sorry to jump in same thread, going for a week nov/december, do you guys think 8 days is too long for a youngish couple? best hotel to stay at?
It's definitely not too long - but how you use the days will be different for different people.
I went with my fiancee for about the same length of time and we fitted in tourist attractions with museums, parks, theatre and shopping etc; but it would also be easy enough to replace museums with more shopping and theatre with pubs
* and clubs and various other combinations. The upshot is that you can more than fill up the time easily enough you just need to work out what you want then find the places in New York where you'd get it.
The advantage with a longer stay is that you can also fit in things you wouldn't normally think of. We went to the Yankee Stadium to watch the baseball despite the fact that neither of us are particularly sporty. Things like that or day trips further afield (i.e. outside Manhattan) are much easier when you don't have to cram everything in for a short trip.
The hotel is a harder question - comes back to what you want again. I've stayed at 3 hotels in New York and liked them all (which might just mean I'm easily pleased of course). As well as the quality of the hotel I think whether you're getting value for money is also important.
When I went with my fiancee we stayed for half the trip at
the New Yorker hotel - which is historic and interesting, but not very swish. We paid about the same cost as a Travelodge in London would cost and for that I think it's great value. If you paid the going rate for 4 or 5 stars for it then I'd have been pretty disappointed.
The second half of the trip we stayed at "
Hilton Garden Inn Long Island City/ Manhattan View". This was about the same price - the hotel was much (much much) newer with better facilities, but you had to get a metro to get anywhere. They balanced out to give good value again.
The first time I went I stayed at
TRYP by Wyndham Times Square South, which had the location advantage of the New Yorker with the modernity of the Hilton - obviously more expensive but still kept the value for money.
They're the only ones I've stayed at so the only ones I can comment on - but if you really wanted to go for it there are plenty of 5 star establishments in Manhattan as well
*NB I would recommend trying out a whole range of pubs and bars - we were restricted when I went with my fiancee as she was under 21; but when I went by myself I found that there are some really great bars and pubs in Manhattan - well worth trying out a few
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