advice on visiting nyc please!

I've only been once and we spent a bloomin fortune but I know it can be done for cheaper. Tripadvisor is really good but be very careful with apartments, I know there were at one time lots of scams with nonexistent places being "rented out" and people getting there and either the address was wrong or the people there knew nothing about it - tripadvisor had lots of stories.

I think there is something about apartments not being allowed to be let out for tourists/sub let in Manhatten or something which means that proper/genuine apartments are hard to come by if not impossible.

We ate out loads when we were there but just googled for places while there or dropped in when we saw somewhere we liked and found some great little cheap chineses, pizza places etc so food could be found pretty cheaply/easily.

Brooklyn is a great place to stay. I know what you mean about a budget - if you can get somewhere cheap to stay it makes for a really relaxing trip and you can go crazy in Maceys and Aveda hahaha.

We were lucky enough to stay in our friend's apartment while they were on honeymoon, and had a 10 month old so didn't go out at night, and it was a really great holiday.

There are some general NYC tips on the hitched shopping list site, though they're getting quite old now.

My big tip is to use the Big Apple Greeter free service - it's fantastic.

Me and my bro did three days there in Nov 06. I found out what Veterans Day was lol and saw the parade. The Staten Island Ferry is brill for great views of the statue (and free). We just ate on impulse tbh, there are so many great places to eat, you just drop in anywhere, the subway is cheap, safe and fast. Go to Central Park, it's awesome, in that you feel like you are in the country, and then look up tp see skyscraper, surreal! We loved the Natural History Museum too, lots to see and do. Get at least one ride in a yellow cab, scarier than any ride in Orlando (and we'd just come from there lol).

Don't get in anything but a yellow cab though, you'll get ripped off (we did). If you get lost ask a policeman, they love to help, actually even if you aren't lost ask (cos most are cute!) Take an extra suitcase, even if the exchange rate says the same, I found loads of 'unique' things that I wanted. We stayed in a hotel on 92nd and Lexington, not cheap and not close enough to the nightlife for us. But we could have had a cheaper hotel, if I'd wanted it, but that said we did have a great time. Most hotels in the US don't do B&B as standard, but ours did it complimentary, so that helped.

I had a great time, if I can help in any way let me know!

The law has changed on short term leases in NYC. There's a minimum stay of 30 days so you can't rent an apartment if your stay is less than that.

Thank you everyone for the massively useful responses! gutted about the apartments - that's that out then! i wonder why they did it? hotels seem to be so expensive. ah well! are b&b apartment thingies still ok do you know?

thanks everyone - i would have said so before but i wandered off in a world of my own...