New York before you book: the practical facts we checked

Every JFK route starts on the AirTrain: free between terminals, $8.75 to Jamaica or Howard Beach, and up to five on one card pay $26.75 at most. Counting the AirTrain, the E takes about 50 minutes to Penn Station, $11.75 in all, stopping at 5 Av/53 St for The Plaza and 23 St for Hotel Chelsea, and the J runs to Bowery for citizenM New York Bowery and Fulton St for The Beekman. The Long Island Rail Road makes it about 30 minutes and $14 off peak or $16 at peak, all told, to Penn Station or Grand Central Madison. From Howard Beach, the A reaches Lower Manhattan in about an hour via High St, for 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge.

A yellow cab to Manhattan is a flat $70, plus a $2 airport pick-up fee, $1.50 of state and improvement charges, a $2.50 congestion surcharge below 96th Street and the 75 cent congestion toll at or below 60th: $76.75, and $5 more from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays, before tolls and tip. To Brooklyn the meter runs: the easy way to The William Vale.

TWA Hotel is on the airport, at the AirTrain's Terminal 5 stop, free and under ten minutes from any terminal: land late, sleep there, cross the city in daylight.

From Newark, the AirTrain and NJ Transit reach Penn Station in about 30 minutes for $17.25; taxis charge $60 to $80 to Manhattan by zone, plus tolls and fees. LaGuardia has no train, but the Q70 bus is free to Jackson Heights for the E, F, M and R.

Tap a contactless card or phone at the gate and ignore every other ticket; MetroCards can no longer be bought. A subway or local bus ride is $3.00, with one free transfer within two hours, and once the same card has paid $35 in seven days from its first tap, the rest of that period is free.

Each hotel's walk to its station: citizenM New York Bowery is a minute from Bowery on the J and Z; The Fifth Avenue Hotel two from 28 St on the R and W; Hotel Chelsea two from 23 St on the 1 and three from 23 St on the C and E; The Beekman two from Fulton St, where the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J and Z meet; The Plaza three from 5 Av/59 St on the N, R and W; Nine Orchard three from East Broadway on the F; The Carlyle five from 77 St on the 6. Brooklyn asks for more: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is nine minutes from High St on the A and C, The William Vale eight from Nassau Av on the G and ten from Bedford Av on the L.

The NYC Ferry is $4.50 a ride, bought in its app or at the landing; its East River route stops four minutes from 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge at DUMBO and fourteen from The William Vale at North Williamsburg. Citi Bike is $4.99 for 30 minutes or $25 a day. In Manhattan, though, walking is the default.

Room rates are quoted before tax. The state collects 8.875% sales tax on the room (its own 4%, the city's 4.5% and a 0.375% transport district levy) and a hotel unit fee of $1.50 a room a night. The city's Department of Finance adds its hotel room occupancy tax, 5.875% plus $2 a room a night on any room of $40 or more. Together: 14.75% plus $3.50 a night, so a $400 room costs $462.50.

Then the hotel's own nightly fee, per room and outside the headline rate. The Plaza's Urban Experience Fee is $65 plus tax and comes back as a $50 daily food and drink credit and a $50 spa credit on a treatment of an hour or more. The Beekman's destination fee is $45.89 plus tax, for calls, morning coffee in the lobby, the gym, Wi-Fi, a shoe shine, the house car and local discounts. 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge charges a $45 amenity fee plus tax at check-in, for the electric house car, fitness classes, the rooftop pool, the gym and in-room coffee. TWA Hotel adds a $19.83 facility fee plus tax, for Wi-Fi, calls, the gym and luggage storage, and a 3% Port Authority concession surcharge on the room rate. The William Vale's destination fee is $45 plus tax, for a Destination Pass of calls, faster Wi-Fi, coffee, water, the gym and a $10 credit at Leuca, and it adds a 1% community impact fee on the room rate. The Carlyle, The Fifth Avenue Hotel, Nine Orchard and Hotel Chelsea publish no nightly fee, and citizenM New York Bowery charges none.

Leave the car at the airport. Since 5 January 2025, driving into Manhattan at or below 60th Street costs a congestion toll of $9 with E-ZPass from 5am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 9pm at weekends, and $2.25 overnight, charged once a day; paying by mail costs more, and the peak toll is set to rise to $12 in 2028. Six of the ten are inside the zone: The Plaza, The Fifth Avenue Hotel, Hotel Chelsea, The Beekman, Nine Orchard and citizenM New York Bowery. The Carlyle, at 76th Street, is outside it. A taxi trip in the zone carries a 75 cent toll and an app car $1.50.

