hotels/ hostels close to penn station, new york city

I know it's abig ask in the big apple but any suggestions for over 50s travelling to new york in mid may?
Seems there are no hotels less than $US150 per night especially in the weekends. We'll be arriving from Niagara falls and then travelling on to Baltimore by train so thought close to Penn station would be the best.
Thanks from OZ

What are your dates in May?

We stayed at the Chelsea International Hostel (8th Ave and W 20th Street) - double room and very basic, but a nice area, and I understand it's been renovated in the last few years - it needed it. (Also 50s from Australia, but long-term hostellers as well).

If worse becomes worst, if you find nothing affordable near Penn Station or in Midtown Manhattan, consider staying at one of the airports and commuting into the city each day. That would mean taking a hotel van to the airport and then an airporter-type van into the city.

I checked a few dates on Hotwire.com and it is offering a 3.5-star hotel at Newark Airport for $49 plus taxes and fees per night. That easily pays for your airporter costs.

As for staying in Manhattan, please don't restrict your search to Penn Station. Other then Macy's big store and the Empire State Building, there's not much of tourist interest right there. Any Midtown hotel location should work for you and be easily accessible from Penn Station by subway or a short taxi ride.

And this was offered up by someone the other day after a request for a budget hotel - <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://starhotelny.com/index.php">Chelsea Star</a>.

newark airport is REALLY FAR from NYC, in terms of a daily commute for sight-seeing and such.

when i fly out of newark, i usually give myself an hour and a half to get there from my place in a relatively convenient part of Brooklyn.

it will cost at least $10-15 to take a shuttle bus from any airport to any point in Manhattan, per way.

the airports in NYC are generally not well connected to public transportation, and they're really far from where the "action" is. that sort of thing might work well in other, smaller cities where the Airport is just directly connected to the local subway/metro, as is the case in Boston (for instance). but it in NYC it'll be a huge pain in the ass and you'll probably end up spending enough on cabs and various other complicated modes of transportation to make up for the cheaper room.

if the ONLY thing you can find that suits your budget is at Newark Airport, you should probably just pick another city to visit that is more in your price range. because i can promise that if you plan to stay over there and commute into NYC every morning (especially if you want to do it via airport shuttles and such), you will wish you hadn't bothered.

OP, how much time to you intend to spend in New York City?

Did you look at the Chelsea Savoy? Its an unknown hotel and about $150/night. On the corner of 23rd and 7th, which is a little noisy, but a 2 stop subway ride from Penn Station (I actually do the walk with a wheeled carryon often - 1/2 a mile)

also, check out the Inn on 23rd Street - or the Chelsea Hotel (a dive, but a historical one)

Probably the best neighborhood to be in Manhattan right now - I'm biased, I live there

when you get to Baltimore - be sure to have a lump crab cake! Faidley's in Lexington Market was incredible.

#5, much of NYC's workforce commutes longer distances to work each day than to or from Newark Airport.

Let's do some math:
$63 Newark hotel and tax and fees (a guess on taxes and fees)
$22 Olympia Airporter roundtrip from Newark Airport to Midtown
$85 TOTAL and remember this is for a 3.5-star hotel, not some dump.

Olympia takes 15 to 20 minutes to reach Midtown at off-peak hours, but significantly longer during rush hours, which hopefully the OP will avoid.

If the OP can find something near JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport is superbly connected to any subway station anywhere in NYC by public transportation. From any terminal, you can take a $5 AirTrain to your choice of stations for the A or E trains. Both serve Midtown Manhattan for a $2 fare, but the E train hardly makes any stops until it gets there. That's a total of $7 each way.

Vans from LaGuardia Airport cost $10 -13 each way.

It's not about maths, it's about the soul. If this is your one week (?) in NYC, you run the risk of destroying the experience by staying at Newark or an equivalent distance. For a tourist, the joy of the place is walking, day and night, and taking short subway rides; the fact that residents travel further is beside the point. So OP stay in a good neighbourhood (we liked Chelsea, but would stay further downtown next time - around 14th Street or lower, but lots of tourists like it around Times Square) and don't worry much about proximity to Penn Station - unless you're only there overnight. <BR><BR>Manhattan is small and feels compact, given the size of NY overall - getting to any particular point is rarely a drama. Please don't stay at Newark - returning a rental car there and getting back was something I'm glad I only did once.

