New York City Weekend!

Get out of town for the weekend and come with us to New York City! Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, catch a Broadway show, stroll through Central Park, ride the double-decker bus, and get your art freak on at the Met! We'll do all these things and more.

At least two of us will be staying at the Chelsea International Hostel (there's room on the reservation for 1 more female). If you're a hostel kind of person, join us there. You must have a passport to stay at the Chelsea International Hostel. If you don't have a passport, then I recommend the Big Apple Hostel near Times Square. If you're not a hostel kind of person, then feel free to make your own lodging arrangements and meet up with us once we're in the city. We'll also be taking the Vamoose Bus from Rosslyn station to Penn Station in NYC. Join us on the bus or come with your own means of transportation -- your choice. If you can't make it on our time schedule, feel free to come when you can and meet up with us once your in NYC.

Everyone is responsible for making their own transportation and lodging arrangements.

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Update as of 07/29/08. Okay, here's the scoop on what we'll attempt to do while in NYC. (Remember these plans can change, so decide ahead of time what things you definitely want to do. Feel free at any time to leave the group if there's something you really, really want to do and we don't have it on our itinerary. We won't be offended.)

At least two of us will be taking the Vamoose Bus from the Rosslyn Metro Station at 10:30am on Friday, August 15th. If you want to join us on that bus at that time, go to the website and make your reservation. Be sure you know where to meet the bus -- it's a block from Rosslyn Metro Station. If you can't leave at that time, take a bus at another time or make your own transportation arrangements and meet us in NYC when you get there.

We'll arrive at approximately 3:00pm in NYC. We'll make our way to the Chelsea International Hostel and settle into our room.

About 5:00pm, we'll make our way to Battery Park, the Stock Exchange, Wall Street, the Bull, Federal Hall, Trinity Church, and the World Trade Center site. We'll try to catch dinner in Little Italy. And if there's time, we might take a night tour on a double-decker bus.

On Saturday morning we'll check out the 1/2-price tickets for a Broadway show, grab breakfast, and then head over to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, grab lunch at Katz' Deli (made famous in the movie "When Harry Met Sally"). We might check out some more spots in the Delancey St./Lower Eastside area.

Saturday evening we'll get cleaned up for a night on the town, have dinner, and catch a show in the Broadway/Times Square/Midtown area.

On Sunday morning we'll check out of the hostel and store our luggage before grabbing breakfast. Then we'll make our way to the Metropolitan Art Museum to get our art freak on for about 1 to 2 hours. After that we'll head over to Central Park where we can either chill out on the lawn, go for a walk, or rent a bike or a boat. If we can get in, we'll try to have lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant in the park or we just might have a picnic on the lawn. Then we'll make our way back to the hostel to pick up our luggage and then meet the bus at Penn Station to catch the 4:00pm bus back to Rosslyn Metro Station. We anticipate getting back to Rosslyn Metro Station around 8:30pm. If this return time is too late for you, feel free to take an earlier bus. There's a possibility that we will take the 2:00pm bus back but we'll decide this once we meet up on the trip.

Be prepared for a lot of walking and also going up and down steps in the metro stations. Only a few metro stations are accessible by elevators and they don't have escalators like we do here in DC. So be prepared! Wear comfortable shoes. We'll mostly be taking the metro and an occassional taxi cab.

My personal intention is for this to be a budget-minded trip. I'm anticipating spending about $120 for my transportation ($50) and lodging ($70), then another $50-$75 for a Broadway ticket, and another $25 for the metro pass. So, right now, I'm looking at $220 plus money for food and drinks. For a 3-day weekend in Manhattan, you can't beat $220+. If we do the night bus tour, that'll be another $40, renting a boat in Central Park will be $10/hour, and renting a bike will be $9/hour. And I can show you how to pay only $2-$3 for admission into the Met instead of the regular $20.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me. About 1 week before we leave, I'll send an e-mail to those who have RSVPed as "Yes" or "Maybe" giving you my contact info. Be sure to watch your e-mail account for that message!