New York outskirts hotels / trains?

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caravanman

caravanman

Engineer
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Messages
4,955
Location
Nottingham, England.
Hi Folks,

Getting restless for another Amtrak ride or two...

I am looking to stay near New York, probably a cheaper satellite suburb, and train in each day for a few hours sightseeing.

My question is can anyone suggest a suitable cheap hotel in a convenient town with commuter rail (or bus) links to New York?

Just looking for HoJo, Motel 6, etc, with those all important transport options.

Thanks,

Ed :cool:
 
Ed, you really do have a lot of options, seeing as though it's NYC. I've done Jersey several X, and others have stayed on Long Island. Thing you need to remember is WEEKENDS. Service on "commuter lines" is usually a bit different, even in Metro NY.

Check some of the other "Train boards" too, at one time there was a web page that had a list of hotels near Amtrak, and I think it included many commuter stations as well.

Sorry, can't be more helpful. What's your daily hotel budget range?

This may, or MAY NOT, be helpful. http://www.railhotels.com/nstation/namerica/usa/index.html
 
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Thanks for that link, and good point about the weekend service issues...

I have often stayed at HoJo out at Newark airport, very reasonable, but the Newark airport station has extra high fares, so the daily $30 or so train fare to get to town and back tends to eat into the savings.

My thoughts were to look at similar priced hotels, around $60-$90 a night, but without the "airport tax" effect of the Newark stop.

I often stay in youth hostels, which suit me fine, but I did not like the NYC hostel on my last trip.

My philosophy is spend less, stay longer !

Ed :cool:
 
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Jis is spot on Eddie!

And there is more than one hostel in the Apple.

The HI in Harlem was OK when I stayed there 2 years ago, not as nice as the Chicago one, but good value for the money! You can take the subway or bus from there to reach anywhere in the Metro Area!!
 
I had this idea myself for my last trip to NYC and researched it for a while. In the end, I opted for staying in midtown.

But to share what I found, my first choice for an outskirts hotel would be Marriott Residence Inn in New Rochelle. The nice thing is that this hotel is less than 5 mins from the train station, and there's a commuter train to NYC every half hour (about a 35 min ride). The second choice would be the Residence Inn in White Plains, but it's a little further from NYC, and the trains, altho frequent, are not AS frequent.

Still, I think it might be a good idea to do this, and probably will on a future visit to the Big Apple.
 
I'm interested in this as well, as I'm looking at staying in New York in October.

Right now the best mix of convenience, cleanliness (based on reviews,) and price that I could find, at least on paper, is the Hampton Inn Carlstadt/Meadowlands. There are a few NJT buses that pick up at the intersection just outside of the hotel, which results in very frequent bus service (at least from what I can see.) I'm thinking about staying further out, but the hotels further out are usually not much cheaper, and the extra train fare (over the $4.50 for the bus) adds up to equal the same amount for two people.
 
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Thanks Jim for the other hostel tip, and thanks everyone else for their input too.

One small tip that I can pass on about bus services in unknown city areas is that I put the hotel address on google maps street view, then have a pan around and zoom in on the bus stops, if any. One can often read a route number, and so find the correct timetable online.

Thanks again,

Ed. :cool:
 
There are some hotels in Rockville Centre on Lawn Guyland which come with the added bonus on being on the LIRR branch with the most frequent service and close to the N4 bus which drops off at the Jamaica Center subway station for a cheaper alternative into the city.
 
LTR, thanks for that link. Real helpful. It has the two Residence Inns that I so painstakingly came up with through my research, and many other choices.

For folks thinking of doing this, I would think twice about a bus link to Manhattan. Why would you risk standing at an outdoor bus stop e.g. in October, considering the weather possibilities.

You want a train link, preferably with a covered station and waiting area. Just my opinion.
 
Outdoor in October in NY/NJ is usually not a problem unless they are getting hit by the likes of Sandy,in which case all bets are off. OTOH, in January it is another matter altogether. :)

NJT (or NJT funded private) bus service is actually surprisingly good and reasonably priced, much more frequent than any NJT train service too, though at least along the NEC, not as fast.
 
A lot of what's convenient of course is related to how you're getting to the NY area, and how much time and money you're willing to spend to get to and from the city. For me it's most convenient to be on the Island as it keeps my costs way down and is closest to JFK airport where I fly in and out of. I might stay in Westchester County if I was coming on Amtrak from New England or Chicago. If I'm flying I'm avoiding going that far out of the way even if i flew into LGA. I won't consider Jersey for lack of convenience but YMMV.

As for having to wait outside in October for a bus or even at a subway station, if you're from Minnesota or Chicago it won't be too bad unless there's a noreaster or something like that.
 

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