patrícia furtado

Decisions, decisions… In the city that never sleeps, how fancy does the accommodation have to be? With all there is to see, I don’t intend to spend much time in bed anyway.

In a few years time, I’ll surely be flying to New York first class and staying at the Waldorf Astoria. But for now, seeing as I’m not swimming in a pool of dollars (yet), should I splash out on an ensuite private bedroom, or save my money for shopping?

Shopping wins, of course! Hotel rooms put aside, as even cheap hotels are expensive in New York, my options were to stay in a B&B or a hostel. At first, the idea of sharing a dorm room seemed a bit too adventurous for me, and I started looking for bed and breakfast accommodation.

I found a website with loads of bed and breakfast listings which had some very nice flats in great Manhattan locations. But the bad news is that, after I filtered out the expensive or unavailable ones, the ones left were pretty grim. And still not too cheap. And surprisingly, without breakfast!

On the other hand, when searching for free wi-fi locations in New York, I bumped into the website of a chain of hostels that looked nice and funky, and suddenly, the idea of sleeping in a 4 bed female dorm didn’t seem all that bad. Located on the Upper West Side, just by Central Park, it seems the perfect place to meet people and start exploring the city.

So there, I’ve booked the accommodation and airport transfer. I’m another step closer. But I still haven’t found my passport!