My sister and I are driving from Rochester, NY to the city for a couple days in December. I know what a pain it is to have a car in the city, but I will have mine, no way of getting around it!! any ideas where to park or stay that will not be so frustrating? Thanks all!

http://www.iconparkingsystems.com/

A place to park is not hard. There are garages all over the city. It's the cost that can be problematic.

Will you be staying at a hotel? If so, for starters, you should ask your hotel if they have a garage or get discounted rates at a nearby lot for their guests. Do you just need to park it for the duration - and not need in and out privileges? That may make a difference in cost.

I think there is a website of NYC garage rates, but not sure what it is.

Very generally speaking, I find garages seems to cost less the farther east or west you go, unless the garage is right next to a tourist spot like the UN, or another kind of place with lots of visitors, like a hospital.

You can also try to go to residential areas and see what alternate side rules of parking may be. If they coincide with your trip and will not take any additional time, it may save money.

With all due respect, Aduchamp1, I think it's insane to recommend that a visitor who isn't used to driving in Manhattan try to park on a residential street in the middle of December and try to navigate the city's arcane parking rules to park for free. New Yorkers can't even manage to figure this out.

The posters need to suck it up and be prepared to pay $30 to $45 per night for parking in a garage. It's a simple as that.

I don't even advocate finding an out-of-the-way garage. When you are driving into a city with which you are not familiar carrying luggage and trying to find your hotel, you need to park as close to your hotel as humanly possible. For such a short trip, it's simply not worth the hassle (extreme) of finding cheap or free parking.

Try googling Alliance Parking. Someimes they have parking coupons.

Agree completely with Doug. As a tourist, do you really want to deal with *extremely expensive* parking tickets and/or a towed car? Aduchamp - Do you live in NYC?

If you haven't made hotel reservations yet, the Travel Inn on W42nd St offers FREE parking to guests. It's a well priced and comfortable hotel, not far from the theatres, Times Square and tons of restaurants close by.

Aduchamp - Do you live in NYC?

All my life and now live downtown.

I know that alternate side rules can be as complex as the Jewish dietary laws but there are some that simply say, No parking Tue % Thur 9-11.

100,000's of NY'ers do it daily we all know they are all not genuises.

It was also an alternative to paying 80 bucks for two days.

And of course, no one gets gets their car dinged in the lots.

At this very moment, I am in NYC and my car is across the Hudson in Weehawken, NJ, where we parked it and took the ferry to Manhattan. I think it's $20 a day to park there, but it was very easy and a nice way to get into the city. Your ferry fare (about $7.50 each way) includes a bus that will take you to various places in the city. I recommend it.

Not only can you get dinged in lots, it can be worse.

Those lots with the lifts so they can store 2 cars in one spot? They don't work sometimes and the top car drops on the bottom car. How's that for a serious ding? Rarely happens, but it happens.

Alternate side of the street parking only works if yuo will be here for a couple of days including a weekend. Otherwise you will find yourself having to break off whatever you're doing to go back to the car and change side between 11:10 am and 1 pm - or whatever the time is for that neighborhood. and realize that finding a spot at all can take 20/30 minutes of driving around. and when the streets are cleaned all the locals are sitting there waiting for the new spots to open up - and you have to race them for it.

Agree that parking in a garage is all that makes sense. Ask your hotel for the most reasonable place nearby.

Thanks all, I am from Chicago, so I know all about the parking hassles of a huge city, parking on different sides of the street and what not!!! I thought maybe there was a parking dream that maybe locals new about Wishful thinking!!!

bestparking.com will give you an idea of prices. In addtion to iconparking.com centralparking.com also lets you reserve in advance. Your other option is to leave the car outside Manhattan and train in. The ferry terminal at Weehawken, NJ's Port Imperial charges $20/day for overnight parking which is usually cheaper than what you can find in Manhattan. nywaterway.com is the website for info. You can take the ferry over or a bus.

So funny. We drove a rental down from Boston on a Sunday night in May. Got into NYC up near Columbia about 9 pm. Must have gone 100 miles (at least it felt that far!) looking for parking that wouldn't involve moving our car the next morning during the middle of daughter's graduation. I couldn't believe all the different signs and rules, not to mention that NYC requires a longer space to be left at corners and fire hydrants than we're used to. Finally gave up after more than an hour, and dropped it at rental spot. Used a cab for moving daughter's stuff the next afternoon!

drive and park at one of the commuter or metro north train stations... leave car there and take train to grand central. either that or valet at hotel and cough up the dough. you will definitely not need, nor use, your car in manhattan. to bring it in is insane

The Metro North station in Poughkeepsie has free parking on weekends so depending on which days you're visiting, you might want to consider that. http://as0.mta.info/mnr/stations/sta...ail.cfm?key=58

If you decide to park outside of Manhattan the closest and most convenient might well be the Municipal Parking Lot at Court Square in Long Island City (Queens). It is just over the 59 St. Bridge. Subway stop is on on the corner and it is a 10 minute ride into mid-town. Rates are reasonable - cheaper than in Manhattan. There is a web site for these Municipal lots - google can find it.

The OP is coming from Rochester, NY. The best way to arrive in NYC from Rochester, is via Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Making the extra trip to Long Island to park is adding hours of headaches. Poughkeepsie is a better option, but still not along the way of the best driving route. Plus train tickets from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central/NYC cost $15-$20 each way. For two travelers, that's $60-$80 in train tickets.

If you must come by car, ditch the car somewhere in New Jersey or just drive into the city and pay for parking. Your actual agony on city streets will be brief if you don't plan to use the car during your visit.

Not sure if ellenem is referring to my post re parking in Long Island City. Long Island City - despite its name - is on the western tip of the boro of Queens ( hardly what we think of when we mention the suburban areas of Long Island) - just over the 59 St. Bridge - about a 5 minute ride from Manhattan and the subway is a ten minute ride into midtown.