# 17John Hotel — Full editorial corpus Canonical site: https://www.17john.com ## Rainy Day in Lower Manhattan: Where to Go Without Getting Soaked Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/rainy-day-things-to-do-lower-manhattan > On a rainy day in Lower Manhattan, head west from the Financial District: the Oculus at the World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial Museum and Brookfield Place are all indoors and connected to each other underground, so you can spend most of the day dry. East of Broadway, the Tin Building at the Seaport and Fraunces Tavern Museum at 54 Pearl Street are both short walks. And the Staten Island Ferry is still free, runs in any weather, and has an indoor cabin with a window seat for the harbor view. Go west. The best rainy-day plan in Lower Manhattan is the World Trade Center side of the neighborhood, because the Oculus, the shopping concourse, the memorial museum and Brookfield Place are all indoors and mostly connected underground. You can do a full day down there and barely open your umbrella. We get asked about this a lot in spring and fall, when a forecast turns and a whole day of walking plans falls apart. Here's what we actually tell guests. ## The dry route west From John Street, walk a block to the Fulton Center and go down. The underground passage runs west from Fulton Center under Dey Street to the World Trade Center transit hub, so you can get from the corner of Broadway and Fulton all the way to the Oculus without going back to street level. It's about a ten-minute walk underground and it's the single most useful thing to know about this neighborhood in bad weather. The Oculus itself is worth the walk even if you buy nothing. It's the white ribbed hall Santiago Calatrava designed over the transit hub, and standing in the middle looking up at the skylight is a genuine architecture moment. The Westfield shops line the concourse around it, and there's a decent food hall level if you just need to sit somewhere warm. ## The 9/11 Memorial Museum This is the one indoor thing downtown that people plan whole trips around. It's entirely below ground, it takes two to three hours if you read the exhibits, and it is heavy going. Book a timed ticket online before you go, because walk-up availability on a rainy day is the worst it gets. If you're traveling with younger kids, it's worth reading up on what's in the historical exhibition first and deciding how much of it you want them to see. ## Brookfield Place and the Winter Garden Keep going west, under West Street, and you land at Brookfield Place. The Winter Garden is a glass atrium with palm trees, a marble staircase and harbor views, which is a strange and pleasant thing to be standing in while it pours outside. Hudson Eats upstairs is a food hall with counters from a lot of names you'll recognize, and Le District on the lower level is a French market with a sit-down side. It's also where the waterfront promenade starts if the rain lets up. ## East of Broadway, closer to us If you don't want to go west, the Seaport is five minutes the other direction. The Tin Building on Fulton Street is Jean-Georges' food market in the rebuilt fish-market building: stalls, restaurants, a lot of things to look at, all under one roof. It's an easy hour and a good rainy lunch. Fraunces Tavern Museum at 54 Pearl Street is the sleeper pick. It's the 18th-century building where Washington said goodbye to his officers in 1783, now a small museum with a working tavern downstairs. Small, quiet, quick, and the kind of place you'd never bother with on a sunny day. The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City is the more substantial option if you want a serious couple of hours. And there's always the Staten Island Ferry. It's free, it runs every day in every weather, and the cabin is enclosed. Twenty-five minutes each way past the Statue of Liberty with rain on the windows is a better experience than most paid harbor cruises. The terminal at Whitehall is about a 12-minute walk from John Street. ## The churches nobody thinks of St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway at Fulton and Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall are both a few minutes away and both free to walk into. St. Paul's is the oldest church building in Manhattan still standing, and it served as a relief center after 9/11. Ten quiet minutes out of the weather, and you're right back on your way. ## Or just stay in Honestly, some rainy days are best spent not going anywhere. That's part of why the suites here have full kitchens: you can do a grocery run, cook something, and let the afternoon go. There's a fitness center and a guest lounge in the building, plus a laundry room, which is the sort of thing that turns a washout day into a useful one. If you're here for work, the conference room is downstairs. ## What to skip when it rains The Brooklyn Bridge walk, the Battery Park waterfront and the outdoor part of the 9/11 Memorial plaza are all much worse in the wet, and the bridge in particular is slick and crowded with umbrellas. Save them. Lower Manhattan weather turns fast, and a gray morning here often clears by four. --- ## Staying at 17 John With Kids: Space, Cribs, and a Kitchen to Cook In Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/staying-at-17-john-with-kids > 17 John works well for families because you get an apartment-style suite with a full kitchen, room to spread out, and free pack n plays we'll set up before you arrive. On-site laundry and free Wi-Fi help with the day-to-day, and the Financial District is quiet enough in the evenings that little ones can wind down. Just tell us what you need for your stay and we'll have it ready. ## The short version 17 John is a good fit for families because you're not squeezing everyone into one hotel room. Our suites are apartment-style, so you get a full kitchen and room to actually spread out. We keep pack n plays on hand, free of charge, and we'll set one up before you arrive. That combination, space plus a kitchen plus a crib, is what usually makes a trip with kids easier. ## Room to spread out The suites give a family somewhere to be together and somewhere to step away. Kids can have their own bedroom while the adults use the living room after bedtime. It's the difference between a stay where everyone's on top of each other and one where you can actually relax once the little ones are down. Space to live in the city, basically. ## A kitchen means you're not eating out every meal Every suite has a full kitchen, and that changes how a family trip goes. You can do breakfast in your pajamas, heat up a bottle at 2 a.m., or cook a simple dinner instead of wrangling a toddler through a restaurant. The suites come stocked with kitchenware, a coffee maker, and the basics, so you can cook from the first morning. There's a Whole Foods and other groceries within a short walk in Lower Manhattan for stocking up. ## Cribs, sorted before you arrive We have pack n plays available free of charge. Just let us know when you book or before you get here, and we'll have it set up in your suite before you walk in. One less thing to carry through the airport, one less thing to figure out at 11 p.m. after a travel day. ## Laundry and the day-to-day stuff Traveling with kids means laundry, and there's a laundry room on-site so you don't have to pack for every single day. Free high-speed Wi-Fi runs throughout the property, which helps if you're keeping a tablet going on a rainy afternoon or getting a little work done during nap time. Check-in is self-service through a smart lock, so you're not standing at a front desk with a stroller and a meltdown in progress. We'll email the instructions the day before you arrive. ## The Financial District with kids The neighborhood is calmer than Midtown, especially in the evenings and on weekends, which suits families with early bedtimes. You're a short walk from Battery Park and the waterfront, and the South Street Seaport is nearby for a change of scenery. The ferries leave from the tip of Lower Manhattan, so a boat ride is easy to work into a day. It's a walkable pocket of the city, which matters a lot when you're moving at a kid's pace. ## One thing to know We don't allow pets, so this isn't the spot if you're traveling with the family dog. Everything else, the crib, the kitchen, the space, the laundry, is set up to make a stay with kids feel less like camping in a hotel room and more like having your own place in Manhattan. Let us know what you need and we'll get it ready. --- ## Stone Street: The Financial District's Cobblestone Dining Block Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/stone-street-night-out-near-17-john > Stone Street is a short, landmarked cobblestone block in the Financial District lined end to end with bars and restaurants, and it's about a 6-minute walk from 17 John Street. In warm months the street closes to cars and fills with communal outdoor tables, which makes it the neighborhood's go-to spot for a casual dinner or after-work drinks. It runs busiest on weekday evenings and quiets down on weekends, so time your visit to the crowd you want. ## What Stone Street actually is Stone Street is a short, cobblestoned block in the Financial District that's given over almost entirely to eating and drinking. It's a landmarked historic street, closed to cars for most of its length, and lined on both sides with bars and restaurants. From 17 John Street it's about a 6-minute walk south, down toward the older, twistier part of the neighborhood near Hanover Square. What makes it worth the walk isn't any one place. It's the street itself. In the warm months the restaurants set out long communal tables down the middle of the cobblestones, and the whole block turns into one big open-air dining room. You order from whichever spot you're sitting near, grab a bench, and settle in. ## When to go Weekday evenings are the main event, especially after work when the neighborhood empties out of the offices and onto the street. It gets loud and social, in a good way. If you want that energy, aim for a Wednesday or Thursday around 6pm. Weekends are the opposite. The Financial District goes quiet on Saturdays and Sundays, and Stone Street with it, so you'll find it calmer and easier to grab a table. We tell guests who want a relaxed dinner without the crush to go on a weekend. Guests who want the buzz should go midweek. Summer is peak Stone Street, when the outdoor tables are out. It still runs year-round, just indoors and cozier once it gets cold. ## How to use it during a stay Stone Street is the easy answer when you don't feel like planning. It's close, it's casual, and there's enough variety on one block that a group with different cravings can still sit together. Pizza, pub food, oysters, a beer outside on a summer night, it's all within a few doors of each other. One of the nice things about staying with us is that you don't have to make a night of it if you don't want to. Your suite has a full kitchen, so plenty of guests do a couple of home-cooked nights and save Stone Street for when they actually feel like going out. Walk down, have dinner and a drink, walk back. No cabs, no planning. ## Getting there from the hotel From 17 John Street, head south toward Hanover Square. It's a flat, straightforward walk of about 6 minutes through the older streets of the district. On a nice evening the walk is half the fun, since this is the part of Manhattan where the grid breaks down into narrow, crooked streets that actually feel old. --- ## Winter Things to Do in Lower Manhattan, After the Holidays Clear Out Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/winter-in-lower-manhattan > The best winter things to do in Lower Manhattan are the ones you can string together on foot with warm rooms in between: skate at the Brookfield Place rink, which stays open into the first week of March, cut indoors through the Winter Garden and the Oculus instead of walking Vesey Street in the wind, ride the free Staten Island Ferry for a heated hour on the harbor, and eat on Stone Street, where the block is short enough that the cold never gets a chance at you. January and February are the quietest months down here, which is the whole argument for coming then. ## Come in January if you can Winter is the easiest time to have this neighborhood to yourself. The holiday crowds are gone by the first week of January, the office workers are back but they're inside all day, and the streets we walk every morning are as empty as they get. Hotel rates downtown are at their lowest of the year in January and February for the same reason. If you don't need warm weather to enjoy a city, that's a good trade. The thing to plan around isn't the cold, it's the wind. We're on a narrow street between tall buildings, which is fine, but four blocks west at the water it's a different experience. The whole trick to a winter day down here is stitching the outdoor bits together with indoor bits, and downtown is unusually good for that. ## Skate, because the season runs longer than you think The rink at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street, stays open into the first of March. That's the single most useful winter fact about this neighborhood: most people assume skating ends with the holidays and stop looking. Last season a one-hour public session ran $15 on a weekday and $17 on a weekend, with skates $5 to $7. It's outdoors on the Hudson side, so the view is water and Jersey City, and it's about a twelve-minute walk west from us. Book a weekday session if you have the choice. Weekend afternoons are a slow lap in a crowd; a Tuesday at four is a rink with fifteen people on it. ## Walk indoors on the cold days You can get most of the way across the neighborhood without being outside for more than a couple of minutes at a time, and in February that matters more than any attraction. The **Oculus** at the World Trade Center is the hinge. It's the white ribbed transit hall, it's free, it's warm, and it connects the World Trade Center subway lines and the PATH with the shops underneath. About an eight-minute walk from us. You can enter at Church Street and come out the far side near Brookfield Place. The **Winter Garden** at Brookfield Place is the other one worth knowing: a glass atrium with full-size palm trees in it, on the Hudson, with seating and food nearby. In December it runs holiday programming under the palms, but the reason to know about it in February is simpler. It's a warm room with daylight and a view of the water, and nobody charges you to sit in it. On a genuinely miserable day, we'd send you to the museums instead. There are five downtown that are worth an hour each, which is the right length of visit when your coat is wet. ## The free hour on the water The Staten Island Ferry runs 24 hours a day and costs nothing, and in winter it's better than it is in summer, because the deck crowd is gone and the cabin is heated. You get the harbor, the Statue of Liberty off the starboard side on the way out, and the Lower Manhattan skyline coming back. Whitehall Terminal is about a fifteen-minute walk south from John Street, or a couple of stops on the R or the 1. Round trip with the wait is a little over an hour. Go at dusk in winter. Sunset is early enough in January that you can catch the skyline lighting up and still be back for dinner at a normal hour. ## Eat somewhere with a short walk attached **Stone Street** is the winter dinner answer, about a seven-minute walk south of us. It's a single pedestrian block of restaurants and bars with the lights strung overhead, and the point in February is that you commit to one short walk and then you're inside for the rest of the night. In summer the tables spill out onto the cobblestones; in winter everyone's packed in behind the windows, which is its own kind of good. If you'd rather not go out at all, that's a legitimate winter plan too. Your suite has a full kitchen if you want to cook, and there's a grocery run to be done within a few blocks. We've written up where to shop separately. ## What to actually pack A hat and gloves, not just a heavier coat. Waterproof shoes, because the corners hold slush for days after a storm and every crossing has a puddle you can't judge the depth of. Layers you can strip off, since you'll be moving between February outside and an overheated subway car every twenty minutes. That's it. Nothing about a New York winter requires special equipment, just the willingness to be outside for eight minutes at a time. ## Is it worth coming in winter at all? Yes, with one caveat. If your list is entirely outdoor sightseeing, a January trip will be a compromise: the Brooklyn Bridge walk is a serious wind event and the harbor cruises run reduced schedules. If your list is a mix of eating, museums, walking short distances and having room to spread out at the end of the day, winter downtown is the best version of this neighborhood. Quieter streets, shorter lines everywhere, and a rink that's still running when everyone thinks it isn't. --- ## The Best Neighborhood to Stay in NYC With Kids, and What to Book There Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/best-neighborhood-to-stay-nyc-with-kids > The best neighborhood to stay in NYC with kids is whichever one lets you book a room with separate bedrooms, a kitchen and a quiet block at night, and for most families that points downtown rather than to Midtown. Lower Manhattan empties out in the evening and on weekends, the harbor and the Brooklyn Bridge are walking distance, and suites here come with full kitchens and laundry. Midtown wins if your trip is built around Central Park or a Broadway show; Brooklyn Heights wins if you want quiet over walkability to sights. ## The short answer Pick the room first, then the neighborhood. With kids, the thing that decides whether a New York trip is good or grim is whether you have separate bedrooms, somewhere to make breakfast, and a block that goes quiet after 9pm. Neighborhood is the second question, not the first, and most families ask them in the wrong order. That said, our answer is Lower Manhattan, and we'll show our working. We're on John Street in the Financial District, so treat this as a recommendation with a bias, and read the parts where we say another neighborhood is the better call. ## What actually matters when you're travelling with children - **Separate sleeping space.** One room with four people in it means everybody goes to bed at 8pm. A suite with a door between the bedroom and the sofa buys the adults their evening back. - **A kitchen.** Not for cooking every meal. For milk in a fridge, cereal at 6am when the jet lag hits, and not paying restaurant prices for a bowl of pasta a five-year-old will half eat. - **Laundry.** Day four is when this stops being optional. - **A quiet block, not just a quiet hotel.** The difference between a good night and a bad one is usually the street outside, not the building. - **Something to walk to.** With kids you get roughly one big outing a day. If the outing starts with 40 minutes on a train, you get less of one. ## Why we'd point families downtown The Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends and quiet most evenings, because it's an office district that goes home. That's the trade a lot of families are looking for without knowing to ask for it: you're in Manhattan, walking distance from the sights, and the street outside your window is calm at bedtime. What's within a walk from us: **The Brooklyn Bridge.** The walkway starts a few blocks from our door and drops you into DUMBO on the other side, which is about as good as a family morning gets in this city. It's flat, it takes about half an hour at kid pace, and the payoff at the far end is a park with the bridge overhead. Go early; the walkway is at its worst in the middle of a summer afternoon. We've written the whole route up as a half-day itinerary. **The Staten Island Ferry.** Free, runs day and night, and passes the Statue of Liberty on the way out and back. If you have kids who like boats and a budget that doesn't like ticketed harbor cruises, this is the one. Round trip is about 50 minutes of sitting still, which is either a rest or a battle depending on the child. **Battery Park.** The green edge at the bottom of the island, where the ferries to Liberty Island and Ellis Island leave from. It's free to walk through, and it's the natural place to let everyone run around before or after a ticketed thing. **The Oculus.** The white ribbed hall at the World Trade Center, which is a transit station and a shopping centre and, for a certain kind of eight-year-old, a spaceship. It costs nothing to walk through and it's indoors, which matters on the day it rains. **The 9/11 Memorial.** Worth thinking about before you go, not after you've arrived. The outdoor memorial pools are free and open air; the museum is ticketed and heavy going for younger children. We put the ticket and timing details on their own page so you can decide in advance. ## When another neighborhood is the better call **Midtown**, if your trip is built around Central Park and a Broadway show. You'll pay for the location in noise and in the price of everything within two blocks of your door, but if the park is your daily outing, being able to walk to it is worth a lot. We compare the two areas properly on our Financial District vs Midtown page. **Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO**, if you'd take quiet residential streets over walkability to Manhattan sights. You get playgrounds, a slower pace and the best view of the skyline. You also get a river between you and most of what you came to see, which is fine when it's a subway ride and less fine at 4pm with a tired four-year-old. **Not Times Square.** People book it because it's central and then discover their children can't sleep and the adults can't get a coffee without queueing. It's the one area we'd talk a family out of. ## What to book, wherever you land Ask for the layout, not the star rating. We don't have connecting rooms, which is the standard hotel answer to families, and we think two or three bedrooms behind one front door is a better one: everybody's in the same apartment, nobody's listening through a wall for a knock. Our suites have full kitchens, there's a laundry room in the building, and the gym and lounge are on the lower level if someone needs to burn off an hour. Breakfast isn't included here, which is deliberate. There's coffee in the lounge, and with a kitchen upstairs most families end up doing their own first meal and saving the going out for later in the day. Space to live in the city. That's the whole argument for staying down here with kids, and it's why we'd take a quiet block and a kitchen over a famous address every time. --- ## Where to Stay in NYC for a First Visit: An Honest Neighborhood Rundown Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/where-to-stay-nyc-first-time-visitors > For a first visit to New York, the best neighborhood to stay in is the one with the most subway lines under it, because you'll spend more time getting places than you expect. Midtown puts you closest to Broadway and the big museums but costs the most and empties out at night. Times Square is convenient and exhausting. SoHo and the West Village are the nicest to walk around and the furthest from the sights on your list. Lower Manhattan, the Financial District and the Seaport, is the value pick: it sits on top of the Fulton Center hub with the A/C, J/Z, 2/3 and 4/5 lines, it's walking distance to the 9/11 Memorial, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty ferry, and it's quiet at night, which some people love and some people don't. Pick the neighborhood by what you want to walk to in the morning and how much noise you want at 11pm. ## The short answer Stay where the subway is thickest, and pick your noise level. That's the whole decision. First-time visitors almost always overestimate how much they'll walk between sights and underestimate how far apart those sights are, so the number of train lines under your hotel matters more than the neighborhood's reputation. After that it's a question of what you want your evening to sound like. Some people want to step outside at 10pm into crowds. Others want a quiet street and a room they can actually sleep in. Neither is wrong, but booking the opposite of what you want is the single most common New York mistake. ## The neighborhoods, honestly ### Midtown Closest to Broadway theaters, Rockefeller Center, the Museum of Modern Art and Grand Central. Highest nightly rates in the city, and rooms tend to be small for the money. The streets are packed at 6pm and half-dead by 11 in the office blocks. Good if your trip is mostly shows and midtown museums and you want to walk to them. ### Times Square The most convenient address for theater and the least restful place to sleep. It's bright, loud and crowded past midnight, and the food within two blocks is mostly built for people who won't come back. Fine for one or two nights around a show. Rough for a week. ### SoHo, Nolita, the West Village The nicest neighborhoods to just be in: low buildings, good restaurants, real shops. Also the priciest per square foot, and further from the classic first-timer list than the map suggests. Fewer express subway lines too. Best for a second or third visit, or a first visit that's about eating and wandering. ### The Upper West and Upper East Sides Residential, calmer, close to Central Park and the big museums. Rates are often better than Midtown. The catch is that everything downtown becomes a 30 to 40-minute train ride, and you'll be doing that ride a lot. ### Lower Manhattan (Financial District and the Seaport) The value pick, and the one we know best because we're in it. You're on top of the Fulton Center hub, which puts the A/C, J/Z, 2/3 and 4/5 lines in one building a couple of blocks from us. Times Square is about twenty minutes on the 2 or 3. What you can walk to: the 9/11 Memorial and the Oculus in around ten minutes, the Brooklyn Bridge in about ten, the Staten Island Ferry and the Statue of Liberty ferry at Battery Park in ten to fifteen, and Stone Street's restaurant block in five. The trade-off is real and worth saying out loud. The Financial District runs on office hours. Monday through Friday it's busy, and on Saturday morning it can feel like you have the streets to yourself. If you want to walk out of your lobby into a crowd every night, stay somewhere else. If you want to sleep, cook a dinner, and be first in line at the memorial before the tour buses arrive, this is the right side of town. ## A quick way to choose | If your trip is mostly... | Stay in | | --- | --- | | Broadway shows and Midtown museums | Midtown, close to the theaters | | Your first time, wanting to see the famous things | Lower Manhattan or Midtown South | | Family with kids and a need for space | Lower Manhattan, in an apartment-style suite | | Eating and wandering, no fixed list | West Village, SoHo, or Nolita | | A week or more, cooking some meals | Lower Manhattan or the Upper West Side | | One night around a show | Times Square, then move on | ## Three things that matter more than the neighborhood **Get a room with a door you can close.** If there are more than two of you, one room becomes a problem by night three. A suite with separate bedrooms and a living room costs less than two hotel rooms and keeps everyone sane. **Check what's on your block, not just your neighborhood.** Downtown especially, one street is restaurants and the next is office lobbies. Look at the actual address on a map and see what's open at 8pm. **Don't rent a car.** Parking is expensive and you won't use it. Everything in this guide assumes you're on foot and on the subway, which is how New York actually works. ## Where we fit We're at 17 John Street in the Financial District, and our suites are apartment-style: full kitchens, living rooms, and multi-bedroom layouts including two- and three-bedroom suites, some with a private terrace. There's a rooftop terrace with lounge chairs, a fitness center, a guest lounge and a laundry room in the building. Breakfast isn't included, but there's coffee in the lounge and a kitchen upstairs, which on a first trip means nobody has to be dressed and downstairs by a certain hour. If you're deciding between downtown and somewhere else specifically, we've written the head-to-heads: Financial District against Midtown, against Times Square, against Tribeca, against SoHo. They're blunt about when the other neighborhood is the better choice, because sometimes it is. --- ## Getting From JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark to the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/airport-to-financial-district-jfk-lga-ewr-17-john > From JFK, the cheapest route to the Financial District is the AirTrain to Jamaica, then the E train to World Trade Center, about 60 to 75 minutes for roughly $11. A yellow cab is a flat $70 plus tolls and tip, usually 45 to 70 minutes. From LaGuardia, take the Q70 bus to the subway or a cab (about 30 to 50 minutes). From Newark, the AirTrain to NJ Transit into Penn Station, then a downtown train, is the transit option; a car is usually simpler and runs 40 to 60 minutes. 