News Trip to NYC looking for a place to stay

[Physics is Phun]

hey all. it's been a while
I'm going to NYC with some friends, 4 of us in all right after christmas. We were originally planning on staying in a hostel, but manhattan seems to be all booked for the just after christmas time.
We're been looking at some cheap places like Econo lodge, in Jersey city or Newark. None of us have ever been to new york before so we don't really know which areas of town are ok or not. We're just looking for a place to sleep mind you, and somewhere where it's easy to bus/subway into the city. we just don't want the place we sleep at to be unsafe.
If anyone with a bit more knowledge than myself would care to chime in about where there's good places to stay/not stay that would be great. And remember we're looking for cheap. like, maybe $400 for 3 nights.
thanks! :)

 

[Gokul43201]

For $600 (with a AAA membership, $670 without) you can get a room for 4, a 5-minute walk from Times Square (Dec 25 to 28).

 

[ranger]

You can stay in Queens, NY. You're bound to find somewhere that has rooms. It would probably be cheaper than staying in Manhattan. Is there a specific part of NYC that you plan on visiting? NYC is a big place. Its made up of five boroughs (Queens is one of them). Anything outside Manhattan will be cheaper. The good thing is that its very easy to move from borough to borough using (cheap) public transportation. With the exception of Staten Island; don't get a room there. Queens and downtown Brooklyn would probably be your best bet.

 

[dimensionless]

An alternative to Jersey City might be Hoboken. To get into the city from Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark, I would recommend using the NJ PATH train (a light rail/subway system). I will also mention that the train rides from Jersey City to Manhattan and from Hoboken to Manhattan are both a little bit shorter than the ride from Newark to Manhattan.

 

[Moonbear]

An alternative to Jersey City might be Hoboken. To get into the city from Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark, I would recommend using the NJ PATH train (a light rail/subway system). I will also mention that the train rides from Jersey City to Manhattan and from Hoboken to Manhattan are both a little bit shorter than the ride from Newark to Manhattan.

I don't know the area in Hoboken around the train station, but I'd be leery of staying around the Newark Penn Station area, especially if you're traveling at night or need to walk from the station to a hotel/motel. It's easier to get from Hoboken to midtown Manhattan anyway. If you do stay in Hoboken and plan to head to lower Manhattan (WTC station) for things like Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty, plan that for the weekdays instead of weekend...the weekend trains require some backtracking to get from Hoboken to WTC station. Everything will be packed with tourists that week (the native NYers all run to Atlantic City or other places to get away from the tourists), so weekdays vs weekends won't make any difference in terms of lines getting into see popular attractions.

I can't help with hotels, but can suggest some other tips. Don't even try to get into the Empire State Building that week unless you are prepared to get there hours before the building opens in the morning and spend all day in line...you can bypass the ticket line by buying online in advance, and either printing your tickets or having them delivered to the hotel, but you can't bypass the security line or the elevator line (well, unless you want to pay a small fortune for a priority ticket, which would be a waste of money if you're on a budget). If you're going to museums, check their schedules online before going. They might be open extra days during the holidays, I'm not sure, but usually it's a weekday they are closed. And, unfortunately, the pickpockets know this is prime tourist season, so keep your wallet in your front pocket, not your back pocket, and I suggest not carrying all your cash in your wallet so you don't lose it all if it gets lifted. You don't need to be paranoid, just cautious.