Need hotel and restaurant recommendations. I also would like to know any sights we should not miss. Thanks!
Ithaca: I love the Country Inn and Suites b/c it is right down the street from the school and you don’t have to worry about Ithaca traffic. It also has dog friendly rooms and is right next to Buttermilk Falls State Park…great hiking. And free hot breakfast, and free cookies and coffee 24/7. If you want to stay in town by the Commons, try Hilton Garden or Hotel Ithaca. If you are there over a weekend, you MUST hit the farmer’s market: http://www.ithacamarket.com/. You should also walk through the Commons…great little shops and galleries. Great college town. For restaurants, my favorites are North Star, Agava, and Viva Taqueria. For breakfast, Waffle Frolic and Collegetown Bagel. Go to the Cornell Ornithology Lab…great trails and bird watching (from inside!). Lots of wineries right around campus. And of course, there is the famous Moosewood Restaurant in downtown Ithaca. Have fun!
I second the Country Inn and Suites in Ithaca. Very convenient, clean and reasonable.
Yea! Great info! Thanks!!
Near Rider, we’ve liked the Hyatt Place Princeton on US Route 1 – it adjacent to a PF Changs, Macaroni Grill and On the Border Grill so it makes for easy dining out. It’s an easy drive to Rider campus and close to the town of Princeton, which is lovely. Other Rider parents swear by the Courtyard Ewing-Princeton adjacent to Mercer County Airport. That one might be slightly quicker to campus.
When my duaghter did the Rider summer program we stayed in Manhattan… an easy train ride from Penn Station.
Ithaca - I didn’t care for the Country Inn and suites. Preferred the Hilton garden inn town. Go to purity ice cream.
Since I have family not too far from Montclair, only once did I stay in a hotel near there. I’m told the Holiday Inn in Totowa is the cheapest decent place close by, though I have never been there. We needed a little extra space the one time we stayed in a hotel, and ended up at the Marriott Courtyard in West Orange, which was perfectly fine. The Residence Inn looked even nicer and is a little closer to the school. Montclair itself is a very wealthy bedroom community and there are no hotels in the town itself. Be sure to drive down Upper Mountain Avenue to see all the mansions with their gorgeous Manhattan-skyline views. There are a few “downtown” areas but the big one with the most restaurants (and there are a million of them) is on Bloomfield Avenue. The college kids all like Cuban Pete’s. There is decent Asian/sushi place on Valley Road near the school called Bamboo that everyone seems to like. For steak/Italian there is a place called Prime 151 on Valley Road that even my very Italian and picky brother-in-law approved of. Montclair is a dry town! Which means you have to bring your own wine. The Italian place even had a bottle delivered to us. Oh - also had decent Mexican and good Margaritas at Senoritas in Bloomfield, next town over. You also could stay in Manhattan - trains and buses go either right to campus or 2 blocks away - but if you want to toot around Montclair, you’d need a car.
My only advice - pick a brand - like Hilton, or Hyatt or whatever - and stick to it as much as possible - because you can earn points with each stay and benefits like upgrades and such if you stick with one brand. If you plan to stay at the Palmer House - Hilton makes the most sense. I did Hotel.com to earn free nights during audition year - but I wish I had instead stuck to Hilton properties and earned Hilton rewards points.
That’s great advice! It’s what we’ve done, and it’s paid off. We love the special treatment we get, too, lol!
The Hilton rewards points are gold. I just spent a free night in Pittsburgh thanks to my points. I get at least one free night a year from going to see mah kid at school and it all started from Moonifieds then Unifieds being at Hiltons.
@Calliene has some really great advice for Montclair. There are not a lot of hotels close by. We have stayed at the Hyatt House Parsippany East and Hyatt Place Fairlawn/Paramus and been very satisfied.
Oh, lookie. A fancy new hotel, maybe two, coming to downtown Montclair.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/breaking-ground-for-groundbreaking-montclair-hotel-1.1550611?page=1
With regard to the Township of Montclair and environs: I’ve lived here for over 20 years. Montclair is not a “dry” town. There are establishments with liquor licenses, but the State of NJ makes these licenses so limited and expensive that there aren’t enough. Most restaurants in NJ are BYOB as a result. Also, you can easily get around Montclair without a car. Montclair has more train stations than any other town in NJ. There are also frequent NJ Transit buses and another bus company called Decamp. We are 12 miles from Manhattan, about 30 minutes by train or bus. There are tons of restaurants and shopping.
Really? All the restaurants I’ve gone to in surrounding towns serve alcohol, but never in Montclair, in spite of the plethora of restaurants. Which ones serve alcohol? Would be good to know for future visits. I grew up in NJ and have family there, visit often, and always can get alcohol at restaurants, except Montclair!
As far as hotels in and around Montclair I would agree with @MontclairDiva that Air BnB is the way to go.
I LOVE Montclair. It is so pretty and the college has a fantastic MT program and all of the rest. Been to a show there and would again. GREAT program. But please let’s be real. It is not an easy place to be without a car. I’ve been there multiple times both to see shows at Montclair State and because I have a cousin who lives there. The NJ transit train doesn’t run to upper Montclair campus on weekends. There are indeed busses but how to navigate them is no way as obvious as just showing up at a subway stop and expecting a train to show up. Issues of exact change, where the stop is etc. Nothing about it is obvious for the casual visitor. And it is not particularly walkable (hills / lack of sidewalks) if you are going from downtown to campus.
It takes a particular sort of traveler whom is willing to navigate the challenges without a car vs. one who expects to be spoon fed answers to the challenges. And I’m with Calliene on the alcohol in restaurants. I’ve yet to know which Montclair restaurants serve alcohol. But fortunately I’ve been able to bring my own bottle to many a fine establishment where the food was delicious. But if you are there without a car… you need to know you have to figure out how to secure said bottle on foot.
Love Montclair but post #15… I think is maybe from someone who knows the system well and how to navigate it. Imagine not knowing. Truly not as easy as described. I have lived it and am a very willing and seasoned traveler. Suggesting to keep it real but also that it can be learned. If I had a kid at Montclair, you bet I’d figure it out… probably use AirBNB and all of the rest. But it would take some planning.
Haha, true, the stop where the kids catch the bus to NYC on the weekends (2 blocks from campus) has NO marker, nothing to say it is a bus stop. But they certainly learn to navigate THAT one very quickly!
Near rider you can drive into the peddlers village/ New Hope/lambertville area
New hope is like 20 min away
Great towns to walk in lots of cool restaurants and shops
There is the Bucks County Playhouse that runs from now straight through to September
Have fun
Love all the advice! Thanks guys!