17 John Street sits two blocks from the Fulton Street subway hub, so most trains drop you within a five-minute walk. If you're headed to the Financial District, the good news is that all three New York airports connect to Lower Manhattan, and 17 John Street sits right on top of one of the best-served subway hubs in the city. Fulton Street is two blocks away, and the E train's last stop at World Trade Center is about a five-minute walk. Here's the honest breakdown of each airport, what it costs, and how long it really takes. ## The short version: which airport is easiest for the Financial District? JFK is the most predictable for downtown, because the E train runs straight to World Trade Center. Newark can be quicker in a car when traffic cooperates, and LaGuardia has no direct train, so you'll transfer or take a cab. If you get to pick your airport, JFK usually makes the simplest trip to this part of town. ## From JFK to the Financial District The cheapest way from JFK is the AirTrain plus the subway. Take the AirTrain from your terminal to Jamaica Station ($8.50), then the E train toward Manhattan. The E's last stop is World Trade Center, a five-minute walk from 17 John. Total is about $11 and 60 to 75 minutes depending on your terminal and the wait. Pay the subway fare with a tap of your credit card or phone at the turnstile (OMNY), no paper ticket needed. A yellow cab from JFK to anywhere in Manhattan is a flat $70, plus tolls and tip, so figure closer to $85 to $95 all in. It takes 45 to 70 minutes, and it can be longer in rush hour on the Van Wyck. Rideshare (Uber, Lyft) is usually in the same range or a bit more when demand is high, and it drops you at the door, which is the real advantage if you've got luggage or kids. ## From LaGuardia to the Financial District LaGuardia has no subway station of its own, so the transit route is a two-parter. Take the free Q70 LaGuardia Link bus from your terminal to the Jackson Heights / Roosevelt Avenue subway station, then the E train down to World Trade Center. It's cheap (just the $2.90 subway fare) but slow, usually 60 to 80 minutes with the transfer. Most people flying into LaGuardia just take a cab or rideshare. There's no flat fare from LaGuardia, so it's metered, typically $45 to $65 to the Financial District plus tolls and tip, and 30 to 50 minutes. LaGuardia is the closest airport by distance, so when traffic is light this is the fastest door-to-door option of the three. ## From Newark (EWR) to the Financial District Newark is in New Jersey, so it's a little more involved. The transit route is the AirTrain from your terminal to the Newark Liberty rail station, then an NJ Transit train into Penn Station in Manhattan, then a subway or short cab downtown. The combined AirTrain and NJ Transit fare is around $16, and the whole trip runs 60 to 90 minutes. Buy the NJ Transit ticket before you board. A car from Newark to the Financial District is often the simpler choice: 40 to 60 minutes and roughly $70 to $95 with tolls and the airport surcharge. Traffic through the Holland Tunnel or on the Turnpike is the wild card, so pad your time if you're catching something. ## Getting to 17 John Street once you're downtown Wherever you come in, the last leg is easy. 17 John Street is between Broadway and Nassau, two blocks from the Fulton Street station, which is served by the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, and Z lines. The E train's World Trade Center stop is a five-minute walk. If you're in a cab, give the driver "17 John Street, between Broadway and Nassau." Check-in is self-service through a smart keypad, and we send the door code and step-by-step instructions the day before you arrive, so a late-night landing isn't a problem. If you get in before your suite is ready, you can drop bags with the concierge in the lobby, free, and go explore. The front desk is staffed 24/7 if anything comes up. ## A few practical tips Use OMNY for the subway. Tap your contactless card or phone at the turnstile and you're through. After 12 taps in a week it stops charging, so a week of riding is capped at one weekly fare. If you land late or you're traveling with a lot of luggage, a cab or rideshare to the door is worth the extra money. The subway is great, but hauling bags up and down station stairs after a long flight is not the way to start a trip. Weekends and holidays change subway service. If a train is running local or rerouted, the station signage and the MTA app will tell you. From the Financial District, almost everything runs through Fulton Street, so you're rarely more than a short walk from a line that works. --- ## Best Hotels in FiDi, NYC: How to Pick the Right Block Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/best-hotels-fidi-nyc-how-to-choose > The best hotels in FiDi, NYC come down to which block you pick. Stay around Fulton and John Streets if you want the most subway lines within two minutes of the door (A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 all meet at Fulton Center). Stay near Wall and Stone Streets for quiet nights and dinner downstairs, near the Seaport if you want the water, or toward the World Trade Center and Battery Park City if you want parks and the PATH to New Jersey. Beyond the block, the things that matter most down here are a kitchen, laundry, and enough room to spread out, because the Financial District goes quiet at night and you'll want somewhere you actually want to be. People searching for the best hotels in FiDi usually get handed the same list of names with the same adjectives attached. That isn't very useful, because in the Financial District the name on the door matters less than the block it sits on. This neighborhood is only about a mile across, and it changes character every few streets. Here's how we'd think about it if we were booking a stay down here ourselves. ## Pick the block first, the building second FiDi has four rough zones, and they feel different at 9am and completely different at 9pm. | Part of FiDi | What it's actually like | Book here if you want | |---|---|---| | Fulton and John Streets (the middle) | The center of the neighborhood's transit. Delis, coffee, and the Fulton Center subway hub. Busy on weekday mornings, calm by 8pm. | The shortest walk to the most trains, and a short walk to everything else in Lower Manhattan | | Wall Street and Stone Street (south) | Narrow older streets, big stone buildings, and one cobblestone block full of restaurants with tables outside | Dinner two minutes from your door and genuinely quiet nights | | South Street Seaport (east) | Cobblestones, the East River, Pier 17, tall ships, harbor air | Waterfront walks, kids, long summer evenings | | World Trade Center and Battery Park City (west) | Wider streets, newer buildings, big parks along the Hudson | Running and stroller room, plus the PATH to New Jersey | We're on John Street, between Broadway and Nassau, which puts us in that middle zone. The practical upshot: the Fulton Street station is a couple of minutes away on foot, and the A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines all stop there. The R and W are at Cortlandt Street, and the E ends at the World Trade Center, where you can also catch the PATH. If you're moving around the city a lot, that concentration of trains is the single biggest argument for staying in this part of FiDi. ## What actually matters when you book down here After the block, these are the things guests tell us made or broke a stay in the Financial District. **A kitchen, if you're here more than two nights.** FiDi empties out at night and there's no bodega on every corner the way there is uptown. Being able to make coffee and eggs without leaving the building changes the shape of a trip, especially with kids or an early flight. Our suites have full kitchens, and there's a laundry room on site, which is the other thing that matters once a stay runs past a week. **Space, not square-footage marketing.** Most Manhattan rooms are built for sleeping. If you're working from the room, traveling as a family, or staying a month, you want a separate living area, a table you can put a laptop on, and somewhere for the suitcases that isn't the bed. Look at floor plans, not adjectives. **How quiet you want it.** The Financial District on a Saturday is one of the calmest parts of Manhattan. Offices are shut, the streets belong to residents and tourists walking to the Brooklyn Bridge, and you can get a table anywhere. Some people love that. If you want noise and neon outside the window at midnight, you want a different neighborhood, and we'd rather tell you that now. **Whether breakfast is included, and whether you care.** Most places down here don't include it. We don't either, though there's coffee in the lounge, and there are good breakfast spots within a few blocks. For a lot of guests, a kitchen plus a bakery run beats a buffet. ## What you can walk to from the middle of FiDi This is the part that makes the neighborhood worth it. From around John Street you're roughly: - Two blocks from Wall Street and the Charging Bull crowd - Five to eight minutes from Stone Street, the cobblestone block where most of our dinner recommendations live - Under ten minutes from the 9/11 Memorial, the Oculus, and One World Trade Center - Ten minutes from the South Street Seaport and the East River - Fifteen minutes from Battery Park and the harbor, where the free Staten Island Ferry leaves - A short walk from the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian entrance, which puts DUMBO about forty minutes away on foot You can do most of Lower Manhattan without ever getting on a train. That's rare in this city, and it's the reason people who stay down here once tend to come back. ## The honest downsides FiDi is not a nightlife neighborhood. Bars close earlier than they do in the East Village, and a few streets feel deserted on a Sunday morning. The sidewalks around the 9/11 Memorial are crowded most of the day. And if your plans are all Midtown, all week, you'll spend twenty minutes on the 4 or 5 each way. Plenty of guests happily make that trade for a bigger, quieter place to come back to. Some don't, and that's fine. ## Where we fit 17 John is an apartment-style building, so what you get is a suite with a full kitchen rather than a standard room. There's a fitness center and a guest lounge on the lower level, a laundry room, a conference room, a restaurant in the building, and a rooftop terrace that's a good place to be in the evening once the office crowd has gone home. We don't have a pool, so if that's on your list we'd rather you know before you book. The comfort of home, with the service of a hotel. That's the whole idea, and in a neighborhood this quiet after dark, it's the version of a New York stay that tends to work best. ## A quick way to decide Ask yourself three questions. How many nights? Anything past three, prioritize a kitchen and laundry over a lobby. Who's with you? More than two people means you want separate living space, not connecting rooms you have to negotiate for. And what's your first stop each morning? If it's a train, stay near Fulton. If it's the water, stay near the Seaport or Battery Park. Answer those and the shortlist writes itself. --- ## Where to Stay Near One World Trade Center: A Suite You Can Walk Back To Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/where-to-stay-near-one-world-trade-center > If you want to stay near One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial, look a few blocks east into the Financial District rather than directly at the site: we're at 17 John Street, a walk of under ten minutes west along Fulton Street to the memorial plaza, with Wall Street two blocks the other way and the ferry terminal about five minutes on foot. Our suites are apartment-style, so you get a living room, a kitchen with kitchenware and a coffee maker, and layouts up to a 3-bedroom, plus a fitness center, guest lounge and laundry room in the building and a front desk staffed 24/7. It's the practical way to visit the memorial with family: you can walk back mid-afternoon, put a toddler down for a nap, and cook dinner instead of hunting for a table. ## Stay east of the site, not on top of it The best place to stay for a visit to One World Trade Center is a few blocks east, in the Financial District proper. We're at 17 John Street, and the memorial plaza is a walk of under ten minutes west along Fulton Street. That's close enough to go twice if you want to, and far enough that you're sleeping on a quiet street instead of next to a construction-and-tourist corridor. It also means the rest of downtown is right there. Wall Street is two blocks from our door in the other direction. Stone Street, the cobblestone block where most of the good downtown restaurants are, is a short walk south. The ferry terminal is about five minutes on foot, so a harbor trip is a morning, not an expedition. ## Why families end up downtown for this trip Because the memorial is a heavy few hours and you'll want somewhere to go afterward. Visiting with kids usually means an early start, a long stretch on your feet, and then a hard stop. Being ten minutes away changes how the day works: you walk back, everyone sits down, the little one naps, and you go out again at five instead of writing off the afternoon. Our suites are apartment-style, which is the other half of it. You get a living room with a couch, a kitchen with kitchenware and a coffee maker, towels, linens and toiletries, and enough floor space that nobody's climbing over a suitcase. The larger layouts include a Signature 3-Bedroom with a private terrace and a Deluxe 2-Bedroom with a private terrace, both on the third floor right next to each other, which is the setup families and two-couple trips tend to ask for. We keep pack n plays on hand free of charge; just tell us ahead and we'll have one set up before you arrive. There's a fitness center, a guest lounge, a laundry room and a conference room in the building. Wi-Fi is included throughout. Daily housekeeping isn't part of the rate, but we can arrange it for a fee if you'd like it, so let us know in advance. ## What's walkable from here Most of Lower Manhattan, honestly. This is the part of the city that rewards not having a plan. - **The 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center**, west along Fulton. We wrote a separate guide on visiting, including how to think about the museum and the observatory, and it's linked below. - **Wall Street and the old financial blocks**, two blocks south. Best in the early morning when the streets are empty and the buildings look like the photographs. - **South Street Seaport**, east toward the river, for the waterfront, the piers and views back at the Brooklyn Bridge. - **Stone Street**, for dinner. Cobblestones, low buildings, tables outside in warm weather. - **The ferry terminal**, about five minutes away, for the harbor and the Statue of Liberty run. - **The Brooklyn Bridge walkway**, close enough to walk onto and cross into Brooklyn without a train. The neighborhood is quiet on weekends. If your visit lands on a Saturday or Sunday, expect wide empty sidewalks around the office blocks and most of the activity concentrated near the memorial, the Seaport and the water. ## Getting here and getting around Subway lines converge a few blocks from the building, and the ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk, which covers most of what you'll want to do downtown. We don't have parking on site. The nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about three minutes away on foot, and guests usually check rates on SpotHero before they drive in. Our getting-around guide goes through the subway, the ferry and parking in more detail, and we have a separate one for the trip in from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark. ## The practical stuff, up front Check-in is after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM. Check-in is self-service through a smart lock and keypad, and we send the instructions the day before you arrive, so you don't need to time your flight around a desk. The front desk is staffed 24/7 if you need something. Luggage storage in the lobby is free on both your arrival and departure days, which is worth knowing if you land in the morning or fly out at night and want one more walk to the water before you go. A couple of things we can't do: pets aren't allowed, and the building is entirely non-smoking. Late check-out until 1:00 PM is $100 when it's available. If you're deciding between downtown and somewhere more central, we've written that comparison out too. For a memorial visit specifically, though, we'd stay down here. It's the difference between seeing the site and having time to sit with it afterward. --- ## Staying Near Wall Street for a Work Trip: Space to Actually Work at 17 John Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/staying-near-wall-street-for-work-17-john > If you're working in the Financial District, 17 John Street puts you two blocks from Wall Street with room to actually get things done. Every suite has a full kitchen and space to spread out and work, there's a conference room on site, plus a fitness center, laundry room, guest lounge, and a 24/7 front desk. Self check-in with a keypad means you can arrive on a late flight without waiting on anyone. ## The short answer For a work trip in the Financial District, stay somewhere that gives you space to work, not just a bed and a desk shoved in a corner. 17 John Street is two blocks from Wall Street, and every suite has a full kitchen and a proper living area, so you can take a call, spread out your laptop and papers, and cook dinner without leaving. There's a conference room on site if you need to meet, a fitness center and laundry room for the practical stuff, a guest lounge, and a 24/7 front desk. Self check-in means a late arrival isn't a problem. ## Why a suite beats a standard room on a work trip A standard hotel room is fine for a night. For anything longer, it starts to feel small fast, especially when you're working from it. You end up eating takeout on the bed and running the AC over a desk the size of a tray. The suites here are built like small apartments. You get a separate living area to work in, a full kitchen, and enough room that a couple of days of work don't pile up on top of you. If you're the kind of traveler who takes early calls, you can do it from the living room without waking anyone in the bedroom. If you're here for a week or a month, having a kitchen changes the whole trip. You make your own coffee, keep real food in the fridge, and skip the nightly search for dinner. ## What's on site for working travelers - **A conference room.** If you need to meet with a small group or take a video call somewhere other than your suite, there's a conference room in the building. Ask the front desk about using it. - **A fitness center.** On the lower level, so you can keep a routine without hunting for a gym between meetings. - **A laundry room.** Useful on longer trips. You don't have to pack a full week of shirts or pay hotel laundry prices. - **The guest lounge.** A place to sit and work that isn't your room, or somewhere to take a break between calls. - **A 24/7 front desk.** Someone's there around the clock if you need something, and luggage storage is available free on your arrival and departure days. ## Getting to the office and the airport You're in the middle of the Financial District, so most of the offices down here are a walk away. Wall Street is two blocks off. The subway lines at Fulton Street and Wall Street are a few minutes on foot and connect you across the rest of Manhattan and into Brooklyn. There's no parking at the hotel, which isn't much of a loss down here; a car is more hassle than help in Lower Manhattan. For the airports, the subway and a transfer will get you to JFK, and car services are easy to arrange from the front desk. If you're arriving late, self check-in with a keypad means you don't have to make it in by any particular hour. We send the door code and instructions the day before you arrive. ## After work When the day's done, you don't have to go far. Stone Street's car-free block of restaurants and bars is a few minutes' walk and is the easy answer for dinner or drinks with colleagues. The harbor promenade and Battery Park are a short walk south if you want air, and the whole neighborhood goes quiet and calm in the evenings once the offices empty out. It's a good place to actually rest between working days. ## The bottom line For a Financial District work trip, the thing that matters is space and self-sufficiency: room to work, a kitchen so you're not eating out every night, and the practical stuff (gym, laundry, a meeting room, a 24/7 desk) handled on site. That's what 17 John is set up for, two blocks from Wall Street. --- ## Apartment Hotels in NYC: What They Are and How to Pick One Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/apartment-hotels-nyc-what-to-know > An apartment hotel in NYC is a licensed hotel where the rooms are laid out like apartments: a full kitchen, a separate living room, usually one to three bedrooms, and laundry on site or in the unit. You book it the way you'd book any hotel, with a front desk, housekeeping and a real cancellation policy behind it, but you can cook, do a load of wash and spread a family or a work trip out over more than one room. They cost more per night than a standard room and less than booking two of them, so the math works best for stays of three nights or longer, for groups, and for anyone who doesn't want to eat every meal out. Ours is 17 John, in the Financial District, with apartment-style suites, a rooftop terrace, a fitness center, a guest lounge and a laundry room. ## What an apartment hotel actually is An apartment hotel is a licensed hotel where the rooms are built like apartments. You get a full kitchen, a living room that's separate from where you sleep, usually one to three bedrooms, and laundry either in the building or in the unit. Everything else works like a hotel: you book by the night, there's a published cancellation policy, housekeeping exists, and someone is responsible for the building. You'll also see these called serviced apartments, aparthotels, or extended-stay suites. The labels move around. The thing to look at is the floor plan and the kitchen, not the word on the website. ## What you get that a standard hotel room doesn't Space, and the ability to run a normal day. That sounds small until you've spent a week in New York with two kids in one room. - **A kitchen.** Coffee at 6am without leaving. Dinner in when nobody wants to go back out. Leftovers that survive the night in a real fridge. - **A living room.** One person can work or watch something while another sleeps. For a work trip, it means you can take a call without sitting on the bed. - **Laundry.** On a stay longer than four or five nights, this is the difference between one suitcase and two. - **Separate bedrooms.** Kids go down at 8, adults are still up. Two colleagues share a suite without sharing a room. - **Better math for groups.** One two-bedroom suite is usually cheaper than two hotel rooms, and everyone eats breakfast in the same place. ## What you give up Be honest with yourself about this part. Apartment hotels tend to be smaller buildings with fewer people working in them, so you won't get the big lobby, the 24-hour room service, or the doorman-hailing-your-cab routine. Housekeeping schedules vary a lot from property to property, and on longer stays it's often every few days rather than daily. The nightly rate is higher than a comparable standard room, so if you're in town for two nights and plan to eat out for every meal, a regular room is the better buy. ## What to check before you book | Check this | Why it matters | | --- | --- | | Is the kitchen full or a kitchenette? | A microwave and a mini fridge is not a kitchen. Look for a range, an oven and a full-size fridge if you plan to cook. | | Where's the laundry? | In-unit, in-building, or a block away. All three exist under the same label. | | How many bedrooms, and are they real rooms with doors? | Some "one-bedrooms" are a curtain and a hope. | | Minimum stay | Some properties won't take one or two nights. | | Housekeeping frequency | Ask. It's rarely on the booking page. | | Is it a licensed hotel? | New York's rules on short-term whole-apartment rentals got a lot stricter, and plenty of listings vanished. A licensed hotel is a booking that will still exist when you land. | | The block, not just the neighborhood | Downtown, one street can be restaurants and the next can be office lobbies. | ## Where they cluster in Manhattan Apartment-style stays concentrate in a few areas: the Financial District, Midtown East around the UN, and pockets of the Upper East and Upper West Sides. Downtown has the most of them per square block, partly because a lot of the buildings down here were built as offices or as residential conversions, which is also why the rooms are shaped like apartments in the first place. The trade-off downtown is a neighborhood that's busy Monday to Friday and quiet on Saturday. Some people hate that. Families and anyone who's been to New York before tend to like it, because you're a few subway stops from everything and you can hear yourself think at night. ## What ours looks like 17 John is on John Street in the Financial District, and the suites are apartment-style: full kitchens, living rooms, and multi-bedroom layouts including two- and three-bedroom suites, some with a private terrace. Our Signature 3-Bedroom and Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace sit next to each other on the third floor, which is a useful thing to know if you're traveling with a group that wants to be on the same landing rather than the same floor of a tower. On the building side there's a rooftop terrace with lounge chairs, a fitness center, a guest lounge and a laundry room. Breakfast isn't included, but there's coffee in the lounge, and the kitchen means you can do eggs on your own schedule instead of chasing a buffet. For location: the Fulton Center transit hub is a couple of blocks away and puts the A/C, J/Z, 2/3 and 4/5 lines within a short walk, Stone Street's restaurant block is about five minutes on foot, and the World Trade Center and the Oculus are roughly a ten-minute walk west. ## Who this kind of stay is right for Groups and families, first. Anyone staying a week or a month, second. Work trips where you need a table and a door you can close, third. If you're in for a fast two-night weekend and you want a bar downstairs, book a standard room and enjoy it. If you want to cook one dinner, run a wash, and give everyone their own room, this is the shape of stay you're looking for. Stay like a local, basically. Same city, less living out of a suitcase. --- ## Do You Need a Car in New York City? Not If You're Staying Downtown Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/do-you-need-a-car-in-new-york-city > No, you don't need a car in New York City, and downtown you'll be happier without one. From John Street you can walk to Wall Street in two blocks and to the ferry terminal in about five minutes, the subway runs all night, and PATH trains cross to New Jersey from the World Trade Center. A car mostly turns into a parking bill and a traffic problem. The exceptions are real but narrow: a day trip out of the city, a mobility need, or arriving with more luggage than you can carry. ## Short answer: no You don't need a car in New York City. Nobody we host downtown regrets skipping one, and plenty of people who brought one spend the week working out what to do with it. Manhattan is small, dense and built for walking, and the parts of it you came to see are the parts a car is worst at reaching. We're on John Street, in the Financial District. Wall Street is two blocks away. The ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk. From here, most of Lower Manhattan is a walk rather than a ride, and everything else is a train. ## What replaces the car Four things, in roughly the order you'll use them. **Your feet.** Downtown blocks are short and the street grid gives up entirely below Fulton Street, which sounds like a problem and isn't. Stone Street, the cobbled restaurant block, is a few minutes from our door. So is the Oculus. Walking is the default here, not the fallback. **The subway.** Fulton Center, the interchange a few blocks west of us, is one of the biggest transfer points in the system, and it runs 24 hours like the rest of the network. We wrote up exactly which lines you get and where the entrances are on our page about the closest subway station to 17 John Street. **The ferries.** The Staten Island Ferry is free, runs all day and night, and passes the Statue of Liberty on the way. NYC Ferry routes leave from Pier 11 at Wall Street, which is the fastest way to reach parts of Brooklyn and Queens without going underground. Both have their own pages on this site because guests ask about them constantly. **PATH.** If your trip involves New Jersey, PATH trains run from the World Trade Center station to Hoboken and Newark. That covers a lot of the "but I need to get to Jersey" cases people rent cars for. ## The trips where a car still makes sense We're not going to pretend it's never worth it. - **Leaving the city.** Upstate, the Hudson Valley, a beach, a wedding two hours out. Rent for those days only and return it. Renting for the whole stay to use it twice is the expensive mistake. - **Mobility needs.** If stairs, distance or a wheelchair change the calculation, a car or car service is the right answer and no amount of subway enthusiasm changes that. - **Arrival day with a lot of bags.** A car from the airport for the first trip, then no car after that, is a perfectly sensible split. We cover the routes from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark on a separate page. Notice what these have in common: they're specific days, not the whole trip. ## What a car costs you down here Mostly it costs you a garage. There's no meaningful free street parking in this part of Manhattan, so a car means an overnight garage rate every night you don't use it, plus the walk to and from wherever it's stored. Traffic downtown is slow at the times you'd want to drive and the streets around the World Trade Center change layout more often than a map can keep up with. If you're bringing one anyway, we put what we know about garages near us on our Financial District parking page rather than guessing at rates that change. ## A week here without one This is where staying somewhere with a kitchen changes the maths. Groceries come home in your hands from a few blocks away rather than in a car boot, which is fine when you're buying for two or three days at a time rather than a fortnight. Your suite has a full kitchen if you want to cook, and the laundry room means you're not driving anywhere for that either. The Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends, which is the other thing car-brained visitors don't expect. The office crowd goes home Friday evening and the streets empty out. Walking around here on a Sunday morning is one of the better things about staying downtown, and you can't do it from behind a windscreen. ## So what should you actually book No car. Get an OMNY-capable card or phone for the subway, learn the two or three lines nearest your block, and use the ferries when the weather is good because the harbor is worth seeing from the water. If a single day of your trip genuinely needs a car, rent it for that day. And if you land here with bags and a long flight behind you, take a car for that one ride. Make yourself at home, then walk everywhere after that. --- ## What the Financial District Is Really Like on Weekends Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/financial-district-on-weekends-what-its-like > The Financial District empties out on weekends once the offices close, so a Saturday down here is calm and easy to walk. You get quiet streets, short lines, and room to breathe, with the seaport, Battery Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Stone Street's restaurants all a short walk away. If you like a slower, more residential feel with the whole city still close by, weekends in FiDi are a good fit. The Financial District has a reputation for being all suits and rush hour, and on a weekday morning that's fair. But on weekends the neighborhood is a different place. The offices close, the crowds thin out, and you get quiet streets and short lines in an area that's still walking distance from a lot of the city. If you've only ever passed through FiDi on a Tuesday, a Saturday here will surprise you. ## Weekends are quiet, and that's the appeal The Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends. Once the workweek ends, the foot traffic drops off and the neighborhood feels almost residential. You can walk down streets that were packed on Friday afternoon and have room to move. For visitors that means fewer crowds at the big sights, easier tables at restaurants, and a calmer base to come home to after a day out. If you're the kind of traveler who likes to actually rest on a trip, this is a good part of town for it. ## Everything's walkable from here One of the best things about staying at 17 John Street is how much you can reach on foot. The South Street Seaport is a few minutes east toward the river, with the historic ships, the cobblestone streets, and the market. The Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway starts a short walk north, and crossing it in the morning before the crowds build is worth setting an alarm for. Head south and you're at Battery Park, with the harbor, the views out to the Statue of Liberty, and the ferries. One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial are a short walk west. ## Where to eat when the offices are closed Stone Street is your go-to for food down here. It's a short pedestrian-only block lined with restaurants and bars, and on a nice weekend the tables spill out onto the cobblestones. It's a couple of minutes' walk from us. Beyond Stone Street, the seaport has more options along the water, and you'll find plenty of coffee and casual spots scattered through the neighborhood. A few of the strictly lunch-crowd places do close on weekends, so it's worth checking hours, but the restaurant blocks stay open. ## Living here instead of just visiting Staying in FiDi on a weekend feels less like being a tourist and more like living in the neighborhood for a few days. Our suites are set up for that. You've got a full kitchen if you want to cook instead of eating out every meal, which is easy to do because there are grocery options nearby for stocking up. There's a guest lounge and a fitness center on the lower level, a laundry room if you're here long enough to need it, and a rooftop terrace that's a nice spot in the evening. It's the comfort of home with the service of a hotel, which is exactly what a slow weekend downtown calls for. ## A realistic weekend plan If you want a loose shape for a Saturday: start early with the Brooklyn Bridge before it fills up, wander back through the seaport for coffee and the ships, spend the middle of the day at Battery Park and the harbor, and end with dinner on Stone Street. Sunday you can slow it down even more. The whole point of a weekend down here is that you don't have to rush. If you're planning a weekend stay and want specifics on any of this, just ask us. We live here and we're happy to help. --- ## The Financial District on a Weekend: What's Open, What's Shut, and Why We Like It Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/financial-district-on-a-weekend-what-is-open > Plenty is open in the Financial District on weekends, but the mix flips. The things built for office workers (weekday lunch counters, salad shops, some coffee windows on the side streets around Wall Street) close or cut hours on Saturday and Sunday, while everything built for visitors keeps running seven days: the 9/11 Memorial plaza, the Staten Island and NYC ferries at Whitehall and Pier 11, Battery Park, the Seaport, Stone Street's restaurants, Brookfield Place and the shops under the Oculus. The upside is space. Sunday morning downtown is the emptiest, best-walking part of Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Bridge before 8am is a different bridge entirely. ## Short answer: the visitor side is open, the office side isn't Plenty is open in the Financial District on a weekend. What changes is which half of the neighborhood is awake. FiDi runs on two economies. One serves the people who work in the towers Monday to Friday: the salad counters, the 11am coffee windows, the delis on the narrow streets around Wall and Pine. A lot of that shuts on Saturday and Sunday, or opens late and closes early. The other economy serves everyone else, and it doesn't care what day it is: the 9/11 Memorial plaza, the ferries, Battery Park, the Seaport, Stone Street's restaurants, Brookfield Place, the shops under the Oculus. So the honest version is this. If you walk out onto Pine Street at 9am on a Sunday looking for an egg sandwich, you may be disappointed. Walk four blocks in almost any direction and you're fine. ## What actually closes - Weekday lunch spots on the side streets between Wall Street and Maiden Lane. Many are Monday to Friday only. - Some coffee counters inside office lobbies, which are closed to the public entirely on weekends. - Bank branches, notaries, print shops, the boring-but-useful stuff. Sort that on a Friday. - The trading floors, obviously. The New York Stock Exchange doesn't trade on weekends, so if you came for the bell, there's nothing to hear. ## What's open all weekend - **The waterfront.