Train trip and hotel NEW YORK

[Willabywallaby]

Hi,

I tagged this on the end of a thread but that seemed to kill it, so trying again.

I'm going to visit my brother in Boston next year at the end of March for a fortnight. I thought we could take the train to New York for a few days.

It would be me, Dh and 2DSs (6 and 3). Does anyone have any experience of the train and suggestions for hotels in New York?

Many thanks.

Also consider taking a plane between Boston -NYC. If you book it as part of your international flight it will add very little to teh cost (for example London-Boston-NY-London probably £35 more than just a London-Boston flight).

If for some reason you have to go back to Boston a roundtrip plane ticket may be the same as Amtrak roundtrip as Amtrak tends to be quite expensive.

When I took the Amtrak (New York to Philidelphia, but the same service as Boston) it didn't go from Central - it went from Penn. A day trip for me just to Philidelphia was £80.

Thanks for all the replies, had a mega busy half term and only just got my head around thinking about this again.

My mental budget for 4 nights stay is probably about £1000, but I'm finding it hard to work out the cost if tax is/isn't included.

I'm still swaying towards the Radio City apartments because of the separate bedroom, not sure all of us in the same room would work for 4 nights. One of the main reasons is a friend I have who is from NY said it would be best to be near Times Square for all the touristy things. Although another friend recommended Cyberrooms for renting an apartment and quoted Upper East Side. My knowledge of NY is Ziltch so not sure now .

I wanted to take the train because really couldn't face a bus with the DSs. Already booked the flights.

Being pestered my the boys now so will have to check out suggestions later.

Anymore ideas still appreciated.

PS will be going back to Boston after, it's a trip to NY to give my brother some space during our fortnight visit.

The Radio City Apartments are not too far away from Times Square anyway (if you have not already done so read the recent reviews on Tripadvisor.com).

I would avoid actually renting an apartment privately; there are so many scams.

Check out www.seat61.com - it was set up by a guy that loved travelling by train and has evolved into a fantastic resource full of info for train journeys all over the world. (called seat61 because that was his favourite seat on eurostar I think!)

They have a USA section including the Boston to NYC train so that should give loads of useful info on the train side of things if you still need it.

Happy travels!

We went from Boston to NYC in Sept (DH, DD (8mo) and myself) on the megabus. I was very pro-train until I found out that two seats on the train were 4x the price of 3 on the bus. The reason is that the business men use the train cause it takes the same time as flying but you end up in the middle of town. Our mega bus was new, had free wifi (dvd on laptop maybe?) and didn't stop so was quite quick (4/5 hours if I remember). What ever you do, have fun!

Near Central Park They offer babysitting so assume child friendly. Plus a pool.

MegaBuses are very comfortable.

Internationalvelvet, can you please stop bumping old threads to promote your website.

We recently stayed at the four points times square and it was brilliant. A lovely bright clean hotel about 5 mins walk from times square and about $200 a night.

We have now booked the Radio City Apartments, but that looks good mathanxiety. I'm hoping the reduction in luxury is worth it for having the fridge etc. DH is a cereal addict and it's good to be able to feed the kids something 'normal' while away. I'm hoping to get into the swing of doggy bags!

So just have to book the train, still winning over a coach, but not going the business class option, it's over $400 each way as opposed to $147 with child tickets.

Just spoken to my brother and he's requesting digestive biscuits, he's already ordered Charlie and Lola DVDs on Amazon delivered to my Mum for me to bring.