Too early to plan NYC?
 

Here's the thing: Planning on celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary in NYC in September 2005. I'm so excited that hubby agreed to New York that I'm beside myself! With that in mind, I have already begun to plan. Too early? If so, when should I start planning? By planning I mean hotel,etc. I'm pretty sure restaurants in our price range won't take reservations 2 yrs in advance! Can you use Priceline, etc, this early? Any advice would be fantabulous! I've been poring through previous posts on NY like crazy! I'm so excited and it's over 2 years away!!!! yipee!!!

Since airlines will not take reservations any further out than 366 days, you are a bit on the early side.

Priceline will not show any availability this early either.

My suggestion would be to get a good guidebook and rent movies. Sidewalks of New York, Home Alone II, Men In Black, and Autumn in New York all show a good deal of the city.

GoTravel:
That's pretty much what I figured!! I don't fly much, so the airline rule is good to know. Can you recommend a good guide book to NY? One that covers touristy and not-so-touristy locales?

There are any number of terrific tour guides for NYC. My favorites are Eyewitness and Access.

It's never too early to research and plan a trip, though too early to book. You'll learn a lot about booking, purchasing show tickets, special restaurants, and so forth, by perusing travel forums such as this one.

Priceline is definitely an excellent resource for hotel bookings. Biddingfortravel.com is a wonderful "training ground" for Priceline, where you can browse through the results of others. Though, Hotwire has just started weekend (or longer) packages, and I've gotten some terrific deals there on those.

I recommend buying the Knopf CityMap Guide:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...07846<p>

This is a nice purse size book of maps of all of Manhattan broken down by neighborhood, so you can plan your days by attractions, restaurants, etc that are all in the general vicinity. It has a map of the subway, landmark buildings and attractions marked, and provides lots of helpful "around the town" info in a very accessable format. Completely invaluable on our trip!

The idea to rent "New York" movies ahead of time is a great idea. Everytime I see Serendipity, You've Got Mail, Home Alone 2, etc. now I get that wonderful "I was there!" feeling.

Have fun planning, and have a safe, wonderful trip!

Fodor's own, Danny Mangin, researched and authored the AAA Spiral Guide 2nd edition, "New York". The ISBN is 1-56251-674-4. The retail price is $16.95. Found the guide easy to use and well written.