Quick NYC, DC, and Williamsburg trip report:

My DD and I had planned a quick trip to NYC, DC, and Williamsburg while DH and DS went to the Boundary Waters. After we had made our reservations, a good friend of mine decided to join us. Since I had made our reservations for NYC and DC through priceline, I called each hotel to make sure we had 2 queen sized beds at least, it was no problem. Here’s our trip and our lessens learned. Thank you everyone on Fodor’s for sharing your ideas and helping with our trip.

Arrived NYC: We used Carmel Limo to pick us up. You call when you have picked up your luggage, step outside and they drive up holding a sign with your name, you wave and they stop for you, its very funny. It cost us $33.00 to our hotel, I am not sure how that compares to a taxi. www.carmellimo.com


Roosevelt Hotel at 45th and Madison: It was a very nice hotel, rooms were small, but the beds were comfy, plenty of pillows and towels, excellent shower. The staff was friendly, and the location was convenient, just a couple blocks from Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. We walked everywhere. There is a Clarks shoe store located right in the hotel; we bought 2 pairs while we were there. http://www.theroosevelthotel.com/ImageGallery/Photo/ Like I said we used priceline and paid $159 plus tax a night, I felt that was great price and we were happy with the hotel.

Top of the Rock: This was just a few blocks from us, there was no line, very simple to get in and get right to the top. There is an audio tour which we did not do. Tip: if you do this without the audio tour, bring a map with you because there are not any written descriptions of what you are looking at. We had to do it all by memory, but the views are amazing.

Times Square: Wow is this place crowded. My DD loved this place, all the lights, and activity. I was amazed at all of the tourists. I was wishing there was some sort of walking etiquette, such as on a bike path with different directions, and slow walkers on the right, with a passing lane, etc. It’s hard to get anywhere fast, but it is a feast for the eyes.

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island: This was great, the line to get tickets was not too bad, and there are many different windows, so make sure you walk all the way around the kiosk. It’s beyond me why people would want to stand in line instead of walking around to a free window, but they do. Security line was a bit long.

We did the audio tour for both the Statue and Ellis Island, I highly recommend it. At the statue it walks you around the Island and gives good descriptions. The worst part is waiting in line to get back on the ferry for Ellis Island. At Ellis Island the audio tour is fantastic, and you can easily imagine yourself being one of the immigrants. But once leaving the island you must once again wait in a long line to board a boat, not much seating on the boat. Tip: if you buy something at the concession stand on the boat they give you back gold dollars in your change.


Subway: Very simple to use, we bought our tickets from the machine, very simple, and New Yorkers love to help you out. I thought some of the signage was confusing, but we never had to ask for help, people just volunteer, It was really nice.

MoMA: This was DD’s favorite in NY. She loved the big Richard Serra sculptures; I found the gardens very tranquil, a nice place for relaxing. www. moma.org

Chinatown / Little Italy: This is a lot of fun, so much going on. DD bought several of headbands. To my surprise they were selling the same (or very similar pashiminas) as in Paris. I kept getting asked if I wanted to go into the back to buy Luis Vuitton or Chanel. It was so much fun. We ate in Little Italy at the place with the small man with a hat who pulls you in. Food was good, but not great.


Central Park: This is so pretty, we walked as well as took a carrage ride.

Things I learned and you may laugh at these:

New Yorkers are extremely friendly and helpful., I only met one grumpy person (works at Dean and Deluca at Rockefeller Plaza). I meet more than that at home each day.

When they film movies in NY in a car, they are pulling the car behind a truck, the actors are not actually driving the car.

When the mayor shows up for a press conference in the subway, it is all planned ahead of time. The film crews are there waiting, the mayor is not just popping out of the subway.

Make reservations for dinner: I wish I had thought of this, It turns out my friend and I have totally different tastes. She likes to stick with chains; I like to try new flavors. I let her win, had I made a few reservations we could have added some variety to our meals.

Penn Station: Located under Madison Square Garden, There is no need to get there more than a half an hour before your train. There really is not much seating for waiting. Use your credit card at the kiosk to print your tickets(really simple), then proceed to the signs by the escalator, at about 15 minutes before your departure, the sign will indicate the track for your train, then proceed to the appropriate escalator.

Parades last all day: When we left early to head out for the day, the Puerto Rico day parade was just starting, when we thought we would stroll through Central Park around 5 pm the parade was still going on, talk about crowds. What was even more amazing was the amount of trash and how fast the trash and debris was picked up. The next morning everything was clean, wow!


