Tour bus trip from Montreal to New York Ciry

[Tbites]

I'm originally from NYC, and took a brief look at the tour you linked, and see that all these sites they take you to are extra and not included in your package. I also see that they force you to purchase at least 2 of the paid activities in order for you to get the package deal (it's at the bottom of the page if you didn't see it). So I believe it will cost more than what you stated. Some of these activities are nice, but not so worthwhile in terms of $$$. Save for the Statue of Liberty and Top of the Rock, the other activities are not what I consider essential to seeing NY.

In the case of the Statue of Liberty, it looks like they want $25 for that one...If you don't care about actually being on the piece of land on which the statue is and are fine with just taking a boat ride that goes right past it, the Staten Island Ferry leaving from 4th street downtown (I think that's the same place as the ferry that costs money) is FREE. It's a passenger ferry for those who live on Staten Island and it's a really nice and relaxing 20-30 mins ride on which you can take plenty of pictures of Manhattan/Statue of Liberty, etc. ALSO, Statue of Liberty is closed inside, so you would not be able to go in, just see it from the exterior, so this is why I suggested a cheaper alternative...

To me, Metropolitan Museum of Art is an essential (which is also technically FREE, don't fall for the $25 admission, it's a "suggested donation" that they try to force on you. You can pay as much as you want and just tell them you will not pay the full price. Dirty looks will ensue, but really, $25 is outrageous)

Central Park is also a NY must. The other museums also if you like them: Guggenheim, The Frick, Whitney, etc, there are tons more). Chinatown is also fun fun fun, and wayyyyy bigger than ours. Little Italy is kitsch, but funny.

I don't know how you and your friends like to do trips, but since there will be 4 of you, if it were me, I would really be tempted to do it on my own, and just look for those unguided tours mentioned above so you are not riddled with extra fees that you may not want.

HOWEVER, I see that the last day they stop at Woodbury Outlets on the way back up to Montreal. THAT is the premiere outlet in all of the East Coast of the US, no better than that. You have stores there that usually do not have outlets anywhere else (Prada, Escada, Frette (high end bed linens and such), Brioni, Brunello Cucinelli, Dior, Dolce, Gucci, I mean the list goes ONNNN). I've managed to score $600 cashmere Prada sweaters there for $60, $500 jacket from Jil Sander for $30, etc). If you are into clothes and usually can't afford them, this is the PLACE.

Just watch out for the clothing crazed Japanese who bring rolling luggage to pack all their stuff and will push you over for the deals LOL.

Sorry for the long post, but feel free to PM me if you have questions.

This kind of post trumps Trip advisor anyday

[Silk]

I'm originally from NYC, and took a brief look at the tour you linked, and see that all these sites they take you to are extra and not included in your package. I also see that they force you to purchase at least 2 of the paid activities in order for you to get the package deal (it's at the bottom of the page if you didn't see it). So I believe it will cost more than what you stated. Some of these activities are nice, but not so worthwhile in terms of $$$. Save for the Statue of Liberty and Top of the Rock, the other activities are not what I consider essential to seeing NY.

In the case of the Statue of Liberty, it looks like they want $25 for that one...If you don't care about actually being on the piece of land on which the statue is and are fine with just taking a boat ride that goes right past it, the Staten Island Ferry leaving from 4th street downtown (I think that's the same place as the ferry that costs money) is FREE. It's a passenger ferry for those who live on Staten Island and it's a really nice and relaxing 20-30 mins ride on which you can take plenty of pictures of Manhattan/Statue of Liberty, etc. ALSO, Statue of Liberty is closed inside, so you would not be able to go in, just see it from the exterior, so this is why I suggested a cheaper alternative...

To me, Metropolitan Museum of Art is an essential (which is also technically FREE, don't fall for the $25 admission, it's a "suggested donation" that they try to force on you. You can pay as much as you want and just tell them you will not pay the full price. Dirty looks will ensue, but really, $25 is outrageous)

Central Park is also a NY must. The other museums also if you like them: Guggenheim, The Frick, Whitney, etc, there are tons more). Chinatown is also fun fun fun, and wayyyyy bigger than ours. Little Italy is kitsch, but funny.

I don't know how you and your friends like to do trips, but since there will be 4 of you, if it were me, I would really be tempted to do it on my own, and just look for those unguided tours mentioned above so you are not riddled with extra fees that you may not want.

