Comfort Inn Convention Center Rating: 2.5 Pearls

Midtown West, Manhattan, New York City

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On a block that devotes more space to parking lots than buildings, the Comfort Inn is in one of the least desirable areas of Manhattan. Fortunately, the hotel is close enough to subway lines and taxis so that you can explore everything New York has to offer.

• Five blocks from A, C, E subway lines
• 20-minute subway ride to Central Park
• 10-minute walk to Times Square
• 15-minute walk to the Empire State Building
• 30-minute subway ride or $14 taxi to the ferry terminal to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• 25-minute subway ride to Rockefeller Center
• 25-minute subway ride to the American Museum of Natural History
• 40-minute subway ride or $11 taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the "Met") and 20-minute subway ride to the Museum of Modern Art (the "MoMA")

Standard Double room

• Very cramped standard rooms; they squeeze a king bed or two double beds into every room, but that doesn't leave more than a foot or two around them.
• Large, 32-inch flat-screen TVs
• Free Wi-Fi
• Coffeemaker
• Electronic safe, large enough for a laptop
• No real closet, just a box that's not even large enough to fit the hangers inside it
• Outdated bedspreads -- unlike most other hotels in New York

New York has three nearby airports: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark (in New Jersey). Getting to town from JFK or LaGuardia is usually more convenient than getting there from Newark, but travel times are heavily dependent on the time of day and traffic conditions. From JFK, a taxi to anywhere in Manhattan costs a flat rate of $45 and takes around an hour in average conditions. From LaGuardia, a metered cab ride to midtown Manhattan costs about $40 and can take 30 minutes if traffic is light, three times that if it's bad. Rides from Newark cost at least $40 (plus tolls) and can take more than 90 minutes. It's customary to tip your driver 15 to 25 percent.

Those looking to save some cash can use the privately run shuttle buses that are available at all three airports for about $14 per person. For more information on the shuttles, go to Super Shuttle or New York Airport Service. Public transit is also available for as little as $7 per person, but travel can take up to two hours and involve a lot of lugging bags up and down stairways.

For mass-transit directions right to the hotel, check out HopStop.com.