6/10 Okay
Andy G.
26 Sept 2018
Clean apartment, so-so neighbourhood.
The apartment is located on the 4th floor and only accessed by a fairly narrow stairway. It's somewhat dismaying to return to, especially when you've been out walking around NYC all day. Whilst not particularly large, it's absolutely fine for two people - four would be a bit of a struggle I imagine.
Inside is fairly well equipped and quite clean. We did once see a single cockroach (and it was the largest I've ever seen!), although this was just a one-off and doesn't appear to be a big problem. Outside was a different story. Every night, the pavement was covered by refuse bags awaiting collection - something I believe quite standard in NYC. On returning to the apartment in the evening a couple of times we were welcomed by rather brazen rats, sauntering along the roadside buffet of blue bin bags. Easy enough to avoid, but unwelcome nonetheless.
The NYPD/Fire station across the road wasn't a problem, although you do regularly see flashing lights through the thin blinds at night, accompanied by the odd 'woop' on the siren. We had no problem sleeping though and it's not a noisy neighbourhood. It felt a quite safe area and we never felt threatened.
There are plenty of small shops around, although for many, English is not their first language. Choice of groceries are very limited; beer, pop, biscuits and crisps for the most part. I asked about butter at one place and he'd never heard of it. We ate out on the whole, so never tried to find a proper supermarket though. There are a few restaurants nearby, of differing quality, but we usually ate out downtown. The 'Supreme' pizza from Dreamers on 3rd Avenue was pretty good though. How on earth 14 inches qualifies as 'small' though, is beyond me.
Access to the subway was literally around the corner and for me, the best way to get around. You can buy weekly metro passes for around 32 Dollars per person at the station and the No.6 line covers a lot of the main NYC attractions you will want to see. Change at Grand Central for the shuttle to Times square and you're right in the thick of it.
We took a taxi from JFK airport to the apartment, which takes about an hour. There was a 20 minute queue at JKF and it costs around 70 Dollars total each way. Hailing a cab back on the street back to JFK was straightforward and took us five minutes (a couple of cabs made up excuses as they obviously didn't want the fare).
Overall this place was great for the price and a decent base for exploring New York.
Andy G.
Stayed 7 nights in Sep 2018
