Hi
Been offered a good deal in Embassy Suites Lower Manhatton but a bit concerned that as a tourist I should be staying nearer to Times Square for sites etc? This is not a problem though if Subways are safeish at night, I am sure they are fine but you do get a lot of scaremongering. I have no worries at all in London Underground, is NYC Subway ten times worse?
Rgds
Charles

The subways are fine at night -- obviously, you don't want to be riding to the Bronx at 3am... but I am a single female and have taken the subways to/from lower Manhattan to mid-town zillions of times at night by myself without ever worrying.

The area around the Embassy Suites is also fine -- I live about 8 blocks from there and walk to the movie theater(adjacent to the hotel) at night with no worries.

Enjoy your trip!

If you do a search within this forum, you should find a very recent post from someone who stayed at ES and was very happy with it.

I don't get why anyone would stay in Times Square. What sights are there around there? There's Broadway theaters, big lit-up advertising signs, huge crowds of slow-moving tourists, stores you see in your local mall, and what else? Nothing! Even decent restaurants in that area are hard to come by.

Sorry about the rant! It will be a lot more pleasant staying downtown. The subways are safe...I usually take them up until midnight and have never seen an act of violence in any of my 10,000 trips. Many subway stations look like they need need some refurbishing...but they are safe. I felt less safe on the tube in London.

From EMbassy Suites, you can walk to Battery Park, hudson river park, staten island ferry, museum of the american indian, fraunces tavern, the NY stock exchange, museum of jewish heritage, south street seaport, brooklyn bridge, chinatown, tribeca, and more. Take subways everywhere else, taxis if it's really late at night. i'm not a big fan of times sq. either. i find it congested and noisy. not pleasant at all.

Not sure if you are coming next week, but there may be a transit strike, i.e. no subways and no buses. Watch the news when you come to find out if it's on, etc. - if it happens, it starts at 12:01 am Monday.