The Travel Chica

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Living like a local in NYC… the good and the bad

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Hotels are expensive in Manhattan.

The hostels aren’t cheap either at over $50 a night for a bed in a shared dorm.

After traveling solo and living in dorms for way too long in Central and South America, I learned that the benefit of traveling with one or more people is that you can rent an apartment for almost the same cost as a dorm and cheaper than a hotel.

And that is what I did in New York City.

The thing I like about Wimdu is that it caters to my inner control freak, super-planner.  Yes, I can show up in a random beach town in El Salvador without a reservation, but a short trip to New York City is completely different.

We knew we wanted two bedrooms separate from the living area if possible.  Location was also important as we wanted to enjoy a residential area and still be near public transportation.

There are not many two-bedroom places in Midtown that fit our budget, but we did find one with Wimdu.

With four busy ladies making the decision, it was easy to filter for our criteria and send out links to the apartments that looked the best.  Everyone could then weigh in via email to make the decision.

Besides budget, my biggest concern was location, and I used the Wimdu mapping feature to see the specific location of each apartment.

Just what we expected

Although we knew what we were getting ourselves into (it is Manhattan), it was still amusing to see the size of the bedrooms.  Yep, a double bed does fit in this room… barely.

The place was just as nice as it looked in the photos.

It was more spacious than I would have expected for the price and location.

The location was perfect.

I woke up early and was jogging in Central Park in seven minutes.  I picked up a coffee on my way home.

I got ready for the day and walked to the subway in three minutes when I needed to get to Chinatown for the food tour.

I walked to MoMA just a few blocks away and strolled through the Upper East Side to visit The Met. And I got an incredible massage just down the block for half the price I would have paid in Columbus (apparently, the only thing cheaper in New York City).

Being prepared.

Because of the reviews on the apartment, we knew it would be loud on the ground level, but we were willing to put up with that given the cost and location and having two bedrooms.

I did learn one downside of living like a local in New York City.

Cockroaches.

Luckily, I did not see them, or I probably never would have slept again.  My friends told me on the morning we left that they discovered cockroaches having a party in the kitchen when they came back to the apartment late the night before.

The kitchen looks fine during the day with the lights on.

 

That’s what public review systems are for.

Comments

  2. LOL – cockroaches!! I am pretty sure every building in NYC has them! In two years in my current apartment I have only seen one by my front door. NYC is a fantastic city, but it really is quite gross! I had to move out of a Lower East Side apartment that I loved a month after moving in because I was seeing roaches. Can’t. Handle. Roaches!!
    Koren @ City Gal recently posted..5 Pointz: the Coolest New York City Landmark You May Never Get to See

  4. Unfortunately, I know that there are two main kinds of cockroaches, the small, lightish brown ones (German), and the giant ones we called “waterbugs” when I was a kid. The former come from leaving food out, and the second have to do with moisture, and are especially apparent in old buildings.

    Sorry to surprise you with the roaches, but I think you’d be likely to find them in most NYC apartments, at least a couple of times. Infestation is another thing.

    I just grossed myself out.

    Anyway, glad you got to live in NY for a while! And I’d sort of forgotten about the roaches in Central America, and I’m on my way in just a few weeks. Thanks!
    Eileen recently posted..Where can I get (that carpart)? A tale of strange capitalism in Chile.

  5. Most NYC apartments are pretty old, and I find them a bit crappy unless you really fork out a lot of money. Better cockroaches than mice though, I say!

  6. Nice place! I love the bedroom. It seems that to make the bed, and to go from one side to the other in this bedroom, one has to get on the bed, then down, and repeat the process? :-)
    Fun!
    Natalia recently posted..El Paso, TX

  8. Yikes to the cockroaches. We had those creepy buggers in our (needless to say NYC) apartment a couple of years ago, but one call to the exterminator and *poof* they disappeared forever! Beautiful rental apartment though 😀 I had never heard of that site before, I had used AirBnB before

  9. Yeah it’s tough as cockroaches are impossible to get rid of if one building on a block has them. They do hate light so I turn the lights on in a room first and then enter a few minutes later giving them an opportunity to scurry. If I don’t see them they aren’t there.
    Ayngelina recently posted..Food Friday: Brixton Market

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  12. Affordability is key for many young renters today and it can be hard to find a cheap place to live in a cool and fun New York City neighborhood. But it’s not impossible to find a deal.

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