New York - Which area? Your advice please.
 

Hi,
In May my wife and I and my brother and adult son are visiting several US cities. We shall have 4 days in New York and I hope you might be able to advise me which area would be both safe to walk to in the evening and yet not too far from the usual 'touristy' sites! Any hotel suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

All tourist areas of NYC are safe - it;s the sagest large city in the country. Most tourist sights are in Manahttan which has 5 or 6 different areas in which you can look for hotels. The key item is proximity to the subway - which is the best way to get around for longer distances - feet are best for short distances.

Some areas are frantic at all hours (Times Square), some are busy (midtown est, central park south), some are residential with lots of restaurants and cafes (upper west side, village, east village, SoHo, Chelsea) and some are mostly deserted at night (financial district).

To provide hotel recos we need to know your budget and if you want one room or two (a standard NYC hotel room has one double bed and not a lot of room for anything else). Also an idea if you want a frantic neighborhood or just busy will help.

Thanks for the prompt reply. We shall be booking three rooms and would like to stay somewhere that we can walk to a reasonable restaurant and perhaps not suffer from too much noise in order to get some sleep. I was hoping to spend around 200 USD per room? Thanks, Mark.

I'd suggest upper west side, close to Central Park.

I agree with downtown brown, the upper west side is a great place to stay and some hotels will give you discounts for booking and paying in advance. That being said, those deals are often not refundable.

Not sure of your dates.

Have a look at the following - which sometimes have internet specials with advance purchase:

Beacon, On the Ave, Lucern, Excelsior, Newton - the latter is somewhat farther uptown. The neighborhood is mid/upscale residential *multi-million $ co-ops on CPW and multi-million $ mansions on Riverside) with the avenues lined with stores, local shops and a host of restaurants with sidewalk cafes (of every possible ethnicity) - while side streets are lined with brownstones (townhouses, mostly one apartment per floor), mid-range apartment buildings and luxury high rises.

Subway lines are on Broadway and Central Park West. All of these places are within a couple of blocks of the park. Museums of Natur'l Hist and NY Historical Society are on the West side of the park near 79th and the east side of the Park is Museum Mile from 100th down - with a host of great museums, including the MET (the greatest cultural institution in the western hemisphere). You can walk across the Park in 15 or 20 minutes (get a map online from the Central Park Conservancy) or take the 79th St crosstown bus if you prefer.

One note: NYC is a large city and is never quiet - even in the middle of the night (that's when commercial carters are required to pick up garbage to avoid causing traffic jams, and there are always police and fire sirens. If you want rooms that are quiet ask for them away from the street (but then you're likely to be looking at the wall of another building a few feet away).

But - do not dawdle making reservations - these hotels fill up far in advance since they are quite pleasant for a modest budget.

I agree with everyone's advice about the Upper West Side. We are particularly fond of the Hotel Beacon. The Milburn is also in that neighborhood I'm not sure your hope for $200 a night is reasonable, but a room with a kitchenette will help a lot. Both the Beacon and the Milburn have 1 bedroom suites, where the sofa in the living room pulls out to a queen sized bed. I would also recommend that you book early.

p.s. Ask for an Upper Floor and as quiet a room as possible

We loved The Beacon. Had a two-bedroom, two-bath suite that was perfect for myself and four 'girlfriends'. Wonderful to have a small kitchen and seating areas. Great location. Highly recommend.

The OP was looking at 3 rooms for $200 each - so should be able to maneuver something if they book far in advance.

Yes, the OP mentions four adults and wants three rooms. A two-bedroom suite/ two-bath could be a better option for the father and his adult son, perhaps. The Beacon also has one bedroom suites for the husband and wife.

In any event, you have to contact The Beacon directly in order to get a 2 bdrm/2 bath. Those suites are not available on-line.

Markcw we stayed at the Beacon recently and our room had two double beds. Could your brother and son share a room to bring down costs so that you are booking two rooms instead of three so you can spend 300 per night. It really is a great area with shops, restaurants and subway so close and large market across the street. Big Nicks had delicious pizzas and its only a block away. We had the little kitchenette but to be honest we only used the kettle to make a cup of tea. New York is far to exciting to have wasted time eating in our rooms. We wanted to be eating amongst native New Yorkers or visitors and watching it all.
Also, at no point did we ever feel unsafe and we had to walk to the subway at 4am one morning to catch an early Amtrak for a day trip. Its a wonderful place for walking at any hour.

We stayed at the Affinia Dumont on E 34th. It has big rooms and a full kitchen. Walking distance to Macys but best of all, just around the corner from the subway and so only minutes from anywhere. We had an amazing view of the skyline from our room.
My daughter and son in law stayed on the Upper Westside and paid less with a similarly great experience.
I never once felt unsafe in New York.

Thank you all for your informed replies. We shall definitely stay on the upper west side. I have had a quote from the Beacon, but at 500.93 dollars per night for a double bedded room and 841.44 dollars for a two bedroom suite it's far too expensive.However, I have tried one or two alternatives that look good value. Thanks again.

I don;t see where youlist your dates and in NY the timing is everything. Jan is prctically free and winter holidays (Thanksgiving through NYE) will cost 2 or 3 times as much. Those prices are VERY high for the Beacon - are you coming during the holidays?

A litle further uptown is the Newton - a relaible budget property - you might want to consider looking there. Whatever you do, do not book Riverside Towers - it is a dump -unclean, nonworking amenities and dwarfish rooms in terible condition.

In May the Newton has an advance book internet special on a queen room for about $190 per night. But - timing does make a difference.

Thanks NY traveller, the actual dates in May are 19th-23rd. I dont know if this is holiday season in NY? However, thank you for the advice on the Newton which looks good to me!

No - our holidays are Nov and Dec. May is mid priced season.