Hello fodorites -

I’m planning a quick trip to NYC and had a few questions.

Background
My daughter (DD – also posts here as bubblywine) recently moved to the east coast. My husband (DH) and I are meeting DD in New York. This will be DD's first trip to NYC. DH and I have been several times and I assume we'll all be back again. (I heart NYC.) We’ll be there March 4th to March 8th. She’ll join us on March 6th. I’m hoping to have a lovely time but on a budget. I’ve taken time off from work this winter to paint (so less money for travel) and our priorities are to see museums, perhaps visit galleries and enjoy the neighborhoods. We LOVE to walk.

Hotels – I’d like your feedback and if these are poor choices, ideas for alternatives.

March 4th and 6th: 2 of us and I’d like a stylish yet affordable hotel. DH has asked that we not stay in midtown. I’ve tentatively booked On the Ave hotel at $129 a night for the first 2 days. Prefer to spend between $100 (which would be Priceline) and $150 (not PL.) What do you think of this hotel?

March 7th and 8th: 3 of us and we’d like a 1 bedroom suite, or 2 affordable rooms. I’ve booked the Embassy Suites hotel for the 2 nights with all 3 of us at $170/nt. Affinia Dumont has a deal for $190 for a 1 bd suite, Affinia Manhattan $168. For 2 very affordable rooms people seem to be getting Hampton Inn MSG for about $68. DH seems to have a strong preference for Embassy Suites but I worry the location is too out of the way.

So our two hotels are not near each other. We travel light and figure it will be a quick trip to transfer hotels. Is this crazy? Should we stay all 4 nights at the Embassy Suites? I do love the idea of being in the UWS.

Activites – I have a list of what we’d like to do but haven’t put this into a coherent itinerary.

Wednesday: We arrive Wednesday around 5:00 at JFK. No idea what to do after we check into our hotel. Would love your suggestions.

Thursday and Friday we’d like to go to the Cloisters, possibly the Whitney, visit Brooklyn, walk around the UWS and Central Park. In Brooklyn – would we visit Park Slope or are there other suggestions? We'll probably go to the Brooklyn Museum and walk through the bare botanical gardens if the weather's OK.

DD arrives Friday afternoon and we’d like to go to MOMA that evening. We’ll need dinner somewhere near there or towards our hotel after that.

Saturday and Sunday: we’d like to visit the Met, the UES, walk through Central Park, visit the UWS (DD wants to go to Zabar’s) and visit Greenwich Village and Soho. How can we put this jumble of activities together in a way that makes sense? On Sunday I need to figure in a stop by a great bagel shop to take a bag home to our teenage son. Our plane leaves JFK at 4.

Saturday evening we’d like to listen to jazz or go to the Mike Birbiglio show “Sleepwalk With Me” on Bleecker Street (we LOVE him on themoth podcasts and on This American Life) or go to a play. Thoughts?

Thanks for your help with this trip!

A couple of thoughts. The Met, CP, UES is too much to do on Sunday since your plane leaves at 4. So if you do those things on Sat, you could do Zabar's Sun am and get your bagels from H & H across the street. They're not my favorite, but it would make more sense logistically. Even though I was born in Bklyn, I think you should do something different rather than go to Park Slope (some of the shops remind me of the village where you'll be going with dd) and see the bare Botanic Gardens. You could go to the NY Botanic Gardens in the Bronx and see the Orchid Show if that interests you. The B'klyn Museum is a world class museum and if you really want to go, you should.

Does anyone know if there is public transportation from the Cloisters to the NYBG?

Thanks CPG - so Saturday we'd go to the Met, UES and the Village? Then Sunday up to UWS to Zabar's and H&H. I've had those bagels and they are SO much better than what we get where we live that those will work for my son.

Do you think we should skip Brooklyn? Or is there another area you'd recommend? We'll go to the Brooklyn Museum of Art if we're there but their current exhibits aren't calling me to go out of my way on this trip.

