Hotels and other hints for travel to San Francisco or New York???

W

wylie

I have had a travel agent hold some cheap flights for us to travel to San Francisco and New York and want to do some checking on the net before I front up to her office.

We are two adults and our boys, 20, 17 and 13 and I am hoping that we might be able to find accommodation to fit us all in one room to save money. We will only be collapsing into bed so don't really care if we are squashed into one room if it saves us half the cost of having to book two rooms, at least for some of the time.

Does anybody have any hotel recommendations, or any other way of finding places to stay that are cheaper than the "usual". We have to decide by tomorrow whether we want these flights, but I think finding accommodation that will not cost an arm and a leg will be a problem.

I have had a look around the net, but finding rooms to take us all is the problem.

Any ideas?
 
Hehe.


I could highly recommend the boutique hotel in SF where we spent our wedding night but you may not want something quite as intimate as that.

Even if it still exists.
 
Hehe.


I could highly recommend the boutique hotel in SF where we spent our wedding night but you may not want something quite as intimate as that.

Even if it still exists.
 
I stayed in the Holiday Inn SF right near Fishermens Wharf. There was just me...but I had 2 double beds....all the rooms came complete with the 2 beds
They did have family rooms as well. Ask the Travel Agent, mine was able to organise good accommodation for me.

I found the food and travel costs very reasonable but our dollar was higher earlier this year :D I did the Yosemite and Monterey trips which I really enjoyed

Chris
 
Stay away from the Ramada in downtown SF. Actually stay away from downtown all together. The only place we ever felt in fear. I knew we shouldn't have checked in when the concierge said our room was across the road above the parking lot. 4 hours later we where unpacking the bags in a better part of town, less a nights charge at Ramada.
 
Wylie, the Red Victorian, reccomended by the locals, (friends). They are budget conscious, but like their fun, people...Looks to be quite a memorable experience, partly for it's Haight Asbury location/history-think love and groovy man.:)

http://www.redvic.com/index.html

Prices are relatively reasonable, you may even decide reasonable enough you- your own room, and boys can have theirs.

Check out the links for location (near Golden Gate Park)..and stuff too much to mention.

My friends over there love the place, for it's location and sense of fun and "difference"..

Sami Sunchild sounds wonderful.

Peace Wylie.:)
 
Thanks for the tips.

Having slept on this, and thought long and hard, we have decided not to go right now. We really only made a quick decision yesterday because the fares were on special, but to save a couple of thousand in fares meant a holiday spend of probably about $20K. As Kim (Kath & Kim) would have said "I think I saved so much, I actually MADE money."

Unfortunately, I had to let the kids in on the plan because I needed to know uni holiday times, so when they wake up and I tell them we have decided not to go, they will be upset and no doubt, cranky..... but they will have to get over it.

For that money, we could do two or three Australian holidays, or we will wait and possibly do a house swap with someone in San Fran or New York (or both) and save thousands on accommodation.

We have friends who are house swapping for the next year in France, Italy and such places.

I had thought we could have a big holiday before the boys don't want to travel with us any more, but the truth is that the 20 year old would probably travel with us any time..... as long as he didn't have to spend his own money :p

I am happy to hear any other comments on New York or San Fran because one day we will go back to San Fran.

Many thanks.
 
a family holiday would be nice but the 20y.o will probably work and use his own money to travel soon anyway. If he did save his own money, I doubthe would want to travel with family.

at 21 I moved to sydney by myself for work and got my own apt, 22 travelled and work US and UK and late 23 got married.

But US is a great idea for the younger kids! I don't think you can look at it like that. It all depends on where you really want to go. Do you want to go to 3 destinations in Oz or do you want to go to US. Sometimes it's worthwhile to save up for that one big trip.

in NY you could look at sub-letting an apartment. Hotel accommodation is very very expensive. Sf is more affordable.
 
I also just brought some tickets to LA, I got them cheap (I think) as it was the new V Australia airline (virgin). Have booked 2 tickets for 5 weeks!!!.

I went the US in 2006 by myself and loved it, so I'm taking the wife this time to show her.

Plan to buy domestic flights or bus tickets when over there and head to San Fran, Seattle, New York, Las Vegas (grand canyon).

I have free accom in LA, Seattle but finding decent cheap accom in New York City is tough!!, your looking at least 280-400 per night for an average hotel in the centre.

Might try sub-letting as it appears cheaper.

I only hope the US dollar get higher, I would be happy with anything over 0.80
 
I got the travel agent to find us rooms in New York to fit five people and the cheapest she could find was $1,120 per night. We were planning on ten nights there. I then looked at hostel accommodation and flea-pit style for five of us still would be more than $400 per night, so we have shelved the trip for now.

San Fran was half that cost and we had no major problems last time in San Fran finding a decent room that slept five. The only night of our two week stay that we had to pay for a second room was in LA, and they still put us into one room. I'm not sure who in the hotel pocketed the money we paid for the second room, and I was too sick to care by then.

It was all done on a whim, so nothing lost really. I am looking into house swapping because that way we can stay free but I would love to hear any other tips for when we go.

And Sue...... you obviously don't know my 20 year old son. He would travel with we "oldies" any time, anywhere just as long as we pay :). He has saved a lot of his part time pay, but spends a fair bit on clothes and shoes. It will only be when he wants to buy his first house that he will (possibly) wish he had not bought quite so many clothes. He has expensive taste, which is fine if you have the bulging wallet to match :).

I will try the accommodation sites recommended because even if we manage a house swap, there will still be times we want to stay centrally, maybe when we first land or for a few nights here and there.
 
Unfortunately, NY will never be cheap. I am hoping to call on favours when I go though not sure if they will be happy to accommodate 3 kids and 2 adults in a 2br downtown apt.

Have you looked at staying in the boroughs? the commute is very short or even in New Jersey.

NYC has loads of sublets and short term room rentals etc especially during school holidays.

I am so envious of my bro in law who goes to NY frequently on bus trips and gets to stay at the Waldorf. He's a Hilton memeber and gets free upgrade to a suite, he even gets priority check in.
 
few years back I tavelled through few cities over 2 weeks .... stayed in 4.5/5-star hotels all the way ... and all for 75 to 99USD per night for each night.

All of it booked through the reverse auction on priceline.com (just checked the site and it's still available under "name your own price" option).

good luck,
 
try betterbidding.com

it has links and tips to on how to use priceline.com and hotwire.com
also has a history of winning bids and what hotels they were for

good luck
 
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