Where to stay cheap in NYC?
So two friends and I are road-tripping it down to NYC this weekend to take in a taping of (wait for it) the Daily Show with Jon Stewart! Very exciting. But the jerk who was supposed to have set up our accomodations with a friend wasn't on the ball, and now we have no place to stay.
Reluctantly, I'm considering the hostel route. This kills me, but I'm not a wealthy man. Does anyone have any hot tips?
Try Hotel 31. I stayed there last year during university reading week in February (which ended up being the same time as the Gates). There are two shared bathrooms (but there are rooms with their own small washrooms) and that is the first time I "slummed it" like that. The bathrooms were clean and private, and only once were both occupied on my floor during the three days. Rooms were small and dated, but kept clean, and that's all that mattered to me when visiting a city as great as New York. The location is hard to beat - 31st and Park, block from a 6 train stop. If you reserve, bring proof though - I paid $90 or so a night for two people, two beds.
Any tips for Chicago? Right now I'm planning on renting a car in Detroit and staying in a cheaper suburban motel and driving to a CTA L park-and-ride for going into the city.
try New Jersey, if you just wanna get down there and save a buck.
Chicago has surprisingly good deals online.
Hit hotels dot com and check out the lower priced places. You can get a grade above a hostel for about $150 right now I think.
Then either book through the site or call the hotel directly.
It is high season and freaky expensive. There is always the Chelsea as well.
I've heard good things about Hotel 31. You might also want to check out Portland Square Hotel on 47th - small rooms, but clean. I've seen prices from $75 - $120 for a single with shared bath, depending on the weekend. The Whitehouse of New York is also cheap, but books up early.
As for New Jersey, check out Secaucus to be on the NJ Transit lines into the city. 15-20 minutes and you are at Penn Station. Also Newark by the PATH station is another place to check. You should be able to get a decent hotel (Marriott, Hilton, etc.) for around $120 if you look around.
Really conveinent is the Courtyard Jersey City Newport, which is right above the PATH station (24 hour trains). It's showing around $169 a night for this weekend coming up. But it couldn't be any better located unless it was located in the city.
Greg
St. Mark's hotel (St. Mark's Place and 3rd Av). Stayed there for New Years, and even then it worked out to only $120 a night I think. Ideal location for NYU, East Village, two minute cab ride to Alphabet City, close to the Broadway subway lines. Under the hotel there is a pub with cheap pints of Brooklyn Lager, and these boneless-wing things they cook in a sauce that is incredible. Decent pizza joint next door, and only a ten minute walk to CBGBs.
The Edison right off Times Square. You can't beat the location and it should be only $160.
I stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel recently. Awesome location, (across from Penn Station / Madison Square Garden) a little grungy but okay. Was about $150 a night for two people (queen bed, private bathroom).
From my research, it seems this is the cheapest place in Manhattan with a private washroom. There's a thread about it here:
Apollo Inn
Cool, thanks for the advice y'all. I'll be sure to fill up the city photos forum with 74 different angles of the Chrysler building when I get back.
This is where you want to stay:
www.whitehousehotelofny.com/
$27 a night. Probably booked by now. Like a hostel, but private, and no smelly Australian drunken frat boy sleeping above you.
shawn:
I have booked two nights at the White House Hostel of New York. Only because of the weight your name carries in these parts!
Will listening to Shawn Micallef prove to be a mistake? Tune in next week...
I'm surprised you got it. The past two times I've tried to book it on "short" (i.e. within a weeks) notice, it's been fully booked. Do let us know how it is.
Greg
Er, i'll be interested too. This place was suggested by the new york folks who were running a psychogeography conference/fest 2 years ago, but it was booked. So we stayed at some hostel in Chelsea on 22nd. So awful (those smelly australians).
And it wasn't so cheap. There were 3 of us, and we should have just got a room in a hotel, and paid the same, and not suffered the indignities of hostel life. I vowed never to stay in a hostel again.
The white house seems just fine though, and with no more indignities than the standard european hotel.
So, I'm back. And behold: the White House Hotel!
Nicely painted, on the east side of the Bowery, just above Bleecker street. God, listen to me, throwing these names around. Going to New York for the first time feels like a homecoming, not because of any personal affinity, but because we've been hearing these names all our lives. When we finally visit for ourselves, they fit like so many gloves.
Anyway. The hostel is something else. Just as Shawn said, you get your own tiny little nun-cell, barely big enough for a squeaky single bed.
There's no roof, per se, but a garden-gazebo-type trellis above. I'm not sure what good it is, other than some sense of enclosure, but hey, I'll take that.
Anyway, the place is definitely a hostel, but based on that standard, it gets top scores. It's very clean (even the bathroom), the staff was friendly and professional, the location is fantastic, the price (USD$36 all in) is what it is, and even the drunken Australians were quiet at night. Come the morning, you get to listen to everyone else's discussions of what they did last night. If that doesn't suit, there's a Holiday Inn with your name on it.
So: cheers to Shawn Micallef. Truly a man of wisdom, integrity, and handy hostel tips.
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