We have never been to new York and would really appreciate any help.
We will be arriving LGA in June and staying in a hotel before going on a cruise out of New York port.
Would it be easy to stay near LGA and go by subway to Manhattan to sightsee.
OR
Are there different areas that you would recommend that have more reasonable priced hotels than right downtown but also easy to get into Manhattan, Times Square,theaters etc.
Thanks

If your cruise departs from Manhattan, there is no reason to stay near LGA. In fact, really can't think of any idea for you to stay near LGA. Public transit from LGA to Manhattan is not the easiest or quickest, and it's even worse from the hotels nearby.

What do you mean by 'New York port'?

See this Fodor's article:
www.fodors.com/news/story_2915.html

Also see these articles:
familyroadtrippers.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York

Have a blast,
Dan
www.familyroadtrippers.com

It would be very inconvenient and not very pleasant to stay in a motel near LGA.

Bite the bullet and book a hotel from which you can walk to Times Square, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, etc. You won't regret it.

Agree -

You need to find where your cruise is leaving from. New York harbor is huge and there are several different ports (Manhattan's West Side, Red Hook in Brooklyn, plus ports in New Jersey) that cruise ships leave out of.

Agree staying near LGA is not a good idea - it's not near
ANY of the ports - and public transit is not good. It will take about an hour to get from there to midtown by bus and subway.

I have to agree that staying near LGA would be very inconvenient and much less fun than being in Manhattan.

Commuting is time consuming, and depending on how you do it can be expensive - which would eat up your savings on the hotel.


There are a lot of threads on this board about less expensive hotels in Manhattan and I'd suggest searching them for some suggestions.

If you really can't afford a hotel in Manhattan for the days, you might want to look for a hotel outside NYC which has some local attractions nearby and visit them for a few days. But if you've never been to NYC before, I'd really suggest getting a hotel in Manhattan and get your cruise off to a good start with some fun days seeing the many sites in Manhattan.

Manhattan port.
We have been looking but hotels in that area in June are so expensive.

Close to the boats and mid manhattan. This once had great rates, but the word is out. Perhaps your dates and rates may work.

http://www.skylinehotelny.com/

Just keep looking for a hotel. You will find that the closer the time gets, the hotel rates will go down. Many of the chain hotels have deals, like buy two nights, one free, etc. You do not want to stay anywhere but Manhatten. You will regret it if you do.

How much time do you have between when you arrive in LGA and leave for the cruise? I agree that LGA is not vey nice. THere are some good Greek restaurants but you would need a cab to get there. Try getting a room on Priceline. Would NJ or the financial districtjust across the water be better and cheaper?

Have you looked at Travelzoo for deals for your dates?

If there are only 2 of you you could also bid on Priceline.

Frankly I would go for something modest in Manhattan (even a B&B with shared bath) that waste all of those hours trekking in and out from the airport.

Most of the LGA hotels are not near a subway and it would be a real pain to travel from there, but there are some hotels outside Manhattan that would not be impossible if you absolutely can't find anything within your budget.
What is your budget???? Have you looked on quikbook.com ? The Gild Hall hotel is still being renovated and offering very good rates, esp. on weekends. It's in the financial area downtown, not the most central location but better than staying outside Manhattan.

I agree that if you're just 2 people, you should try bidding on Priceline. If you don't know about Priceline, betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com are designed to explain and help you construct bids. You should try to book a back up hotel in case Priceline doesn't work.

There are also some less traditional options like inns/
b & b's whose rates don't fluctuate as dramatically as the hotels. A few of these are

jacksbandb.com
abingdonguesthouse.com
west-eleventh.com
staythenight.com

PS in NYC "downtown" is not the central area but the area around Wall st., Soho, Tribeca. Midtown is the area most tourists prefer where the theaters are etc.

Contrary to BeckyNYC's advice, I would urge you to book something immediately as long as you can cancel without penalty. In fact, hotels in NYC are not going down in price this summer; they are going up because of a huge influx of foreign tourists.

You will get the best deal now for a hotel in June. If you can't afford Manhattan, you can certainly stay in Queens (try Comfort Inn Long Island City) and be one stop from Midtown on the subway and about $25 cab ride to the cruise port.

Then try Apple Core Hotels or one of the Affinia Hotels. Try the Pod Hotel. Try Hotels.com. Try Priceline.com. And keep looking; if a good deal pops up, take it. But don't expect to pay under $200 (probably not much under $250) with tax to stay in Manhattan this summer.