New York is a great city! I hope this report helps some of you with your trip. Next up DC.

htt, this is a great trip report! You sound just like us NYers - I too wish there was sidewalk etiquette like there is for cars on a highway.

I just walked by the Roosevelt today and wondered what it was like (Mom likes to stay in a hotel instead of the air mattress chez moi, so I'm always looking for reasonably priced options). I also was at MoMA this week to see the Serra exhibit. I got a little dizzy walking around and around those curves - and I loved the show. My friend commented that if she worked in the area, she'd get a membership just to spend her lunch hour in the garden every day. (I did work in the area for two years - and ate at my desk most of the time. Pathetic!)

I didn't know that info about either the cars in films nor the mayor. You learn something new every day! BTW, not all parades are as extensive as on Puerto Rican Day; you lucked into one of the major parades we have here, on par with St. Patrick's Day in volume, and mayhem. Isn't it amazing how quickly it gets cleaned up??

Glad you all liked NYC. Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

Thanks for the great trip report on NYC, but what about DC & Williamsburg? I await the conclusion of your adventures.

You really did cover a lot of ground in NYC in a short time.

Yes - that's the main problem with Times Square. And you should see it in the middle of the summer - people often walk in the street since there's just no room on the sidewwalk. One of the reasons we NYers hate it - along with all the overpriced chain restaurants.

But glad you enjoyed the trip.

And no - we don;t eat people - are really very friendly - in our busy, fast-paced way.

I know this may be hard to believe but I've stayed at the Roosevelt and the Waldorf-Astoria and my room at the Roosevelt was better than my room at the Waldorf!

Enjoyed reading your report. I hope you realize you were VERY lucky you had enough space for a 3rd person on a Priceline bid in NYC. Not always the case. YOu also lucked out on getting the Roosevelt. Very sorry to hear about the chain restaurants b/c they're usually not as good in NYC as they are elsewhere. Next time!

Yes New Yorkers really are nice, and as I am writing this I was being yelled at by a neighbor because my dog escaped. We were lucky to get the Roosevelt and were very lucky getting the extra bed, I would advise if you know in advance that there are going to be more than 2 people not to use priceline because you may not be able to ensure two beds. It was hard for me to believe that we were in New York and eating at Olive Garden, but you do what you have to do to keep harmony. I am sure we spent more eating at the Olive Garden, than we would have at a local place. Note to others: The gratuity is already added in the bill at the Olive Garden Times Square location.

So now I will head on to the nice people of DC. Yes they really are nice too. After arriving at Union Station (this place is huge) we take the metro to Dupont Circle. Going up the escalator it always takes my breath away, I just can not get over the steepness and length.

Hotel Palomar : www.hotelpalomar-dc.com : This was also a priceline hotel, I called ahead to reserve a double room I ended up paying an extra $50 a night for the room which turns out to be the actual room rate without priceline. Still it’s worth it; with 3 people we needed at least 2 beds. The double rooms are huge. It was nice to have the extra space. DD especially loved the purple chaise lounge and the cheetah bath robe. It’s a lot of fun. The wine reception in the evening was a nice touch. There is also a pool. I had stayed at this hotel before when it was a Radisson, so I had a déjà vu moment when I checked in.

CVS: Why would I mention the CVS, well it’s because we stopped there so many times it was definitely part of our trip. Also there is a homeless lady who sleeps outside of it every night. I call her the ruby shoes lady because she wears sparkly red shoes. She becomes a regular part of our day. I would bring her food each day and did give a little money now and then. This really tugs at my heart because I remember reading “The Glass Castle” and thinking this could be somebody’s mother. Homelessness really tears me up, I never know if I am helping or hindering, I end up giving to her and a few others during the trip.

Metro: The metro in DC gets my top honors, it is so clean and the attendants are super friendly. We watched for a while because we bought a one day pass, which we couldn’t use until 9:30 am and we were there at 9:15. The attendant was very kindly attending to tourists, while at the same time helping a passenger who felt faint. They just seem to go out of their way to help.

Smithsonian: We headed straight for the Air and Space museum because there is a plane in the museum painted by my husband’s uncle. It’s the first time for DD to see it, she never met the uncle, and so she does not really give it much of a reaction, but agrees to take a photo by it. After viewing the mementos from the American History Museum, we head on to the Modern Art museum. This is more her style and she finds a lot that she enjoys, after touring we sit and relax in the chairs next to the fountain. We finish up at the National Gallery of Art.

Chinatown: This makes me laugh because it is mentioned on every map, yet it is so small you could easily miss it.