** Battery Park, the Battery Park City esplanade, and the walk north along the East River from the Seaport are all just public space. Always open, and nicest on a Saturday morning. - **The ferries.** The Staten Island Ferry runs from Whitehall around the clock and it's free. NYC Ferry routes leave from Pier 11 at Wall Street, about a 7-minute walk from John Street. - **The 9/11 Memorial plaza and the museum.** The plaza with the two pools is open daily. Book museum tickets ahead for a weekend slot. - **Stone Street.** The cobblestone block is a Saturday-night neighborhood, not just an after-work one. Sunday it's calmer. - **The Seaport.** Pier 17, the Tin Building, the cobblestones on Front Street. This is where downtown's weekend crowd actually goes. - **Brookfield Place and the Oculus.** Two indoor options with food and shops, both open seven days, both useful when the weather turns. ## Sunday morning is the best thing about staying down here This is the part nobody puts in a guidebook. On a Sunday before about 9am, the Financial District is as quiet as Manhattan gets. Streets that are shoulder-to-shoulder at Tuesday lunchtime are empty. You can stand at Broad and Wall with nobody in your photo. You can walk the whole length of Stone Street and hear your own footsteps. Use it: - **Walk the Brooklyn Bridge early.** The Manhattan entrance is about a 10-minute walk from John Street. Before 8am you'll share the pedestrian path with runners and a handful of photographers instead of a slow-moving crowd. By 11am on a Saturday it's a queue. - **Do Wall Street on foot.** Trinity Church, Federal Hall, the Charging Bull. All outdoor, all free, all much better without the weekday foot traffic. - **Run or ride the waterfront.** The Hudson River Greenway on the west side and the East River path both start within a few blocks and stay open. By about 11am the day-trippers arrive at the Memorial and the Seaport and it fills back in. The quiet window is real, but it's a window. ## Eating on a Saturday or Sunday Go where the restaurants are, not where the offices are. Stone Street, the Seaport, and Brookfield Place all run full weekend service. So does most of Tribeca, about a 12-minute walk north, if you want something less obviously downtown. For breakfast, the neighborhood coffee shops that serve residents (rather than office lobbies) do open on weekends, they just start later. Assume 8am rather than 6:30am and you won't be standing outside a locked door. And if you're staying with us: your suite has a full kitchen. A Saturday grocery run means you're not negotiating with a Sunday brunch line at all. That's genuinely how a lot of our longer-stay guests do weekends. ## Is it a bad neighborhood to stay in on a weekend? No, and this is the thing people get wrong about FiDi. The "it's dead on weekends" line dates from a time when almost nobody lived here. Tens of thousands of people do now, so there's a resident weekend rhythm: dogs on the esplanade, strollers in Battery Park, a line for pastries somewhere on Front Street. What you get is a quieter base with a working subway hub underneath it. Fulton Street puts the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J and Z in one station a few minutes from John Street, and the E and the PATH are at the World Trade Center. You can be in Midtown in about 20 minutes when you want noise, and back somewhere calm when you don't. That trade is the whole argument for staying down here on a weekend, and we think it's a good one. --- ## Where a Group of Nine Can Stay Together in Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/group-of-nine-two-suites-side-by-side-fidi > A group of nine can stay together in Lower Manhattan by booking two suites side by side at 17 John Street. Our Signature 3-Bedroom with Private Terrace and Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace sit on the 3rd floor right next to each other, and we price by the suite rather than per guest, so a big family pays the room rate and not a headcount. Both suites have a full kitchen, pack n plays are free on request, and a mid-stay clean is $100 if you're here a while. Wall Street is two blocks away and the ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk. Nine people in New York usually means four or five hotel rooms on three different floors, a lobby as your only meeting point, and a per-person surcharge you didn't see coming. That's the problem we get asked about most by big families, and there's a simpler way to do it down here. ## Two suites next door to each other, not scattered across the building The way groups stay here is two suites side by side. Our Signature 3-Bedroom with Private Terrace and our Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace are both on the 3rd floor, right next to each other. That's the whole trick. Grandparents in one, the family with the baby in the other, and nobody has to ride an elevator in socks to say goodnight. What we won't do is guess your sleeping math on a web page. Occupancy depends on the layout of each suite, so tell us your dates and exactly who's coming (adults, kids, and anyone under two) and we'll confirm which pair of suites works before you pay for anything. ## You pay for the suite, not per head We don't charge per guest. We sell the room. So the rate you see for a suite is the rate whether there are two of you in it or the full group, as long as everyone fits the suite's occupancy. For a group of nine that's usually the single biggest difference in the final number compared with booking a stack of standard rooms. Headcount shifts happen, especially at Thanksgiving. If a cousin joins after you've booked, we can add an adult and a couple of children to an existing reservation, as long as everyone knows the room layout and it still fits. Message us rather than rebooking from scratch. ## The kitchens are what make a group trip survivable Each suite has a full kitchen if you want to cook. That matters more with nine people than with two. Nobody wants to march a group of nine out for breakfast at 8am, and you really don't want the check for that either. Coffee and eggs in the suite, everyone eats on their own schedule, then you go out for the one dinner that's actually worth going out for. If you're doing a holiday meal, do a proper grocery run on day one. We keep a list of where we actually shop nearby, from the small markets to the bigger stores, and it's worth reading before you order delivery for a crowd. ## Shared space for when nine people need to be somewhere other than the suite Big groups need somewhere to spill out to. The gym and the guest lounge are on the lower level. There's a laundry room in the building, which sounds boring until day four with kids. The rooftop terrace is a nice spot in the evening once the little ones are down. There's a restaurant in the building, and a conference room if one of you has to take a work call in peace instead of from the edge of a bed. The front desk is staffed 24/7, so late arrivals and the inevitable 11pm question aren't a problem. ## Housekeeping on a longer group stay If you're here four or five nights with a crowd, add a mid-stay clean. It's $100 and it resets the whole suite about halfway through, which is roughly when a group stay starts to look lived in. Ask us when you book so we can slot it into a day you're out. Pack n plays are free. Just tell us you need one and we'll have it set up before you arrive, so you're not assembling anything at 10pm with a tired baby on your hip. ## What's around when the group wants out Wall Street is two blocks away, so the standard Lower Manhattan walk (Charging Bull, Trinity Church, the water) starts at the front door. Stone Street has good restaurants and it's the easiest place down here to feed nine people at long tables outside. The ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk, which is how you do the harbor without a car or a tour bus. One thing groups usually don't expect: the Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends. The office crowd goes home Friday evening and the streets belong to whoever's still here. With nine people, that quiet is a feature. You can walk six abreast up John Street on a Saturday morning and not bother anyone. ## How to book two suites for a group Send us the dates and the real headcount, including ages of the kids, and tell us if you need a crib and a mid-stay clean. We'll come back with the total for the pair of suites so you can share one number with the group instead of forwarding five confirmations. If you want written confirmation of what's included before anyone pays, ask. We'd rather put it in writing than have you find out at check-in. Space to live in the city, with everyone under one roof. That's the point of doing it this way. --- ## Lower Manhattan in the Fall: The Financial District's Best Season Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/lower-manhattan-in-the-fall-from-17-john > Fall is the best season to be in Lower Manhattan. The summer humidity lifts, the harbor walks along Battery Park and the seaport get crisp and clear, and the Financial District stays quiet on weekends once the office crowds head home. From 17 John Street you can walk to the water, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Stone Street's restaurants in minutes, and a suite with a kitchen means you can cook after a long day out. ## Fall is the best time to stay in the Financial District If you get to pick when you come, pick fall. September through early November is when Lower Manhattan is at its easiest. The summer heat and humidity break, the harbor breeze turns crisp instead of muggy, and the light gets that low golden angle in the late afternoon. You can actually walk for an hour without wilting, which changes what a day down here looks like. The Financial District has a rhythm most visitors don't expect. It's a working office neighborhood Monday through Friday, then it empties out on weekends. In fall that emptiness is a gift. Saturday mornings on the harbor promenade are close to silent, and the narrow old streets around Stone Street feel like they belong to whoever showed up. ## What the weather actually feels like Expect daytime highs in the 60s to low 70s in September, cooling into the 50s and 60s through October, and into jacket weather by November. The water on three sides means it can feel a few degrees cooler and breezier right at the harbor edge than it does inland, so bring a layer if you're headed to Battery Park or the seaport. Rain comes through now and then, but long stretches of clear, dry days are common. ## Walks that are better in the cool The whole appeal of staying at 17 John in fall is that the good stuff is on foot. - **The harbor promenade to Battery Park.** About 12 to 15 minutes down to the tip of the island, past Bowling Green and the Charging Bull, with open harbor views the whole way. Do it early on a weekend and you'll have room to breathe. - **The Brooklyn Bridge.** The walk up to and over the bridge is one of the best things you can do in the city, and fall is the season for it. The pedestrian path is a short walk north from the hotel, and the crossing is far more pleasant without August heat radiating off the deck. - **South Street Seaport.** A few blocks east at the water. The cobblestone streets and the tall ships are an easy, flat stroll, and the fall evenings are good for sitting out by the river. - **Stone Street.** Two short blocks of car-free cobblestone lined with restaurants and bars. Fall is when the outdoor tables are comfortable again, and dinner there feels like a night out without a cab. ## Why a kitchen matters more in fall When the weather's good you end up outside all day, and the last thing you want after a long walk is to hunt for a dinner reservation. Every suite at 17 John has a full kitchen, so you can pick up groceries, cook something simple, and eat in with the windows open. It's the difference between a hotel room and having your own place for a while. On the mornings you'd rather not go out at all, you make your own coffee and take your time. ## Getting around when you don't feel like walking Even in good weather, some days you'll want to cover more ground. The subway lines at Fulton Street and Wall Street are a few minutes away, and the ferry docks at the seaport connect you up the East River and over to Brooklyn. A car isn't much use down here, and there's no parking at the hotel, so most guests get around on foot, by train, or by boat. Fall is the season that makes all three genuinely pleasant. ## The short version Come in fall if you can. The neighborhood is quieter, the walks are better, and having a kitchen and room to spread out at the end of a long day out is exactly what the season calls for. --- ## Hotels Near the Financial District, NYC: How to Pick the Right One Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/hotels-near-financial-district-nyc > If you're comparing hotels near the Financial District in NYC, the block matters more than the star rating. FiDi is small, about 25 minutes to walk end to end, so a hotel around Fulton and John Street puts you a few minutes from Wall Street, the Seaport, the 9/11 Memorial and the ferries at Pier 11. We're at 17 John Street, and our suites are apartment-style with full kitchens, plus a rooftop terrace, a gym, a guest lounge and a laundry room in the building. Booking a hotel near the Financial District is mostly a question of which block you land on. The neighborhood is small. You can walk it end to end in about 25 minutes, and almost everything people come downtown for sits inside that walk: Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center, the Charging Bull, South Street Seaport, Battery Park and the ferry piers. Get the block right and you'll barely touch the subway. Get it wrong and you'll spend your trip walking back and forth past the same construction shed. Here's how we'd think about it, written from 17 John Street, which is roughly in the middle of all of it. ## What "near the Financial District" actually means on a booking site It means less than you'd hope. Aggregators stretch the FiDi label north into Tribeca, west into Battery Park City and sometimes across the river into Brooklyn. A listing can say Financial District and still be a 20-minute walk from Wall Street. So ignore the neighborhood tag and read the street address. FiDi runs roughly from Chambers Street down to Battery Park, river to river. Within that, the middle of the neighborhood is the Fulton Street and John Street corridor. That's the part where the subway lines converge and where you're within about ten minutes of both rivers. ## Pick your block based on why you're here **Here for work on or near Wall Street.** Stay north of it, not on it. Wall Street itself is narrow, shaded and mostly offices, and it empties out after 6pm. From John Street you're two blocks away, which is close enough for a 9am meeting and far enough to find dinner afterward. **Here to see the 9/11 Memorial, One World Trade and the Oculus.** Anywhere in central FiDi works. From John Street it's about a ten-minute walk west. The Oculus is also a shortcut when it rains, since you can cut through it toward Brookfield Place without going outside. **Here for the water.** Pier 11 at Wall Street, the Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall and the Seaport are all on the east and south edges. Staying inland by a few blocks costs you nothing in walk time and usually gets you a quieter room. **Here to eat and drink.** Stone Street is the block to know. It's cobblestone, closed to cars, and the restaurants put tables down the middle of it in warm weather. It's a five-minute walk from us and it's where we send guests who want a night out without leaving downtown. ## Look at the room, not the lobby Downtown hotel rooms skew small, because most of these buildings were offices first. If you're staying more than two nights, or you're traveling with family, square footage will matter more than anything in the lobby. That's the reason we're set up the way we are. Every suite at 17 John is apartment-style with a full kitchen, so you can do breakfast at home, keep milk in the fridge and skip one restaurant meal a day. There's a laundry room in the building, which matters on a long stay. There's a fitness center and a guest lounge on the lower level, a conference room if you're working, and a rooftop terrace that's a good spot in the evening once the offices clear out. A few specifics worth knowing before you book: - We don't have connecting rooms. For larger groups we have 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom suites instead, which is usually the better answer anyway since you share a kitchen and living room. - A couple of our suites have their own private terrace. The Signature 3-Bedroom with Private Terrace and the Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace are both on the 3rd floor, right next to each other. - Breakfast isn't included. There's coffee in the lounge, and your kitchen is right there. ## Getting around from this part of FiDi The short version: you probably won't need a car, and you may not need many subway rides either. The Fulton Street station complex is a few minutes from our door and it's one of the better-connected stations in the city, which is the real argument for staying in central FiDi rather than on the edge of it. Pier 11 at Wall Street, for the NYC Ferry boats to Brooklyn and Queens, is about a ten-minute walk east. The Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian entrance is about ten minutes northeast, so DUMBO is a walk rather than a trip. Parking downtown is garage-only and expensive, so if you're driving in, budget for it. ## What FiDi is like at the hours you'll actually be here Quiet, which surprises people. The neighborhood runs on office hours, so the crowds are 8am to 7pm on weekdays and thin out fast after that. Weekends are the calmest version of Manhattan you'll find below 14th Street: you can get a table, the sidewalks are open, and the Seaport and the waterfront are ten minutes away on foot. If you want noise and late-night options at your doorstep, this isn't the neighborhood. If you want to sleep, cook, and be able to walk to most of what you came to see, it's hard to beat. ## Questions to ask before you book anywhere down here 1. What's the street address, and how many minutes is it from the nearest subway entrance? 2. Is the rate per suite or per person? Extra-guest charges are where downtown quotes usually go sideways. 3. Is there a kitchen, and is it a real one with a full-size fridge and a range, or a microwave and a kettle? 4. Is there laundry in the building, or are you doing a drop-off service on Nassau Street? 5. Which floor and which side of the building? Downtown is a canyon, and the lower floors on a narrow street get less light. Ask us any of those directly if you're weighing us against somewhere else. We'll give you the real answer, including when the answer is no. --- ## Where to Stay in NYC If You're a Light Sleeper: Pick the Block First Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/quiet-place-to-stay-nyc-light-sleeper > If you're a light sleeper, choose the neighborhood before you choose the room: in New York the block you sleep on decides more than the building does. The Financial District is the quietest part of Manhattan after dark, because it's an office district that empties out in the evening and stays quiet through the weekend. We're at 17 John Street, two blocks off the one loud lane down here (Stone Street, where the bar patios are), and our suites are apartments with kitchens rather than rooms off a corridor. Tell us you're a light sleeper when you book and mention it again at the desk. ## Start with the neighborhood, not the room The block decides it. You can request a high floor and a back-facing room anywhere in New York, and it helps, but nothing you ask for at check-in undoes a street with three bars, a club queue and a taxi rank on it. So pick the part of town that goes quiet at night, then worry about the room. We get asked about this constantly, most nights of the week in fact, usually in the same words: we're light sleepers, where should we stay. Here's our honest read on downtown, including the parts we'd steer you away from. ## The Financial District is the quietest part of Manhattan after dark That's the whole case for staying down here. This is an office district first, so the crowds run in the opposite direction to yours: heavy at 8am, gone by 7pm, and thin all weekend. People who live in FiDi describe it the same way, quiet at night and on the weekends, and it is the most common complaint about the neighborhood from people who wanted nightlife. If you want sleep, that complaint is the feature. We're at 17 John Street, which is a narrow side street rather than an avenue. The Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends, and John Street is quiet most nights by about nine. ## The one loud block down here, and how far it is Stone Street. It's a cobblestone lane about two blocks south of us, lined with restaurant patios, and from spring through fall it fills with after-work crowds and stays full. It's genuinely good and we send guests there for dinner all the time. It is also the one address in the Financial District we would not want to sleep directly above in July. The other place to think about is the Fulton Street and South Street Seaport stretch east of us, which draws visitors in the evening in a way the rest of the district doesn't. Not loud like a nightlife district. Just not empty. ## Neighborhoods to think twice about if you're a light sleeper **Times Square and the blocks around it.** Theatre crowds, tour buses, sirens on Eighth Avenue, and no hour when the street is actually empty. It's the loudest choice in Manhattan and the most commonly regretted. **The Lower East Side and Meatpacking.** Both are bar-and-club districts, which means the noise arrives at 1am rather than 8pm, which is worse. Great for a night out, hard for a 6am flight. **Directly around Penn Station and the Port Authority.** Transit hubs run all night. So does everything that serves them. Midtown East and the Upper East Side are calmer, and a good answer if you need to be uptown. Down here is calmer still. ## What actually helps once you're inside A suite with a living room helps, because there's a room between your bed and the corridor. Ours are laid out like apartments rather than hotel rooms, and your suite has a full kitchen if you want to cook, which also means you're not ordering delivery to your door at 10pm. Temperature is the other thing light sleepers get caught out by. There's no remote for the air conditioning in our suites; you set it on a wall thermostat, so set it before you get into bed rather than fumbling for a handset at 2am. And bring the boring kit. Earplugs and a sleep mask weigh nothing, and no hotel in this city can promise you a silent street. ## What we can and can't tell you We won't claim our windows cancel New York. What we can tell you is where we are: a side street in the quietest district in Manhattan, two blocks off the loud block, in a building of apartment-style suites. If you're a light sleeper, say so when you book and say it again when you arrive. Let us know if you need anything for your stay. For a family, we don't have connecting rooms, but we do have two and three bedroom suites, which is usually the better answer anyway: everyone behind their own door, and nobody negotiating a shared wall with a stranger. If you need a pack n play, we have them free of charge and we'll set it up before you get in. ## A quiet weekend down here, if you want one Saturday morning in the Financial District is close to empty, and it's the best time to walk it. Battery Park, at the southern tip of the island, is about a 15-minute walk south of us and the closest real green space, with harbor air and benches facing the water. The Staten Island Ferry leaves from Whitehall Terminal near there, it's free, and the round trip takes about an hour with the Statue of Liberty on your right going out. Neither of those involves a crowd before 10am, which is the only trick to enjoying this city on light sleep. --- ## Staying a While in NYC: Laundry, Kitchens, and the Stuff That Actually Matters After Week One Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/nyc-hotel-laundry-long-stay-financial-district > If you're booking a long stay in NYC, laundry is the thing that decides whether week three feels normal or miserable. Look for a property with an on-site laundry room rather than a hotel that charges per shirt, a suite with a real kitchen so you're not eating out fourteen times a week, and a front desk that will take deliveries. At 17 John in the Financial District we have a laundry room on site plus laundry service if you'd rather hand it off, kitchens in the suites, a 24/7 front desk that accepts packages, and free luggage storage. Housekeeping isn't daily here; it's available for a fee when you want it. ## The short version On a long stay in New York, laundry is the amenity that decides everything else. A three-night trip, you pack for. A three-week stay, you don't. Either the building has a washer and dryer you can use, or you're paying a hotel $9 a shirt, or you're carrying a duffel bag to a wash-and-fold on Fulton Street every Sunday. We have a laundry room here at 17 John, plus laundry service if you'd rather not deal with it yourself, and it comes up in more guest conversations than the view does. So here's the honest checklist we'd use if we were the ones booking a month in Manhattan, plus what the answers are at our place. ## 1. Laundry: on site, or a walk away? Ask whether the laundry is in the building and whether guests can use it themselves. Those are two different questions, and plenty of listings blur them. "Laundry service available" often means a bag, a price list, and a two-day turnaround. That's fine occasionally and expensive weekly. At 17 John we have a laundry room in the building with washers and dryers, and we also offer laundry service when you'd rather hand it off. On a stay longer than about ten days, being able to run a load on a Tuesday night without planning around it is the difference between living here and camping here. ## 2. A kitchen you'd actually cook in A microwave and a bar fridge is not a kitchen. Our suites have full kitchens, which on a long stay means you can do the boring meals at home (breakfast, the sad Wednesday dinner, coffee that isn't $6) and save the going-out budget for the meals you want. It also means you're not spending $70 a day per person on food you didn't choose. If you're weighing this against a regular hotel room, the kitchen is usually where the math flips. We wrote up the month-long comparison separately. ## 3. Housekeeping: how often, and what does it cost? This one surprises people. Daily housekeeping isn't included here. It can be arranged for an additional fee if you want it, and if you do, tell us in advance rather than the morning of. That setup is normal for apartment-style stays and it's worth understanding before you book anywhere. Some long-stay properties clean weekly, some clean on request, some charge per visit. Ask the question directly, and ask what a cleaning includes. Fresh towels are a separate thing at most places, ours included: just tell the front desk or housekeeping when you need more and we'll replenish them. ## 4. Can they take your packages? If you're here for a month, something is getting delivered. A charger, a jacket you didn't pack, groceries, a laptop stand. Ask whether the front desk accepts packages and where you pick them up. We accept package deliveries and you collect them from the front desk, which is staffed 24/7. That last part matters more than it sounds: a desk that's staffed around the clock means a late flight, a 6am airport run, and a Sunday delivery all work without a negotiation. ## 5. Groceries within walking distance A kitchen is only useful if buying food is easy. The Financial District is better for this than it used to be, and we keep a separate guide to where to shop near John Street so you're not carrying bags twenty blocks. Plan on doing one bigger shop when you arrive and topping up on the way home. ## 6. Space, and where you'll actually work Most long stays are work stays or family stays, and both need somewhere that isn't the bed. Our suites have room to spread out, which is the practical version of that promise: a table you can leave a laptop on, a separate bedroom so one person can sleep while the other takes a call. The gym and the lounge are on the lower level if you need to get out of the room without leaving the building. ## 7. The cancellation terms, read properly Long stays cost real money, so the refund rules matter. Ours are semi-strict: cancel 31 days or more before check-in for a 100% refund, with reduced refunds inside 30 days. Whatever property you're looking at, read that section before you read the room description. ## What a long stay in the Financial District is actually like Quiet at night and on weekends, which some people love and some people find eerie. Everything downtown is walkable. The subway lines here go everywhere, and the ferry terminal is a five-minute walk if you'd rather be