Twixmas Break to New York - can you help me to get it any cheaper?

[DocBrown]

We have saved really hard this year and would like to treat ourselves to a break to New York in between Christmas and New Year fly out on 29th and back on 2nd Jan. Not really too fussed on hotel so long as it is clean and comfortable and in a relatively central location to the main attractions. Looking on the holiday sites the costing is coming out at approx £3.5K for the four of us - Me, DP, DC 10 and 7.

Was hoping to get it for this price including spends - could anyone point me in the direction of getting the price down or am I being totally unrealistic? Any tips on where to stay what to see would also be gratefully received :)

The flights on those dates will be very expensive. Can you fly on Boxing Day? We've found in the past that it is the cheapest date to fly during that period.

Can you fly on 28th? It's sometimes cheaper to include a Saturday night in the stay.

Yes could be flexible with flights - was hoping to see the big (Maceys?) parade - would we still be able to catch that?

Have you tried Expedia?

Milburn hotel + flights for £3226

You seem to be able to get it below £3000 if you go to Staten Island, but suspect that is a bit out of the way for you?

Will have a look at Expedia - was really hoping to fly to JFK or Newqark for ease - DCs have not flown long haul before so will probably not tolerate a long transfer the other end. Pants I this was going to be easy!

Also try the business flight bookers you get on google when you type in flights to New York. They book business and upper but can also (and have for us) get great rates on economy. Choose a few and bounce back and forth between then getting them to beat each other's prices.

Try here

this is who we booked with in the end.

just found these ones.

Use their contact forms, put in your dates. It's best to get them to email through quotes so you've got a starting point from them all...then just get them down in price by bouncing between them. Be open and give them your actual budget price, you may save by booking flights and hotel seperately...the hotel website is often the best price. Although I'm sure there are secret room sites for New York and you can usually work out which hotel you want and which the secret one is?

DocBrown The big Macy parade is on Thanksgiving, 4th Thursday in November. When I went to New York for New Years the evening was mental everybody piles into Times Square similar to Trafalgar Square here, lots of fun though. From what I remember there was no parade in NYC around New Years but the city is beautiful and the shops go all out with decorations etc. There are loads of activities on like ice skating and the central park zoo should be open.
We stayed in Lexington and also stayed in The Americana. I found it cheaper to buy flights then book rooms direct with the hotel. Transfers from JFK are really easy you can either take the subway, taxi (they do a flat rate fare into Manhattan but you have to ask for it!) or splash out and get a limo think they were around £50 last time I went...that was a while ago though. I found google was my friend for good deals. Enjoy Its a lovely city especially in the winter though absolutely freezing!!!

Rent out an apartment via www.airbnb.com- we did and it was just marvellous, so much cheaper than hotels.