NY Car Hire

les_steaks

Hi all, heading to New York tomorrow for a week thne travelling to Washington for a few days. Considering driving from NY to Wash. Just wondering if anyone has done this and can estimate how long it takes. Also if anyone could recommend a rental agency in NY (staying beside Wall St.). Cheers, Les

mikedragon32

You DON'T want to hire a car in Manhattan! You'd be much better off taking a train and hiring a car when you get to DC.

ah nonsense.
The traffic in Dublin is worse than manhattan.

Get a car with GPS (hertz will have them) they are invaluable and very accurate in the states in my opinion.

The drive to washington will be smooth and only a few hours along a multi lane highway

Ponster

I think Mike is saying that you don't need a car to get around Manhattan.

Try this thread :

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k731933-Car_Hire-l4409924-New_York_City_New_York.html#4409924

mikedragon32

Ponster wrote:

I think Mike is saying that you don't need a car to get around Manhattan.

Try this thread :

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k731933-Car_Hire-l4409924-New_York_City_New_York.html#4409924

That's exactly what I meant Ponster...

Although I do think it's a lot less hassle to train/bus it to DC as you don't really need a car there either, unless you're planning to go further afield.

Gandhi

I would just take the train or a bus. To be honest, I have found the traffic in DC to be worse than the traffic in NYC. Once you get to DC you could end up paying almost as much to park the car as you would be paying for a bed for the night.

The only way I would do this would be if you are staying in the outskirts of DC, and not in the city itself.

In any event, you would only be driving through New Jersey, Northern Delaware, and Northern Maryland, and from the highway you would see little more than endless stretches of office parks and industrial parks.

Unless there are particular detours you really want to make along the way, I'd stick with the bus or train. Check out one of the Chinatown buses for a bargain. I've used New Century Travel and they have been grand.

Ruu_Old

Have a look at Enterprise Rent A Car website, always find them reasonable.

les_steaks

Cheers for that, don't intend using the car in NY just thinking about renting it for one day for drive to Washington. Meeting a friend in a place called Bethesda which is actually in Maryland. Getting the train back and hate doing same trip twice so trying to avoid that and the bus. I'm sure it'll be fine once I'm on the highway/ interstate but its getting out of Manhatten and on to mail road that I'm a bit worried about!

Get a standard car then from Hertz with their never lost system.
It has a voice and a map that will tell you when to turn right left etc etc and will get you onto the highway.

It's worth doing for the one way as you suggest , plus you have the control of stopping soemwhere when you want and never getting lost literally.

Seriously though,the notion that traffic is bad in man hattan is all hyped up.
Once you are not driving out during rush hour you will be fine and the "never lost" thing will tell you exactly what to do and get you there.
Other car rental co's may have similar but the hertz one is what I've had most experience of.

les_steaks

That sounds like a plan, cheers ruu!

Gandhi

Oh, you are going to Bethesda??? Yeah, the car rental might be your best option. There's no Chinatown bus going there.

If you don't want to deal with Manhattan traffic, you can always get a train to Newark airport and rent a car from there. You can get straight on the highway, cutting out a good deal of the North Jersey traffic, not to mention around $10 of tolls.

Oh, and be sure to check out Avis also. The last three times I have rented a car, they have been the cheapest.

mad m

Dont know if it will be any use but when in LA couple weeks back I went onto a website called orbitz.com and got a great car for $16 a day minus the insurance though.

dingding

Would agree with the other posters about Hertz Neverlost, used it last year and this year in the US and I find it great, Good for freeways, exits, and local directions etc....