My friend has agreed to go with me to NYC to see Spamalot! Yay!
I’ve never been to NYC before, 'cept on a bus trip in High School.
We are pretty sure we’re going to drive, unless I can find good airline tickets (I haven’t asked if he’s afraid to fly…hmm…)
So I want to drive to my hotel, park my car, and not drive it anymore. I’m hip to taxis and the subway and walking.
I need some recomendations, though!
Where should we stay? How can we make this trip as easy as possible?
If I end up driving I want to be able to EASILY drive to the hotel. I am a good driver but I am not about to be tooling around NYC in an SUV with Ohio plates
Should we look for some sort of package deal with a hotel? Are most hotels near the theater district able to get us tickets? Is that worth it?
Hmmm this post is all fragmented…I’m at work…but I wanted to get the ball rolling on my question so I can gather as much info as possible.
http://www.flyi.com/
They are having a sale – you can get each leg for $89 if you can fly during non-peak days (tues/wed/thurs).
I promise you that connecting through DC will be well, well, well, well worth the hassle.
Another option if you are dead set on spending 24 hours of your life driving to and from NYC, is to locate a “Park & Ride” commuter lot somewhere in New Jersey and leave your car there while you take PATH or NJTransit commuter rail into the city. Make double & triple sure they allow cars to stay over night!
Hotels in Thearte district for 2 start at $160 if you find a bargain online.
Parking in City overnight will run you maybe another $30-$40 unless hotel Comps it. Make sure you have the tickets to Spamalot, hard to get.
Fly into Newark and study mass transit ahead of time. It is now possible to take Monorail to Trains to Subway.
Driving in NYC is not for the faint of heart.
FYI You don’t need to take a cab from JFK - you can take the A-train the whole way into the city. (it’s a long ride but very easy to deal with, a $4 monorail thingy takes you from the airport to the subway station.) If you take a cab there is a fixed price for the ride, it’s $45.
If you fly into Laguardia, there is no simple mass transit available, but the cab fare will be less. It’s a trade off. I would avoid Newark if you can, but if you can’t there are shuttles and such that connect up with the subway.
Another recommendation that you fly, only because driving in Manhattan is such a hassle. It takes a long time to get on the same psychic level as the average NYC cab driver so you can anticipate what he’s going to do (“But he was in the right lane and had his right turn signal on. Why did he turn left?!?”)
I also strongly recommend that you have the tickets before showing up.
Play around on the ticketcharge website so you can see how unavailable the seats are. For instance, if you want two orchestra seats together you can plan on going in January. Best bet is to try to get single seats but that means not sitting together.
My friend actually got to see Spamalot a month ago but his family took him and they camped somewhere outside of the city and took a train in. I think he’s oblivious enough to not realize what a hassle driving in NYC is. Especially since I am the one who’d be driving.
Been looking at tickets and such. No problem to get them online beforehand. Hank Azaria doesn’t get back into the cast until Nov 29 anyway so we won’t go until then.
Flights don’t look that bad either, for now. $169 round trip from CLE to JFK per person in December…
Hotels are kind of high compared to Ohio but whatcha gonna do? I think we can easily get this done for under $250/person out the door - minus any pending cab fares, meals, etc.
I’ll be sure to keep checking this thread, and when I DO make a purchase I’ll start with the “OK PLEASE GIVE ME EXACT TRANSPORT DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING TO MY HOTEL FROM JFK” pleadings
Good Luck with Plans, Shop around and enjoy. I saw it in May and it was awesome. BTW, I can drive in NYC and still took the train in. Try to fly to Newark or Kennedy. Either will work these days.
Or you could have waited until 2007 and driven out here to Las Vegas and seen Spamalot at the Wynn Hotel.
But if you insist on going to the source…
Seriously…wish I were going there to see it, hell, just wish I were going to NYC!
But driving there was a very bad idea. Very bad. Not good at all. I know many horror stories and not a single happy story of people driving into the city.
I can suggest a couple of inexpensive Gay Bed and Breakfasts, but that is probably not the route you want to go. Still, there must be some hetero bed and breakfasts that are reasonably priced in decent neighborhoods…aren’t there?
There are several hostels in Manhattan. They’re crazy cheap if you don’t mind roughing it and sharing a room with strangers. I stayed in the Hostelling International hostel the last time I was in New York- clean, close to the subway, and about a quarter of the price of a motel (I think we paid about $35 a night for a bunk). Use www.hostels.com to check them out and pre-book if this sounds like a good money-saver. Or don’t, if you’d rather spend the money for a hotel room.
FisherQueen thanks! I checked out that hostel you stayed at on that site, and it looks pretty good to me! Definitely cleaner and nicer than my friend’s apartment and some of the sh*tholes he’s lived in so I think that might be the way we go!
I’ll have to think about wether or not I can handle separate-sex dorms, though. I like the “transportation from airport” feature however!