on the water than under the street. You'll shop for groceries like a resident, do your laundry on a Sunday, and start having opinions about which coffee place on Fulton is better. That's the point of staying a while. If you're bringing a kid, pack n plays are free on request and cots are $75 a day. Ask us in advance and housekeeping will set it up in the suite before you get there. --- ## Getting Around From 17 John Street: Subway, Ferry, and Parking in FiDi Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/getting-around-from-17-john-street-fidi > 17 John Street sits a block from the Fulton Street subway hub, so you've got the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J and Z lines within a few minutes' walk, plus PATH and the R/W nearby. There's no parking at the building, but the closest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about a 3-minute walk. Wall Street is two blocks south, and the ferries at the seaport and Battery are both an easy walk. You don't need a car in the Financial District, and honestly you're better off without one. 17 John Street is right in the middle of Lower Manhattan's transit, so most of the city is a short subway ride away and a lot of the neighborhood is walkable from the front door. Here's the practical version of how to get around. ## The nearest subway is Fulton Street, about a block away The closest station is the Fulton Street complex, roughly a block north of us. It's one of the biggest hubs downtown, which means a lot of lines in one place: the 2 and 3, the 4 and 5, and the A, C, J and Z all stop there. That covers most of what you'll want. The 4 and 5 run express up the East Side, the 2 and 3 head up the West Side, and the A and C take you toward Brooklyn or up through Midtown. If you're heading to Penn Station or the Times Square area, the closest express trains get you most of the way fast. For the airports, you can pick up the A toward Howard Beach for the JFK AirTrain, or take the subway to connect to LaGuardia and Newark options. ## The R and W and PATH are close too A few minutes further west you'll find the R and W at Cortlandt Street and the PATH trains at the World Trade Center, which is useful if you're crossing over to Jersey City or Hoboken. The whole cluster of downtown stations sits within a short walk of each other, so if one line is delayed you usually have another option nearby. ## Wall Street is two blocks south Wall Street is about two blocks south of us, so if you're here for work in the area you can leave the building and walk to most of the offices around Wall, Broad, and Water Streets in a few minutes. The New York Stock Exchange, Federal Hall, and the bull statue are all in that same tight cluster. ## The ferry is a nice way to see the harbor If you want to be on the water, the NYC Ferry stops at Pier 11 on Wall Street, a short walk south and east toward the river, and the Staten Island Ferry runs free from the terminal at the bottom of Battery Park. Both are worth doing at least once for the harbor views. The Battery ferry area is roughly a 10 to 15 minute walk south through the neighborhood. ## Parking: there's a garage a few minutes away We don't have parking at the building, so if you're driving in, the nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about a 3-minute walk from us. You can also use the SpotHero app to compare rates and reserve a spot at other nearby garages before you arrive, which usually beats the drive-up price. Street parking in FiDi is tight and heavily regulated, so a garage is the realistic option. ## Walking is often the fastest downtown One thing that surprises first-time visitors: for a lot of trips down here, walking is faster than the train. The Financial District is compact and the streets are old and narrow, so places that look far on a map are often 10 minutes on foot. The Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian entrance, the South Street Seaport, and One World Trade Center are all walkable from John Street. On weekends the neighborhood is quiet, which makes walking around even easier. If you're not sure how to get somewhere specific during your stay, just ask us. We're happy to point you to the right train or tell you when it's faster to walk. --- ## Getting to Broadway From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/getting-to-broadway-from-17-john-street > From 17 John Street, the fastest way to Broadway is the 2 or 3 express train from Fulton Street, one block away, straight up the West Side to Times Square-42nd St in about 15 to 20 minutes. That drops you in the middle of the Theater District, where most Broadway houses sit between 41st and 54th Streets just off Times Square. Leave the building around 7pm for an 8pm curtain and you'll have time to spare. A guest asked us last week which Broadway shows were playing and how to get there from here. The shows change all the time, so we'll leave the picking to you. The getting there part is easy, and it's one of the nice things about staying down here: you're on a fast train line straight up the West Side. ## The fastest route: the 2 or 3 from Fulton Street Take the 2 or 3 express from Fulton Street to Times Square-42nd St. Fulton Street station is about a block from our front door, and the ride is roughly 15 to 20 minutes with no transfers. You come up right in the middle of the Theater District. Most Broadway houses sit between 41st and 54th Streets, a short walk from the station, so from platform to your seat you're usually looking at a five to ten minute walk on top of the ride. The 2 and 3 are the ones you want because they run express up Seventh Avenue and stop at Times Square. The 4 and 5, which also stop at Fulton, run up the East Side instead, so they're the wrong direction for the theaters. ## When to leave for an 8pm curtain Leave 17 John around 7pm for an 8pm show and you'll have plenty of margin. That's about 20 minutes on the train, ten minutes of walking and station time, and a comfortable buffer for the crowd at the theater door. Broadway houses seat a lot of people quickly but they hold the doors at curtain, so give yourself the cushion. If you're the type who likes to grab a drink first, leave closer to 6:30. Curtain times vary. Evening shows are usually 7pm or 8pm, and matinees typically run Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Check your specific ticket, because a few shows start at odd times. ## Getting back downtown after the show Getting home is the same trip in reverse: the 2 or 3 downtown from Times Square-42nd St back to Fulton Street. Trains run all night in New York, though they come less often late, so you might wait a bit longer on the platform after an evening show. If you'd rather not wait, a cab or a car from the Theater District down to the Financial District is a straight shot down the West Side Highway when traffic is light, which it usually is late at night. ## A few practical notes Buy a ticket ahead if you have your heart set on a specific show, especially on weekends. If you're flexible, the TKTS booth in Times Square sells same-day discount tickets, and the line moves faster than it looks. Bring a light layer even in summer; the theaters run their air conditioning cold. Weekends down here in the Financial District are quiet, which is part of the appeal. You get a calm walk to the train, an easy ride up to the noise and lights, and then a calm walk back to your own place at the end of the night. Room to spread out when you get home, too. --- ## Bringing a Small Team to the Financial District: Where You'll Actually Meet Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/meeting-room-team-trip-financial-district-nyc > If you're looking for a hotel with a meeting room in the Financial District, 17 John Street has a conference room on site, plus a guest lounge, a gym, laundry and a rooftop terrace, and suites with full kitchens and up to three bedrooms so a team can spread out instead of booking six separate rooms. Wall Street is two blocks away, Wi-Fi is included throughout the building and the front desk is staffed 24 hours, so you can ship materials ahead and pick them up whenever you land. Message us before you book if you want to hold the conference room for a specific day. ## The short answer Yes, there's a conference room at 17 John Street, and for most small teams that plus a two or three bedroom suite is the whole setup. You're two blocks from Wall Street, so if your meetings are downtown you're walking to them. We get a steady stream of teams of three to eight: an audit week, a product offsite, a founder doing investor meetings with two colleagues, a family business in town for a closing. What they all want turns out to be the same short list, so here's how it works. ## Book the conference room by asking, not by guessing The conference room is on site and it's for guests. It also gets spoken for, so if your week hinges on having it on a Tuesday morning, message us before you book the stay rather than after. We'd rather tell you straight away whether your day works than have you turn up assuming. For the smaller stuff, plenty of teams don't need it at all. A two or three bedroom suite has a living room and a dining table, and four people around a table with a laptop each is a functional working day. It's also free, which the conference room booking process is not something we'll pretend to price for you here. Ask us. ## Book one suite, not five rooms This is the part that changes a team trip. We don't have connecting rooms. What we have instead are two and three bedroom apartments, and the three bedrooms come with either two kings and a queen or two queens and a king. A room with one bed sleeps two, and a room with a bed and a sofa bed sleeps four. Cots are available for $75 a day and take one more. So a team of five or six fits in one apartment with a shared living room, a kitchen and more than one bathroom, instead of scattering across a corridor and meeting in a lobby. The shared space is where the actual work happens at 7pm when you're all still going. ## Ship your materials ahead We accept packages and you pick them up at the front desk. If you're bringing printed decks, samples, booth materials or a spare monitor, send it ahead instead of dragging it through an airport. The front desk is staffed 24/7, so it doesn't matter whether your flight lands at 10am or 1am. Bring a picture ID for check-in, a driver's licence or a passport. Check-in itself is self-service through a smart lock and we send instructions the day before, so nobody's waiting in line while the rest of the team goes to dinner. ## The kitchen is the sleeper feature for work weeks Every apartment has a full kitchen and we stock the basics: kitchenware, a coffee maker, towels, linens. Four days into a work trip, the ability to make coffee at 6am and eat something that isn't a room service club sandwich is worth more than most hotel amenities. If you're staying longer, some layouts have a washer and dryer in the apartment and there's a laundry room in the building, which means you can pack for four days and stay for ten. Housekeeping isn't daily by default. If you want it during your stay, tell us in advance and we'll arrange it for a fee. ## What's around you when the working day ends Wall Street is two blocks away. Stone Street, the cobbled restaurant block, is a short walk south and it's the default place teams end up for a group dinner, especially after work when it fills up. The ferry terminal at the bottom of the island is about five minutes on foot if someone wants to get out on the water before a morning flight. There's a gym and a guest lounge in the building, and a rooftop terrace with lounge chairs, which is a better place to take a call in September than any conference room. Weekends down here go quiet once the offices empty, so if your team is staying through a Saturday, expect a calm neighbourhood and an easy walk to the harbor, the Brooklyn Bridge and One World Trade Center. ## Practical odds and ends Wi-Fi is included throughout the property and you'll get the login at check-in. There's no dedicated parking; the nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about a three-minute walk, and most teams skip the car entirely. Smoking isn't permitted anywhere in the building. Check-in is after 4pm, check-out is by 11am, and late check-out to 1pm is $100 when it's available, which is worth knowing if your last meeting runs to noon. If you're weighing us against a standard hotel block for a longer stint, the maths usually comes down to whether your team benefits from a kitchen, laundry and a shared living room. For three nights, probably not. For a week or a month, it's not close. Message us with your dates and how many people, and we'll tell you which layout fits. --- ## Staying as a Group at 17 John: Multi-Bedroom Suites With a Kitchen and Laundry Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/group-family-stay-multi-bedroom-suite-fidi > If you're coming to Lower Manhattan as a group or family, 17 John's multi-bedroom suites give you separate bedrooms, a full kitchen, and in-unit laundry, so six people aren't tripping over each other in one room. You get a living room to gather in, a kitchen to cook real meals, free pack-n-plays if you've got little ones, and free luggage storage on either end of your stay. It's set up for longer visits where you actually want to live in the city, not just sleep there. ## Why a multi-bedroom suite works for a group A multi-bedroom suite means everyone gets their own room instead of splitting a group across two hotel rooms down the hall from each other. That's the whole point. You've got separate bedrooms, a shared living room to gather in at the end of the day, and a kitchen where you can actually cook. For a family of six or a group traveling together, that's the difference between a trip that feels cramped and one where people can spread out. We get a lot of guests booking longer stays this way, sometimes a week or ten days, and the setup is built for it. You're not living out of a suitcase in a single room. You've got room to stretch out. ## The kitchen is a real kitchen Every suite has a full kitchen, stocked with kitchenware and a coffee maker. That matters more than people expect. Feeding a group in Manhattan restaurants three times a day adds up fast, and with kids it's often easier to make breakfast in your own space than to get everyone out the door to a diner. You can do a grocery run, keep the fridge full, and cook when you feel like it. Cooking a couple of meals in also gives you a slower morning, which is worth a lot on a family trip. Wi-Fi is included throughout, so if someone in the group needs to log on for work while everyone else heads out, that works too. ## In-unit laundry for longer stays There's a laundry room at the property, which changes what you pack for a longer trip. If you're here a week or more, you don't need to bring ten days of clothes for six people. Do a load mid-stay and you're set. For families with kids this is the quiet thing that makes a long trip manageable. ## If you're traveling with little ones We have pack-n-plays available free of charge. Just let us know before you arrive and we'll have it set up in the room before you get there. No hauling a travel crib through the airport. ## Arriving and getting settled Check-in is self-service through a smart lock, and we send the door code and detailed instructions the day before you arrive. For a group that lands at odd hours, that's easier than lining up at a front desk. If you get in before your room is ready, we store luggage for free at the property, and the same goes for the day you check out. Drop the bags, go have one more day in the city, come back for them. Check-in is after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM. Late check-out until 1:00 PM is available for $100 when the room's free, which can help on a departure day with a big group and an afternoon flight. ## Space to actually live in the city The building has a guest lounge and a gym on the lower level, and a rooftop terrace that's a nice spot in the evening once the kids are down or the group wants to sit outside. The Financial District itself is quiet on weekends, which people don't always expect, so a group stay here tends to feel calmer than midtown. You're a short walk from the ferry terminals, Stone Street's restaurants, and the waterfront at Battery Park. If you're weighing a multi-bedroom suite against booking several separate rooms or a short-term rental, the pitch is simple: one space, everyone together, a kitchen and laundry, and someone to email if you need something. --- ## Suites With a Private Terrace in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/suites-with-private-terrace-financial-district-nyc > If you want a NYC hotel suite with a private terrace in the Financial District, 17 John has two: the Signature 3-Bedroom with Private Terrace and the Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace. Both sit on the 3rd floor, right next to each other, which is why families and groups often take the pair and treat the two terraces as one shared outdoor space. Each suite has a full kitchen, so the terrace tends to become where you actually eat. We sell by the room, not by the person, so bringing extra adults or kids doesn't change the rate. There's also a separate rooftop terrace in the building that any guest can use, and the front desk is staffed 24/7. Outdoor space is the thing people give up first when they book a room in Manhattan. You accept a window that doesn't open and you go find a park. It doesn't have to work that way down here. ## Which suites have a private terrace Two of them: the Signature 3-Bedroom with Private Terrace and the Deluxe 2-Bedroom with Private Terrace. Both are on the 3rd floor, and they're right next to each other. That last detail does more work than it sounds like. Groups who book both suites end up with two terraces side by side on the same floor, no elevator between the grandparents and the kids, and one long stretch of outdoor space to move between. It's the closest thing we have to renting a floor of an apartment building for a few nights. If you want to know which of the two terraces is bigger, ask us before you book rather than guessing from photos. We'd rather answer it straight than have you arrive with the wrong picture in your head. ## A private terrace and the rooftop are two different things Worth separating, because guests mix them up. The private terrace belongs to the suite: it's yours for the stay, you get to it from inside your own apartment, and nobody else is out there. The Rooftop Terrace is a shared space in the building that any guest can use, and it's a nice spot in the evening. Most people who book a terrace suite use both. The terrace is for coffee at 7am in a t-shirt. The rooftop is for after dinner. ## What you actually do with it Every suite here has a full kitchen, and that's what turns a terrace from a nice-to-have into the part of the stay you remember. You cook, you carry it fifteen feet, you eat outside. On a long stay that rhythm saves you a fortune and about an hour of restaurant waiting per day. A few things guests tend to use the outdoor space for: - Breakfast before anyone else in the group is dressed. - Working outside with a laptop when the weather cooperates. The Conference Room and The Guest Lounge are there when you need four walls and quiet instead. - Letting kids burn off energy without a trip down to street level. - Sitting out at the end of a walking day, which in this neighborhood is most days. September and October are the best stretch for it. Fall down here is dry, the harbor air keeps the evenings comfortable, and the Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends once the office crowd clears out, so you're not listening to traffic while you eat. ## Bringing a group: how the pricing works We sell the room, not the person. Adding an extra adult or a couple of kids to a booking doesn't change the rate, as long as you know the layout of the suite and how many people it sleeps. Children are welcome, and they don't get charged separately. You can also add people after you've booked. If your brother-in-law decides in September that he's coming for Thanksgiving after all, that's a message to us, not a rebooking. For bigger groups, the two adjoining 3rd floor terrace suites are usually the first thing we suggest, because they solve the two problems that break up group stays: everyone on one floor, and enough shared space that people aren't sitting on beds to have a conversation. ## Where these suites sit in the neighborhood We're at 17 John Street, in the Financial District. Wall Street is two blocks away. Stone Street, the cobblestone block with the good restaurants and the tables outside, is a short walk south. The ferry terminal is about five minutes on foot, which is how you get to the harbor boats without dealing with a subway at all. The practical version: you can spend a morning at the water, come back, put groceries away in your own kitchen, and be outside on your own terrace by lunch. That loop is the whole argument for staying down here instead of Midtown. ## Practical stuff before you book - The front desk is staffed 24/7, so a late flight isn't a problem. - A mid-stay clean is $100 if you want one during a longer stay. Plenty of guests on a week or more add it once. - The gym and the lounge are on the lower level. There's a laundry room in the building too, which matters more than people expect on a stay longer than four or five nights. - The terrace suites are the two rooms guests ask for by name, so on holiday weeks they go early. Thanksgiving and the back half of October book first. If you're weighing the 2-bedroom against the 3-bedroom, send us your dates and how many people you've got, and we'll tell you which one fits rather than selling you up a size. --- ## Apparthotel in NYC: What a Suite With a Kitchen Actually Changes Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/apparthotel-nyc-suite-with-a-kitchen > An apparthotel in NYC is a hotel where the room is laid out like an apartment: a full kitchen, a living room, a bedroom with a door that closes, plus the front desk and housekeeping you'd get anywhere else. The practical difference isn't the square footage on the floor plan, it's that you can make breakfast at 6am, do laundry mid-trip, and put kids to bed without everyone sitting in the dark. At 17John on John Street in the Financial District, we sell the suite rather than charging per person, and we run one, two and three bedroom layouts with kitchens. ## What an apparthotel actually is An apparthotel is a hotel where the room is laid out like an apartment: a full kitchen, a living room with a sofa, and a bedroom with a door that closes. You still get the hotel parts, a front desk, housekeeping, someone to call when the thermostat is confusing. The spelling moves around (apparthotel, apart-hotel, aparthotel, apartment hotel) and it all points at the same thing. That's the definition. What follows is the part the floor plans don't tell you: how a kitchen and a sofa change the shape of a week in New York. ## The first thing that changes is breakfast Breakfast is where most people feel the difference on day one. In a standard room, the day starts with a decision: pay for a hotel breakfast, or walk out and find something. With a kitchen you can put the kettle on in your pyjamas and let the kids eat cereal at 6:30 while you shower. We don't include breakfast at 17John. There's coffee in the lounge if you just need a cup before you go, and after that the Financial District has plenty of good options a few minutes' walk away. But most of our longer-stay guests end up buying eggs, milk and fruit on the first afternoon and eating in most mornings. It's cheaper and it's faster, and on a trip with small children it removes the worst hour of the day. ## You'll shop for groceries, which sounds boring and isn't Stocking a kitchen is the thing that makes a trip feel less like a trip. Buying bread on your first evening, keeping leftovers in a full-size fridge, cooking one real dinner in the middle of a week of restaurant meals. We keep a list of where to actually buy groceries down here, because the Financial District isn't laid out like a residential neighbourhood and the good options aren't always the obvious ones. If you're staying a week or more, this is the single biggest cost difference between an apparthotel and a regular room. Two meals a day out for a family of four adds up faster than the room rate does. ## Laundry, mid-trip Longer stays fall apart on laundry. Ten days in a standard room means either a suitcase of dirty clothes or a hotel laundry bill that quietly doubles your incidentals. We have a laundry room on site, which means you can pack for five days and stay for two weeks. Pack light, wash on day six. It's a small thing that changes what you bring. ## Room to work, and somewhere to sit that isn't the bed If you're here for work, the living room is the point. You can take a call at the table while someone else sleeps, spread papers out, and not spend your evening perched on the end of a mattress. We also have a conference room in the building if you need somewhere with a door for a longer meeting, plus a gym and a guest lounge on the lower level and a rooftop terrace with lounge chairs, which is a good place to end the day when the offices empty out. ## You pay by the suite, not by the head This is the part people ask us about most. We don't charge per guest. We sell the room, so a suite that sleeps five costs the same whether three people or five are in it, as long as everyone fits the layout. If you want to add an adult and two kids to a booking you already made, that's usually fine, we just need to know so we can match the party to a layout that actually works. For bigger groups we have two and three bedroom suites. A three bedroom handles a party of five comfortably, and a two bedroom with a sofa bed works for five too. We don't have connecting rooms, which surprises people, so if you're a group who wants to be near each other the answer isn't two rooms with a door between them, it's one suite with real bedrooms. If you'd rather have separate suites, we can book them together and we'll do our best to put you on the same floor as your check-in date gets closer. ## When an apparthotel isn't worth it Honest answer: if you're in town for two nights, eating out every meal, and back at the room only to sleep, a standard room does the job and you won't use the kitchen. The maths turns around somewhere around night four, or the moment there are more than two of you, or the moment someone in the group needs to keep working while everyone else is on holiday. ## Why the Financial District suits this kind of stay Downtown is quiet in the evenings and quieter on weekends, because most of the people here on a Tuesday go home on Friday. That's a drawback if you want a busy street outside your door at midnight and a real advantage if you're travelling with kids, working odd hours, or staying long enough that you'd like the neighbourhood to feel like a neighbourhood. You're walking distance from the Seaport, the 9/11 Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge, and the subway lines that run through Fulton Street get you almost anywhere in Manhattan without changing trains. Stay long enough with a kitchen and a laundry room and you stop thinking of it as a hotel stay. That's the whole idea. --- ## Where to Stay Near the Brooklyn Bridge: Pick an End of the Bridge First Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/where-to-stay-near-the-brooklyn-bridge-nyc > If you want to stay near the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC, decide which end you want to wake up on. The Manhattan entrance sits by City Hall, at the top of the Financial District, which means you can walk onto the bridge before the crowds and be back for breakfast; it also keeps you on the subway lines that run the length of Manhattan. The Brooklyn end, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, puts you next to the classic view of the bridge but adds a river crossing every time you want to be in Manhattan. We're at 17 John Street on the Manhattan side, about a ten minute walk from the bridge entrance. ## Short answer: stay on the Manhattan side unless the view is the whole point The Brooklyn Bridge has two ends and they give you two different trips. The Manhattan entrance is up by City Hall, at the northern edge of the Financial District. Staying down here means you're on the walkway in ten minutes, before the tour groups get organised, and you can be back with a coffee by the time most people are queuing for one. The Brooklyn end, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights, is where the postcard picture gets taken, and it's lovely, but every trip into Manhattan becomes a river crossing. If your list has the bridge on it once, stay in Manhattan. If your list is mostly Brooklyn, stay in Brooklyn. That's genuinely the whole decision. ## Where the bridge actually starts in Manhattan The pedestrian entrance is at the top of the Financial District, near City Hall. From John Street you walk north and west for about ten minutes and you're at the ramp. We've written the turn-by-turn version of that walk separately, because the first time you do it the entrance is easy to miss from street level. The useful part of that geography: the bridge, the Seaport, the 9/11 Memorial and the harbour ferries are all inside the same walkable square. You aren't choosing between them the way you would from Midtown, where each one is a subway ride and a decision. ## Walk it early. Really early. The walkway is shared between people and, depending where you are on it, cyclists moving faster than you'd like. By late morning in the warm months it's shoulder to shoulder and the photos are mostly of other people's shoulders. Go at 7am. The light is better, the harbour is quiet, and you get the cables to yourself for a stretch. This is the argument for staying near either end rather than commuting to the bridge. Being a ten minute walk away is what makes a 7am walk plausible instead of theoretical. From Midtown it means a subway ride before dawn, and most people simply don't do it. ## What else you get on the Manhattan end Staying at the FiDi end of the bridge means the rest of the day fills itself in. The Seaport is a few blocks east, with the piers and the cobbles. Battery Park and the free Staten Island Ferry are at the bottom of the island. The 9/11 Memorial and the Oculus are a short walk west. Stone Street, which is a block of restaurants with tables in the middle of the street, is about ten minutes south. And on weekends it's quiet down here, because the weekday crowd is office workers who go home on Friday. That's a real advantage if you're travelling with kids or you want to sleep. ## The Brooklyn side, honestly DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights are worth a morning. The Promenade view of Lower Manhattan is the best one there is, and the waterfront park under the bridge is a good place to let children run. If you stay over there you'll wake up to that view every day, and pay for it in travel time whenever your plans are in Manhattan. We walk guests over the bridge and back in a half day, which for most trips is the right amount of DUMBO. ## What a stay at 17 John looks like We're at 17 John Street, on the Manhattan side, about ten minutes from the bridge entrance. Our suites are laid out like apartments: a full kitchen, a living room, bedrooms with doors. We sell the suite rather than charging per person, so the price doesn't change with the size of your party as long as everyone fits the layout, and for bigger groups we have two and three bedroom suites (a three bedroom handles a party of five). There's no breakfast, but there's coffee in the lounge, and a kitchen if you'd rather eat before you walk. The gym and the guest lounge are on the lower level, there's a laundry room on site, and the rooftop terrace has lounge chairs, which is the right place to be at the end of a long walking day. ## A simple plan for bridge morning Up at 6:30. Coffee in the suite or in the lounge. Walk north to the entrance and out onto the bridge as the sun comes up. Cross into DUMBO, get breakfast there, then either walk back or take the ferry or the subway. You're home by lunch with the best hour of the day already behind you, and the rest of Lower Manhattan is still on foot from your door. --- ## Where to Stay Before a Cruise Out of New York Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/where-to-stay-before-a-cruise-new-york > New York ships sail from two places: the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at 72 Bowne Street in Red Hook, and the Manhattan Cruise Terminal at 711 12th Avenue on the West Side. Neither has a subway at its door, so where you stay the night before matters less than how easily a car can reach you on the morning. Downtown works for both: from our block on John Street the Brooklyn terminal is a short harbor crossing by car, and the Manhattan terminal is a straight run up the West Side. Pick a room with space to repack, and leave earlier than you think you need to. ## Start with which terminal you're sailing from New York has two, and they're nowhere near each other. