NYC-Best place to park outside Manhattan
Aug 30th, 2009, 06:52 PM
#21
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NY Waterway has an 800 number (1-800-53-Ferry), you should call them to confirm their overnight parking rate. As for leaving the car for 4 days, assuming it is an older car and you leave nothing in it, I think it probably would be fine. Of course every day you leave it parked in the same place is another day it could become a target. And if it is a brand new car, I might have second thoughts about it. This might be a question to ask the NY Waterway people.
However, I would say that parking in NJ will add a bit of time and possibly trouble to your trip, as you will have to take the George Washington Bridge or Tappan Zee and deal with traffic in those areas (having spent a Friday night about a month ago sitting in about 3 hours of traffic trying to cross the GW on a trip back from Cape Cod, this is not something I currently think of as a fun trip). If you avoid rush hours and weekend evenings, you are better off, but still just regular weekday traffic can be a hassle, there can be construction, etc. And you would have to deal with traffic both ways. I would still suggest you consider places along I-95 in Connecticut or Westchester County NY that are on the Metro north or Amtrak train line. You may also have an easier time with luggage on the train than on the ferry, but that is probably more of a minor matter.
If you are coming from Maine, which I think from your other posts you may be, why don’t you consider taking Amtrak all the way to NYC? The train will put you right into mid-town, and you will save the hassle of driving and paying for parking a car you won’t be using for 4 days. You can take the train from Portland in 6 hours (the fastest appears to be a bus/train combo, taking a bus from Portland to Boston, although you can take a train and switch in Boston.) Round trip fare appears to be $140 per person, but after adding in gas, bridge tolls in NYC, parking and ferry costs, the train fare may become more comparable to driving. Not sure about parking in Portland, you may know better, or perhaps someone can drop you off at the station and you won’t pay any parking. Or consider driving to someplace along the NE Corridor line on Amtrak which runs from Boston to NYC like Westwood Mass just south of Boston on Route I-95. (Not sure about parking there, but check the Amtrak website or post a question here, from a quick search I did they appear to have 2,000 spaces.)
However, I would say that parking in NJ will add a bit of time and possibly trouble to your trip, as you will have to take the George Washington Bridge or Tappan Zee and deal with traffic in those areas (having spent a Friday night about a month ago sitting in about 3 hours of traffic trying to cross the GW on a trip back from Cape Cod, this is not something I currently think of as a fun trip). If you avoid rush hours and weekend evenings, you are better off, but still just regular weekday traffic can be a hassle, there can be construction, etc. And you would have to deal with traffic both ways. I would still suggest you consider places along I-95 in Connecticut or Westchester County NY that are on the Metro north or Amtrak train line. You may also have an easier time with luggage on the train than on the ferry, but that is probably more of a minor matter.
If you are coming from Maine, which I think from your other posts you may be, why don’t you consider taking Amtrak all the way to NYC? The train will put you right into mid-town, and you will save the hassle of driving and paying for parking a car you won’t be using for 4 days. You can take the train from Portland in 6 hours (the fastest appears to be a bus/train combo, taking a bus from Portland to Boston, although you can take a train and switch in Boston.) Round trip fare appears to be $140 per person, but after adding in gas, bridge tolls in NYC, parking and ferry costs, the train fare may become more comparable to driving. Not sure about parking in Portland, you may know better, or perhaps someone can drop you off at the station and you won’t pay any parking. Or consider driving to someplace along the NE Corridor line on Amtrak which runs from Boston to NYC like Westwood Mass just south of Boston on Route I-95. (Not sure about parking there, but check the Amtrak website or post a question here, from a quick search I did they appear to have 2,000 spaces.)
