New York City

mdcamping wrote:
The only thing I might be concerned about Liberty Harbor is I read on the reviews about some low voltage problems during peak summer times. That aside we would return again to LH, just to close and convenient to NYC.

Mike

We were there last year in mid July (upper 90's) and never had a voltage issue. It is an OK place to park and see NYC, but don't think you'll be sitting outside by your RV.

We were in NYC, last month. Us and 13 year old GD. Stayed at a Hilton about 2 blocks from the Wall street bull. 3 blocks from the boat to the statue of liberty, and maybe 6 blocks to ground zero. If memory serves about $225 per night. Great location though.

We stayed three nights, did the above and Time Square and central park, plus a few other things. 3 nights was plenty for us. NYC is just to busy. GD would have stayed for a month however

Getting around, subway is an option but would have been confusing for us at least. And with luggage, even more difficult.

We did Uber and Taxies, not all that spendy and worked out well. Although I will admit a couple of those taxi rides were scary. They tend drive like it is the Indy 500.

I would add, if you are like us, Kent WA kids, and maybe you are the same ( as in sort of small townish) NYC is intimating. So we spent the money to make it less so. I think the Hilton, at that location was a good choice, as well as taxies and uber. As opposed to trying to figure out subways or buses, or driving on our own

dodge guy wrote:

mdcamping wrote:
The only thing I might be concerned about Liberty Harbor is I read on the reviews about some low voltage problems during peak summer times. That aside we would return again to LH, just to close and convenient to NYC.

Mike

We were there last year in mid July (upper 90's) and never had a voltage issue. It is an OK place to park and see NYC, but don't think you'll be sitting outside by your RV.

Yup, we were there late April. Cool weather made it good for walking around NYC

Mike

RVcrazy wrote:
From what I’ve read, Liberty Harbor will not be available for our trip... Repurposed land...

Whaaat?
We've got reservations for mid October. They took our money - hopefully what you heard was wrong.

We did stay at Croton Point before and it was really cool - taking the train along the Hudson into Grand Central. We would stay there again, but thought it would be fun to stay in a parking lot and take a ferry across to Manhattan. :)

Croton point park is my choice when visiting NYC. Non residents pay 50.00 the last time I stayed there. A senior round trip on metro north was less than 10.00. A cheap way to visit the city.

I just got back from a nearly week-long trip to NYC, as it turns out. I spent two nights at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, my second time camping there, and then three nights at Croton Point as Floyd Bennett Field is only opening their campground on weekends as it's the end of their season. I'm not sure I understand the logic there entirely, and the web site is less than crystal clear that they do that, but nevertheless it's what is going on.

Liberty Harbor, which I haven't actually stayed at, is the most convenient location to most of the sights in the city. It's also the most expensive of the three, and has the smallest camp sites/parking spaces.

Floyd Bennett Field is very affordable ($30 a night, or I think less if you're retired), has few ammenities (dry camping at the edges of a very large concrete pad, a former sea plane base, with a dump station available), and requires more or less interesting city driving to get an RV to. The most straightforward route, via the Belt Parkway, is limited to passenger cars as are all the parkways. From the northish direction, at least, perhaps the best route is to take I-278 to Flatbush Avenue and drive Flatbush clear across Brooklyn; that's at least how I've done it, and survived to tell the story. From the campground at Floyd Bennet Field, it's about a fifteen minute or so walk to the bus stop at the Ryan Visitor Center, and then very roughly an hour to central Manhattan via bus and subway. The busses run every twenty minutes. An unlimited MetroCard covers both busses and the subway; the seven day variant is $33 and in my opinion a very good bargain.

Croton Point is much easier to drive to, being well north of the city and barely off of US 9. It's a 20 or so minute walk from the campground to the MetroLink train station, and about an hour train ride to Grand Central Station and about $12 each way (for non-retired persons). Taking the train to Marble Hill instead is about half as much money, and then a longish subway ride can get one to central Manhattan, at the expense of maybe twenty additional minutes. The campground is easily the nicest of the three; the sites (at least many of them) are full-hookup, and have vegetation between them and generally what one would expect from a public park campground. As was mentioned, it's around $60 a night.

Personally, I rather like Floyd Bennett Field, but it's not for everyone. I would definitely suggest passing on it if you don't feel adept at driving your RV in rather tight traffic or haven't yet gotten a great feel for where it is in relation to you when you're driving. Checking the clearances for whatever route you need to take to get there may also be important; I think the limit was 12' something at the interstate exit. (I don't recall any low clearances on Flatbush Ave itself.)