We are driving to New York City from Ottawa, Canada. We have a new car that we don't want to drive throughNew York and that will cost $40.00 a night to park. We thought there might be a relatively convenient place to park it for three nights outside NYC. Any advice? Thanks,
Daisy

Daisy.It wont be easy to park outside of Nyc.I am certain that the hotel where you are staying can recomend a parking place, or just fly in and take a cab to the city ,less stress.T

Dear Daisy,
We're from Australia, and have been to New York three times with our hire car.
We stayed in Bergen, New Jersey, at the Palace Hotel and parked free. It's a short walk across the road (busy) to the park and ride to 42nd St, or up a steep hill to another regular bus stop on a main road.
It worked out fine, and we have recommended it to friends who found it OK too. It takes 15 minutes or less to get to the Port Authority Bus Station, a convenient starting point.

Loved New York!! Don't miss the Statten Island Ferry ride!

From the north:

There is a nice big, well-lit parking garage at the train station in New Haven, Conn. You could park there and take a commuter train in. I don't know what the rates are.

In Stamford, Conn.once, we stayed in an in-town hotel (maybe a Sheraton or something like that) for a night, and they let us park in their (fenced) parking lot, and gave us a free shuttle ride to the train station -- I bet many of the hotels in that area would be able to help you out.

There are several garages in Jersey City and Hoboken which are a PATH train ride away from lower Manhattan in New Jersey. I have no idea what the rates are, but chances are they would be less than $40 a day. In Jersey City I suggest the Pavonia/Newport area, Hoboken itself is small and all the garages are pretty much in the same area a few blocks from the PATH station. However, you may want to check with your hotel (if you are staying in one) to find out if they have a deal with any garage and what the rates are first. I don't recommend leaving the car in Stamford or New Haven, especially, they are too far out to be a convenient alternative to NYC parking. Have a great time in NY!

Daisy:

Personally I think your new car would be a heck of a lot safer parked in a garage in Manhattan rather than leave it in an isolated garage miles away. On the downside, you'll have to drive over a few bumps, but on the upside you'll have the car close to you and can check on it if you want to.

In which area of the city are you staying? Is that $40 rate what the hotel charges? Let us know exactly where you'll be staying and maybe one of us knows of a secure indoor garage convenient to where you'll be staying that'll cost less.

I checked out a couple garages on the way home tonight to get some sense of what the garages in NYC are charging these days and came up with a couple of interesting options:

1. On 49th St. between 9th and 8th Avenue there's a garage in the middle of the block in the Worldwide Plaza building. Worldwide Plaza is a modern building office building and the garage is very clean and indoors. They charge $21.18 for 24 hours, plus 18 1/4 (!) % NY parking tax.

2. On the corner of 51st St. and 8th Avenue there's another indoor garage that charges the same. It's down the street from the Ed Sullivan Theatre and it's where some of the Dave Letterman staff park their cars. (I've seen Paul Shafer there more than once.)

The roads in Manhattan are no worse than any big city and I still think it's better to have your car close to you than to risk leaving it in an isolated place somewhere else.

If you need other suggestions please let us know.

How about the airport in Newark? Some people from where I live do that....so they don't have to fight the traffic. Then they cab into the city. Good Luck.

Yes, you could do that too. There's an off site lot called Avistar at Newark Airport. They charge something like $17 a day and have an "internet coupon" you can print out to save a little money. Would imagine the site is avistar.com, but if not do a search and you should come up with it. They have a valet service that will park your car indoor or out, the price being a little more for indoor parking.

We recently drove to Newark from Pittsburgh to put our son on a flight to Ireland, then went into NYC for three days. We left our car in the long-term - $8/day - lot at Newark, took the Olympia shuttle to the Port Authority terminal, then a cab to our hotel. This worked really well on the way into the city, not as well on the way back to Newark becuse of horrendous traffic; a cab would've probably been more efficient. But the price was great, no hassle w/driving into the city or outrageous parking fees, and the car was exactly as we left it - including the half of a ham sandwich our son left in the back seat, in 90-degree heat. Could've been worse - maybe a banana . . .