DH had asked first about visiting the Bronx but I've been to Wave Hill, loved it, don't need to return. He's not really been to Greenwich Village, and loved the lower east side on our last visit, so perhaps the Village would fill our wish to wander around a dense and livable urban area.

Great neighborhood, very pretty hotel. Near a bunch of museums, lots of good, inexpensive neighborhood restaurants and 2 subway lines to take you quickly to other areas of the city.

Embassy Suite area is very quiet at night - but it does offer great deals for the amount of room you get.

I think you will enjoy the upper west side much more and, if you need to, switch hotels when DD arrives. (But, for preference I wold stay at On the Ave all 4 nights).

rosetravels-

Since you mentioned you're on a budget and you LOVE to walk, consider checking out some free guided tours offered in NY:

New York Public Library tour
http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/tourschedule.cfm

Grand Central Station tours
http://grandcentralterminal.com/info/historictour.cfm

free tours of Union Square neighborhood
http://www.unionsquarenyc.org/walk.html

free Wall Street area walking tour
http://www.downtownny.com/?sid=48

And more listings of free walking tours here
http://nymag.com/guides/cheap/walkingtours/

In Brooklyn Greenwood Cemetary might interest you. Many different walking tours and lots of famous people buried there. It's really beautiful.

http://www.green-wood.com/

I love the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Garden is great.

Although you love to walk, I suggest having some indoor back-up plans in case the weather doesn't cooperate. In early March you could get lucky with sunny, mild days, but you could also hit very cold, windy and even snowy weather. So plan on the outdoor things that you would like to do, but have some Plan B museums, etc in case your walk in the park isn't to be. Also, look at the thread on free things to do in NY. You will get some very good ideas of other things to do. You can spend an entire day at the Met and not see it all, so check their website and get an idea of what you're interested in. There's a Chagall exhibit at the Jewish Museum (free on Sat) on the UES.

To help your Budget:

If you have a Bank of America c c, the 1st wk-end of ea month offers
free entry to 8 NYC museums, among
them are the MET, Jewish Museum &
Am. Museum of Natural History.

Thanks so much everyone! Very helpful.

Centralparkgirl - thanks for the tip on the Chagall museum. DD & I love Chagall (saw the windows in Reims) and we'll go there Saturday.

yk - I think we'll add one of those walking tours to our 'rainy day' alternative. It looks like some aren't running yet, but I'd really love the public library one & may add the Grand Central n'hood tour. I'd love the Union Square one but it's not running on Thursday or Friday.

Dohlice - cemetaries are one of my favorite things! From Ely Nevada to Paris I've been completely entertained by gravestones. BTW: much of the population of Ely, NV was decimated by the Spanish flu epidemic. I didn't really understand its impact until I spent an hour there w/ 3 ten year old boys.

nytraveler - what are your favorite inexpensive restaurants on the UWS? We'll probably spend Wed and Thurs evening in the neighborhood.

Rhea58 - nope, citibank unfortunately.

Here's my updated itinerary and I'd really like your ideas and suggestions. I think we're set with our hotels now. 2 nights at On the Ave and then 2 nights at Embassy Suites. Since it saves about $200...we're moving downtown.

Wed evening: ? dinner but anything else?

Thurs:
The Cloisters
Subway + central park walk or bus back to the Met
lunch UWS near subway or UES _______?
The Met (we'll plan to visit the portion we won't be seeing w/ DD)
Evening: ? dinner and ?

Friday:
Transfer our bags to Embassy Suites
Plan A, decent weather -
Brooklyn Bridge walk (we'll walk towards Brooklyn, walked the other direction last time & loved it)
Walking tour of Brooklyn Heights (this is in my old Michelin Green Guide, is it worth doing?)
Lunch ____________
Brooklyn Museum of Art or
Botanic Gardens or Greenwood Cemetery

Plan B for bad weather - NY Public Library (tour at 11), Grand Central tour at 12:30 or visit the Frick & the Whitney.

