Spend a 1st wedding anniversary in New York pt 1 - Pod Hotel

I thought I would review the places and events that were part of my first wedding anniversary, as they were all great and it might be useful to others. I will be adding more reviews shortly of anywhere notable we visited whilst staying in New York. Our visit was from 16th - 19th April, down to Houston for a week and then back for a day before flying home to England.

Pod Hotel - 230 East 51st street between 2nd - 3rd Av www.thepodhotel.com

I spent ages, and I mean ages looking around for a good hotel in Manhattan, having visited the previous year to get married and trying various hotels in both Manhattan and Queens. Some of these left a lot to be desired. I like to shop around and get very frugal when it comes to travelling. I will post up my tips for savvy travel soon.

This year I relyed on www.tripadvisor.com to help me out on which hotels would be a good choice. My husband and I consider £100 per room per night to be a reasonable cost, give or take a bit and sticking to this was hard. Manhattan has a few taxes that add up to a fair bit on top of the cost that websites offer.

Funnily enough it was through the New York Times that I heard of the Pod Hotel, due to its innovative approach it had been reviewed. If you have not yet guessed, the Pod Hotel has a dock to put your iPod, built into the alarm clocks in the rooms.

We chose the Pod Hotel in the end for the following reasons: Price, Appearance, Innovation, Locality

The price for a Queen ensuite was $199 per room per night plus tax which was $30 per night (approx £99 plus £15 @ $2/£1). This was around our budget. I read in the New York Times that it had recently been redecorated and refitted. We felt it innovative due to the iPod facility, but also the 20" lcd on the wall, and the good use of space in the room. The locality was pretty good, East 51st St is south of Central Park so for our interests made it easy to get to most attractions. It took us 10-12 mins to walk to Times Square. Pod Hotel offers various bedrooms, Queen ensuite, Double ensuite, Single ensuite and Bunks shared bathroom. Of course price gets cheaper respectively. It was very clean, and maintained every day, the ensuite is cordened off by way of a sliding door, with toilet and shower area. The shower is great, with a really big head and a dedicated wet area.

The staff were courteous and helpful. There is a chap who will organise a towncar to take you to the Airport, we were headed for JFK and it cost us $50 with a tip (approx £25). When we choose to visit Manhattan again we will stay here without a doubt, it is one of the best options for staying in New York at a reasonable cost. You may find that the links on the right are for deals at Pod Hotel, if you are looking to visit why not try them out?

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