NYC Tourist Questions

We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?

I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?

We have never been anywhere like this before, so have no clue.


Thanks for any advice/tips.




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On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:44:08 GMT, "C. Massey"
wrote:

We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?

All over Manhattan. New York is a safe city. You are no more at risk
there than in any other large American city -- less than in some.

With some looking you should be able to find a hotel room in your
price range. Hotels are expensive and you get less for your money
than in many other cities, but decent, clean, comfortable is possible.

I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?

None that you are the least likely to visit. Wandering around is one
of the great pleasures in New York.

We have never been anywhere like this before, so have no clue.

Then you have an interesting and hopefully, exciting, experience
ahead.


Thanks for any advice/tips.

There is so much to be said about New York City that one can hardly
respond to your question. Do your homework -- get a guidebook and
read up. See what interests you and then come back and ask specific
questions.

I will say this -- you can get around Manhattan easily with public
transportation so do not need to have your hotel situated in any
particular area.

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:44:08 GMT, "C. Massey"
wrote:

We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?

I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?

We have never been anywhere like this before, so have no clue.


Thanks for any advice/tips.

I live here so I really don't know about prices for hotel rooms, but I
can give you practical advice. I would concentrate on finding a
place in Manhattan and ignore any advice to try New Jersey or the
other Boroughs. You are not ready for that yet and you don't need the
commuting.

As long as you are sightseeing I doubt you will find yourself in a
"bad" section of town. That said, there are remarkably few "bad"
sections of New York, the safest large city in the US.

Wherever you find a hotel room, you will probably be in a good
location for visitors. As a general rule, on the West Side
concentrate on below 103 Street from Riverside Drive to Central Park.
On the East Side anywhere below 96 Street is good. The "gold
standard" is staying in the area from 42 Street to 57 Street, only as
far west as 8th Avenue. If you stay in Manhattan there is really no
place that is inconvenient for visitors.

Plan on using the subway. It is the best way to get around town
although not the most scenic. Buses are good but on weekdays the
traffic can be bad. Taxis are not as expensive as in most other
cities but even they can have problems with traffic.

Distances are not great so if you like to walk this is the place for
you! Wear good shoes for walking. You'll be surprised how much time
you spend on your feet and you don't need foot problems two days into
your vacation.

As far as wandering around is concerned, most everywhere is safe in
daylight. Avoid deserted streets or parks after dark as you would
almost everywhere else in the world. One nice thing about NY is if
you feel you have lost control of your surroundings you can always
hail a cab in the street and get away fast.

Brian Wickham

C. Massey wrote:
We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?

We just came back from NYC. Our hotel is the Riverside Tower on the
upper west side, a very nice and safe area of town. The room is $100 a
night. but is extremely small,

For under $200 you should have no problem getting a nice room.



I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?


No problem. We took buses and subway late into the night.

We have never been anywhere like this before, so have no clue.


Thanks for any advice/tips.




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C. Massey wrote:
We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?

Do a search for hotels near the Empire State Building (in the areas
Murray Hill and Koreatown). There are many relatively inexpensive
hotels in that area, and it's centrally located, so it is easy to get
almost anywhere else quickly from there.

I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?

New York is actually the safest of the ten largest American cities.
The crime rates were much higher in the 1970's and 1980's, and that's
where its bad reputation comes from. Virtually everything on the
island of Manhattan is safe, day or night. Harlem is safe during the
day, and is fine at night if you stick to the main streets. Most of
the high-crime areas that still exist in the city are deep in the outer
boroughs, and aren't close to anything of interest to tourists.

C. Massey wrote:
We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under $200
per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town would I
look in for this?


One suggestion is to check Craig's list for non-hotel short term
apartments. Again for under $200 a day you should not have a problem.


I would assume that taking the normal precautions, the we would be safe
wondering around town. Any areas to avoid?

We have never been anywhere like this before, so have no clue.


Thanks for any advice/tips.




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On 2006-08-01 10:31:25 -0400, Rita said:

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:44:08 GMT, "C. Massey"
wrote:

We have never been to New York City and have a question or two.

Is it possible to get a decent, clean room in a *safe* area for under
$200 per night for wife, son (12 yrs old) and myself? What part of town
would I look in for this?

All over Manhattan. New York is a safe city. You are no more at risk
there than in any other large American city -- less than in some.

Like Edmonton, for example? :-)

Brian Wickham wrote:

: Distances are not great so if you like to walk this is the place for
: you! Wear good shoes for walking. You'll be surprised how much time
: you spend on your feet and you don't need foot problems two days into
: your vacation.

Ditto everything Brian said, and heed well this warning.

Prices on Priceline (name your own price) are currently well under $200
(per biddingfortravel.com). Midtown West and East would be where I would
aim for.

My only additional advice is: avoid summer if you can. Hot in NYC is
unlike heat anyplace else.

jdoe wrote:
On 1 Aug 2006 08:32:51 -0700, "Iceman" wrote:


New York is actually the safest of the ten largest American cities.
The crime rates were much higher in the 1970's and 1980's, and that's
where its bad reputation comes from. Virtually everything on the
island of Manhattan is safe, day or night. Harlem is safe during the
day, and is fine at night if you stick to the main streets. Most of
the high-crime areas that still exist in the city are deep in the outer
boroughs, and aren't close to anything of interest to tourists.

you're giving bad advice, while much of manhattan where most tourists
tend to go is relatively safe there are still some very bad areas.
I am not going to list every one, but better advise to a neophyte
would be to stick to the more tourist oriented areas at night and to
be cautious wherever you are, there are many predators out there
regardless of the flowery statistics.

Isn't that exactly what he said? There are bad areas in all major
cities. NYC is relatively safe even in many non tourist areas. For
example, we stayed in the upper west side a couple of weeks ago. It's
a residential, not tourist area. We felt very safe taking subway and
buses to and from that area late at night.

jdoe wrote:
On 1 Aug 2006 12:53:58 -0700, "PeterL" wrote:


jdoe wrote:
On 1 Aug 2006 08:32:51 -0700, "Iceman" wrote:


New York is actually the safest of the ten largest American cities.
The crime rates were much higher in the 1970's and 1980's, and that's
where its bad reputation comes from. Virtually everything on the
island of Manhattan is safe, day or night. Harlem is safe during the
day, and is fine at night if you stick to the main streets. Most of
the high-crime areas that still exist in the city are deep in the outer
boroughs, and aren't close to anything of interest to tourists.

you're giving bad advice, while much of manhattan where most tourists
tend to go is relatively safe there are still some very bad areas.
I am not going to list every one, but better advise to a neophyte
would be to stick to the more tourist oriented areas at night and to
be cautious wherever you are, there are many predators out there
regardless of the flowery statistics.

Isn't that exactly what he said? There are bad areas in all major
cities. NYC is relatively safe even in many non tourist areas. For
example, we stayed in the upper west side a couple of weeks ago. It's
a residential, not tourist area. We felt very safe taking subway and
buses to and from that area late at night.
no, he said that ALL of MANHATTAN was safe,

He said **virtually** all of Manhattan is safe. Which he then
qualifies by saying even Harlam is safe in the day time and major
streets.

and I am saying that
statement isn't true because there are many parts of MANHATTAN that
are not safe for both tourists and residents.
Just because you stayed on the upper far westside and had no problems
doesn't qualify you to know about what is where, walk 3 or 4 blocks
east of where you stayed and the area is like a war zone.

3 or 4 blocks east of where we stayed took us to Central Park. I would
not go there late at night for sure. But day time and into the early
evenings we have no problem. It's nothing like a war zone. Have you
been to a real war zone?