Affordable Manhattan ~ no longer an Oxymoron?

YO!!

It's Monday. And the day has flown by....finally got Munchkin to take a real nap so he should be in a purty good mood when he wakes up.

Anyway, ....

So, a girlfriend of mine from Texas is heading up to my old stomping grounds in New York City for some holiday fun. To do this, in years past, if you did not LIVE in New York, going up there during the holidays normally meant you had to take out a second mortgage on your home in order to afford the hotel rates. After we moved down here to North Carolina a year or so ago, we looked into going up there to visit friends we left behind and to see the Nutcracker, as was our custom every Christmas when we lived in Manhattan. We had to can our plans however; in addition to 400.00 a pop to fly up there (normally about 180 outside the holiday season), hotel rooms were upwards of 600.00 a night - and this wasn't for any place nice. In fact I think one of the "hostels" on the Upper West Side wanted 300.00 a night - with a "shared" bathroom. Needless to say we laughed at that one. But then again, that is, or was, typical NYC.

After my little research for my girlfriend's trip, I am guessing people are no longer able to get a second mortgage on their homes quite as easily as they were two years ago. Flights are more reasonable yes, but the real tell tale sign is that prices on Manhattan hotels during the Thanksgiving - Christmas season in NYC have come down. Like, come down from Kilamanjaro (how do you spell that??) to the Dead Sea. Well, ....maybe not the Dead Sea, ...maybe more like Texas Hill Country. Where you can actually breathe without passing out.

So, one may actually be able to FIND a room (no.#1) and (no.#2) actually stay in NYC for less than 400.00 a night at a relatively nice hotel this holiday season.

Hey! - Monster,.....aghghgkk.....my cat wants to sit in my lap right now while I'm typing with my computer in my lap. Sorry buddy, not going to work.

Back to expensive hotels. Two years ago staying at the W (a very hipster hotel chain) in Manhattan at Christmas time (which is so so so cool in Manhattan, ...the lights, the carriages outside the park all done up in holly and bells, the amazing Christmas window displays at Saks & Bergdorf, the craziness of the hordes of tourists walking four by eight, shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk - blocking your way as you're scrambling to catch lunch and coffee between meetings at work, causing you to come out of your tree and scream at them on the sidewalk (hence the "rude" New Yorker)) would have been close to 600.00 a night. That's not including the additional New York city sales and hotel lodging taxes, which tack on another pretty penny or twoTHOUSAND.

Now, today, as shown per my latest search on Kayak, to stay at the swanky W Times Square is a mere 280.00 a night. That's actually pretty damn good! Or, you could choose to stay at the Michelangelo, a gorgeous old New York hotel, for about the same amount of cash. If you're really in the mood to just throw caution to the wind, and you still have your job and health benefits in the otherwise economically traumatized year of 2009, you can actually get a room at the Plaza or the Peninsula for 700.00. You laugh - but you could not pay the bellman at the Plaza a few years ago to just let you in to gawk at the real pretty people. Today, you can actually pay him to kiss your @$$.

Amazing. Truly, truly amazing. Miracles never cease to happen. Even the little ones like being able to stay at the Ritz for less than 500.00 a night during peak-Manhattan-holiday insanity. Not that I could ever get my dear hubby to spring for that whilst I am unemployed. Not that I could ever justify it, ....even when I was employed.

What happens when half of the world gets laid off and the other half is afraid of losing their jobs??? Travel and lodging in Manhattan actually becomes somewhat affordable. At least, for those who never took out that home equity loan on their home.