National Monuments Tour: My friend reserved this for us through our congressman. It’s a free tour, you just need to reserve through your congressman. The greeter was exceptionally friendly and got us excited about what we were about to see. What she failed to know was that the normal guide was out and the replacement guide lacked any sort of enthusiasm. However this tour is nice because it drives right up to the monuments and gets you in without waiting in line, great for tired legs on a hot day.

Lunch was at the food court of the Reagan building. This was my absolute least favorite part of our vacation. We were dropped off and left to wait in line with every youth tour group imaginable. By the end lunch, my head was pounding. The echo of the noise from the kids was so loud. God bless any of you who work with or chaperone these groups. I really feel for the security guards who have to listen to the echoing noise every day.

The tour continues and our guide gets some enthusiasm around the Roosevelt memorial, it’s nice, and you really learned a lot from him. You begin to realize he is a person with emotion when he suddenly brings us back to our starting point and stops the van. Never says goodbye, never acknowledges the group saying goodbye and thank you, and he never opens a door or helps a person out, even though there were elderly on the trip. It was very bizarre. I don’t know that I would recommend this tour, while it cut out a lot of walking, it was just strange. I think you might do better purchasing tickets on the Tourmobile, I noticed them at each stop, and their guides seemed to have enthusiasm.

Food: We did much better with food in DC because just prior to leaving I had read on Fodors’ JGG’s thread about food in DC. Lucky for me, I was able to get reservations for both Al Tiramasu right across from our hotel and Georgia Brown at McPherson Square. Both were very good and reservations were definitely needed as people were being turned away. Lucky for my friend, we were also able to eat at Baja Fresh right at Dupont Circle: this was her favorite, even though we have those here in Littleton, CO. I honestly had never thought about making reservations prior to traveling, but I can really see the benefit especially when traveling others.

Dupont Circle : This is such an interesting location with so much to do. My favorite is the Movie theatre. How I long for this at home, where I could walk a couple of blocks and have a movie theatre showing 3 foreign films. In addition there are several bookstores, and I have been before when there was a market. It’s nice, however I don’t see many families, appears to be a younger generation. We rent our car a couple off blocks away at Avis, and make our way out of town to Williamsburg.

Next up Williamsburg and Alexandria.

The risk with Priceinle is actually a bit more serious than just not getting enough beds for 3 people: Fire laws prohibit occupancy by more than 2 people in many rooms, so the hotel couldn't let you stay there no matter what sleeping arrangements you were willing to put up with.

htt, I am really enjoying your trip report. Your commentary about traveling with others is very insightful, and I feel you really bring the trip alive, like your DD at the Air & Space museum, and the feeling of being in Dupont Circle. I also rarely make reservations; point taken that it's a good idea when you travel!

I have never heard of someone reserving a National Monuments tour through their Congressman, although I have heard of reserved tours of The Capitol.

Which monuments did you visit? Did your Congressman provide a car?

FauxSteMarie: The tour is with the Dept of Interior put on by the National Parks Service. You ride in a van and visit: Washington Monument (this is nice because you don’t need a ticket with the tour), Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII memorial. You also visit Arlington Cemetery and are taken 1st to the Changing of the Guard, and then on to Arlington House and JFK’s Gravesite. You are also supposed to visit the House where Lincoln died- but our guide did not take us there. I think if the normal guide is working this would be an excellent tour, you do get to park as close as possible to the monuments and go right to the front of the line. I will try and find the website and post it for you.

One more thing I wanted to say about DC before moving on, is that we also really enjoyed the International Spy Museum. This was also filled with student groups but it did not seem to affect the veiwing very much. I would recommend it.

happytotravel, I would appreciate a link to that tour--especially if it is a tour you can get for free. I had no idea that the Parks Service did that and that it was available through your Congressman or Senators--and I am a licensed guide. You learn something new every day.

Here is the link that talks about the tour.
http://tinyurl.com/yuos8f
I am sure you just email your congressman to request your tickets. There were about 10 people on the tour and you meet in front of the Dept. of Interior.

I am saving your Congressman's list. My Congressman, here in Northern Virginia, is not so obliging with information. Part of the problem is that Congressmen near DC get overwhelmed with requests.

Thanks for posting that list. I knew about everything but the NPS tour. As I said, you learn something new every day on fodors.

Williamsburg:

We rented the car fairly close to our hotel in Dupont Circle, so it only required a little driving in DC to get our bags and head out of the city. I had asked on Fodor’s if the train or car would be preferable, and the majority said the car. Well it was easy, but I must say the Virginia highways are much busier and wider than those around Denver, but still no problem. One other note, there are so many trees along the highway you just don’t see off into the vista, so you don’t know what is out there. I found this even more in Williamsburg, trees are everywhere, and it took a while to get my orientation. I am used to seeing mountains and then I can easily tell all other directions, Williamsburg required a little more thinking.