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is at 72 Bowne Street in Red Hook, out on the Upper Bay, and it handles Cunard's Queen Mary 2 along with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean ships. The Manhattan Cruise Terminal is at 711 12th Avenue on the West Side, up in the 40s and 50s along the Hudson. Check your booking before you book a room, because the two are a full crossing of the harbor apart. The thing nobody tells you: neither terminal has a subway station at its door. The Manhattan terminal's own directions send you to Columbus Circle and then a walk south and west along 8th Avenue. The Brooklyn terminal wants you on the 2, 3, 4, 5, N or R to Borough Hall, then the B61 bus from Atlantic Avenue at Court Street, then four blocks on foot. Both are perfectly doable with a backpack. Neither is fun with two checked bags and a boarding window. So the real question isn't which terminal you're closest to. It's where a car can pick you up easily on the morning of. ## Why we think downtown works for both We're at 17 John Street, in the Financial District, and Lower Manhattan splits the difference. Red Hook is straight across the bottom of the harbor from here. The West Side terminal is a run up the highway with the traffic mostly going the other way at that hour. You are not crossing town in either direction at 10am, which is the thing that eats an hour and your nerves. There's a second argument for downtown that has nothing to do with the terminals. The day before a cruise is usually a half day, and this end of the island is the part of New York you can see on foot. The Staten Island Ferry runs free from Whitehall Terminal and gives you the Statue of Liberty from the water without a ticket. The Brooklyn Bridge walkway starts a few minutes from our door. If you only have an afternoon, you'll get more out of it here than out by either pier, where there's honestly not much around. ## What to look for in the room itself Pre-cruise nights have a particular shape: you arrive with everything you own, you repack, and you leave early. So the room matters more than usual. Space to open two suitcases at once is the first thing. Our suites are apartments rather than hotel rooms, with a full kitchen, which mainly means you can make coffee at 6am without waiting on anybody. We also have a laundry room on site, which is the argument for the night *after* a cruise as much as the night before. Ten days of laundry is easier to deal with before a flight home than after one. If you're travelling as a family or a group, we don't have connecting rooms. What we do have is two and three bedroom suites, which for a party of six or nine is the simpler answer anyway: one door, one kitchen, everyone in the same place when the car comes. ## Timing the morning Leave earlier than feels reasonable. Red Hook has one main road in and several thousand people using it at the same time on an embarkation morning. The West Side terminal has the West Side Highway, which behaves however it feels like behaving. A few practical notes we give guests: - Give a driver the street address, not the terminal name. 72 Bowne Street for Brooklyn, 711 12th Avenue for Manhattan. Red Hook in particular confuses GPS. - Cruise lines usually assign a boarding window. Showing up hours before it doesn't get you on the ship faster, but showing up after it can cost you. - If you're flying in the day before, that's the right call. There is no version of a same-day flight to a same-day sailing that doesn't involve worrying about it the whole way. ## The night after, too Disembarkation dumps you back at the pier at breakfast time with a flight that probably isn't until the evening. A room downtown for that last night, or even just somewhere to land, turns a bad day into a good one. That's the stay where the laundry room and the kitchen earn their keep. ## Know before you go We're a block from the Fulton Street station, which is on the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J and Z. That's your route to Borough Hall for the Brooklyn bus connection, and it's how you'd get to a Midtown show the night before without paying for a cab. --- ## Where to Run in Lower Manhattan: Routes From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/running-routes-lower-manhattan-financial-district > The best run from the Financial District is the waterfront loop: east to the South Street esplanade, south around Battery Park, then north up the Hudson River Greenway and back through the streets, which comes out around four miles with almost no traffic lights. For something shorter, the East River path from the Seaport down to Battery is roughly a mile and a quarter each way. For something longer, the Hudson greenway runs uninterrupted from Battery Park up the west side, so an out-and-back to Chelsea Piers puts you a bit past 10K. Early mornings down here are as empty as Manhattan gets. If you run, the Financial District is a better base than it looks on a map. The streets are narrow and crooked and full of scaffolding, which sounds bad, but you're never more than about seven minutes from open water in either direction, and the paths along both rivers are flat, continuous and mostly free of intersections. Add the fact that this neighborhood is genuinely empty before 8 a.m. on a weekend, and you get city running without the constant stopping. Here are the routes we actually give guests, starting from John Street. ## The short one: East River esplanade, Seaport to Battery Head east on John to Water Street, cut over to the waterfront at the Seaport, then turn right and run south. The South Street esplanade takes you under the FDR past Pier 15 and Pier 11, around the Battery Maritime Building, and into Battery Park at the tip of the island. It's roughly a mile and a quarter each way, so about two and a half miles out and back with the harbor on your left the whole way and the Brooklyn Bridge behind you. This is the route for a first morning or a shakeout. It's flat, it's obvious, and you can't get lost: the water is on one side and Manhattan is on the other. ## The good one: the full waterfront loop, about four miles Same start, but keep going. Run south along the East River to Battery Park, curve around the bottom of the island past the Statue of Liberty ferry docks, and pick up the Hudson River Greenway heading north. You'll pass Battery Park City, the ferry terminal at Brookfield Place, and the North Cove marina, then cut back east on Chambers or Vesey and run home through Tribeca and past the World Trade Center site. That's about four miles depending on where you turn inland, and it's the run that makes people understand the geography of Lower Manhattan better than any map. You've gone around the end of an island. Do it clockwise as described and the sun comes up over the East River behind you on the first half. ## The long one: north on the Hudson River Greenway The greenway is the reason serious runners stay downtown. It runs uninterrupted along the Hudson from Battery Park up the west side, no cars, no lights, water on your left. From Battery Park north to Chelsea Piers is roughly three miles, so from our door out and back lands you comfortably past 10K with change. Keep going and you can run to Riverside Park without crossing traffic, which is not something you can say about many cities. Wind is the variable. The Hudson side is exposed, and in January a north wind on the way up will change your pacing plans. Run north first while you're fresh and let it push you home. ## The bridge one: Brooklyn Bridge out and back The pedestrian and bike entrance is up by City Hall, about ten minutes' walk or a very short jog from John Street, and the bridge span itself runs a bit over a mile across. Out and back from here is roughly three miles with a gentle climb in the middle, which is as close to hills as this neighborhood gets. One rule: go early. By nine in the morning the promenade fills with people stopping for photos, and you'll spend more time dodging than running. Before seven it's mostly commuters and other runners and it's one of the best half hours of running in New York. ## The car-free one: Governors Island When the ferries are running, the island has a loop road around the perimeter of a little over two miles with no cars on it at all. The ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, which is about a fifteen-minute walk from us. This is a weekend-morning outing rather than a quick session, since you're on the ferry's schedule both ways, but for repeats or a flat steady effort with harbor views there's nothing else like it this close to downtown. ## Practical stuff Water: fountains along the esplanades run in warm months and get shut off in winter, so carry a bottle from November through March. Lights: the East River esplanade is well lit; parts of the greenway north of Battery Park City are dimmer. If you're out before dawn in winter, the East River side is the safer pick. Surface: nearly all of it is pavement. There's no soft-surface option down here, so if you're coming off an injury, plan accordingly. Bad weather: our fitness center is on the lower level, which is where we end up ourselves in February. There's also the laundry room, which after a week of running in the same two shirts is more useful than it sounds. ## If you're here for the marathon The Financial District is a practical marathon base, mostly because the official runner ferry to the Staten Island start leaves from Whitehall Terminal at the bottom of the island, which you can walk to from here. We've written that up separately with the race-morning logistics. --- ## Is the Financial District a Good Place to Stay in NYC? An Honest Answer Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/is-the-financial-district-a-good-place-to-stay-nyc > The Financial District is a good place to stay in NYC if you want more space for your money, quiet evenings, and one of the best-connected subway hubs in the city. Fulton Street station is about a block from 17 John Street with the A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 all in one complex, Wall Street is two blocks away, and the ferry terminal is a five-minute walk. The trade-off: FiDi is a working office neighborhood on weekdays and goes quiet at night, so if you want a busy street scene outside your door at 11pm, Midtown or the East Village suits you better. Yes, for most trips. The Financial District gives you more square footage for your money than almost anywhere else in Manhattan, it's quiet at night, and you can get on a train that goes basically anywhere in about two minutes on foot. The catch is that it's a working office neighborhood, so the street life runs on a weekday schedule. If you want noise and crowds outside your door at midnight, this isn't your neighborhood. Here's the real picture, from people who live and work on John Street. ## What the Financial District is actually like It's the oldest part of Manhattan, and it still reads that way. The streets are narrow and crooked, they don't follow the grid, and they're lined with a mix of 19th-century stone buildings and glass towers. Wall Street is two blocks from our front door. One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial are a short walk west, Battery Park and the harbor are south, and South Street Seaport is a few blocks east toward the water. The thing most first-timers don't expect is how compact it is. From 17 John Street you can walk to the Statue of Liberty ferry, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Oculus and the Seaport without ever getting on a train. That's rare in New York. ## The weekday and weekend split FiDi is busiest between about 8am and 6pm on weekdays, then it empties out. Office workers head home, the lunch spots close, and the streets get genuinely calm. Weekends are the quietest of all, which is either the best thing about staying here or the reason to stay somewhere else, depending on what you want out of a trip. We like it. You sleep well, you don't fight crowds getting your coffee, and the parts of Lower Manhattan people actually visit (the waterfront, the memorial, the bridge) are much more pleasant early on a Saturday than they are at 1pm on a Wednesday. ## Getting anywhere from here This is the strongest argument for the neighborhood. The Fulton Street station complex is about a block from 17 John Street, and it puts the A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines behind one set of turnstiles. The E and the PATH train to New Jersey are at the World Trade Center, a few minutes west. Midtown is roughly 15 to 20 minutes on the 4 or 5. Brooklyn is one stop across the river. The ferry terminal is a five-minute walk, which is the nicest way to get to Brooklyn or Queens in good weather. And if you're driving in, be aware there's no parking at the building. The nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about three minutes on foot, and the SpotHero app is worth checking for rates. ## Eating around here Stone Street is the block people mean when they say FiDi has good restaurants. It's cobblestone, closed to cars, and packed with tables outside in warm weather. The Seaport has added a lot in the last few years, and Tribeca is a 10-minute walk north if you want something more low-key. The honest caveat: some lunch-focused places near Wall Street keep office hours and close early or shut on Sundays. Check before you walk over. It's also why having a kitchen matters here more than in other neighborhoods, and why we point guests toward the grocery options a few blocks away. ## Who the Financial District suits - **Families and groups.** You get room to spread out, a kitchen, and a neighborhood where kids aren't dodging Midtown crowds. - **Work trips.** Wall Street is two blocks away and most downtown offices are walkable. - **Longer stays.** A month here feels like living in a neighborhood, not camping in a hotel room. - **Repeat visitors.** If you've done Times Square once, downtown is a better base. ## Who it doesn't suit If it's your first trip and you want to walk out of the lobby into the theater district, stay in Midtown. If you're here for nightlife that runs past 1am, the Lower East Side or Williamsburg makes more sense. FiDi is calm by design. ## What staying at 17 John is like We're an apartment-style building on John Street, so the suites have full kitchens and room to actually live. There's a fitness center, a guest lounge, a laundry room and a conference room in the building. Pack n plays are free if you're traveling with a baby, and we'll set one up before you arrive. Wi-Fi is included throughout. Check-in is after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM, and it's self-service through a smart lock, so we send you the instructions the day before you arrive. If you land early or have a late flight out, luggage storage in the lobby is free and available around the clock. Daily housekeeping isn't included, but we can arrange it for a fee if you let us know in advance. No pets, and the building is non-smoking throughout. ## The short version Stay in the Financial District if you want space, quiet, and a subway hub at the corner, and you're happy to walk or ride 15 minutes for a busier night out. Skip it if a loud street scene is the point of the trip. For most families, longer stays and second-or-third-visit travelers, it's the best-value neighborhood in Manhattan. --- ## Spending the Holidays in Lower Manhattan: A Family Stay at 17 John Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/holiday-family-stay-financial-district-nyc > For a family holiday trip to New York, 17 John in the Financial District gives you a suite with a full kitchen and separate bedrooms, so you can cook a holiday meal and put the kids to bed while the adults stay up. We keep pack-n-plays on hand free of charge, and downtown is quiet and walkable over the holidays, with the harbor, Battery Park, and the Seaport all a short walk away. ## Why a suite works better than a hotel room over the holidays If you're bringing the family to New York for the holidays, the thing that changes everything is having your own kitchen. A regular hotel room means every meal is out, which gets expensive and exhausting fast with kids in tow. At 17 John, every suite has a full kitchen, so you can do a proper breakfast before you head out, keep the fridge stocked with the stuff your kids actually eat, and even cook a holiday dinner in if you'd rather not fight for a restaurant table on the 25th. The other thing that helps: separate bedrooms. Our multi-bedroom suites give you real doors between the kids and the adults, so you can put everyone to bed at a reasonable hour and still have your own evening. The Signature 3-Bedroom and the Deluxe 2-Bedroom both come with a private terrace, and they're right next to each other on the 3rd floor, which is handy if you're traveling with grandparents or another family and want to be close without being on top of each other. ## Traveling with little ones We keep pack-n-plays on hand, free of charge. Just let us know before you arrive and we'll have it set up in the suite so you're not hauling one across the country. With the kitchen you've got a full-size fridge for bottles and leftovers, and counter space to actually prep. It's the difference between managing a hotel room and just living in your own place for a week. Holidays often mean a longer stay, and the suites are built for that. There's room to spread out, a laundry room on-site so you're not packing two weeks of clothes, and a guest lounge and gym on the lower level when you need a break from the suite. ## The Financial District over the holidays Here's something people don't expect: downtown gets quiet over the holidays. The Financial District empties out of office workers on weekends and through the last two weeks of December, so you get a calmer version of Manhattan than you'd find around Midtown and the big department stores. For a family that means fewer crowds, easier walking, and a neighborhood that feels more like a place people live than a tourist crush. You're also close to the water. Battery Park is a short walk south, where the kids can watch the boats and you can look out at the harbor. South Street Seaport is a few blocks east along the East River. And when you want the bigger holiday stuff uptown, you're right on top of the subway, so a trip to see the tree or the windows is a straight ride up and back. ## Getting around with a stroller Downtown is flat and walkable, which is exactly what you want with a stroller and tired legs. Most of what you'll want day to day is within a few blocks, and the wider streets near the water are easy to navigate. When you need to go further, the subway lines that meet in the Financial District will get you most places in the city without a transfer. ## What to know before you book Holiday dates book up, so it's worth reaching out early if you're looking at a specific stretch in late December. We sell the room, not the head, so adding an extra adult or a couple of kids to a suite doesn't change the price as long as everyone fits the layout. If you're not sure which suite fits your group, tell us how many adults and kids and we'll point you to the right one. --- ## Where to Watch the Sunset in Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/best-sunset-spots-lower-manhattan > The best sunset spot in Lower Manhattan is the western edge of Battery Park, where the sun drops behind New Jersey with the Statue of Liberty in silhouette, about a 15-minute walk from John Street. If you want a bench and a lawn instead of a crowd, keep going to Wagner Park on the Battery Park City esplanade. For the cheapest view in the city, take the free Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall Terminal about 40 minutes before sunset and watch it from the back deck. Lower Manhattan has one real advantage over the rest of the island when it comes to sunsets: you can walk to open water in every direction. Up in Midtown you're looking for a gap between buildings. Down here you just walk west for 15 minutes and the sky opens up over the harbor. We get asked about this most in the fall, when the sun sets early enough that you can watch it and still have dinner at a normal hour. Here's where we send people, in order of how far you have to walk from John Street. ## Battery Park, the western edge Start here. It's the classic view and it's about a 15-minute walk from our door: down Broadway to Bowling Green and keep going. The sun drops behind the New Jersey shoreline, the harbor goes orange, and the Statue of Liberty sits out there in silhouette. Stand on the promenade near the water rather than back in the park, and walk a little south toward the old Pier A building for the widest angle. It gets busy in summer. In October and November you'll often have long stretches of railing to yourself, and the light is better anyway. ## Wagner Park and the Battery Park City esplanade This is the one we actually prefer. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park sits just north of Battery Park on the Hudson side, about 20 minutes on foot, and it's a lawn with benches and a low terrace facing straight across the river. Fewer visitors, more locals with a bottle of wine and a dog. From there the esplanade runs north past the marina at North Cove, where the boats and the towers make a better photo than the sun does. Keep walking and you'll reach Rockefeller Park at the north end, which is the family option: big lawn, playground, room for kids to run while the adults watch the sky. ## Pier 25 in Tribeca If you want to be out over the water rather than beside it, walk 25 to 30 minutes north to Pier 25 in Hudson River Park. It's a long pier that sticks out into the Hudson, so the sunset is dead ahead and the city is behind you. There's mini golf and a playground on it, plus lawn chairs at the end. Combine it with dinner in Tribeca on the way back and it's a good evening. ## The Staten Island Ferry, for the price of nothing The best value sunset in New York is still the free ferry. Whitehall Terminal is about a 12-minute walk from John Street. Board roughly 40 minutes before sunset, go to the back of the boat on the way out, and you get the Statue of Liberty, the harbor, and the skyline lighting up behind you. Ride back on the next boat. The round trip runs a bit under an hour depending on the schedule, so check the departure times before you head down. One practical note: everyone has to get off at each end, so you can't stay on the same boat for the return. ## The east side, for a different kind of light Sunset doesn't only mean looking at the sun. Some of the best evening light down here lands on the buildings, not in the sky. Walk seven minutes east to the Seaport and stand on Pier 15 or Pier 17 with your back to the sunset: the Brooklyn Bridge and the Brooklyn waterfront go warm and gold for about 20 minutes, and the harbor traffic passes right in front of you. The Brooklyn Bridge walkway does the same thing with more people on it. If you're going to walk the bridge at golden hour, start from the Manhattan side about an hour before sunset and you'll be near the first tower when the light peaks. ## When the sun actually sets Rough guide for planning, give or take a few minutes: - Mid-August: around 8 PM - Late September: around 6:45 PM - Late October: just after 6 PM - November, after the clocks change: around 4:40 PM - December: around 4:30 PM The short December days are the reason winter sunsets are easy here. You can watch one at Battery Park and still be sitting down to dinner on Stone Street by 5:30. ## Making an evening of it The simple version: leave John Street about 45 minutes before sunset, walk down Broadway to Battery Park, follow the esplanade north into Battery Park City as the light goes, then cut back east through the World Trade Center campus. That's a loop of about an hour and a quarter, all flat, all lit, and it ends five minutes from home. If you'd rather not go out at all, most of our suites have a kitchen, so plenty of guests cook and eat late instead. The city's still there in the morning. --- ## Where to Stay Near South Street Seaport: Stay Inland, Walk to the Water Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/where-to-stay-near-south-street-seaport > There aren't many hotels in South Street Seaport itself, so the practical answer to where to stay near South Street Seaport is a few blocks inland in the Financial District, around Fulton and John Street. From there the Seaport is about a five-minute walk east, the Brooklyn Bridge is roughly ten minutes northeast, and you're away from the noise on Pier 17 concert nights. That's where we are, at 17 John Street, with apartment-style suites that have full kitchens. Short answer: stay a few blocks inland. The Seaport is a small waterfront pocket with very little lodging in it, so the realistic play is a hotel in the middle of the Financial District, around Fulton and John Street, and a five-minute walk east when you want the water. You get the Seaport without paying for the Seaport, and you sleep through the concert nights. We're at 17 John Street, which is that walk, so here's the honest version of how the area works. ## Where the Seaport actually starts and stops It's small. The Seaport is basically the blocks around the east end of Fulton Street where the cobblestones start, plus the piers on the other side of South Street. Pier 17 is the big rebuilt one with the rooftop that hosts summer shows. Pier 16 is where the historic tall ships tie up. Ten minutes of walking covers the whole thing. That's a feature, not a knock. It means you don't need to sleep on top of it. Anywhere between Nassau Street and the river puts you inside a five to eight minute walk. ## Why a few blocks inland is the better base **Noise.** Pier 17's roof is a concert venue. On show nights, sound carries over the water and along the low blocks near the river. Three or four streets inland it's a non-issue. **Crowds and prices.** The waterfront blocks fill up with day-trippers in good weather, and the restaurants there price accordingly. Walk two blocks west and you're in the part of downtown that feeds office workers, which means better value and shorter waits, especially at breakfast. **Everything else you came for.** From John Street you're also about two blocks from Wall Street, ten minutes from the 9/11 Memorial, ten minutes from the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian entrance, and five minutes from Stone Street for dinner. Staying pinned to the water trades all of that away for one view. **Weather.