Thursday, March 6, 2014

Planning New York

So, Jessica and I need to get busy planning our New York trip. We are going the week of May 11, and it has to be a budget trip for sure!!

We want to stay near Central Park, Broadway etc. because I think that's where most of the stuff we want to see is at. It is way less expensive to stay in either Edgewater, NJ or Jersey City, NJ (that is the lesser of those two) but our concern is how we would get to Central Park etc from those places? Are there buses from that area or anything? Also, would it be better to fly into the Newark airport or JFK?
 
Are there things we should for sure see and things to for sure avoid?
 
She wants to go to Wicked and is there one place that is better than the others to get tickets? I don't want to wait until we get there because the matinees are almost sold out for that week.
 

I need to make smart choices because most of this is not refundable.

So if you are really familiar with NYC, please leave me some suggestions in the comment box.

6 comments:

Tala said...

I'd recommend you try and stay in NYC proper. Staying in Edgewater isn't my recommendation. You either have to take a water taxi/ferry (only operates on weekdays during rush hour) or a bus (which can take a while). It's doable but hope your not stuck in some horrid traffic and waste time.

Wicked has a lottery for tickets (but sadly, it's just a lottery and 100s of people put their names in it), you can try for a liquidation site, or buy the hour before the show starts (at that point they're trying to get rid of tickets but it could be a gamble). Consider an off-broadway show or maybe see Wicked when it's touring next? Stomp, Avenue Q and Blue Man Group are all fun.

JFK requires you take AirTrain and transfer to the subway. La Guardia requires you to take a bus. Newark has (I think) both AirTrain and bus. Since you're on a tight budget, I recommend flying into the cheapest one.

My main piece of advice is don't go to a chain restaurant - it's more expensive in NYC for the same quality.

Enjoy the magic that is NYC!

Kathy Cassel said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't advise staying in Edgewater either. You can stay in New Jersey but you'd have to find somewhere that is close and easily accessible to NJ Transit (the train that runs from NJ to NY). Renting a car would be ridiculously expensive (crossing the bridge into NY is like $13) and you'd likely end up paying for parking anyway) so I personally would find a hotel in NY because whatever savings you make by staying in NJ will be eaten up by transportation costs.

My mother took me to Wicked and it was an excellent show, but kind of expensive. Some shows do student rush tickets (discounted tickets the day of the show with a valid student ID) but Wicked only does the lottery system that Tala mentioned above. If you're on a budget, I'd honestly take a look at other shows. The shows are great and you might be able to catch a really great show for less than one ticket for Wicked. You can check out TKTS or look at which Broadway shows do student rush/rush tickets.

As for food, there's a lot of great little spots to eat. I'd avoid eating at all in Times Square area because it's all restaurants you can eat at at home and plus, they add an automatic gratuity to your bill just for being in Times Square.

Kathy Cassel said...

Thank you. I guess we will look for a hotel in NYC that is maybe less expensive (some of even the Quality Inn chain were $300 a night in some areas.) Will remember not to eat in Times Sq. Thanks for the advice.

Felicia said...

http://ssmaclub.org/ Tasha and I stayed at this place. Not fancy but cheapest place we could find. Not sure if dependents can stay or not. I was in the National Guard at the time.

megan said...

My brother lives in New Rochelle (of Dick Van Dyke show fame) and I remember taking transit from there to nyc but I don't remember the cost or how long it took. But you might try looking for hotels in that area. I'll ask him if he has any suggestions or ideas.