Where to stay in Manhattan

Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Manhattan is coextensive with New York County, which is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York, and one of the smallest in the United States.

Most of Manhattan is laid out in a grid. By convention, Manhattan is spoken of as if it runs north to south (it's actually northeast to southwest), with streets running east-west and avenues running north-south. This makes it relatively easy and straightforward to find your way. Except for downtown Manhattan south of Houston Street and Greenwich Village between Houston St. and 14th St. on the west side, streets are numbered and the numbering rises as you go north, starting at 1st Street just above Houston and running up to 220th Street at the northern end of the island.

Manhattan (also known officially as New York County and informally called simply "New York" or "The City" locally) is divided broadly into three sections: Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown. In common parlance locally, to go "Downtown" in Manhattan means to "go south", while going "Uptown" means to "go north". The districts south of 14th Street are considered part of Downtown. Midtown, as the name suggests, occupies the approximate middle reach of Manhattan Island, sandwiched between 14th Street and 59th Street/Central Park. Midtown is divided into a number of neighborhoods, often indistinct with considerable overlap between them.

See the Districts articles for more listings. If there is one thing that makes New York City, particularly Manhattan, one of the most expensive cities in the world, it is hotel accommodations. Sometimes, the average room rates in Manhattan exceed those of the more expensive cities in the world such as Tokyo and London. Consider yourself lucky if you can get a room at a full-service hotel at $250/night, not including taxes.

Getting in

There are three railway stations with access to points outside of New York City, two of which are in Midtown. The largest, Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station for short), between 31st and 33rd Streets on 7th Avenue, is served by Amtrak, the Long Island Railroad, and New Jersey Transit. Grand Central Terminal, at Park Avenue and 42nd Street, is an architectural delight and the hub of the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Railroad to other points in Downstate New York and Connecticut.

Getting around

The best ways to get around Manhattan are on foot, by cab, or by taking the subway or bus. Driving is strongly discouraged; most Manhattanites do not own cars and the infrastructure of the city is designed for people rather than for automobiles. When traveling by cab, it is best to ensure that you are using a licensed cab; the easiest way is to ask at the concierge at your hotel to flag down one of the ubiquitous yellow cabs or do so yourself. All licensed cabs are yellow, and no unlicensed (as a taxicab) livery services may be yellow.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.