** The Seaport is exposed. Wind comes straight off the East River and it's noticeably colder there from November through March. Being inland gives you a warm-up walk rather than a cold wait. ## What to book, not just where If the Seaport is your anchor, you're probably here for a few days with family or friends, and that's where room type starts to matter more than address. Our suites are apartment-style with full kitchens, which changes the math on a Seaport trip: you can pick up food and cook rather than eating every meal on the waterfront. There's a laundry room in the building, a fitness center and guest lounge on the lower level, a conference room if you're working, and a rooftop terrace that's a good spot in the evening. A few practical notes from guests who ask us this every week: - We don't have connecting rooms. For bigger groups we have 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom suites, so you share a kitchen and living room instead of a door. - Two suites have their own private terrace, the Signature 3-Bedroom and the Deluxe 2-Bedroom, and both are on the 3rd floor next to each other. - Breakfast isn't included. There's coffee in the lounge and a kitchen in your suite, and there's no shortage of breakfast within a few blocks. ## A realistic day, staying inland Morning: coffee downstairs, then walk east on Fulton to the cobblestones before the crowds. The light on the bridge from the pier is best early. Midday: cut north along the water to the Brooklyn Bridge entrance and walk over to DUMBO, or stay put and do the ships at Pier 16. Afternoon: Pier 11 is ten minutes south of the Seaport if you'd rather take a boat somewhere. The East River Esplanade connects the two, so you never have to cross back inland. Evening: dinner on Stone Street, then the rooftop. The Financial District empties out after work, which is the thing people never expect. By 8pm it's one of the calmest walks in Manhattan. ## Is the Seaport a good area to stay in with kids? Yes, and the inland version is better. Kids want the ships, the open pier, the ice cream and the space to run, all of which are five minutes away. What they don't want is a small room at the end of it. A suite with a kitchen means early dinners, snacks in the fridge and a bedroom door that closes while the adults are still up. ## The one case for staying right on the water If you're here for two nights in June, you want a harbor view out the window, and you're going to a show on the Pier 17 roof anyway, then sure, book the waterfront and enjoy it. For everything longer than that, the few blocks inland pay for themselves in quiet, price and walk time to the rest of downtown. --- ## What an Extended Stay at 17 John Actually Feels Like Source: https://www.17john.com/blog/extended-stay-suite-financial-district-nyc > For an extended stay in the Financial District, a suite at 17 John is set up so you can actually live, not just sleep. Every suite has a full kitchen, so you can cook instead of eating out every night. There's a laundry room in the building, a fitness center and guest lounge on the lower level, and enough room to spread out and work. ## The short version An extended stay at 17 John is built around one idea: you should be able to live here, not just crash here. The suites are apartment-style, so you get a full kitchen, room to spread out, and the practical stuff that makes a two-week stay feel normal instead of like a long hotel booking. We're at 17 John Street in the Financial District, a couple of blocks from Wall Street. ## You can cook, which changes everything Every suite has a full kitchen. That's the single biggest difference between a longer stay here and a regular hotel room. You can make your own coffee in the morning, keep real food in the fridge, and cook dinner instead of ordering out for the tenth night in a row. Over a week or two that adds up, both for your wallet and for feeling like a person instead of a tourist. The kitchen comes stocked with the essentials: kitchenware, a coffee maker, and the basics you need to actually use it. ## Laundry without leaving the building There's a laundry room in the building, so you're not hauling a bag to a laundromat halfway through a long trip. This is one of those things nobody thinks about when they book and everybody's grateful for by day five. Pack lighter, wash as you go. ## Room to work, and a change of scenery when you need one The suites give you space to set up and work, not just a desk crammed in a corner. If you want a change of scenery, the guest lounge is on the lower level, and it's a decent spot to take a call or get out of the room for a bit. The fitness center is down there too, so you can keep a routine without buying a day pass somewhere. The Financial District is quieter than most of Manhattan once the workday ends, especially on weekends. For a longer stay, that's a feature. ## The neighborhood grows on you Staying a while means you start living the neighborhood instead of just visiting it. Wall Street is two blocks away. Stone Street, the old cobblestone strip lined with restaurants, is a short walk and a good default when you don't feel like cooking. Battery Park and the waterfront are close for a morning walk, and the ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk if you want to get out on the water. By the end of a longer stay most guests have their spots: the coffee place they like, the walk they do, the bench by the water. ## Is it right for you? A suite here makes the most sense if you're in town for work for a stretch, relocating and need a landing pad, or bringing family and want everyone to have room. If you just need a bed for one night, a standard room might be simpler. If you want to settle in, cook, do laundry, and have space to work, this is the setup for it. Space to live in the city, basically. Reach out and we'll help you sort out dates or which suite fits your stay. --- ## What to See at the World Trade Center Site: A Walk Around the Whole Campus Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/world-trade-center-campus-what-to-see > The World Trade Center site is a 16-acre campus, and the 9/11 Memorial takes up eight of those acres. Start at the twin memorial pools, which sit in the footprints of the North and South Towers and carry the names of the 2,983 people killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks on their bronze parapets. Then work outward: the Survivor Tree and the Glade on the plaza, Liberty Park raised above the south edge with the Koenig Sphere in it, the Oculus for the ceiling and the trains, One World Observatory if you want the height, and PAC NYC on the north side for a show. The plaza itself is free and open air. Give it two hours to walk, more if you're going inside anything. Most people come down here for one thing, see it in twenty minutes, and leave without realising the rest of the campus is right there. The World Trade Center complex covers 16 acres and the 9/11 Memorial takes up eight of them, so there's a whole second half of the site that never makes it onto anyone's list. We're on John Street, a short walk east of the campus, and this is the walk we describe to guests at the desk. It's laid out in the order that works on foot: pools first, then the plaza, then the edges, then whatever you want to go inside. The plaza is open air and free to walk through, so you can do the outdoor half of this on a first morning without booking anything. One thing worth saying before you go. The memorial is a burial place for a lot of families, and it reads that way when you're standing in it. People do talk quietly there, and we'd tell you the same thing we'd tell a friend: leave the phone in your pocket at the pools, at least for the first few minutes. ## Give it two hours, or half a day Two hours covers everything outdoors at an unhurried pace. Add ninety minutes for the museum and about an hour for One World Observatory, and you've filled a day. If you only have a morning, do the pools, the Survivor Tree and the Oculus, and come back another time for the rest. --- ## Things to Do in Lower Manhattan With Kids, a Short Walk From 17 John Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/things-to-do-lower-manhattan-with-kids-17-john > The Financial District is an easy base for a family trip because most of what kids like is within a short, flat walk: Battery Park and the harbor ferries to the south, the tall ships and open space at South Street Seaport to the east, and the Brooklyn Bridge in between. Staying in a suite with a full kitchen and free pack-n-plays means you can cook, keep nap schedules, and skip the restaurant-every-meal problem that wears families out. Traveling in Lower Manhattan with kids is easier than people expect, mostly because the distances are short and flat. From 17 John Street you can reach the harbor, the waterfront, and a lot of open space on foot, which means fewer subway meltdowns and more of the day spent actually doing things. It's also quiet down here on weekends once the office crowd clears out, which makes a real difference when you're managing little ones. We get a lot of families, so here's an honest run-down of what's worth your time nearby, plus a few practical notes on doing it with kids. A couple of things about the suite matter here too: every one has a full kitchen, so you can make breakfast and keep snacks on hand, and we keep pack-n-plays on hand free of charge if you let us know before you arrive. --- ## Things to Do in Battery Park: What's Actually Worth Your Time at the Bottom of Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/things-to-do-battery-park-nyc > Battery Park, officially The Battery, is the 25-acre park at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the five things worth your time there are the SeaGlass Carousel (tickets $6, or ten for $55), Castle Clinton National Monument, the 135,000 square feet of perennial gardens, the Battery Urban Farm, and the harbor esplanade where you get a free long view of the Statue of Liberty. It's also where the ferries leave: Statue Cruises boats to Liberty and Ellis Islands run from Castle Clinton, and the free Staten Island Ferry goes from the Whitehall terminal right next door. From our door on John Street it's about a twenty-minute walk south, or a few stops on the 4/5 from Fulton Street to Bowling Green. Battery Park is the piece of Lower Manhattan we send guests to when they've done the big-ticket stuff and want an hour outside without getting on a train. Its real name is The Battery, it runs 25 acres along the southern tip of the island at State Street and Battery Place, and it does more jobs than most parks: it's the ferry landing for Liberty and Ellis Islands, it's a working garden, and it's where you get the free long view across the harbor that people pay for elsewhere. It's about a twenty-minute walk south from us on John Street, straight down Broadway past Bowling Green, or a few stops on the 4/5 from Fulton Street if it's raining. Here's what we'd actually stop for, and what we'd skip. One practical note before you go: the park has three public restrooms, outside the View at Battery Park Restaurant, at Castle Clinton, and by the Battery Bikeway on Battery Place, and they run 9:00am to 4:30pm. Worth knowing if you're down there with kids late in the afternoon. --- ## Where to Buy Groceries Near 17 John Street in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/grocery-stores-near-financial-district-17-john > The closest full grocery store to 17 John Street is the Whole Foods at 270 Greenwich Street, about a 12-minute walk northwest. For a quicker run, there are smaller markets and delis within a couple of blocks along Fulton and Nassau Streets, plus a Trader Joe's a short walk south. Since every suite has a full kitchen, most guests staying more than a night or two do a real grocery shop and cook in. One of the real perks of staying somewhere with a full kitchen is that you don't have to eat out every meal. You can make coffee the way you like it, keep snacks for the kids, and cook a proper dinner after a long day of walking. But that only works if you know where to shop, and the Financial District isn't as obvious for groceries as, say, a residential block uptown. Here's where we send guests, with honest walk times from our door at 17 John Street. A quick note on how to think about it: for a big shop, you'll head to one of the two full-size stores about 10 to 15 minutes away. For a carton of milk or something you forgot, there's a market or deli within a block or two. We've split the list that way. --- ## Where to Get a Good Bagel in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/best-bagels-financial-district-nyc > For the best bagels in the Financial District, start with Apollo Bagels at 41 John Street, which is on our own block and opens at 7am with a line most weekend mornings. Leo's Bagels at 3 Hanover Square is the sit-down-and-read-the-paper option and stays open weekends. Liberty Bagels at 32 Broadway has the longest cream cheese list downtown and keeps later hours, until 6pm on weekdays. All three are a walk, not a subway ride, from John Street. We get asked about bagels more than almost anything else, and the honest answer is that the Financial District got very good at them in the last few years. You don't need to take a train to the Lower East Side. Three shops are worth your morning, and one of them is on our block. A note on timing before you go. Bagel shops down here run on office hours, which means they open early and several of them close in the mid-afternoon. If you want a bagel at 5pm on a Sunday you're going to be disappointed, so go in the morning. We keep coffee in the lounge if you want something before you head out the door. --- ## Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel: How to Visit Both in a Morning Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/trinity-church-st-pauls-chapel-visiting > You can see both Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel in about an hour and a half, on foot, for free. St. Paul's Chapel sits on Broadway between Fulton and Vesey, across from the World Trade Center site, and the chapel and its churchyard are open to the public 8:30am to 6pm. Trinity Church stands where Wall Street meets Broadway, about five minutes south; its churchyard, where Alexander Hamilton is buried near the southern fence, is open 8:30am to 4pm. From our door on John Street both are a walk of under ten minutes, and the earlier you go the emptier they are. Two churches sit within ten minutes of us, both older than almost everything around them, both free, and neither one needs a ticket or a time slot. Guests usually find them by accident on the way to somewhere else. They're worth an hour on purpose. The simplest way to do it is as a short line down Broadway. Start at St. Paul's Chapel, on Broadway between Fulton and Vesey, which is about a five-minute walk west of our door. Then keep going south on Broadway to Trinity Church, where Broadway meets Wall Street. The two are about five minutes apart. If you're already going to the 9/11 Memorial, St. Paul's is directly across from the site, so add it to that morning rather than making a separate trip. Go early. Both churchyards open at 8:30am, and between 8:30 and 10 you'll be sharing them with commuters cutting through rather than tour groups. By midday in the fall the Trinity churchyard gets busy with people looking for one particular grave. --- ## Where to Take Good Photos in Lower Manhattan (And What Time to Show Up) Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/photo-spots-lower-manhattan > The best photo spots in Lower Manhattan are the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian path at sunrise (about a 10-minute walk from John Street), the cobblestones on Front Street and Peck Slip at the Seaport with the bridge behind you, the Pier 17 rooftop for the skyline, the white ribs inside the Oculus around midday, Stone Street's narrow cobbled block, the Charging Bull and Fearless Girl before 8am, and the free Staten Island Ferry deck for the classic skyline-and-Statue shot. Timing matters more than gear down here: almost every one of these is transformed by getting there before the crowds, which in the Financial District means early morning on a weekend. Lower Manhattan is a good place to take pictures for one boring, practical reason: the sights are close together. You can shoot a suspension bridge, a cobblestone street, a modern transit hall and the harbor in a single morning without getting on a train. The catch is timing. Everything down here has two versions, the empty one and the crowded one, and the gap between them is about 90 minutes. The Financial District doesn't fill up until mid-morning, so the earlier you're out the door, the better everything on this list looks. We've listed these with walk times from John Street, which is where we are, and the hour we'd actually go. All of them are free. One honest note before you start: don't try to do all seven in one push. Pick three, walk them in order, get coffee. The list below runs roughly east to west, so it works as a route. --- ## Walking to Tribeca From 17 John Street: The Neighborhood Just North of FiDi Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/tribeca-near-17-john-street > Tribeca sits just north of the Financial District, about a 15-minute walk from 17 John Street up West Broadway or Church Street. It's the quieter, low-rise part of Lower Manhattan, known for cast-iron loft buildings, cobblestone side streets, and a dense run of restaurants along Greenwich Street and West Broadway. From 17 John you can walk there in well under 20 minutes, or take the 2/3 one stop to Chambers Street. Tribeca is the neighborhood right above us. If you're staying at 17 John Street and want a change of pace from the office towers of the Financial District, it's the easiest walk you'll make all trip: head north and in about 15 minutes the streets get lower, quieter, and more residential. The name is short for Triangle Below Canal, and it covers the stretch roughly from Chambers Street up to Canal, between Broadway and the Hudson. What you'll notice first is the scale. Where the FiDi goes straight up, Tribeca stays low. A lot of the buildings are old cast-iron and brick warehouses that got turned into lofts, so the blocks feel wide and calm. There are cobblestones on some of the side streets. It's a good place to walk with no particular plan, and it's a short enough hop that you can wander over for dinner and be back at your suite in twenty minutes. Here's how to get there and a few spots worth pointing you toward. --- ## Museums in Lower Manhattan: Five Worth an Hour of Your Day Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/museums-lower-manhattan-financial-district > The best museums in Lower Manhattan are small ones you can do in an hour: the Skyscraper Museum at 39 Battery Place (free, Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 6pm), the South Street Seaport Museum with its 1885 tall ship Wavertree at Pier 16 (Friday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm), Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum at 180 Greenwich Street (museum open Wednesday to Monday, 9am to 7pm), and the Fraunces Tavern Museum in the old tavern building. Most are within a 20-minute walk of each other, so you can string two together in an afternoon. The big museums in New York are all uptown, and Lower Manhattan gets written off as a place you pass through on the way to something else. That's a mistake. What we have down here are small museums, the kind you can walk into for an hour and actually finish, and most of them sit within a 20-minute walk of each other. We get asked for nearby things to see a lot, usually by guests with half a rainy afternoon and no plan. This is the list we give. It's short on purpose. Every place below is one we can point to on a map from our front door on John Street, and the hours and addresses come from each museum's own site (they do change, so check before you walk over). One practical note before you go: nearly all of these are closed at least two days a week, and they're not the same two days. The Skyscraper Museum runs Wednesday to Saturday, the Seaport Museum runs Friday to Sunday, and the 9/11 Museum is closed Tuesdays. If you've only got one afternoon, check the day first and build around what's actually open. ## How to pair them up Two museums in an afternoon is the right number, three if you're quick and it's raining. The easy pairing is the Seaport Museum and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, since they sit on opposite ends of the same walk and you can cut straight across on Fulton Street. The other pairing is Federal Hall and Fraunces Tavern, both old-New York, both a few minutes apart down by Wall and Pearl. Battery Park City and the Skyscraper Museum are a separate trip, best combined with a walk along the harbor rather than with another gallery. If you're staying with us, you've got a kitchen in the suite, which changes the math on this kind of day. Go out for the museum, come back and make lunch, go out again. You don't have to plan the whole day around restaurant hours. --- ## Where to Watch the Game in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/sports-bars-financial-district-nyc > The three sports bars in the Financial District we send guests to are Stout at 90 John Street (the closest to us, a few blocks east on our own street, with a Monday to Friday 4pm to 8pm happy hour), Beckett's at 81 Pearl Street on the Stone Street block, and Killarney Rose at 127 Pearl Street when the first two fill up at kickoff. All three are a walk, not a subway ride, and downtown empties out on weekends so you'll usually get a seat if you show up before the first pitch or first whistle. The Financial District isn't a stadium neighborhood, and it doesn't pretend to be. What it has is a handful of pubs that have been feeding traders lunch for decades and know exactly what to do when a game is on: turn the sound up on one screen, keep the rest muted, and pour. We get asked this most on Sunday mornings, usually by someone who wants a European kickoff and a plate of eggs at the same hour. Here's the short version. Stout at 90 John Street is the closest, on our own street. Beckett's, on the Stone Street block, is the one with the outdoor tables. Killarney Rose on Pearl Street is the backup that's never as crowded. All three are a walk from our front door, and none of them need a reservation. One thing worth knowing before you plan around it: downtown clears out on weekends. The office crowd that packs these rooms at 6pm on a Thursday is gone by Saturday morning, which is why a Sunday game here is a very different experience from a Sunday game in Midtown. That's a feature if you want a seat. --- ## Visiting the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center From 17 John Street Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/9-11-memorial-one-world-trade-near-17-john > The 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center are about a 10-minute walk northwest of 17 John Street, roughly half a mile up toward Church and Vesey Streets. The plaza with the twin reflecting pools is free and open to the public. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum and the One World Observatory on the 100th-102nd floors both charge admission and both take timed tickets, so book ahead in busy months. From 17 John you can walk over, spend a morning, and be back for lunch on Stone Street. The World Trade Center site is one of the closest major landmarks to 17 John Street. It's about a 10-minute walk, roughly half a mile northwest, up toward Church and Vesey Streets. Most people come for the two things that sit on the same few blocks: the outdoor 9/11 Memorial, and the tower above it. Here's the practical version. The Memorial plaza itself, with the two square reflecting pools set into the footprints of the original towers, is free and open to walk through. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which goes underground into the story of that day, is a separate paid ticket. So is the One World Observatory near the top of One World Trade Center, where you take a fast elevator up for the view over the harbor and the rest of Manhattan. Both the museum and the observatory use timed-entry tickets, so if you're visiting in a busy stretch it's worth booking a slot before you leave the suite. We get a lot of guests who want to do this in a half day. It works well from here. Walk over in the morning, spend time on the plaza, pick one of the paid sites, then loop back toward the water or over to Stone Street for lunch. Below is how we'd lay it out, plus what's worth knowing before you go. --- ## Breakfast in the Financial District: Where We Actually Go in the Morning Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/breakfast-financial-district-nyc > For the best breakfast in the Financial District, start with bagels: there's a bagel counter right at 12 John Street, Leo's Bagels down at 3 Hanover Square, and NYC Bagel & Coffee House over at 199 Water Street near the Seaport. If you want to sit down with a plate and a real coffee, Hole in the Wall on Cliff Street does Australian-style breakfast a couple of minutes from our door, and La Parisienne at 9 Maiden Lane handles the croissant-and-omelet end of things. Almost everything worth eating here is within a ten-minute walk, and if your suite kitchen is doing the work that morning, the grocery run is short too. Breakfast in the Financial District is a bagel neighborhood first and a sit-down neighborhood second. That's not a knock. The bagels here are good, they're fast, and on a weekday morning the counters near John Street move a line of people out the door in about four minutes flat. What surprises people is how compact it all is. From 17 John Street you can reach five genuinely different breakfasts on foot without ever crossing Broadway twice: a bagel counter across the street, a proper Australian-style cafe two blocks east, a French bakery near Maiden Lane, and the Water Street bagel shop on the way to the Seaport. Nothing below is a long walk. The furthest one is about eight minutes, and that's only because Hanover Square is genuinely south of everything. One practical note before the list. The Financial District still runs on an office-hours rhythm, so weekday mornings are the busiest and best-staffed, and weekends thin out fast. A lot of the sandwich shops that live off the Monday-to-Friday crowd simply don't open Saturday and Sunday. The bagel counters and the cafes closer to the water are the ones that stay reliable on a weekend, and it's worth checking hours the night before rather than walking down and finding a shutter. And if you'd rather not go anywhere at all, your suite has a full kitchen, so eggs and coffee at your own table is always an option. We keep a separate guide to where to buy groceries nearby for exactly that reason. Here's where we send guests, in the order we'd actually recommend them. --- ## Christmas in Lower Manhattan: Trees, Rinks, and Lights Downtown Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/christmas-in-lower-manhattan > The Christmas things worth doing in Lower Manhattan are the Seaport Christmas tree at the corner of Fulton and Water streets, the riverside rink at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Street, open into March), the open-air Winterland rink on the roof of Pier 17, the Oculus light show at the World Trade Center, and Stone Street's cobblestone block of bars, which throws a holiday bar crawl in mid-December. All five are within about a fifteen-minute walk of us on John Street, and none of them involve standing in the Rockefeller Center crush. ## The short version You can do Christmas in New York without ever going above Chambers Street. We're on John Street, and in December everything we send guests to is a walk: the Seaport tree, two ice rinks, the light show inside the Oculus, and a cobblestone block of bars that gets very festive around the second weekend of the month. The honest pitch for doing it down here is crowd size. Midtown in December is a shuffle. Downtown in December is a neighborhood that empties out at 6pm on weekdays and fills up with families on weekends, so you can actually see the tree you walked over to see. If Rockefeller Center is on your list anyway, go, but do it on a weekday morning and come back down here for the evening. One planning note before the list. Dates and prices for holiday programming get confirmed in November each year, so treat the specifics below as last season's numbers and check the venue before you go. The tree, the rinks and the Oculus lights come back every year. The exact opening night moves. ## What we'd do with one December evening Walk east on Fulton to the Seaport, see the tree, get a drink or dinner at Pier 17, then walk back up Fulton and cut through the Oculus on the way home so you catch the lights. That's about two hours at a slow pace, all of it outdoors except the last ten minutes, which is the part your hands will appreciate. Our rooftop is a nice spot afterwards if you want a quieter end to the night. If you're here with kids, flip it: skate first in the afternoon while there's daylight, eat early, and be back inside before the temperature drops with the sun. --- ## Boat Tours From Lower Manhattan: Which Boat to Actually Get On Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/boat-tours-lower-manhattan > Most boat tours from Lower Manhattan leave from two places: Pier 16 at South Street Seaport and the terminals at the bottom of the island. Pier 16 is where Circle Line Downtown runs its 50-minute Liberty Express to the Statue of Liberty, and where the South Street Seaport Museum sails the 1885 schooner Pioneer through October. If you want the harbor for nothing, the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall is free and always will be. The only boat that actually lands you at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island leaves from Battery Park, and that's a different kind of day out. We're at 17 John Street, and the water is a ten minute walk east down Fulton Street, so this is the question we get asked most in summer: which boat is worth it? The honest answer is that they're not competing with each other. One is free and takes 25 minutes. One is a 140-year-old sailing ship. One actually lands you on Liberty Island, and one is really just the commuter ferry doing what it does anyway. Here's what each is for, where it leaves from, and who we'd send on it. One piece of geography first: Pier 16 and Pier 11 are different piers. Pier 16 is the Seaport, at the foot of Fulton Street, where the tall ships are tied up. Pier 11 is Wall Street, a few blocks south, and it's the commuter dock. People get these mixed up and miss boats over it. --- ## South Street Seaport From 17 John Street: The Waterfront a Few Blocks Away Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/south-street-seaport-near-17-john > The South Street Seaport is about a 7-minute walk east from 17 John Street, down toward the East River between Fulton Street and the water. It's the old cobblestone port district, now a mix of restaurants, a rooftop event space on Pier 17, and one of the best free views of the Brooklyn Bridge in Lower Manhattan. It's an easy walk from the suite for dinner, a drink by the water, or a slow morning by the piers, and it's much calmer than Midtown. The South Street Seaport is our closest stretch of waterfront, and it's an easy walk from the suite. Head east on John or Fulton toward the East River and you're there in about 7 minutes. This is the old port part of Lower Manhattan, the cobblestone blocks where the city's shipping used to run, and it's kept a lot of that low-rise, brick-and-cobble feel while the rest of the neighborhood went tall and glass. What you actually come here for: dinner and drinks by the water, a rooftop at Pier 17, and the view. The stretch along the river gives you one of the clearest looks at the Brooklyn Bridge you'll get from the Manhattan side, and it's free. Mornings are quiet and good for a walk or a coffee by the piers. Evenings pick up, especially in warm months when the rooftop has events on. Because it's so close, a lot of our guests treat the Seaport as their default easy night out. You can walk down, eat, have a drink looking at the bridge, and be back at 17 John in ten minutes. Here's what's worth your time. --- ## Coffee in the Financial District: Where to Get a Good Cup Near John Street Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/coffee-shops-financial-district-nyc > For the best coffee in the Financial District, walk to Black Fox Coffee at 70 Pine Street, a specialty roaster open 7am to 5pm on weekdays and 8am to 4pm on weekends. Closer to us on John Street, Coffee Project New York at 135 John and Suited at 45 John both do a solid espresso within three minutes of our door, and Voyager Espresso is tucked inside the Fulton Street subway station if you want coffee on your way to the train. Down here most cafés keep office hours, so check before you head out on a Sunday morning. Coffee is the one thing guests ask us about before they've even put their bags down. Good news: the Financial District has more specialty coffee than it did five years ago, and the best of it is within a ten-minute walk of 17 John Street. Two things worth knowing before you go looking. First, a lot of cafés down here were built for office workers, which means early openings, early closings, and thinner weekend hours. If you're up at 7am on a Tuesday you'll have your pick. If you're up at 9am on a Sunday, check the hours first. Second, John Street itself is a decent coffee block, so you may not need to walk far at all. If you'd rather make it yourself, your suite has a full kitchen, and the markets we list in our grocery guide sell beans a few minutes from the door. Plenty of guests staying a week or a month just brew at home and save the walk for the afternoon. Here's the short list. ## Quick picks - **Best cup overall:** Black Fox Coffee, 70 Pine Street - **Closest to our door:** Coffee Project New York, 135 John Street, and Suited at 45 John Street - **Coffee on the way to the train:** Voyager Espresso, inside the Fulton Street station - **Cheapest option:** your own kitchen, with beans from the market --- ## Things to Do in Lower Manhattan at Night, When the Offices Empty Out Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/things-to-do-lower-manhattan-at-night > Lower Manhattan at night is quieter than the rest of Manhattan, and that's the whole appeal. The office crowd leaves by seven and the streets belong to whoever's still out. The best free thing to do is ride the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall, which runs all night and gives you the harbor and the skyline lit up for nothing. After that: walk the Brooklyn Bridge promenade after dark when the daytime crowd has thinned, sit down to dinner on the cobblestones of Stone Street, see the 9/11 Memorial pools lit in the evening, and finish at the Seaport with the bridges over the East River. Almost all of it is within a fifteen-minute walk of John Street. People warn you that the Financial District dies at night. It's half true, and the half that's true is the good part. The offices empty out around six or seven, the lunch places pull their shutters, and by nine the streets around Wall Street are nearly yours. If you want a crowd, midtown is twenty minutes on the 4/5. If you want to walk narrow old streets with nobody in them and the towers lit above you, this is the only neighborhood in Manhattan that offers it. What's actually open after dark is more than people expect. The waterfront works around the clock. The ferries run all night. The bars and restaurants that stay open are clustered in a few known places, mostly Stone Street, the Seaport, and the blocks around the Oculus, and everything below is a short walk from John Street. One planning note: weeknights and weekends are different neighborhoods down here. Tuesday at 9 PM, Stone Street is calm and you'll get a table. Friday at 7 PM in warm weather, the whole block is standing room. Sunday, a lot of the lunch-driven spots don't open at all. Plan around the bankers, basically. Here's