Plan A & B
Meet DD at Embassy Suites
Uptown to MOMA, walking on 5th avenue along the way (I love this at rush hour)
Dinner ________?

Saturday
The Met
Lunch _____
Jewish Museum
Soho & Greenwich Village
Leisurely dinner in Greenwich Village somewhere___
or, we could rearrange this day to visit the neighborhoods in the morning, then the Jewish Museum in the afternoon followed by the Met. It's open late so there'd be no worries about closing time. Then a leisurely dinner somewhere.

We may want to end at a jazz club or a show somewhere.

Sunday
Central Park
UWS

So I'd love your help with
Restaurant suggestions. I like to have some options mapped out, especially for lunch spots. We're looking for good but inexpensive places (around $10 each for lunch, $25 or less each for dinner.) We love great NY pizza w/ a big bowl of salad and red wine - lunch or dinner. This is simply & sadly unavailable where we live.

My specific questions:
Friday afternoon after DD arrives I'd like to take the bus uptown so she can see the sights along the way. Then I want to get out a 1/2 mile to a mile south of MOMA to walk the last bit before we get in the long line for free tickets. What bus do we take and where do you recommend we get out?

I picked up a New Yorker last night and was reading the theater listings. So many sound great & we may want to go to one. We like drama (no splashy musicals) - is there a current play that stands out for you?

Thanks all!

I'm coming in late but I have to say I think it's a shame to waste time moving downtown to ES, especially since a lot of what you want to see/do with daughter is midtown/uptown. The Excelsior hotel on the UWS has a double double room that wouldn't be much more than what you've booked. excelsiorhotelny.com

Sat. seems a bit fractured esp. if you stay downtown. If you do stay at ES, I agree doing downtown first makes sense. Have lunch in Soho or the village and then head uptown to the museums. The Met is open late on Sat. night. For lunch downtown, Lombardi's for pizza is one of the best as is John's in the village. Fanelli's in Soho is a historic bar with good burgers.

Here's a bus map. The #20 and the #5 both head uptown from the Embassy Suites area. http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/manbus.pdf

I don't know when you're going to have time for a show unless you do that on Wed. night when you arrive. "Exit the King" with Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush starts previews on March 7th. "Blithe Spirit" will also be on with a great cast. "August: Osage County" won a Pulitzer but is a heavy duty long play about a very dysfunctional family.

If you're looking for a jazz club and you stay on the UWS, Cleopatra's Needle is one idea. You should have a look on goldstar.com and see if there are any good discounts to venues that interest you.

I sense your excitement and desire to show DD a great time. Just remember to stop and smell the roses and not try to pack too much in.

Forgot to mention La Lanterna is an Italian/pizza place in the village that has live jazz. It's not the best pizza and maybe not the best jazz, but a good and affordable combination of the 2 in a nice location.

Thanks mclaurie - I was hoping you would offer your advice. Thanks for the suggestions on evening activities and the bus map.

I looked at Hotel Belleclaire on UWS. They have a 2 room suite (really 2 bedrooms w/ no living room area, a little odd looking in the photos). What do folks think of the Belleclaire? It would be a very easy move. The Excelsior looks fine but I'm not sure we want to stay all in one room.

I've been looking for a lunch spot near the Met. The last time I had lunch in the museum it was terrible and I'm not having another stale sandwich there. I spent some time on menupages today without much luck. Does anyone have a place to recommend?

The area around the Met is expensive to eat in unless you walk to Lex or Third. There is a Le Pain Quotidien on Madison between 84 and 85th that might work (I thought it was further south, but see site below).

http://www.menupages.com/restaurantd...aurantid=30356

The exhibit is a Chagall exhibit(not museum) at the Jewish Museum.
(There's a ciao bella gelato down the block on Madison - delicioso!)
http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhib...ishTheaterUSSR

Oh yes, I meant Chagall exhibit.

