New York City ( Central ) Hotel / accommodation suggestions ??

[Nirish guy]

Surely I cannot be the only member who was instantly able to picture NIrish-guy following in the footsteps of Julie Andrews

You were not the only person as "I" was already WAY ahead of you there !! :-) Hell I could almost hear the goat herding bells ringing in the background as I cleared my throat for a spot of yodelling ( and no that's not a metaphor for anything else

Actually I agree that sounds like a lovely trip and one that I'd certainly be up for and I think I'll add it to my seemingly ever growing bucket list so thanks for that Gerefan.

HOWEVER as boy wonder has now firmly got the idea of NY in his sights and after me just applying for his Esta e-visa clearance approval thing and getting that back and approved within minutes, what with him being Flipino he now thinks that is wonderful and is now adamant we MUST go to thank them ! - So, bugger the bank balance, it looks like we're going to NY ( whether I like it or not it seems ).

I am of course secretly looking forward to it myself as its been several years since I was last there, but of course I'll be sure to put on the "ohhh not AGAIN" face and pretend its not all fun and exciting all over again, well for at least 10 minutes anyway........well, either that or just throw oa smok on and go running down 5th Avenue belting out The Sound of Music and Doh a dear at the top of my lungs whilst wishing I WAS actually in Austria !

[frequent]

This is deeply disappointing to music-loving queens everywhere. Salzburg is the city of Mozart

[frequent]

Speaking of music, if you’re ever at Swampy Airport and hear the strains of the Grand March from Verdi’s Aida, it’s their way of welcoming me back to the Kingdom

[gerefan2]

This is deeply disappointing to music-loving queens everywhere. Salzburg is the city of Mozart

Nope. Depends on whether your interests are Bach and Beethoven or Boys and Beer Singh.

[Nirish guy]

So, just to conclude my general enquiry as above and as courtesy an acknowledgement of thanks to those who replied above I eventually got sorted in the end with somewhere (mad) to stay in NY ... I still can't believe I'm going to risk it but I am.

So...after looking until my eyes bled at hotel sites for New York and just not believing the crazy pricing ( for tiny rooms, often with shared bathrooms and rooms not big enough to swing a small hamster never mind a cat) and after reading review after review plus and checking as much as I could elsewhere I finally thought fuck that as it NO WAY am I paying £300+ a night for THAT crap so again after much review reading (and against my better judgment) I finally ended up booking us into the "YMCA" !

It's location couldn't be better as it's situated literally just a 10 minutes walk and few blocks from Time Square, Luckily I was able to book us a "deluxe" room ( ha its SO not as it's about 6ft square I think !)) AND as I missed the chance to book a "double" room we''ve now ended up with BUNK BEDS no less !! ( I missed the double by minutes it seems as actually the place is really popular it seems ?!. ( with crack head perhaps, we'll see ?

Now before anyway shouts "you did WHAT" - I KNOWWWW....and I him'ed and Ha'ed over and over again BUT when I looked into it fully I ended up getting a (tiny) room with a semi private bathroom ( ie when you go in you lock the door and it's yours and private BUT can be used by others at other times too )- the thought of that turns me somewhat BUT by BF assures me "it'll be fine" and it's not like it's some romantic weekend break we're on and the tiny room etc is and was no different to half the so called hotels I looked at either, so fuck it, I'm going to love dangerously and risk it :-)

Plus as gay man I have to admit that the very thought of "staying at the YMCA" ( I can just hear that damned tune playing even now) AND the one in NY too no less, just once before I die, does tickle me somewhat.....oh and the MAIN reason of course.....as mentioned all the hotels around there, with basically the same crappy basic specs = £1200-1500 plus this tax and that service fee and you name it ! ....the YMCA = £550 in TOTAL !!

So. fuck it, we're going to "slum it" ( it's actually looks ok to be fair to them and their reviews are actually better than some of the so called shitty hotels that were on offer, so you can wish me luck.

Either way the way I'm looking at it is that as we'll literally only be there to sleep ( oh and perhaps and use the TWO swimming pools and their great gym !.....ok so there's NO chance of me bothering to use the gym when on holiday I do admit .....but aside from sleeping there that £1000 or so that I'll save will go nicely towards the other many ridiculously over priced things that we're going to end up doing no doubt whilst in NY. And before anyone calls me "cheap" lol ......a) fuck it I am......it's not like a can't afford wherever else, I'm just damned if I'm going to give me it for almost fuck all extra when it's not "that" sort of a holiday !

Oh and gerefan, thanks again for your suggestion......it actually came a very close run second option and in fact the BF and I spent about two hours on Saturday going over your exact suggestions in terms of googling your suggested areas to visit plus searching flights plus things to do etc and I was actually up for it, but alas the Bf had the casting vote and needless to say he was ALWAYS going in one direction only of course and that was NY, but hey hopefully I've planted a seed there and your trip just might happen some day too with any luck.

Oh and just for info's sake rather than just do NY I decided to add on to the trip by flying from Dublin straight into Philadelphia, then renting a car and going to stay with friends in Lancaster County for a few nights to drive around and show my BF the place (as it was my remembering about that whole Amish experience thing that started me off on this whole idea in the first place). Then a crowd of us are heading out on the Saturday night for a nice dinner in Lancaster itself to celebrate my BF's actual birthday which is on that day. Then on Monday we're driving to Philadelphia, dropping the hire car off and then spending the day (and night) there looking around Philly with us then jumping on the Amtrak Tuesday lunchtime to head on in to NY where we're booking in for 5 days ( hopefully not hating the YMCA and regretting my edgy decision !)

So, thanks again for all the suggestions, all gratefully recieved and looked into, wish me luck ( as I just might need it ! )