what we send guests out to do after dinner, roughly in the order we'd do it ourselves. --- ## Happy Hour in the Financial District: Where We Send Guests at 5 O'Clock Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/happy-hour-financial-district-nyc > The best happy hour in the Financial District is on and around Stone Street, a cobblestone block about eight minutes' walk from John Street where six or seven bars share the same outdoor tables. Weekday deals usually run from around 3 or 4 p.m. until 7, and the listed ones include cheap drafts at Route 66, bar pies at Adrienne's Pizzabar, and oysters at Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street. Go before 5:30 on a weekday if you want a seat, because the finance crowd fills the block right after work and empties it again by nine. ## Start on Stone Street, then widen out If you only have one evening and you want a drink downtown, walk to Stone Street. It's a narrow cobblestone block between Broad and Hanover, closed to cars, with bars and restaurants that all put tables out along the middle of it. From our door on John Street it's about eight minutes on foot, straight south. Nowhere else in the Financial District gives you that many options within thirty steps of each other. The rhythm down here is worth understanding before you go. This is an office neighborhood, so happy hour is a real event Monday through Thursday: the block goes from empty to full between about 4:45 and 5:30, stays loud until eight, and then thins out fast. By ten on a weeknight you can have a bar to yourself. Weekends flip it, because the office crowd is gone and the people out are mostly visitors, which means shorter waits but fewer deals running. One caveat before the list. Happy hour windows and prices in New York change constantly, so treat the specifics below as a starting point and check the bar's own page or ask when you sit down. Everything here is a short walk from 17 John Street, and none of it needs a reservation on a weeknight if you're there before six. --- ## The Food Halls of Lower Manhattan: Which One to Walk To Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/food-halls-lower-manhattan > The best food halls in Lower Manhattan are Hudson Eats at Brookfield Place (14 fast-casual counters with Hudson views, about a 12-minute walk from John Street), the Tin Building at the Seaport (a market hall with fish and butcher counters, about 10 minutes east), Eataly NYC Downtown inside 4 World Trade Center (Italian counters plus a grocery, about 9 minutes west), and the dining level under the Oculus (quick and cheap, about 8 minutes, and all indoors when it rains). Essex Market on the Lower East Side is worth the 10-minute ride on the J or Z if you want the older, less polished version. If you're staying downtown and nobody in your group wants the same thing for dinner, a food hall solves it. Lower Manhattan has four of them within a short walk of John Street, plus one across town that's worth a subway ride. They're not interchangeable. One is a mall food court with a very good view. One is a fish market with restaurants attached. One is basically an Italian grocery store you can eat inside. We send guests to different ones depending on what they're actually after, so here's the honest rundown, with walk times from our front door on John Street. One more thing worth saying up front: your suite has a full kitchen. That changes what a food hall is for. The Tin Building and Eataly both sell raw ingredients, so a food hall run downtown can be dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow, not just one meal out. --- ## Where to Eat Near One World Trade Center Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/restaurants-near-one-world-trade-center > The closest real meal to One World Trade Center is Eataly on the third floor of 4 World Trade Center, about three minutes from the plaza. For more choice, cross West Street on the Winter Garden bridge to Brookfield Place, where Hudson Eats is a food hall of counters and Le District is the French version of the same idea, both around eight minutes on foot. If you want dinner that feels like a night out rather than a stop between sights, walk twelve minutes southeast to Stone Street, where the restaurants put tables on the cobblestones, or fifteen minutes east to the Tin Building at the Seaport. The Oculus itself is mostly shops with quick-food counters, fine for a sandwich, not somewhere to plan an evening around. The blocks around One World Trade Center feed a huge number of office workers on weekdays and a huge number of visitors every day, which means two things. There's plenty of food, and a lot of it is built for speed rather than for sitting down. If you've just come out of the 9/11 Memorial or down from the Observatory, you're probably tired, possibly with kids, and you want to know where to walk without a third opinion. So here's the honest layout. Directly at the tower's feet you have Eataly inside 4 World Trade Center and the food counters in the Oculus. Cross West Street and you're at Brookfield Place, which has the two best food halls downtown. Walk a bit further east or south and you get actual restaurants with actual dinner service, on Stone Street and at the Seaport. We're at 17 John Street, about a ten-minute walk east of the plaza, and this is the order we send guests in. One practical note: weekday lunch between noon and 1:30 is the crush. If you can shift an hour either way, everything below gets easier. And weekends downtown are quieter than people expect, so a Saturday lunch at Brookfield Place is a pleasant, half-empty affair. Hours move around, especially on Sundays, so check before you make the walk. --- ## Where to Book Dinner in the Financial District When It Matters Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/special-occasion-restaurants-financial-district-nyc > For a special occasion dinner in the Financial District, book Manhatta on the 60th floor of 28 Liberty Street for the view, Crown Shy at 70 Pine Street for a modern room that handles a group well, Delmonico's at 56 Beaver Street for an old-New York steakhouse night, or Le Gratin at 5 Beekman Street for French food under the Beekman atrium. All four are within a ten-minute walk of John Street, all take reservations weeks out, and the neighborhood's weekday-business rhythm means weekend tables are easier to get here than almost anywhere else in Manhattan. Guests ask us this one constantly, usually a few weeks before they arrive: it's an anniversary, or a birthday, or eight people are coming into town and someone has to pick the restaurant. The good news is that the Financial District is quietly one of the easier places in Manhattan to get a serious table. The neighborhood's dining rooms are built around weekday business crowds, so a Saturday night reservation that would be impossible in the West Village is often sitting there two weeks out. Everything below is within about a ten-minute walk of John Street. Addresses are current as of the Downtown Alliance's summer 2026 restaurant list. Book ahead anyway, especially for anything above six people, and if the occasion is the reason for the meal, say so when you reserve. These rooms handle that well. A note on how we've ordered this: it's by what kind of night you want, not by ranking. A 60th-floor window table and a candlelit French room are not competing for the same evening. --- ## Rooftop Bars in the Financial District: Where to Drink Above Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/rooftop-bars-financial-district-nyc > The Financial District's best rooftop drinking is at Overstory, a small cocktail bar on the 64th floor of 70 Pine Street with a wraparound terrace and 360-degree views. Hide Rooftop at 24 John Street is the closest one to us, on the 20th floor across the street. Manhatta sits 60 floors up at 28 Liberty Street if you want dinner with the view, and The Greens on The Rooftop at Pier 17 (89 South Street) puts you outdoors facing the Brooklyn Bridge in warm weather. All four are a walk of under ten minutes from 17 John Street. The Financial District has more good rooftops than people expect, mostly because the towers here are tall and the streets below are narrow. You get views that Midtown rooftops can't match: the harbor, the bridges, the Woolworth Building lit up, One World Trade close enough to feel. We're at 17 John Street, so everything on this list is a short walk from our door. A few notes before you go up. Most of these places want a reservation on Thursday through Saturday, and the ones with outdoor terraces will move you inside or close the terrace if the weather turns. Dress code is mostly "don't wear gym clothes." And prices are what you'd expect for a cocktail 60 floors above Wall Street, so if you want the view without the tab, the Staten Island Ferry is free and our own rooftop terrace is included with your stay. Here's where we actually send guests, roughly in order of how often we send them. ## What to know before you go up - **Sunset is the busy hour.** Show up 45 minutes before sunset or after 9pm if you don't want to wait. - **Check the season.** The outdoor-only spots (The Greens at Pier 17, Leonessa) run warm-weather hours and change over in winter. The indoor-and-terrace spots (Overstory, Manhatta) work year round. - **Walk, don't drive.** All of these are 2 to 20 minutes on foot from John Street. Parking down here is expensive and one-way streets make short drives slow. - **Hours move.** Every place below has changed its hours at least once in the past year. Call or check their site the day you go. --- ## Things to Do in the Financial District, NYC: The Ten We Actually Send People To Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/things-to-do-financial-district-nyc > The best things to do in the Financial District, NYC are mostly free and mostly within a 15-minute walk of each other: the 9/11 Memorial pools and the Oculus, Federal Hall and Trinity Church on Wall Street, the Charging Bull at Bowling Green, dinner on Stone Street, the Seaport and Pier 17 on the East River, Battery Park, and the free Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall. Start at John Street, work south to the harbor, then come back up the East River side. You can do the whole loop on foot in a day without ever getting on a train. The Financial District is small. That's the thing most visitors get wrong about it. People plan a whole day for Wall Street and another day for the Seaport and another for the 9/11 Memorial, and then they find out all three sit inside a fifteen-minute walk of each other. We're on John Street, roughly in the middle of it. Wall Street is two blocks south. The Seaport is a few blocks east, downhill toward the water. The World Trade Center campus is west, past Broadway. So this list is ordered the way we'd actually tell you to walk it, not the way a top-ten list usually goes. A few honest notes before you start. The streets down here are old and crooked, so your phone's walking estimate is usually off by a minute or two in either direction. Weekday lunchtime (roughly noon to 2) is the one time the sidewalks near Broad and Wall get genuinely crowded, and weekends are the opposite: quiet, easy, good for photos. And almost everything on this list is free, which is not something you can say about many parts of Manhattan. --- ## Italian Restaurants in the Financial District: Where We Send Guests Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/italian-restaurants-financial-district-nyc > The best Italian food in the Financial District is within a 10-minute walk of 17 John Street: Da Claudio at 21 Ann Street for handmade pasta, Adrienne's Pizzabar at 54 Stone Street for square pies on the cobblestones, Antica on Stone Street for modern Italian near Wall Street, Il Brigante at 214 Front Street for old-school red sauce by the Seaport, and Eataly NYC Downtown at 101 Liberty Street inside 4 World Trade Center if you want a market plus a sit-down pasta room under one roof. ## Where to eat Italian in the Financial District Every good Italian place we send guests to sits within a 10-minute walk of our front door at 17 John Street. That's the useful thing about eating down here: the neighborhood is small, so you're never picking a restaurant based on how far you have to travel. You're picking it based on what kind of night you want. A quick lay of the land. Ann Street and John Street have the small neighborhood rooms, the kind where the pasta is made in house and the tables are close together. Stone Street, two blocks south of Wall Street, is the cobblestone block where the tables spill outside and it gets loud in a good way. Front Street and the Seaport are where you go when you want to walk off dinner along the water afterward. And 4 World Trade Center has Eataly, which is really a market with restaurants inside it. One thing worth knowing before you book: the Financial District empties out on weekends. Some kitchens cut their Sunday hours or close entirely, especially the lunch-driven spots near Wall Street. If you're eating on a Sunday, call first. On weeknights it's the opposite problem, since the after-work crowd hits between 6 and 8, so either go early or book ahead. If you're staying with us, your suite has a full kitchen, and we've written separately about [where to buy groceries nearby](/guides/grocery-stores-near-financial-district-17-john). Plenty of guests here for a week or more cook three nights and go out the other four. The Italian places below are the ones worth the four. Walk times below are from our door at 17 John Street, between Broadway and Nassau. --- ## Battery Park From 17 John Street: The Harbor Edge of Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/battery-park-near-17-john-street > Battery Park sits at the southern tip of Manhattan, about a 12 to 15 minute walk from 17 John Street. It's where you catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, walk the harbor promenade, and find some quiet green space at the edge of the Financial District. Come early on a weekend morning and you'll mostly have the waterfront to yourself. Battery Park is the green wedge at the very bottom of Manhattan, where the island runs out and the harbor opens up. From 17 John Street it's about a 12 to 15 minute walk, straight down toward the water. You can head down Broadway past Bowling Green, or cut over to the waterfront and follow the promenade the whole way. It's one of the few spots in the Financial District where you can stand still, look at open water, and not have a skyscraper right on top of you. It's also the launch point for the boats to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, so a lot of people pass through on their way somewhere else. That's a shame, because the park itself is worth slowing down for. Here's how we'd spend time there, and what's worth knowing before you go. --- ## Free Things to Do in Lower Manhattan (That Are Actually Worth Your Time) Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/free-things-to-do-lower-manhattan > Most of the best things to do in Lower Manhattan are free. You can walk the 9/11 Memorial plaza, ride the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty and back, stand in Federal Hall where Washington was sworn in, visit Alexander Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church, and see the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian without paying for a single ticket. Everything on this list is within about a 20-minute walk of John Street in the Financial District, and most of it is closer than that. Lower Manhattan has a reputation for being expensive, and some of it is. Observation decks run north of $40. Harbor cruises add up fast for a family. But the neighborhood we live in is also one of the few parts of the city where the best stuff is genuinely free, and it's dense enough that you can do four or five of these in an afternoon on foot. We've listed everything below with a rough walk time from John Street, since that's where we are and it's a useful center point. A few notes before you go. "Free" here means free to enter or ride, no ticket, no reservation. Where a place has a paid part and a free part (the 9/11 Memorial and its museum, Fraunces Tavern and its museum), we say so, because that trips people up constantly. And hours change, especially at the National Park Service sites, so check before you make a special trip. If you're staying with us, the practical version is this: pick two or three from the harbor end and two from the Wall Street end, do them in one loop, and come back up John Street for lunch. You'll have seen more of old New York than most people manage in a week. --- ## Where to Shop in Lower Manhattan: The Oculus, Brookfield Place, and the Rest Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/shopping-lower-manhattan-oculus-brookfield-place > Almost all of the shopping in Lower Manhattan sits in two buildings about ten minutes' walk from John Street. Westfield World Trade Center fills the concourse under and around the Oculus with roughly a hundred mid-market and high-street shops, and it's connected underground to the PATH train and half a dozen subway lines. Brookfield Place, across West Street on the water, is the higher-end one, with a food hall upstairs and a terrace on the marina. Everything else is smaller and more specific: the Seaport for boutiques near the water, Fulton Center and Broadway for everyday basics. Useful rule while you're here: clothing and shoes under $110 per item are exempt from sales tax in New York City. Downtown isn't a shopping neighborhood the way SoHo is. There's no strip of storefronts to wander along here, because the Financial District was built for offices and the streets are narrow and shaded. What it has instead is two big indoor centers built into transit hubs, both within about a ten to fifteen minute walk of John Street, plus a handful of smaller pockets worth knowing. The practical upside is weather. You can shop for an entire afternoon down here and barely go outside, because the World Trade Center complex is connected below ground. That matters in February, and it matters in an August thunderstorm. Two things worth knowing before you go. First, clothing and footwear under $110 per item are exempt from sales tax in New York City, which is a genuine saving on a few t-shirts and a pair of sneakers, and it applies per item rather than per receipt. Second, the hours down here follow the office rhythm more than the tourist one, so the big centers keep normal mall hours but the small independent places often close early and skip Sunday. Here's how we'd rank them, with walk times from John Street. --- ## Kosher Restaurants in the Financial District: Where to Eat Downtown Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/kosher-restaurants-financial-district-nyc > The Financial District has a small but real kosher scene, and almost all of it sits within a 15-minute walk of John Street. Reserve Cut at 40 Broad Street is the big-occasion steakhouse, Wall Street Grill at 128 Pearl Street does kosher fine dining with rooftop seating, Bravo Kosher at 17 Trinity Place handles pizza and deli on a weekday budget, and Cafe 11 at 11 Broadway near Bowling Green is the quick lunch stop. Nearly all of them close Friday afternoon for Shabbat and reopen Saturday night, so call ahead if you're planning a weekend meal, and keep in mind our suites have full kitchens if you'd rather cook. People assume you have to go uptown or to Brooklyn for kosher food in New York. Down here you don't. The Financial District has four or five reliable kosher places, and because the neighborhood is compact, all of them are a short walk from John Street rather than a subway ride. A guest asked us about kosher options this week, which is what prompted us to write this down properly. Here's what's actually near us, what each place is good for, and the scheduling detail that trips people up more than anything else. One thing to plan around: most kosher restaurants here close Friday afternoon before sundown and don't reopen until Saturday night, and some skip Saturday entirely. In fall and winter that Friday closing time creeps earlier and earlier. If your trip includes a Friday night or a Saturday lunch, call the restaurant directly before you count on it. That's also when having a kitchen in your suite earns its keep, because you can shop Thursday and cook. Walk times below are from 17 John Street, at a normal pace, and the Financial District is pretty quiet on weekends so you won't be fighting crowds on the way. --- ## South Street Seaport in the Fall: Rooftop Shows, Tall Ships, and Harbor Air Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/south-street-seaport-in-the-fall > Fall is the Seaport's best stretch. September and October bring the last run of concerts at The Rooftop at Pier 17 (LP plays there on September 24, 2026), the harbor air finally cools off, the cobblestones on Fulton Street stop being sticky-hot, and the crowds thin out after Labor Day. Spend an afternoon on the piers looking at the museum's historic ships, eat on the water, walk the esplanade toward the Brooklyn Bridge, and if you're here in late November the rooftop turns into Winterland, the city's only open-air rooftop ice rink. From 17 John Street the whole Seaport is about a five-minute walk east. The Seaport in August is hot and busy. The Seaport in late September is one of the nicest places to spend an afternoon in New York, and it's a five-minute walk from our door. Here's what changes. The harbor breeze that feels thin in summer turns into the main event once the temperature drops into the sixties. The tourist crush eases off after Labor Day. The Rooftop at Pier 17 runs its last stretch of outdoor concerts through September and October, so on the right night you can hear a show from the esplanade whether or not you have a ticket. And the light gets better: low sun coming down the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge lit from the side, the whole thing over in about twenty minutes and worth being outside for. A bit of orientation, because the Seaport confuses people. Fulton Street runs east from Broadway and hits the water at the piers. Pier 16 is where the South Street Seaport Museum keeps its historic ships. Pier 17 is the big modern building with the rooftop venue on top. Pier 15 just south has the two-level esplanade with the lawn and the deck chairs. The cobblestone blocks around Front Street and Peck Slip are the old part, and they're the prettiest streets in Lower Manhattan in October. Go on a weekday afternoon if you can. Weekends here are livelier than the rest of the Financial District, which is a plus if you want company and a minus if you want the piers to yourself. Below is how we'd spend a fall afternoon down there, in order. --- ## Where to Work on a Laptop in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/where-to-work-laptop-financial-district-nyc > If you need to work on a laptop in the Financial District, start with two cafes on our own street: Suited at 45 John Street, which opens at 7am on weekdays, and Coffee Project New York at 135 John Street, about six minutes east toward the Seaport. For a longer stretch with no pressure to keep buying, the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street, is a public glass atrium that's open 24 hours a day with free wifi, roughly a 15-minute walk west. And if you'd rather not leave the building, our Guest Lounge is on the lower level and we have a Conference Room for calls that need a door. The Financial District is full of people working, and almost none of that happens in cafes. Most of it happens behind badge readers in office towers, which means the neighborhood has fewer laptop-friendly tables per block than, say, the West Village. It also means the tables that do exist are quiet after 10am on a weekday, and close to empty on a Saturday. We get asked about this a lot, usually by guests who are here for a work trip and want to get out of the room for a few hours. So here's what we actually tell them: two cafes on our own street, one big public atrium a walk west, and the two rooms downstairs if you'd rather not put on shoes. One thing worth saying up front. If you're on back-to-back calls, a cafe is the wrong choice, and that's what our Conference Room is for. Cafes are for heads-down work, email, writing, the stuff where background noise helps. The comfort of home, with the service of a hotel. --- ## Where to Eat in Tribeca: The Restaurants We Send Guests To Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/best-restaurants-tribeca-nyc > The best restaurants in Tribeca are clustered on a handful of blocks around West Broadway, Greenwich Street and Hudson Street, and the ones worth planning a night around are The Odeon, Frenchette, Locanda Verde, One White Street, l'Abeille, Pepolino and Bubby's. From the Financial District it's a 15 to 20 minute walk up West Broadway, or one stop on the A/C from Fulton Street to Chambers Street. Book ahead for the small rooms; the big rooms will usually take a walk-in at the bar. ## The short version Tribeca is where we send guests when they want a proper dinner and don't want to go to Midtown for it. It's the neighborhood directly north of us, roughly Canal Street down to Chambers Street, Broadway west to the Hudson, and it has more good restaurants per block than anywhere else this far downtown. Getting there from John Street is easy. Walk west to Broadway, then north and west along Chambers or Reade toward West Broadway, and you're in it in about 15 minutes. If it's raining or you're running late, take the A or C one stop from Fulton Street to Chambers Street and walk two blocks. Either way it's a short trip, which is the reason we recommend it over the West Village for a weeknight dinner. A few things worth knowing before you book. The rooms here are small and the neighborhood is residential, so reservations open 30 days out at most places and the 7:30 slots go quickly. Bar seating is usually walk-in and usually your best move if you're two people and flexible. Tribeca is expensive; that's not a secret and it's not going to change. And it goes quiet early on Sundays compared with the Lower East Side or the East Village, so check hours before you walk over. Below are the places we actually name when guests ask, with a note on what each one is good for. --- ## Where to Get Good Pizza in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/guides/best-pizza-financial-district-nyc > For the best pizza in the Financial District, go to Joe's Pizza at 124 Fulton Street for a classic New York slice you eat standing up, or Adrienne's Pizzabar at 54 Stone Street if you want a whole square pie and a table outside on the cobblestones. Those two cover most nights. If you're willing to ride two or three subway stops, Scarr's on Orchard Street and Lombardi's on Spring Street are the two downtown pizzerias we send people to when it's a proper outing rather than dinner in a hurry. The Financial District isn't the first neighborhood anyone names for pizza, and for years that was fair. It's better now. There's a proper slice shop on Fulton Street, a square-pie place with outdoor tables on Stone Street, and two of the best pizzerias in the city sitting a few subway stops north. We get asked about this constantly, usually around 7 p.m. by someone who has been walking since Battery Park and doesn't want a whole production. So here's the short version. If you want a slice in your hand in ten minutes, walk to Joe's. If you want to sit down with a pie and a beer outside, walk to Adrienne's. If it's Saturday and you've got an hour, take the J to Scarr's. All walk times below are from our door at 17 John Street. Nothing here is more than a few blocks or a couple of stops, and one of the nice things about staying down here is that you can bring the leftovers back and put them in the fridge in your suite. --- ## Staying a Month at 17 John vs. a Regular Hotel Room Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/monthly-stay-suite-vs-hotel-room-fidi > For a month or a long stay in Lower Manhattan, a suite at 17 John gives you more than a standard hotel room can: a full kitchen so you can cook instead of eating out every night, a laundry room so you're not shipping clothes out, and real living space to spread out and work. A regular hotel room is simpler for a night or two, but over weeks the small stuff (nowhere to cook, no room to work, living out of a suitcase) adds up. If you're settling in rather than passing through, the apartment-style setup is the practical pick. --- ## Financial District vs. SoHo: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-soho-where-to-stay > Stay in SoHo if shopping and going out are the point of your trip and you want to walk out the door into the middle of it. Stay in the Financial District if you want more room for your money, a quiet block at night, and the best transit in Lower Manhattan. The two are about a 25-minute walk apart, or two stops on the 6, so you're never choosing between neighborhoods so much as choosing which one you sleep in. --- ## One World Observatory vs. Top of the Rock vs. the Empire State Building: Which Deck to Pick Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/one-world-observatory-vs-top-of-the-rock-vs-empire-state > Pick Top of the Rock if you want the classic photo, because it's the only major deck with the Empire State Building and Central Park in the same frame. Pick One World Observatory if you're staying downtown and want the harbor, the bridges and the whole island laid out south to north from the tallest building in the country. Pick the Empire State Building if the building itself is the point, since you're standing on the landmark instead of looking at it. From 17 John Street in the Financial District, One World Observatory is about a 12-minute walk and the other two are a 25 to 30 minute subway ride uptown. --- ## Financial District vs. Midtown: Where Should You Stay in NYC? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-midtown-where-to-stay-nyc > Stay in the Financial District if you want more space for your money, quiet evenings, and a suite with a kitchen you'll actually use; stay in Midtown if your trip is mostly Broadway shows and Midtown meetings and you want to walk to them. FiDi sits at the bottom of Manhattan with Wall Street two blocks from our door at 17 John Street, Stone Street's restaurants a short walk away, and the ferry terminal about five minutes on foot, so you're close to the harbor and the bridges rather than the theater district. Midtown is louder, denser and more central for shows; FiDi is calmer after 7pm and much quieter on weekends, and everything Midtown has is a subway ride north. --- ## Financial District vs. Tribeca: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-tribeca-where-to-stay > Stay in the Financial District if you want the best transit in the city, more space for your money and easy walks to the harbor, the Brooklyn Bridge and One World Trade. Stay in Tribeca if you want a quieter residential feel, low cobblestone blocks and a shorter hop to SoHo and the West Village, and you don't mind paying more for a smaller room. The two neighborhoods touch each other, so the real difference is about 15 minutes of walking: from 17 John Street you can be on Duane Street in Tribeca in about 15 minutes on foot or three stops on the 1 train. --- ## Financial District vs. Williamsburg: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-williamsburg-where-to-stay > Stay in the Financial District if your trip is mostly Manhattan sightseeing and you want to be inside the subway system's densest cluster; stay in Williamsburg if the bars, restaurants and shopping of north Brooklyn are the trip itself. They're close: the J runs from Fulton Street to Marcy Avenue in about 15 minutes, and the NYC Ferry East River route links Wall Street/Pier 11 with the Williamsburg piers. The real difference is what's outside your door at 8pm. Ours is a quiet, historic office neighborhood on the harbor; Williamsburg is a going-out neighborhood you have to leave to sightsee. --- ## Financial District vs. Times Square: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-times-square-where-to-stay > Stay in Times Square if your trip is built around Broadway shows and you want the theatre district on your doorstep. Stay in the Financial District if you want quiet nights, more square footage for the money, and a base that's still 15 minutes from Times Square on the 2/3 from Fulton Street. The tradeoff is simple: Times Square puts you in the middle of the noise, FiDi puts you a short express ride from it and gives you a neighborhood that empties out in the evening. For families, longer stays, and anyone who wants a kitchen and a living room, we'd take the Financial District every time. --- ## Financial District vs. Greenwich Village: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-greenwich-village-where-to-stay > Stay in the Financial District if you want more apartment for your money, easy access to the harbor, the Brooklyn Bridge and One World Trade Center, and streets that go quiet after the offices empty out. Stay in Greenwich Village if your trip is mostly eating, drinking and wandering low-rise blocks, and you want all of that within a few minutes of your door at midnight. Both are downtown and both are walkable, so the real question is whether you want a base that's calm at night or one that's part of the night. --- ## Financial District vs. Jersey City: Which Side of the Hudson Should You Stay On? