liverbird

I'm in the process of joining a home exchange agency, & am hoping my first exchange will be to NYC. There are so many homes on the site, many in the Manhatten area. Is this generally a good area to stay, or is there another part of town you would recommend for a lone woman? I have heard Greenwich Village & Soho are interesting too. I need to be somewhere pretty central, as at the moment can't walk great distances. I'm so excited as I've wanted to visit New York for many years, but it does seem rather daunting, as it's such a huge place. Any & all advice very welcome, many thanks.

doug_stallings

NYC is particularly daunting if you can't walk because that's the best way to get around. But you'll be perfectly safe in most neighborhoods on the UWS, in Midtown (east of 9th Avenue and west of 2nd Avenue), in the Village, and in Chelsea. I'd suggest you steer clear of the financial district (transportation options in Battery Park city, where most apartments are, isn't so good), and the Lower East Side/East Village (bad mass transit means more walking). I guess you could get an apartment on the Upper East Side, but it's a particularly isolated part of town, though very upscale in most parts; if you get an apt. here, make sure you are west of 2nd Avenue, and you should have reasonbly good access to transit. I don't think Soho or Tribeca are particularly user-friendly parts of town, so I don't recommend them either.

Gekko

The Upper East Side or Upper West Side sound best for you.


(From a safety standpoint, all of Manhattan is "safe.")

travelbug18

As someone that lives in Brooklyn, my thoughts on the matter is that most of manhattan is "safe." I've never had any problems - the city's cleaned up quite a bit in the past couple of years.

Such being said, if you have issues getting around, maybe consider the Union Square area? Is centrally located and there are tons of subway stations close.

nytraveler

First - please get a map of New York - so you'll have an idea of what you're looking at/talking about.

New York City is a series of islands. Manhattan is the one that people refer to as The City - with most of the major businesses, shops and tourist attrctions. It also has a bunch of residential areas - including Greenwich Village, SoHo and at least a dozen others.

Most residential areas in Manhattan are perfectly safe - but there are a couple that are still in the process of being gentrified.

There are also areas outside Manhattan - in Brooklyn, Queens and even the Bronx, that are fine residential areas and from which you could commute to Manhattan.

As for being central- New York City is HUGE - and no matter where you stay you will have to take the subway or buses most places. (Just the major tourist area of Manhattan is more than 8 miles long, plus islands in the harbor.) And it's quite unlikely that you will be offred an exchange in the tourist areas - since they are not primarily residential.

So - you need to find out about public transit as the key to convenience.

Separately - New York City is probably the most popular location at most home exchange agencies. You don;t say where you're from - but unless you have something to exchange in a major resort area, a major tourist destination (San Fran, LA, SanDiego) or europe - your chances of an exchange to NYC are limited.

Plesae look at the exchanges for which you would quality - then come back with specific locations and people can tell you more about them. But don;t assume you will be able to get an NYC exchange without an equivalent location to offer.

nytraveler

Sorry - didn;t mean to sound discouraging. But neighbors of mine does thhis exchange thing. And has been trying to exchange a great apartemtn in NYC for the equivalent in London for 8 years - and hasn;t been able to yet. (Timing off, or people wanting something specific or bad vibes from the exchanger.)

The have done some great exchanges (one near Santa Barbara, one in France and one in Rome) but it can take quite a while to get something very specific.

liverbird

Thank you all for your advice,it's really helpful & has put my mind at rest.
nytraveler, i don't think you're being discouraging at all, we have to be realistic with house swapping, so i appreciate your comments. I live in the centre of Edinburgh, which seems very popular with tourists, so here's hoping!