When we started looking for hotels, we wanted to get a nice 4-star in Midtown for $100USD/night. We quickly learned that that was unreasonable, even if we used Priceline. Then we debated whether we should get a rundown place for cheap in Midtown, but it seemed too dirty or sketchy. Finally we decided to Priceline for a 3-star in Jersey City, we couldn’t get $100USD/night but was able to get the Doubletree Club Suites Jersey City for $150USD/night for 3 nights.

We thought this was pretty reasonable and it worked out to ~$150CDN per person overall. The place was booked solid for our stay so we were stuck with rooms that had 1 king-sized bed, not too great for four people. Fortunately, we knew about this before we arrived and brought sleeping bags, we also had a sofa bed/cots so the sleeping situation wasn’t too bad; except for Ben sleeping on the coffee table on the first night because they were too foggy/sleepy to figure out the best sleeping arrangement.

The suites themselves were a nice surprise. From what I heard about NYC hotels, I expected them to be small. I guess this was not the case in Jersey City, because we had ample room with a greeting area with 3 sofas and a kitchenette. The hotel was also located very conveniently. We were 2 blocks away from the Pavonia/Newport PATH line and there was a NJ light rail station immediately behind the hotel (although I was the only one to take advantage of that).

After reaching the hotel pretty late last night, everyone decided to sleep in. Not me though! I woke up at 7AM, dragged Pauline awake, and we headed out to do some exploring. We walked on the boardwalk along the Hudson river, it was cloudy but on occasion the sun was able to sneak through. The area was deserted, partly because it was way too early and party because the area seemed to be mostly office buildings. There were some residences too, but they seemed to be extremely fancy (and expensive).

We made it back to the hotel by 9 and…everyone was still sleeping. After some phone calls, a broken shower, and American Gladiators, everyone was up and ready. Too bad it was something like 11AM. We made our way to the PATH station and spent some time trying to figure out what to buy, how to buy it (how do you “dip” a credit card?) and waiting for a friend that was meeting us. Eventually, we figured it out, got onto the PATH and made it to the 33^rd St station. Finally, we were in NYC.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: diary, nyc07, travelling