I really had no idea about Williamsburg so when planning our trip; I really did not put a lot of thought into it. Here’s what we did and what I wished we had done differently.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn, this was fine but we needed to drive into town. There were so many hotels to choose from I just picked one and reserved. What I wished we had done: stayed at one of the Williamsburg properties to be on site. But I just was not familiar with the set up before hand.

Historic tour: We did the audio guide; it was good and gave us a thorough understanding of the town. I would do it again. I don’t think many people do this option because the people with the headsets seemed to be a little surprised. Prior to the tour, we did the film to get into the mode. This was quite helpful. We also bought our tickets to include the governors’ mansion. Had we stayed in one of the hotels, the governor’s mansion would have been included. There were a couple reenactments going on that day. We ate lunch in one of the Taverns. My DD bought several of the little rag dolls, there was so much to buy, it was fun just looking at all of the replicas

Tip: If you want pictures of historic Williamsburg, take them in the evening. The streets really clean out and you won’t have to have any tourists in your photos.

My favorite house was the Bassett house. This is just a short walk away, but with the serenity it could have been miles. It was a nice reprive from the crowds. The tour guides were very informative and we seemed grateful to have an audience. I pointed out the connection to Rockefeller Plaza and the Bassett house to my daughter being that we had just seen both. This news meant nothing to her, however I enjoyed the house.

Food: I let my friend choose all of the food in Williamsburg other than the Tavern. We ate Mexican food one night and at a place called Food For Thought the next. Food was fine, but nothing to write home about.

Jamestown: A friend of ours told us to go to Jamestown and skip Williamsburg. They are completely different, so I would not consider skipping either. We all enjoyed Jamestown. It is very natural and pretty with all of the water around. Seeing the tombstones with the dates and the number of people who died is really moving. So many died so young. The museum is very informative, and they are still finding artifacts today.

Outlet mall: When we first pulled into Williamsburg, I was surprised at the number of people with so much luggage it looked like they were staying for weeks. Now I know, Williamsburg has a lot to do. I did not want to do any of the tourist attraction stuff, I just wanted to focus on history. However we did make it to the Outlet mall and we also saw Nancy Drew at the New Town cinema. But as I said earlier, next time I would probably stay onsite and try to keep it authentic the entire time.

Two days later we hit the highway again: We head back to DC on the highway, our next stop would be the IKEA.

IKEA: We don’t have one here, so seeing this is a real treat. DD and friend are opposed to stopping, but because I was driving, we stopped. Both DD and friend end up buying small items and thank me for stopping.

Next stop: Mount Vernon and Alexandria

Ah, you went to IKEA at Potomac Mills.

Contrary to what you might think, Potomac Mills is the destination that attracts the most tourists in Virginia. It is a sign of the times that an Outlet Mall beats Colonial Williamsburg and Arlington Cemetery hands down.

FauxSteMarie: I guess that would explain all of the traffic.

Mount Vernon: It is so easy driving here, the signs lead right up to it. In addidtion, they were letting people park on the grass right in front of the entrance. I was here 5 years ago and this entrance and musuem was not. It's very nice. This was a Saturday afternoon and the line for the house was about 45 minutes long. After we toured the house and the grounds we spent time sitting in the chairs out back. It's lovely.

Alexandria: Our last night we stayed in Alexandria. How we managed to pick a night with the waterfront festival going on is beyond me. We lucked out this entire trip. We walk through town and eat at La Madeline (we all agree on this, because it is more cafeteria style and we can each choose).

After dinner we walk out to waterfront and wait for fireworks. We are pretty much given a private showing by a man playing the flute dressed in colonial attire. He turns out to be from the Army and is very patriotic. He just really leaves you feeling inspired and proud to be an American. We could not of ended our trip any better.

But before we left the next day we did do the river cruise to Georgetown for more shopping, and then a final stop at the Crate and Barrel outlet on the way to the airport.

And that ends a great trip.

Wow, what a great trip.

Glad you got to try out some "non-chain" restaurants. For me local food is a big part of any trip.

If you get back to Mount Vernon, do not miss the educational center and museum. I went there last winter after it opened and spent 4-5 hours at the site and never went to the house. There are tons of multimedia exhibits and a marvelous multimedia show on George Washington. When he crossed the Delaware you get some interesting "weather" in the theater. Fantastic!

Glad you had a great trip!