We are thinking of staying in Staten Island and just taking the ferry over to manhattan. This should save us about $40-$60 a night on the Hotel. One question is, the parking lot hours for the ferry are only until 10pm, what happens if we get back @ 10:30? Can we get the car out, or can you just not enter after 10:00? I called 3 different departments in NY today and nobody could/would give me an answer. Anyone know someone out there that would know anything about this? Also, we have not booked our hotel yet, so any other suggestions would be helpful. The Comfort Inn in SI is running $88 a night with Free parking.

Hurricane warnings are issued for New York, you should have no problem parking!

If I were you I would try and stay in Manhattan--- it makes getting around much easier and you don't have to worry about getting back to get your car out. The wife and I went there for five days early in the summer and it was a great trip. We walked around quite a bit and we were near Central Park so we got some good running in as well. Biggest downside was we were there during the Puerto Rican Day Parade and it was a bit chaotic and was just like the Seinfeld episode. If you have a droid I would recommend downloading the app that has all of the bus/train routes in so you can always find your way around the public tran system.

1st trip to NYC- Stayed in Queens, payed an arm and a leg to park.

2nd trip to NYC- Stayed in Summit, NJ, rode the train to Manhattan. MUCH easier.

Trueblue23;469094 wrote:1st trip to NYC- Stayed in Queens, payed an arm and a leg to park.

2nd trip to NYC- Stayed in Summit, NJ, rode the train to Manhattan. MUCH easier.

I stayed in Jersey too...Taking the train is the was the way to go.

Instead of the Ferry take the Water Taxi out of Red Hook, NJ. You can leave your car there 24 / 7 in a secured lot. And the Water Taxi will take you to a number of Manhatten drop off points...you choose which ones you want to go to.

Please, take this advice: Do not stay in Staten Island. I would avoid Jersey too, but if you do stay there, stay at the W Hotel in Hoboken. Otherwise, get a place in Manhattan, it is totally worth it. So much easier when your home base is in the city, your experience will be much worse if you don't. You can also stay in Brooklyn (but stay close, Brooklyn Heights or DUMBO).

Taking the ferry to Staten Island is long and annoying, and its by far the worst borough. Plus, even to get to the ferry, you have to go all the way downtown, and there isn't crap to do in the Financial District.

Check out the Radison Lexington or the Alex Hotel, both in midtown on the east side. You can probably get some good rates.

My only issue with Staying in Manhattan is that I understand that you can pay as much as $30-$40 per day for parking. We are also looking at staying in NJ and taking the train in. I know you can get it in The newark airport, but I did not know about Red Hook. are there any other locations?

We went last October, stayed at the Comfort Inn on 305 West 39th Street at 8th Avenue just 2 blocks from the Port Authority Bus terminal. Walked easily to Times Square, Letterman (front row seats!!) Broadway musical Hair. Bought a 1 week metrocard and rode the subway or bus all over. It was really handy having our room a short walk or ride away. on the other hand the room was 275/night. We were in Poughkeepsie to attend a family wedding so the NYC trip was a side trip. Parked in the muny lot in Croton for $6/day and rode the metro north train into Grand Central. the train ride along the Hudson was a real treat. our hotel was a 15-20 min walk-from Grand Central- no big deal with rolling suitcases, but we caught a cab at the PABT for the ride home for 7 bucks. There is so much to see/do that it doesn't really matter how you do it, just go, it's a blast. This simple couple from NW OH just loved it and we're going back.

The latest plan is to stay at what looks like a very nice best western 2 blocks from Penn Station in NJ. (the hotel even has a free shuttle) We can take the PATH (train) into manhattan for $1.75 a trip. The hotel is $96/night and has free parking, wifi, breakfast and shuttle to Penn station.