#8, that is partially not really true (some people, but not "much of NYC's workforce"), and partially extremely misunderstood/misinterpreted. while some people live further distances away, the way Newark Airport is set up and connected with the city (especially if you expect to get around via airport shuttle) makes it inconvenient for daily commuting. not to mention that most people who commute from distances like that have their own cars and more money, monthly light rail transit passes, live in areas which are popular with other commuters, etc. and thus their commute is simpler than the usual airport shlep.

the most obvious point is that it's virtually impossible to avoid rush hour traffic between NJ and Manhattan unless you left your hotel at 6AM each morning and came back quite late at night (like after 8 or 9). another thing to remember is that the commuter trains that service NJ generally run very sporadically late at night -- which means timing your exit perfectly if you want to stay out late in the city. i have friends who live in New Jersey and can only go out for drinks if they constantly look at their watch because in order to be home by 2 or 3 they HAVE to be on that 1:08 train, as there isn't another until 2:28.

not to mention that there is a huge difference between the required daily grind commute and how most people would want things on their vacation. maybe i'm just really in the minority here, but when i travel i generally want my trip to be enjoyable and convenient. i don't want to spend 3 hours on tenuous multi-leg journeys just to save $30 a day on a hotel. i'd like to stay somewhat close to where the action is, not an hour or two outside. i'm willing to commute an hour each way to work, because, well, i'm getting paid to. and that's what i travel to escape FROM in the first place...

the best thing to do, if a far flung airport hotel is really all you can afford, would be to go somewhere where hotels are more affordable, or where the local airport is closer or better connected to the city.

Of course #9 and everyone, the ideal is to stay in NYC itself. I said an airport location only if she couldn't find suitable affordable accommodation in the city. Remember the OP's maximum budget is 'just' $150.

NYC hotel prices have astronomically increased during the last several years. They've become quite unbelievable.

For example, the Chelsea Hotel ('a dive, but a historical one' as someone mentioned above) now starts at $195 a night for a single and $225 for a double.

If I was the OP, I'd try Hotwire and Priceline and hope the nights desired aren't heavily booked and that there are significant discounts available. If I were my 50's like the OP, I certainly wouldn't stay in a less than 1-star hotel just to be in the city.

OP, if some of these posters were from Australia, California, or western Canada, they wouldn't think a NYC airport location was at the edge of the world.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>. . . if the ONLY thing you can find that suits your budget is at Newark Airport, you should probably just pick another city to visit that is more in your price range.<hr></blockquote>

No. Sorry. NYC's worth some inconvenience.

<blockquote>Quote<br><hr>OP, if some of these posters were from Australia, California, or western Canada, they wouldn't think a NYC airport location was at the edge of the world.<hr></blockquote>Huh?

#12, people from the western U.S. or western Canada have quite different reactions to distances than people from the northeastern U.S., even when they both live in urban areas.

Newark Airport is 20 minutes or less from Midtown Manhattan outside of rush hours (and under an hour during these, in my experience), yet that is a colossal inconvenience to some posters here—one that led one poster to say don’t even bother to visit New York City if you have to do that.

In Los Angeles, major sights are spread out over some 75 miles, and locals hardly bat an eye. People are used to travelling long distances, and there's no real central core for most activities as you find in Chicago or other older cities.

Ideally, the OP will find a suitable place in the city, and this entire discussion will be irrelevant.

It is the reverse of your previous argument - where you said locals commute long distances regularly, and are tolerant of it, so why shouldn't tourists be prepared to consider it. It seems to me non-NYC people would be most keen not to commute too far on holiday, whatever their background. That is the point and attraction of NYC - it's one of the very few compact cities in the country pound-for-pound, where walking is feasible. Anyway - probably all academic I agree.

As the NY Times has assured us, NYC hotel prices have exploded. I doubt there's any hotels near LaGuardia. Newark and Kennedy are now decently connected to Manhattan by rail and/or subway.

OP - what are your dates in May?

