Our friends recently stayed at this hotel in Times Square and said it was great and exceptionally well located to Times Square. They were right. It is right in Times square so be prepared for staying in the horn tooting, siren screaming capital of the world. It is singularly the noisiest place I have ever stayed. Aside from that it is a hotel designed in the Art Deco period. Unfortunately they have done nothing to it since. Our room was not cleaned very thoroughly (hairs and rubbish all over the bathroom floor) The bed linen looked like it had been slept in (and not by us!) The room had a very unpleasant odour. The bath taps ran continuosly and no one was interested in repairing them. The rooms were tired and run down. The hotel staff were surly and very uninterested in providing any level of decent service. The hot and colds taps in the shower ran like a symphony orchestra - hot one second and cold the next. The best I can say about this hotel is it's location in Times square. They have a cafe attached which is cheap for breakfast, or so it seems until they start adding on the taxes and compulsory "gratuities" (which runs between 15-20%) In fact all they do is double the tax. We noted a lot of places in New York add a complusory tip into your bill and then expect you to tip on top of that. So they are double dipping a lot of the time.
The subway is the quickest transportation on Manhattan Island. Although not as good as the London tubes they are reasonably quick and have lots of destinations. A single ride is $2 per person and you can purchase a 'Metrocard' in 4,10,20 etc denominations. You can use one card for two or more people (you just hand it over to them and they swipe it through again). You can't do that with the 'Oyster' card in London. Unfortunately it is difficult to find any maps of the various different lines in the tube stations themselves so try and get a map from one of the tourist centres. Otherwise you may find it a little frustrating trying to work out where you should be.
By water the cheapest and most efficient travel was via Water Taxi and using their "hop-on-hop-off" system. It goes quite close to the Statue of Liberty so you can get some decent photos. However it does not stop on the Island like some tour boats do.
Electronics are very reasonable for Kiwis to buy. Expect to barter HARD and make sure you know what the price of the same item is at home. We found that on average you could buy the product for 1/3 of the ticketed price. Our best dinner was in Greenwich Village/Soho. The people and the restaurants are very eclectic and although very busy - nothing like Times Square. We likened moving around (actualy shuffling) in Times Square to the end of a football match. Only it never eases up except on a Sunday morning. It's chaotic, frenetic, alive and exhausting.
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