I saw the Pain Quotidien and that might work. On Saturday we'll be heading up towards the Jewish Museum so I'll scour the listings for that area too. On Thursday I was thinking that if we take the A train from the Cloisters, then walk across the park to the Met, we may be able to find something on the UWS for lunch. Do you know of a lunch place in that area?

The Belleclaire is not a bad option but it's an old building (as most are in that neighborhood) and bathrooms can be very small. Check out photos on the review page at tripadvisor.

What about just getting daughter her own room at On the Ave? Maybe if you phone the hotel and speak to reservations, they'd give you a good deal for a second room for the weekend. The reservations manager is Mr. Calderone (can't remember his first name). Just a heads up, btw, the standard rooms there are small, just big enough for the bed and space to walk around it.

Another option is to try Priceline. The Excelsior is the only 2.5* hotel on the upper west side. You could bid for 2 rooms for the weekend and probably get them for $70-80 each.

I don't know when you were last at the Met, but the food has gotten better. If you want to eat near there, in addition to Le Pain, there's a coffee shop called Nectar on Madison & 82 st. that's good if unexciting.

If you head north on Madison toward the Jewish Museum, Table D'Hote is a charming little place on 92 st. b/w Madison & Park and their brunch prices aren't bad. There's also a place on Madison called Island which is fine for lunch/brunch. Sarabeth's on Madison & 92nd is a "go to" brunch place but can get mobbed on weekends. Pintaile's pizza is on 91 st b/w Madison & Park with good thin crust pizza. Can't remember if they have seating/table service.

As to your Cloisters question, I think you've misjudged where the Cloisters is. It's very far north and not at all walkable to/from the Met. In fact, it's a pretty far walk from the subway station. If you take the subway, there's a bus you can transfer to to get closer. Read here http://manhattan.about.com/od/artsan...rsmuseum_2.htm

maps.google.com is a great way to get distances and they have a "search nearby" function that lets you find nearby restaurants to any location.

Thanks mclaurie -
I just did a quick check on hotels.com and the Excelsior is now available for $94 per room per night. They also have a 1 bedroom suite that's $198 a night. I'm doing a poll of the family to see if we'd like to just stay there all 4 nights. If so I'll make those reservations AND try for a lower price on Priceline. If they have those prices on hotels.com I think you're right - it's worth trying for $70 on PL.

If I don't get the PL bid I'll call the On the Ave manager in the morning and ask about a second room for a good price. Great idea - thanks. Am I right in thinking that On the Ave is a nicer hotel?

I appreciate all the restaurant suggestions and I'll bring them with me.

I've been to the Cloisters a couple of times and I think I phrased my lunch/transportation question poorly. We can either take the subway (A train, then the C or B)to the UWS, get off at W 86th & eat lunch, then walk across the park to the Met, or catch the #4 bus from the Cloisters to the Met and eat lunch on the UES. It was 2002 when last I dined at the Met/Cloisters so good to hear its improved! It was very bad then.

I downloaded the Zagats 2009 app for my iPhone last night so I've been looking through there for restaurants and bookmarked a few places in the Village & the lower east side. Zucco sounded especially good. I also found a fun podcast about New York - the Bowery Boys - and listened to their show on the Plaza hotel today.

Thanks everyone!

On the Avenue is an old building that's been totally redone on the inside in a modern sleek decor. Standard rooms are small but up to date looking with slate/stainless steel bathrooms and grey monotone bedrooms, flat screen tvs etc. The Excelsior is a perfectly lovely hotel, rooms are larger but the decor is early Aunt Martha.

If you want a special meal on the UWS, check out Dovetail and Telepan.

Thanks - I'm very happy to be on the UWS for our stay at a shockingly good price. Early Aunt Martha - LOL. Yes, that's what the photos look like!

Thanks for the restaurant suggestions. It will be hard to choose. One has duck lasagna and one cassoulet. Yum.

I can't keep track of where you've decided to stay, but wherever it is, have a great trip!