New Years Eve in Manhattan
 

My wife and I decided to stop over in New York for New Years on our way to Buffalo. We don't want to spend $500 for a hotel, so we gonna tough it out on the streets for the night. Does anyone have any suggestions on places that will be open all night where we could drink coffee or eat or whatever to keep us busy (and warm) before we head back to the airport on New Years day?

Also, do cab's take credit cards these days?

And what are you planning to do with your luggage? Hopefully check it through to Buffalo?

JFK has a luggage storage service. We'll use that.

Perhaps this is a stupid question... but, why do you want to do this? It really sounds like an awful way to spend NYE.

This can be a tricky request, because many places are open all night in Manhattan, but you are talking about New Year's Eve, which changes everything. The usual spots may change their usual times because of the holiday. I suggest the East Village as a general area that stays open late very late all the time.

ellenem makes a good point. Most bars in NYC are open until 4am, but on New Year's Eve many of them have special parties and charge exorbitant covers. Or are packed to the gills.

Grand Central is open until late (perhaps 2 or 3am) but there are not that many places to sit there. Still, it is a central location. And I suspect that after about 3am the hotels around Times Square will once again be accessible, so you could probably get into the lobbies to sit out the night.

There are several restaurants that are open 24 hours (many diners are, for example). But New Year's Eve will change a lot of schedules, so I hesitate to recommend a particular place.

This does sound like a particularly awful idea, though. I can think of few things I'd like to do less than wander around Manhattan in the cold all night on New Year's Eve.

FYI: You might be surprised to find that not all hotels will be $500 per night. I'd check Priceline and see if I could get something far from Times Square for much less that night. I think you might.

I have to agree this sounds like a recipe for a miserable night. Are you flying to Buffalo the next day? From Kennedy? If so, why not just reserve a room at the airport - just looking at Expedia, there are quite a few hotels in the mid-$100 range. When you are done for the night in Manhattan, you can take the LIRR from Penn Station to Jamaica Station, then take the Airtrain to JFK. Not ideal, but if you can't find anything in Manhattan, it still sounds better than wandering the streets all night. Of course, if you are not flying from Kennedy the next day, then this makes no sense. I thought there was a good chance that you'd be flying from Kennedy though, since both Jet Blue and Delta have direct flights to Buffalo from JFK.

If all fails, try to find a good grating for the evening.

As everyone noted, there has to be better alternatives.

Doug, I think you are wrong about being able to enter and just sit in a hotel lobby at 3 a.m., not just on New Year's Eve, but any morninga at that hour.

I'm not sure about New Year's Eve, but most of the big hotel lobbies are open all night, and if they OPs don't look like homeless people, they may be allowed to sit for an hour or two without being bothered. I could be wrong. It's not like it's something I'd ever do, so I have no specific experience. Just sounds like a disastrous and horrible night to me either way.

Doug, in the past few years (and not because of 9/11), hotel security has been much tighter at night to the point where at some facilities you must show your room key to even enter the hotel after a certain hour. I really can't imagine any hotel allowing non-guests to sit in its lobby at 3 a.m.

It's been my observation that a room key is required to enter hotels late at night and that no one is allowed to loiter in the lobby.

Even if you could find an all night place for coffee or whatever, I think you'll have quite a few hours leftover, very tired and uncomfortable, with nothing to do and a lot of time.

Hotwire has three JFK hotels, all with shuttle service, with rates $85-119. You may be able to narrow down the possibilities, or even figure out the hotels, on www.betterbidding.com

Easyclicktravel is showing the Best Western at JFK for $90/night.

It looks like the OP was in NY 2 years ago.