#13, firstly, most people who live outside the Northeast have cars and drive everywhere. Things are more spread out. Los Angelenos cover more distance, but they do it by car. the NYC metro area is compact, but that doesn't mean the times are shorter. especially when you're an outsider trying to understand an unfamiliar system, and even moreso when you're commuting in a way the system isn't set up for. Newark is fairly well connected to the city in terms of the usual traveller's route -- i.e. shlepping in and out every once in a while. it's not set up well for daily commuting, especially not for the kind of convenience someone traveling in an unfamiliar city (and on vacation) would want.

also, i don't know whether you live in the NY area and have ever been to Newark Airport, but actually, no, it is impossible to do in under an hour. when i fly out of newark, i take a cab from my place in brooklyn to Penn Station (about 15 minutes), and then take New Jersey transit out to the airport. the whole thing takes about an hour and a half. even assuming they'll be spending their time in midtown manhattan and not brooklyn, that's still a commute of an hour and 15 minutes, each way. driving would be comparable at rush hour, which in NYC is a very large span of time -- like from 6AM to 10 or 11 AM, and then again from 4PM to 8 or 9 PM. and city traffic spikes again around noon. not to mention the friday afternoon rush to get out of the city for the weekend, and the sunday evening rush back in. they would have to be coming and going at very odd hours to miss all traffic.

not to mention something that hasn't been mentioned yet -- Newark, NJ, has one of the highest crime rates in the country. it's not a nice place. honestly, unless you book a relatively swank hotel that you have direct evidence is a part of the airport complex, i wouldn't trust that some random $65 a night "3.5 star" hotel is going to be in a safe area, or even necessarily that close to the airport. i don't think it would necessarily be dangerous, per se, to stay somewhere like that, but well, you get what you pay for.

Until the OP gives some feedback, especially to the question posed by #1 and again by her in #16, I suggest we take a break from discussing alternatives. They may not be needed.

#17, just one small point. The hotel ratings used by Hotwire and Priceline's 'name your own price' service are nearly the same or the same as as AAA auto club diamond ratings. If you're not using these sites and are a frequent user of 3-, 4-, or 5-star hotels, you are probably spending an average of some $100 more per night.

U guys are real helpful, plan to be thee 10th to 14th May. Have been to NYC 30 yrs ago and stayed at a YMCA top floor /express lift was for women and transvestites. Can't remember whee it was tho'. It's my husbands first trip to NYC but I loved the big apple back then.

Thanks, polly1064!

To get the discussion rolling here--and you've noticed that it indeed does do just that--Hotwire.com has a 2-star hotel in its 'downtown-SoHo' zone for $142 plus tax for the 10-14 May. The normal retail rate for this room is $224.

The 'downtown-SoHo' zone zone includes Greenwich Village and everything south of it, including Wall Street, Chinatown, Tribeca, etc., with the exception of the eastern portion of this area, which some consider to be unsafe. Typical 2-star hotels used by Hotwire are Comfort Inn, La Quinta, and Days Inn.

Of course, the cheapest rate available on Hotwire could change by the time you read this.

Manhattan has several Y hotels. Probably the one with the best reputation for reasonably normal guests (a young international coed crowd) is the Vanderbilt YMCA, near the United Nations and within walking distance of the Broadway theatre district, but if you consider staying there, you might wish to open a new tread on this forum asking about people's recent experiences.

I haven't stayed at any of the current hostels in NYC, but I generally like the ones affiliated with Hostelling International in the States. The one they have in New York is the largest in the country, but it's isolated from most tourist attractions in the very upper Upper West Side (Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd). 'Better than Newark' some will say here! It's near the subway, however, and tour buses stop at the door. Again, ask in this forum, if you are considering this.

Best wishes.

For your dates, expedia has about 10 options - all under budget. They include the Chelsa Star, Latham, Riverside Studios, Alexander, Belnord, Hotel 17 and Americana.

priceline.com and biddingfortravel.com for advice first will beat the heck out of any other hotel booking method. Staying outside of Manhattan doesn't mean staying in Newark. Any of the boroughs will do as will the area in NJ right across the river. And most are accesible from PATH or subway and get you into town quickly.

Ed

Hotel Pennsylvania just over the street from Penn Station. It should be available for around 150USD. Some say that it is awful but I found it OK.

I found the Hotel Pennsylvania OK also. Many posters here have not.