Parking is the bigger bill. The Plaza's valet is $110 a night, parked off site with no in-and-out; The Fifth Avenue Hotel's is $105 for 24 hours and The Beekman's $95, or $110 for an SUV, neither with in-and-out. Hotel Chelsea has a rate of $50 for 24 hours at Icon Parking on West 22nd Street, with a voucher from the front desk. Across the river, 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge charges up to $90 for 24 hours before tax and The William Vale $50 on site. TWA Hotel's overnight valet is $80 with a room booked. citizenM New York Bowery has no parking of its own. Parking in Manhattan also carries 18.375% tax, and one night of hotel valet in Manhattan costs more than the flat cab fare from JFK.

New York has no closed season, but it has a cheap one. In the monthly hotel figures published by NYC Tourism + Conventions, January and February are the cheapest months of the year by a wide margin and September the dearest, with October and December close behind. A handful of weeks sell out on a fixed calendar: the UN General Assembly's high-level week in the second half of September, the New York City Marathon on the first Sunday of November (1 November 2026), Thanksgiving week (Thanksgiving Day is 26 November 2026), and Christmas to New Year. For those dates, book the room before the flights.

By NOAA's 1991 to 2020 averages for Central Park, January is 4.2C by day and minus 2.3C at night, and February is the snowiest month, with about 76 cm of snow in an average winter. April reaches 16.6C and May 21.9C. July is the hot month, 29.4C by day and 21.2C at night, and August is barely cooler at 28.5C. September is still 24.6C, October 18.1C and November 12.2C, and December averages 6.8C by day. Rain is spread evenly, between about 80 and 120 mm in every month and about 1,260 mm in a year.

So it is an all-year city: the first two months for the lowest rates, May, June, September and October for walking weather, and December for the lights, at December prices.

Tipping in New York is part of the price, because service wages assume it. The norms published by NYC Tourism + Conventions, the city's tourism office: 18 to 20% of the bill for table service, where anything under 15% reads as a complaint; at a bar, $1 a drink, or 18 to 20% on a tab paid by card; 15 to 20% for taxis and app cars; $3 to $5 a day for housekeeping, more in the grander hotels; $1 to $2 a bag for porters and bell staff; and $2 to $5 for a doorman who hails you a cab. Restaurants often add 18 or 20% automatically for groups of six or more, so read the bill before adding a tip of your own. At café counters the card screen suggests 15, 18 or 20%; you can set your own amount or choose none, and $1 for an espresso drink or a made sandwich is usual.

Prices are shown before tax, in shops and on menus. Sales tax on most goods and services is 8.875%, added at the till; clothing and footwear under $110 pay none, and nor do many groceries.

Paying is mostly by card. Yellow cabs take cards at no extra charge, and the subway, buses and both AirTrains take a contactless card or phone at the gate. Some hotels also hold money on the card at check-in: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge and The William Vale each hold $250 a night until you leave.

Visitors from the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries need an approved ESTA, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, before they board, for stays of up to 90 days, and they need an e-passport, the kind with a chip. Every traveller needs one, infants included. Apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov, the official site; other sites charge a fee of their own for submitting the same form.

From 16 October 2026 the fee is $40.62 an application: $17 for travel promotion, $10.62 for processing and $13 for the US Treasury. If the application is refused, only the $10.62 is charged. Customs and Border Protection asks travellers to apply as soon as the trip is planned, and no later than 72 hours before departure.

An approved ESTA lasts two years, or until the passport expires if that is sooner, and covers any number of trips in that time, each one limited to 90 days. A new passport, a new name or a new nationality means a new application. A refusal means applying for a visa instead, which in most cases involves an interview at a US embassy or consulate, so hold off on the non-refundable rate until the ESTA is approved.

Six changes since the start of 2025, in date order.

On 5 January 2025 the congestion toll began: $9 at peak to drive into Manhattan at or below 60th Street with E-ZPass, $2.25 overnight, and 75 cents on every taxi trip in the zone.

On 30 September 2025 the ESTA fee went from $21 to $40, in January 2026 to $40.27 and on 16 October 2026 to $40.62.

On 8 December 2025 the F and M swapped routes on weekdays between about 6am and 9:30pm: the M now serves 57 St, a few minutes from The Plaza, and the F runs by way of 5 Av/53 St, with the E.

From 1 January 2026, MetroCards can no longer be bought or refilled; the MTA says they will stop being accepted later in 2026, so tap a card or phone.

On 4 January 2026 the subway and local bus fare rose from $2.90 to $3.00, the seven-day cap became permanent at $35, express buses went from $7 to $7.25, and the Long Island Rail Road's CityTicket, which covers Jamaica to Penn Station or Grand Central Madison, to $5.25 off peak and $7.25 at peak.

On 1 March 2026 the AirTrain fare at JFK and at Newark went from $8.50 to $8.75.

None of the ten hotels opened or closed in 2025 or 2026.