Trip to Brooklyn July 2006

My husband and I are staying at the New Brooklyn Howard Johnson%26#39;s hotel in July for two weeks. The address is 599 Utica Ave., any info on the area would be great. do they have a subway station close? What kind of neighborhood is it? Any good clubs or bars for 49 years olds that feel 39? :)

Thanks, Janene

Trip to Brooklyn July 2006

Can I ask you what made you decide to stay here?

Trip to Brooklyn July 2006

I have to be honest, this would not be my to choice of location for a

hotel.

Again, any special reason, visiting family or something?

2 star hotel in an inconvenient area.

This is a very, very odd place for most out-of-town visitors to choose.

I know the area as the 67th Precinct, which -- while not the absolute worst of the 76 precincts in the city -- is certainly considered a ';busy'; house. This is a black community, made up in part of black people of American background, but probably a higher percentage of West Indian immigrants, especially Jamaicans. Utica Avenue is a major bus route, but the subway is at least a half mile away. I do not recall any particularly nice places to eat dinner in that area, or anywhere close. I am afraid that this is not one of the safest parts of the city. I most certainly would not advise you to even think of going to any bars or clubs in that area. Indeed, I really would not advise persons who appear to be obvious strangers and who do not seem to fit into the neighborhood to be walking around on the streets here after dark.

I think you might find your visit to New York City much more pleasant and less stressful if you stayed in a different neighborhood -- indeed, just about any other neighborhood you could find.

Thanks for the info, but we already booked the place for two weeks.

We found it online for $89.00 a night, so we grabbed it. I hope we don%26#39;t regret it. We rented a car, because we plan on going out on long Island and Queens to search out some neighborhoods. We are moving here in about 4 years, my husband is Islandic, and I am from Oklahoma. My husband likes the rockaways, we are thinking about living out that way. He is a college professor and I work for a cal government agency. I want to find somewhere we will fit in. We love New York and we like to stay for a few weeks, so we try to find name brand hotels at discount rates, I hope we will be okay where we are going to stay.

You%26#39;re staying there AND renting a car? Hmmmm....don%26#39;t want to alarm you, but you%26#39;ll be very out of the loop. Not a good place to stay for a tourist. I%26#39;d strongly recommend trying to cancel and find something else.

I am pretty sure that you will indeed regret it.

Is there no way to change your booking? I really do suggest you reconsider.

By the way, when you say ';Islandic'; do you mean ';Icelandic';, or do you mean ';from the islands'; -- that is, the West Indies?

can you suggest a place in Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, close to the water and subway that wouldn%26#39;t be outrageously priced since we are staying so long.

Try these in Queens:

The Pan American in Elmhurst

La Quinta in Sunnyside

Comfort Inn in Long Island City

All are low budget and no frills, and the neighborhoods are also ';not touristy'; , but they are safer, better, all close to subways, better for tourists.

Thank you, and I meant to say my husband is from Iceland, not Island.