Subway directions/questions

My 12 yo daughter and I are getting very excited about our upcoming trip which is now less than 3 weeks away! I鈥檝e come up with a rough itinerary and would like to confirm some subway directions I got from hopstop. This is our plan for Sunday, October 29:

SOL (10:45 monument pass), Ellis Island

Brooklyn (go to promenade if time)

Pizza at Grimaldi鈥檚

Walk back to Manhattan across Brooklyn Bridge

Cafe Wha? (MacDougal @ 3rd) at 9:30 pm

Our hotel is on Broadway at 49th. These are the hopstop directions:

- Hotel to Battery Park: R train from 49th St. to Whitehall St. (32 minutes)

- Battery Park to Brooklyn: R train to from Whitehall St. to Court St (26 minutes)

- Bridge to Greenwich Village: A train from Chambers St to Washington Sq (24 minutes)

or (depending on time)

- Bridge to hotel: R train from City Hall to 49th St.

- Hotel to Cafe Wha?: E train from 50th St. to Washington Sq (25 minutes)

- We鈥檒l probably try to get a taxi from Cafe Wha? back to the hotel, or else will take the A or E train back from Washington Sq to 50th St.

Does this sound right, or are there better routes?

One final question: Our return flight departs from JFK at 6pm on Monday. If we leave the hotel at 3:30 can we plan on getting there in an hour? We will take a taxi or reserve a car service, not decided yet.

Subway directions/questions

Most of that is correct enough. Tehre are some ways of fine-uning it, though.

After the SOL, instead of the R take the 4 from Bowling Green. There is an entrance directly to the downtown platform in the little yellow brick kiosk in Battery Park across State Street from the Custom House. After the SOL, walk from Castle Clinton up that mall towards the Sphere, and around the construction behind it -- the kiosk is right next to the flagpole.

Take the 4 (or the 5 if it is running to Brooklyn) to Borough Hall, which is in fact the same stop as Court Street. Go up to the Street, and ask anyone where Montague Street is. Montague is a nice street for shopping or for eating, but since you want to go to Grimaldi%26#39;s, walk to the end of Montague -- about four or five blocks. This will put you on the Promenade. Turn right and walk to the end of the Promenade -- you will be walking toward the Brooklyn Bridge. At the end of the Promenade, return to street level, and continue in the same direction you had been walking. In one block, the street pitches steeply down hill -- at the bottom of that hill,a cross Old Fulton Street, is Grimaldi%26#39;s.

To get to the Walkway from Grimaldi%26#39;s, walk up Old Fulton to Prospect Street. Turn left on Prospect, and then as soon as you get under the Bridge structure turn right on Cadman Plaza East./Washington Street The walkway entrance is near the corner in the stone wall on your right.

After walking the Bridge, I would enter the subway at Brooklyn Bridge station,a nd take the #6 uptown to Bleecker Street. You can walk along Bleecker -- and interesting Street - west into other parts of the Vilage.

For Bridge to Hotel, you can walk across the Park to the City Hallstation of the R, but you can also take the 4 or 5 express from Brooklyn Bridge one stop to 14th Street, and change there for the N OR the R to 49th Street.

Subway directions/questions

GWB you%26#39;re awesome, thanks for the help!!

BTW, the ';Washington Square'; subway station is usually called ';West 4th Street'; in our vernacular, so keep an eye out-ear open for that name of the station.

Thanks, queensboulevard. To give credit to hopstop, I believe they refererred to it as ';West 4th Street/Washington Square';. I just picked up the Washington Square part, but will now remember it is generally called ';West 4th Street'; !

Also, anyone have thoughts about my last question: ';Our return flight departs from JFK at 6pm on Monday. If we leave the hotel at 3:30 can we plan on getting there in an hour via taxi or car? ';

You might want to think about leaving a little earlier. The reason is Midtown traffic is horrendous at all times and you will likely have to go cross town to the east side and take Midtown tunnel to get to JFK.

There is currently a flat fee of $45 to take a taxi to JFK (not including tips and tolls)

You can take a car service like Carmel or Allstate. They%26#39;re gonna be around the same price about $44-45 again before tips and tolls but you can go to their website to print a coupon and get a few dollars off.

Goodluck.

It should also be noted that the West 4th Street /Washington Square station cannot be accessed from EITHER West 4th OR from Washington Square. The main entrance is in fact at West 3rd and Sixth Avenue, and the back entrance is at Waverly Place and Sixth.

And no, I don%26#39;t know why they called the station this, but the IND system is like that -- for example, Jay Street /Borough Hall may be under Jay Street, but it is two blocks from Borough Hall

I didn%26#39;t realize there was a flat rate for taxis from Manhattan to JFK - I thought it was only FROM JFK. In this case, I don%26#39;t see any reason to book a car service and will probably get a taxi.

So do you think leaving at 3pm will allow enough time?

Kitty, you were right the first time -- the flat rate is only FROM JFK. There is NOT a flat rate going TO JFK - for that trip you pay what is on the meter if you use a yellow cab.

I%26#39;m sorry about that . My mistake. The flat fee to JFK from Manhattan is being discussed but has not been decided yet.

No problem, I will see what the ride from JFK to hotel is like, before I decide if I should reserve a car for the return or not. I%26#39;ll take the Carmel info with me so I can call from there.

Thanks to both, for your help.