It might help if you posted your budget.

sure.. say $300 - $400 (USD) / person

Is that $300-$400 a night or for all week? Hotels are very expensive in Manhattan.

If that budget needs to last you for all week, then I suggest that you stay at a hostel.

that's for a week... yeah, i was thinking of staying at the YMCA on 5 W 63rd St.. unless there's cheaper... on hostel.com, they have rates at that Y for double occ. at 69 USD. I have found cheaper places, but they are "dorm" style, and we would prefer to have our own room.

Avoid Scores.

Buy your own food. Delis are great, even if it's just a meal or two a day. Avoid taxis whenever possible, take the subway.

Scores? I found on the MTA site that 7 day unlimited subway / bus pass is $21

http://www.scoresnewyork.com/club.htm

NSFW

hmm.. very nice establishment - let's see what the gf thinks..

I can recommend this place:

http://www.nystudentcenter.org/

Get a subway pass that lets you ride the subway as much as you like for a week. Works out very economically. Me, my girlfriend and housemate all went in February 2003 - all students.

Edit: Oh, and we stayed here:

http://www.jazzonthepark.com/

The first night. We stayed in their location on the upper west side near central park - just slightly up town from the International Student Center. Jazz had a bit of a different feel to it, there was a bar there. Breakfast was included in the price of a bed, but it was a bit more expensive than the International Student Center.

When I went to New York, we didn't stay in New York. We actually stayed in New Jersey. We had tour buses though (large group), so I'm not sure how you'd get into New York. Our group also didn't take the subway, we were spoiled by tour buses.

Take a trip to Il Laboratorio del Gelato on the lower east side (on Orchard Street between delancy and broome) for the best f*cking gelato in all of Manhattan. They always have interesting flavors which change daily (my favorite flavor is rice). A perfect hot summer day treat, $3.25 for a small (one or two flavors). You could also stop in at the Lower East Side Tenament Museum, right across the street.

Central Park is great (and free). Many museums have "pay what you will" days. There are tons of cheap things to do in New York. You might want to pick up a copy of Time Out New York (a weekly magazine) when you get here, which has hundreds of listings of things to do around the city that week for every taste and every price range (from free to outrageously expensive)

Do your shopping on 5th Avenue. Some really cheap stores there.

thanks alot.. this is the kind of stuff i'm looking for.

- Definately get a weekly subway pass; most subway lines run 24/7
- Cheap clothes shopping (discount designer) for girls & guys at Century 21 (Rector St. stop on the 1/9 near the WTC)
- Relax in Central Park (enter at the lower east side) and on the piers (45 is especially nice--walk all the way west off Christopher)
- Cheap food and plenty of entertainment in Chinatown (Canal St. on the N/R)
- Free subway performances (Times Sq. near the N/R/Q/W platform and Grand Central near the subways)
- Student discounts for admission at many museums, like the MET (need to show ID)
- Pick up a copy of Time Out NY and the Village Voice (free) for local, often free events, lounges, and performances
- Free central park plays and performances: http://summerstage.org/
- Just explore!

If you don�t need to get anywhere fast, then skip the subway and take a bus: you�ll see more of the city that way.

Some of the best views of Manhattan are from outside the island. Hamilton Park (Weehawken) and Liberty State Park (Jersey City) in New Jersey offer incredible panoramas of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan, respectively. Maybe someone else can tell you the best way to get there without a car. The following pictures don�t do the actual views justice:

http://www.worldfromtheweb.com/Park...n/Hamilton.html
http://www.worldfromtheweb.com/Park...llisIsland.html
http://www.worldfromtheweb.com/Park.../BrookProm.html


Consider taking a round-trip excursion on the FREE Staten Island ferry. This used to be one of the more romantic approaches to the WTC:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/ma...s/statfery.html


Some other ferry links (not free):

http://www.nywaterway.com/ (commuter ferries to Liberty State Park and Weehawken from Manhattan)
http://www.nywatertaxi.com/


Finally, hang out in neighborhoods with a large student population. Columbia University and NYU/Greenwich Village tend to have cheap eats:

http://www.nyu.edu/infocenter/village/food.html
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsac/cuarea.html


You can save even more money if you pack yourselves bag lunches for your daily excursions. Save your money for special things, like a trip to the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

The Apple Store in SOHO beckons, http://www.apple.com/retail/soho/

of course! that goes without saying

Eeek, that list is horribly outdated. Just take the 1/9 to 116th Street and walk down Broadway and Amsterdam. Special attention to the Hungarian Pastry Shop on 110th and Amsterdam, Max Caf� on 119th and Amsterdam, Koronet's on 111th and Broadway for the biggest slice of pizza you've ever seen, m2m which is a weird little supermarket on 115th and Broadway, Morningside park (during the day only!) and Riverside Park. Grab some food and eat out on the steps of Low (main campus).

Sorry, I forgot how quickly restaurants change in Manhattan.

I wanted to mention Chelsea Market, but I'm not sure it's such a great tourist destination (it's kinda bland and ho-hum).

Since this is a technology-oriented website, I think I should mention some places with free Wi-Fi access:

http://www.bryantpark.org/amenities/wireless.php
http://www.downtownny.com/
http://www.nypl.org/branch/services/wifi.html
http://nycwireless.net/
http://www.saurinparke.com/
http://www.venierospastry.com/