Another New York Tour Guide...

A lot of our friends and family have asked for tips and advice when planning their trip to New York City. Last year, we managed to streamline our tips in a long (Dutch) word document which has been distributed a few times now (maybe you have already read it?). I thought it might be a fun idea to also post our recommendations on this blog (plus, it will make our lives much easier just referring to our website). So yes, yet another New York tour guide... The idea is to make a kind of itinerary for your trip, from preparations to your last day in Manhattan. Of course, it's only a small selection of what New York has to offer, but we try to include in our little guide the things we think are crucial for any serious tourist (in our humble opinion).

Preparing Your Trip

Now, maybe you prefer to book through you local travel agency, but you might want to consider to do some online research. Thanks to Internet, the emancipation of the traveler is now a fact. I am not saying that your travel agency will not have the best deal, but it’s always good to double check with what is out there on the world wide web! For plane tickets and hotel reservations, we recommend the following sites.

1. www.kayak.com compares flight and hotel prices from different (mostly US) sites to ensure you get the best deal.
2. www.hotels.com gives you lots of good deals on hotels in the US and if you become a member, you may get your 11th night for free.
3. On www.hotwire.com, you can book hotels at discounts. The catch is that you don’t know which hotel you are actually booking – you do know the category (star rating etc.) and location. For the adventure traveler only.
4. On www.tripadvisor.com, you can check whether the hotel you are planning to stay at actually lives up to your expectations. Travelers around the world book reviews on hotels they stayed at (and some also post their pictures of the hotel), so you can get a good idea of the actual quality of the hotel (in stead of just relying on a quite vague star rating and the hotel website).
5. www.frommers.com has some good hotel recommendations and is in general, a very good website to prepare your trip! I especially love their suggested itineraries.
6. Jetsetter is an amazing site with discounts on luxury hotels around the world. Each day, different hotels come "on sale". We weren't able to try it out yet due to budget reasons - but as soon as we're back in the rat race, this will be our first place to look for that amazing hotel in New York City (or Greece, or Spain, or...).