HOWEVER, I see that the last day they stop at Woodbury Outlets on the way back up to Montreal. THAT is the premiere outlet in all of the East Coast of the US, no better than that. You have stores there that usually do not have outlets anywhere else (Prada, Escada, Frette (high end bed linens and such), Brioni, Brunello Cucinelli, Dior, Dolce, Gucci, I mean the list goes ONNNN). I've managed to score $600 cashmere Prada sweaters there for $60, $500 jacket from Jil Sander for $30, etc). If you are into clothes and usually can't afford them, this is the PLACE.

Just watch out for the clothing crazed Japanese who bring rolling luggage to pack all their stuff and will push you over for the deals LOL.

Sorry for the long post, but feel free to PM me if you have questions.

And if you're into knock-offs, you can get KO designer bags, perfumes, etc. on the outskirts of Chinatown... And some good deals -- cosmetics, clothing, handbags (if you have time to go through the racks) at Century 21 (down near Wall Street/near the site where the World Trade Towers were).

Silk

[slayer_glade]

Most of it has been said, but I wanted to add that you should try to find a company that offers a hotel in the city.

When my friend first went two years ago, they went for cheaper and ended up having a hotel in jersey, which meant their day ended too early since the bus takes them back.

When I went with her last year, we stayed a block from times square and our "day" ended at 3am lol. We did what we wanted when we wanted.

[couponlinda]

I am going with my 13 year old daughter so staying till 3am is out of the question. The taketours one is for new jersey and the bus takes you into the city at 8am and take you back to the hotel at 8:30pm - not bad at all.......the friday afternoon you do the tour with them, the saturday the same with free time and the sunday they drop you off and you have the whole day to yourself. The monday you leave for the outlets and then home........i am thinking this is the best one for 161.00 x 4 people....yes we have to tip the driver and yes we have to but at least 2 admission tickets but that is ok at least they are driving you around and bringing you to these places....on the sunday we are probably going to do centrale park and soo on

[MiaowTheCat]

Thank you TBites and Silk

Silk is right, Century 21 is good as well as Daffy's. You gotta dig, though, at the last place to find major treasures.

If your daughter likes chocolate and "possible" celebrity sighting (mostly Katie Holmes with her little daughter), on your free day, you might want to try out Serendipity 3 for their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate

http://www. serendipity3.com/main.htm

[mandolinatou]

Hi - I am looking to go to NYC on a weekend tour bus - can anyone recommend a tour bus that is a good price and decent?

I am not a big fan of wondertravel. I went to the 1000 islands with them last year. Which was ok. The thing I did not like is that they nickle and dime you all the way and then they also take you to places to eat that are terrible and that nickel and dime you too. So essentially you end up paying more than you planned for what you would consider to be low quality. I felt I would have been better off going alone and eating at MacDonalds/Harveys certainly would have tasted better. They also did weird things like make you pay full price for admissions and then have you wait in the van while they go get tickets at the discounted group prices and then they keep the difference. It would have been more comfortable to get out of the van and purchase my full price tickets myself. If I ever went with them again I would say I was going to not go into the parks and buy the tickets myself, for the principle. They also force you to tip a very good tip to the driver and they may, without advising you, switch your driver forcing you to tip twice!!!!!

So was the van full of bugs or the english or french skills bad....no! Would I use them again? Probably not. I don't know how you would pick such bad restaurants...let alone really bad and really expensive. I also would have rather them included all the required fees upfront. So pack snack foods and an extra 100 dollars per day if you use wondertravel.

[slayer_glade]

I am going with my 13 year old daughter so staying till 3am is out of the question. The taketours one is for new jersey and the bus takes you into the city at 8am and take you back to the hotel at 8:30pm - not bad at all.......the friday afternoon you do the tour with them, the saturday the same with free time and the sunday they drop you off and you have the whole day to yourself. The monday you leave for the outlets and then home........i am thinking this is the best one for 161.00 x 4 people....yes we have to tip the driver and yes we have to but at least 2 admission tickets but that is ok at least they are driving you around and bringing you to these places....on the sunday we are probably going to do centrale park and soo on

Ah, a 13 year old. Yeah, that definitely changes what you can do, lol. As long as the other people are good with turning so early, then go for it. It'll really suit your needs.

Have fun! You'll love it there :D Hopefully you can take her to Chinatown. She'll go crazy with all the cute stuff.