning, since check-in wasn’t until 3:00 pm. The best part of the hotel: price and location. I think $165 was a pretty good rate for mid-May and we were just a block from Central Park (btwn 6th and 7th) and 8 short blocks from Rockefeller Center. There were also subway stations just around each corner, which was very convenient. So, if you are budget minded and not concerned about amenities, Park Savoy is a good option.

Sightseeing / Itinerary:

Friday:
We started by walking over to see Carnegie Hall and then walking down 5th Ave. We stopped in at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then walked through the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center.

On 49th St we caught the NY Waterway bus. The free bus took us directly to the NY Waterway ticket office for a 90-minute harbor cruise. Thanks to mclaurie for recommending this over the Circle Line. The free bus service was great, and on the way we passed the Circle Line office with a huge line out front. At the NY Waterway terminal, there was hardly any line. The weather was perfect and the tour guide was really great. My mom loved doing this first because it gave her a good overview of the city and she was able to appreciate the rest of the trip more once she had this information.

When I purchased tickets (in advance), they were offering a package of a cruise and Top of the Rock ticket for $30.00. Since we planned to do TOR anyway, this saved us ~$17 each.

At the end of the cruise, we took the free bus service downtown to the World Trade Center and walked through St. Paul’s Chapel – very moving. (The free bus was nice, though the traffic was bad and we might have done better to just pay for a subway ride.)
We walked from St. Paul’s to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked out to the first arch and then back to the subway station at City Hall.

We took the subway to 33rd Street to being our walking tour:
• The lobby of ESB
• A quick tour of Macy’s (overwhelming/crowded, but fun to see the wooden escalators)
• Walk through Times Square (just long enough to see it and say we had been there)
• Bryant Park / the Library
• Grand Central Station – by the time we got to Grand Central, we were tired so we got something to eat from the Dining Concourse and sat for a few minutes. We also got a slice of Devilsfood Cheesecake from Juniors. In spite of mixed reviews of Juniors, it was the best cheesecake I have had in a long time (and a huge piece – we couldn’t finish it between the two of us).

After Grand Central, we made our way to Rockefeller Center to visit TOR. I had hoped to go up around 8:00 (at dusk). However, since we got our tickets as part of a package, we ended up with vouchers instead of timed tickets. By the time we got there to trade in our vouchers it was about 7:40 and the next available time was 8:30. I also hadn’t calculated for security screening and the 12 minute film you have to watch before being allowed up the elevator. Overall, a much shorter processed than ESB, but we missed sunset and ended up there after dark. It was still beautiful and well worth the trip up (though not sure I would have been as pleased if we had paid full price). Next time we will get there earlier and/or purchase timed tickets that account for the whole process and get us up there with some daylight left.

Saturday:
We got up early on Saturday and went to Le Pain Quotidien (7th and W. 58th) for a pastry/coffee to take into Central Park. I had a buttermilk oat scone that was fabulous (not sweet, just really good). We took our food into the Park and sat on a bench watching little league baseball practice (at 7:30 a.m.!). Then we walked around for about an hour and a half (I had printed a couple of walking tour maps from www.CentralPark.com that were very helpful).

We took the subway down to Soho and walked around on Broadway until it was time to head to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum for the Piecing it Together tour and the 25 minute film prior to the tour (since we were on a tight schedule, I had purchased advanced tickets online in order to guarantee a tour time). This (along with the cruise) was my mom’s favorite part of the trip. I am looking forward to doing the other tours on future trips.

This concluded a full but good trip (see above for how we made our way out of Manhattan). Thanks again to all of you who contributed to this itinerary. It all went so smoothly and I think it is because I was so well-prepared with advice from this forum. And most importantly, my mom had a great time and really loved the trip. It was a great way to celebrate her birthday!

Great report, I will pass onto my DD details on how to get to Newark. The Park Savoy sounds a good recommendation also at a reasonable price.

Sounds like a great trip. Glad you enjoyed yourselves.

Wow, you packed it in (in a good way!). Sounds like fun.

Great report; thanks for posting. It sounds like you did a lot in those 28 hours!

Sounds like a great trip.

But Macy's wasn;t "unimaginably crowded" - that happens at Christmas - when people are elbow to elbow over the entire ground floor - and there are "facilitators" at the bottom of the escalators to pull those moving too slowly out of the way - so people don;t trample one another.

Sounds like a great trip with your Mom; thanks for sharing it with us!

I paid the same coming at same time from LG to midtown Manhattan , 50 street, my taxi took the Tunnel and of course we had to go up town from there to 50 th street. Going to airport because it has rush hour I called a Carmel town car and paid 45 alltogether. It was worth it because we stayed in Manhattan till the last possible moment .
All drivers of all the taxis I took in Manhattan were either from Bangladesh or India..

Sounds just great! Hope you get back soon.