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-jersey-city-where-to-stay > Stay in Jersey City if the nightly rate is the deciding factor and you're fine adding a PATH ride to the front and back of every day. Stay in the Financial District if you want to walk to what you came for. From John Street you're 4 minutes from Wall Street, 5 from the Seaport, 8 from the 9/11 Memorial and 15 from the Battery, and you can come back to the room mid-afternoon without it costing you an hour. Jersey City is genuinely close (the PATH from Exchange Place to the World Trade Center takes a few minutes) but it's a separate state with its own train schedule, and late nights and weekends are when that starts to show. --- ## Connecting Rooms vs. a Two-Bedroom Suite in NYC: What Families Should Actually Book Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/connecting-rooms-vs-two-bedroom-suite-nyc > Families searching for connecting rooms in NYC are usually trying to solve one problem: everyone sleeping in the same unit without everyone sleeping in the same room. Connecting rooms do that with a door between two standard rooms, but they're scarce in Manhattan, rarely guaranteed at booking, and give you two of everything except a place to sit. A two- or three-bedroom suite solves it with real bedroom doors, one kitchen and one living room. We don't have connecting rooms at 17John; we have two and three bedroom suites instead, and a three bedroom handles a party of five. --- ## Financial District vs. Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO: Which Side of the Bridge Should You Stay On? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-brooklyn-heights-dumbo-where-to-stay > Stay in the Financial District if you want the shortest commute to the rest of Manhattan and the widest set of subway lines; stay in Brooklyn Heights or DUMBO if the view back at the skyline and a quieter, more residential street matter more than saving fifteen minutes each way. The two areas are about a 30-minute walk apart over the Brooklyn Bridge, or one stop on the A/C from Fulton Street to High Street. FiDi puts you on the 2/3/4/5/A/C/J/Z at Fulton Street, which is the fastest way into Midtown from anywhere below Canal. DUMBO's subway options come down to the F at York Street plus the ferry, which is lovely and slower. --- ## Financial District vs. Battery Park City: Which One Should You Stay In? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-vs-battery-park-city-where-to-stay > Stay in the Financial District if you want subway access, restaurants that stay open, and short walks to Wall Street, the Seaport, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Stay in Battery Park City if you want quiet, river air, and Brookfield Place at 230 Vesey Street on your doorstep, and you don't mind that there's no subway station inside the district. They're neighbors, about a 15 to 20 minute walk apart, so you're not choosing between two different cities. You're choosing between a street grid with things happening on it and a planned waterfront that goes quiet at night. --- ## Apartment-Style Hotel vs. a Short-Term Rental in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/apartment-hotel-vs-short-term-rental-fidi > An apartment-style hotel like 17 John gives you the space of a rental (a full kitchen, room to spread out) with the parts of a hotel you actually miss in a rental: 24/7 luggage storage assisted by our concierge, high-speed Wi-Fi throughout, a gym and guest lounge on the lower level, and a real person to call when something's off. Both give you self check-in via keypad. The rental usually wins on nothing here except sometimes price, so the choice comes down to whether you want backup during your stay or you're fine handling everything yourself. --- ## Airbnb vs. a Hotel in NYC: What the City's Rules Changed, and How to Choose Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/airbnb-vs-hotel-apartment-nyc > If you're weighing Airbnb vs a hotel in NYC, start with the law: New York City requires short-term rental hosts to register, bars renting a whole apartment to visitors for fewer than 30 days, and requires the host to live in the unit and be there while you stay. That rules out most of what travelers picture when they picture an Airbnb here. What's left, if you want a kitchen and separate bedrooms, is a suite hotel. We're one of them, at 17 John Street in the Financial District, and our suites come with a full kitchen, up to three bedrooms, and a laundry room downstairs. --- ## The Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting 2026: Doing It From Downtown, and Where to Stay Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/rockefeller-tree-lighting-2026-from-lower-manhattan > The 2026 Rockefeller Center tree lighting date hadn't been confirmed by Rockefeller Center as of late August 2026, but the ceremony has long fallen on the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving, which points to Wednesday, December 2, 2026. Rockefeller Center's own directions are the B, D, F or M to 47-50 Sts Rockefeller Center, or the 6 to 51 St. From us on John Street the simplest single ride is the E from World Trade Center to 5 Av/53 St, about 19 minutes, then a short walk west. Our advice: skip the ceremony night crowds and see the tree on a weekday morning instead, then come back downtown to sleep somewhere quiet. The date isn't official yet. Rockefeller Center's holiday page still says to check back for 2026 details, and the ceremony has traditionally landed on the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving, which would make it Wednesday, December 2, 2026. One holiday guide is already listing that date. Treat it as likely, not confirmed, and check rockefellercenter.com before you plan an evening around it. Here's the part nobody tells you: the ceremony is the worst night of the season to actually see the tree. Streets around the plaza close, the crowd builds through the afternoon, and most people watching end up looking at a screen or the back of someone's coat. The tree is lit every night for weeks afterward and comes down in January. If you're in town for the season rather than for the ceremony itself, go on a weekday morning and you'll get the plaza almost to yourself. We're downtown on John Street, which is a deliberate choice for this trip and not just where we happen to be. You go up for the tree and come back to a neighborhood where nothing is happening at 10pm in December. ## How to get there from us Take the E from World Trade Center to 5 Av/53 St, then walk about five minutes west and south to the plaza. Rome2rio puts that ride at roughly 19 minutes, with trains about every 10 minutes. Rockefeller Center's own directions list the B, D, F or M to 47-50 Sts Rockefeller Center, which puts you underneath the complex, and the 6 to 51 St. The M doesn't run on weekends, so on a Saturday the E is the cleaner plan from down here. On the ceremony night itself, assume the closest stations are jammed and expect street closures around the plaza. Getting off further away and walking in is usually faster than trying to surface next to it. ## When to go instead A weekday before 9am is the best version of the tree, full stop. The second-best is late, after about 10pm, once the dinner crowds thin. Both are cold, and both are worth it. The tree is lit from early December until it comes down in January (the 2025 tree came down on January 10, for a sense of the window). If you're making a night of it, the skating rink at the base of the tree is small and heavily booked in December, so reserve rather than turn up. ## Why sleep downtown in December Midtown in December is the most crowded part of the most crowded month. The Financial District is the opposite: it empties out after the offices close, and on weekends it's genuinely quiet. You're twenty minutes from the tree and a walk from the harbor. Our suites are apartments, which matters more on a December trip than a July one. There's room to leave the shopping bags and wet coats somewhere, and the Executive King Suite runs 542 square feet, which is not a Midtown hotel room. Space to live in the city. The rooftop terrace is a nice spot in the evening if you can stand the cold, and there's coffee in the lounge before you head north. --- ## New York Comic Con 2026: Doing Javits From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/new-york-comic-con-2026-from-lower-manhattan > New York Comic Con 2026 runs Thursday October 8 through Sunday October 11 at the Javits Center, 429 11th Avenue. If you're deciding where to stay, a Lower Manhattan base is about 35 minutes door to door: the 2 or 3 from Fulton St to Times Sq-42 St, then the 7 one stop to 34 St-Hudson Yards, which comes out beside the building. You trade a few subway minutes each way for a neighborhood that's quiet at night, cheaper to eat in, and has space to dump four days of hauls on the floor without stepping over them. New York Comic Con is back at the Javits Center from Thursday October 8 through Sunday October 11, 2026, its twentieth year. Javits sits way out on 11th Avenue at 34th Street, which is the thing most first-timers get wrong when they book: the convention center is on the far west edge of Midtown, so "staying near Javits" usually means paying Midtown rates for a block with nothing on it once the show closes. We're at 17 John Street in the Financial District, which is not near Javits, and we'll say so plainly. It's about 35 minutes each way. What you get for those minutes is worth laying out, because a lot of our October guests are here for exactly this. ## Getting to Javits from downtown **The fast way:** uptown 2 or 3 from Fulton St to Times Sq-42 St, then walk across the platform level to the 7 and ride one stop to 34 St-Hudson Yards. That station exits at 34th and 11th, right beside the Javits entrance. Call it 35 minutes door to door, less if the timing lands. **The other way:** the E from World Trade Center straight to 34 St-Penn Station, then a 12 to 15 minute walk west along 34th. Fewer trains, more sidewalk. Good if you're carrying a lot and don't want to change platforms. Both run constantly during convention hours. Tap a contactless card or your phone at the turnstile, no MetroCard needed. Coming back at 10 p.m. on Saturday, the 7 and the 2/3 are still frequent, and the ride downtown gets quieter with every stop. ## Why people base downtown for this Four days at a convention is a job. You're on your feet from 10 to 7, you're carrying things, and by Saturday night you want somewhere that isn't loud. The Financial District at night is close to empty, which sounds like a criticism and isn't. It's the quietest sleep you'll get in Manhattan. The practical stuff stacks up too. Our suites have kitchens, so breakfast happens before you leave instead of costing twenty dollars near the Javits. There's a laundry room, which matters by day three. There's a gym and a guest lounge on the lower level, and coffee in the lounge in the morning. The rooftop terrace has lounge chairs and is the correct place to sit on Sunday evening when it's over. If you're coming as a group, we don't have connecting rooms, but we do have two and three bedroom suites, which works better anyway: one kitchen, one living room, everyone's costumes spread across separate bedrooms. ## A note on cosplay logistics Javits has no storage worth relying on, and the subway in full armor is a genuine problem. Most people we host change at the venue and travel in normal clothes with a garment bag. If your build is large enough that the 7 train is out of the question, budget for a car on the days you're in it and take the subway the rest. From downtown, a car to Javits is 25 to 40 minutes depending on how the West Side Highway is behaving. ## What to do with the downtime The show doesn't fill four full days for most people. October is the best month down here: the harbor air is cool, the light is good, and the crowds at the big sights thin out after Labor Day. The Brooklyn Bridge walk starts a few blocks from our door, the Staten Island Ferry is free and gives you the Statue of Liberty from the water, and Stone Street's cobblestone block is where we send people for dinner that isn't a convention-center pretzel. --- ## The NYC Marathon From Lower Manhattan: The Runner Ferry Leaves From Whitehall Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/nyc-marathon-2026-lower-manhattan-ferry-to-the-start > The TCS New York City Marathon runs Sunday, November 1, 2026, and if you stay in the Financial District you can walk to the ferry that carries runners to the start. NYRR's official runner ferry departs from Whitehall Terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan, which is about a 15 to 20 minute walk from 17 John Street or two stops on the 4/5 from Fulton St to Bowling Green. The race itself starts on Staten Island and finishes in Central Park, so a Lower Manhattan stay is about the morning logistics: a short walk to the boat instead of a 5 a.m. subway transfer, a kitchen for your own breakfast, and a quiet neighborhood to sleep in the night before. The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon runs on Sunday, November 1. The race starts on Staten Island and finishes in Central Park, which means the hardest part of race morning for most runners isn't the first mile. It's getting to the start line at an hour when the subway is running on a Sunday schedule and every hotel lobby in Midtown is full of people in trash bags waiting for a bus. Staying down here changes that math. The official runner ferry leaves from Whitehall Terminal at the very bottom of Manhattan, and from John Street you can walk to it. No transfers, no 4:45 a.m. panic about whether the train is running. That's the whole case for a Financial District stay on marathon weekend, and it's a good one. ## Getting to the start from the Financial District NYRR's official ferry to the Staten Island start departs from Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan, at the southern end of the island. From 17 John Street that's a walk of roughly 15 to 20 minutes straight down Broadway or along Water Street, or two stops on the 4/5 from Fulton St to Bowling Green and a two-minute walk from there. In the dark, in the cold, with a start-village bag on your shoulder, a walk you can do half asleep is worth a lot. One thing to know well in advance: you don't just show up. You pick your transportation to the start (ferry or bus, and a specific time) inside your NYRR account, and that selection window opens in August and closes in early September. Slots are first come, first served, and NYRR asks you to take the exact option you picked. So sort your booking, then sort your ferry time, then relax. ## What race morning actually looks like down here Quiet. The Financial District empties out on weekends anyway, and marathon Sunday is no exception, because the course doesn't come anywhere near it. You'll get a handful of runners walking south in the dark and not much else. If you want coffee before the boat, plan on making it yourself. Very little is open at 5 a.m. down here, which is one reason a suite with a kitchen earns its keep on this particular weekend. ## Where the course goes, and where to watch The course doesn't touch Lower Manhattan, so let's be straight about that. It runs Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, First Avenue in Manhattan, the Bronx, then Fifth Avenue and into Central Park. If you're the person doing the spectating rather than the running, the easiest jump from here is the R/W or the 4/5 to Brooklyn for the Fourth Avenue miles, then back on a train to catch your runner again on First Avenue or near the park. It's a long day of trains. Pack snacks and a portable charger. ## Getting back downtown after the finish Runners exit Central Park on foot somewhere in the 70s or 80s, which takes a while, and then you want the shortest possible trip home. The C train runs straight down the west side from 72nd St to Fulton St, one seat, about half an hour when the crowds aren't bad, and Fulton St is a few minutes' walk from John Street. After 26.2 miles, not transferring is the point. ## Why a suite works for marathon weekend We're an apartment-style building, so the practical stuff lines up well with race weekend. There's a full kitchen in the suites if you want to control what you eat for three days, a laundry room for the pile of kit you brought, a lounge and a gym on the lower level for a shakeout when it's raining, and a rooftop terrace when you want air without walking anywhere. Two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites work if your support crew came along and you'd rather not book a second room. Come the week before? The neighborhood is easy to keep your legs fresh in: flat waterfront paths in both directions and no traffic lights to fight along the esplanade. --- ## The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2026: Doing It From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2026-from-lower-manhattan > The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 26, 2026, at West 77th Street and Central Park West, runs south along the park, then down 6th Avenue to Macy's at Herald Square on West 34th Street. If you're wondering where to stay for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a Lower Manhattan base like ours at 17 John Street is a 25 to 35 minute subway ride from the route, and it stays calm all week while Midtown fills up. You get a kitchen to cook the actual dinner in, room for everyone to sleep, and a neighborhood you can still walk around on Thanksgiving afternoon. Thanksgiving in New York is loud for about four hours and then goes quiet. The parade is the loud part, and it happens entirely in Midtown and on the Upper West Side. Where you sleep the other twenty hours matters more than people think. We get a lot of families booking two suites together for Thanksgiving week, usually a group of nine to eleven with a couple of small kids, and the questions are always the same: how far is the parade, can we cook, can we all be on the same floor. Here's the honest version of all three. ## The 2026 parade: date, time, route The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 26, 2026. It starts at West 77th Street and Central Park West, runs south along the park to Columbus Circle, turns east onto Central Park South, and then heads down 6th Avenue to Macy's flagship store at Herald Square on West 34th Street. The whole thing takes roughly three hours to pass any single point. Public viewing is along Central Park West and down 6th Avenue. The final stretch in front of Macy's is bleachers and broadcast only, so don't plan your morning around standing at 34th and Broadway. ## Where to actually stand Central Park West between 77th and 61st is the best public stretch, and it's the one that fills first. People start lining up before 6 a.m., and by 7 the front rows are gone. The 6th Avenue section between 38th and 59th is more forgiving. You'll be deeper in the crowd but you can still get there at 7:30 and see balloons. A few things that are true every year: barricades go up early, cross-street access gets cut off once the parade is moving, and there are no public restrooms along the route. Eat before you go, bring a thermos, and pick your corner before you're standing in a crowd trying to decide. ## Getting there from the Financial District Take the subway. Streets across Midtown are closed and cars are useless that morning. From our door on John Street, Fulton Street station is a couple of blocks away and it's the most useful station in Lower Manhattan. The A or C runs straight up 8th Avenue to 59th Street-Columbus Circle, which puts you at the bend in the route where the parade turns east. That ride is about 25 minutes. If you'd rather aim for the 6th Avenue stretch, the 2 or 3 to 34th Street-Penn Station gets you a few blocks west of Herald Square, and the R or W from Cortlandt Street runs to 34th Street-Herald Square directly. Leave downtown by 6:45 a.m. if you want a real spot on Central Park West, or by 7:15 if you're fine with 6th Avenue. Trains run a holiday schedule on Thanksgiving, so check the MTA app before you walk out. Coming home is easier than going: the crowd disperses south and west, and once you're a few blocks off the route the platforms thin out fast. ## The night before is the underrated part The balloons get inflated on Thanksgiving eve near the American Museum of Natural History, and the public can walk through and watch. It usually runs from around midday into the early evening, with the entry line forming near West 72nd Street, and Macy's posts the exact hours each year. It's slow moving and there's a lot of standing, but it's the closest you'll ever get to a five-story turkey lying on its side under a net. Kids tend to like it more than the parade itself. From downtown, the A or C to 81st Street-Museum of Natural History or the 1 to 79th Street both work. ## Thanksgiving afternoon in the Financial District Once the parade ends, Midtown is a slow river of people for hours. Downtown is the opposite. The Financial District empties out on holidays because almost nobody who works here is here, and the streets around Wall Street and Stone Street get genuinely quiet. It's a good afternoon for the walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, or the loop down to Battery Park with the harbor wind in your face, or just the rooftop terrace with a coffee while dinner is in the oven. One practical note: most Financial District restaurants close for Thanksgiving, and the ones that open book out weeks ahead. If you're planning to eat out, reserve by early November. If you're cooking, do your shopping Tuesday or Wednesday morning, because the downtown grocery stores get picked over by Wednesday night. ## Why a downtown base works for this week Our suites are apartment-style with full kitchens, which is the whole argument for staying here over Thanksgiving. You can roast a bird, or at least handle breakfast for nine people without a restaurant line. There's a laundry room, a fitness center and a guest lounge on the lower level, and a rooftop terrace for the part of the evening when everyone needs to spread out. For bigger groups, we sell by the room rather than per person, and our Signature 3-Bedroom and Deluxe 2-Bedroom terrace suites sit next to each other on the 3rd floor, so a party of eleven can take both and share a hallway instead of an elevator. Book that combination early. Thanksgiving week goes first. --- ## NYC Wine & Food Festival 2026 at the Seaport: What to Know and Where to Stay Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/nyc-wine-food-festival-2026-seaport > The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival runs Thursday October 15 through Sunday October 18, 2026, with its main campus at the Seaport in Lower Manhattan and 50-plus events spread across the city. If you want to stay within walking distance, the Financial District is the practical choice: from John Street you can be at the Seaport in under ten minutes on foot, which matters when you've got four days of tastings and no interest in a late-night cab. Our suites at 17 John have full kitchens and laundry, so you can keep a fridge stocked between events. ## When and where the festival happens The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival runs Thursday, October 15 through Sunday, October 18, 2026, and its main campus sits at the Seaport in Lower Manhattan. The organizers list 50-plus events and more than 300 chefs, winemakers and mixologists across the four days. Some of it happens on the festival campus by the water, and plenty of it happens at restaurants and rooftops elsewhere in the city, so read each ticket carefully before you buy: the address on the ticket is the address you need, not the Seaport by default. Tickets go on sale in the summer and the popular walk-around tastings tend to move first. If you're planning a trip around it, book the room before you finalize the ticket list. October is a busy month down here. ## Why staying in the Financial District makes this easy The Seaport is a short walk from anywhere in FiDi, and from 17 John Street it's under ten minutes on foot. You head east on John toward the water, cross Water Street, and you're at Fulton and the piers. That's the whole trip. No subway, no car, no working out where to leave a car afterward. That matters more than it sounds. Festival days are long and involve a lot of standing, a lot of small plates, and usually a lot of wine. Being able to walk back, drop your tote bag, change your shoes and go out again is the difference between doing two events in a day and doing four. If you're going to an off-campus event in Chelsea or the West Village, the Fulton Street station is a five-minute walk from us and gets you north on the 2/3/4/5/A/C/J/Z. ## What to know before you go **Wear real shoes.** The Seaport has cobblestones. This catches people out every year. **Bring a layer.** Mid-October by the East River is colder than mid-October three blocks inland, especially after dark. The wind comes off the water. **Eat something first.** The tastings are small plates by design, and the pours are not small. **Check whether your event is 21+.** Many of them are, so if you're travelling with kids you'll want to plan around that. The Seaport itself is fine for families during the day. ## Where the food is when the festival isn't on You'll have gaps between events, and the neighborhood fills them well. Stone Street is a two-block cobblestone run of restaurants and bars about eight minutes from us, and it's the closest thing FiDi has to a dining street. The Seaport itself has a stack of restaurants around Fulton and Front Street plus the Pier 17 rooftop. If you want a quiet breakfast before a noon tasting, the coffee shops on Nassau and Fulton open early on weekdays and get sleepy on weekends, which is a fair description of the whole neighborhood. ## Staying at 17 John during the festival We're at 17 John Street, in the middle of the walk between the Seaport and Broadway. Our suites are apartment-style with full kitchens, which is genuinely useful during a food festival: you can keep the leftovers, chill a bottle you bought at a tasting, and make your own coffee at 8am instead of queuing for one. There's a laundry room on site, a fitness center and a guest lounge on the lower level, and free wifi throughout. Check-in is after 4:00 PM and it's self-service through a smart lock, with instructions sent the day before you arrive. Check-out is by 11:00 AM, and late check-out until 1:00 PM is available for $100 when we have the space. If you arrive early or you're heading out on a late flight after the Sunday events, we store luggage in the lobby free of charge, 24/7. We don't have parking, and honestly you don't want a car for this weekend. If you're driving anyway, the nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about three minutes away on foot. ## The rest of October down here If you're extending the trip, this is the best stretch of the year in Lower Manhattan. The harbor is clear, the light is good in the afternoon on the waterfront, and the walk from Battery Park up to the Brooklyn Bridge takes about an hour if you don't stop. Weekends in FiDi are quiet compared to Midtown, which is either the point or the problem depending on what you came for. For us, it's the point. --- ## Stone Street Oktoberfest 2026: What It's Like, and Where to Stay Two Blocks Away Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/stone-street-oktoberfest-2026 > Stone Street Oktoberfest 2026 takes over the cobblestone block of Stone Street in the Financial District on consecutive Saturdays from September into October, running noon to 11pm, with the organizers posting the confirmed Saturday list at stonestreetnyc.com. It's one of the largest Oktoberfest street parties in New York: the restaurants on the block push out long tables, there's German beer, brats and pretzels, and a polka band on the first couple of weekends. From 17 John Street it's about an eight-minute walk south, which is the whole argument for staying up here rather than getting on a train at 11pm. Stone Street Oktoberfest is the best street party in the Financial District, and it's the one weekend event down here that reliably pulls people from other boroughs. The organizers have confirmed it's back for September 2026, running on consecutive Saturdays into late October, noon until 11pm. Check stonestreetnyc.com for the exact Saturday list before you book anything around it, because the dates shift a little year to year. If you've never been: Stone Street is a two-block cobblestone lane between Broad Street and Hanover Square, closed to cars, lined end to end with restaurants and bars. On a normal warm evening the whole block is already outdoor tables. For Oktoberfest they lean into it properly. German beer by the litre, brats, giant pretzels, communal benches, and a polka band. The organizers have listed BB and the Polkahaus playing at 3pm on the first couple of Saturdays. It's cheerful rather than rowdy in the afternoon, and it gets loud as the evening goes on, which is a fair warning and also the point. ## What the day actually looks like Go early if you want a table. Doors and tables open at noon, and the block fills through the afternoon. The 2pm to 5pm window is the sweet spot: full atmosphere, still possible to move, still possible to hear the person across the bench. After about 6pm you're standing, and by 9pm the block is shoulder to shoulder. Nobody needs a ticket to walk down Stone Street, but individual restaurants take their own reservations and run their own beer service, so if you're a group of six or more it's worth calling one of them directly earlier in the week. Dress for a cobblestone street in October. It's a canyon of old buildings, the sun drops behind them early, and it gets colder than the forecast suggests once you're sitting still on a bench. Flat shoes. The cobbles are the real thing, not decorative. ## Getting there, and getting back From our door at 17 John Street it's about eight minutes on foot: head south, and Stone Street sits just north of Hanover Square. That's the practical reason to stay in the Financial District for this one. The people who have the worst night at Oktoberfest are the ones standing on a platform at 11pm trying to get back to Midtown or Brooklyn. The people who have the best night walk home in ten minutes with a pretzel. If you're coming in for the day rather than staying, the closest subways are the 2/3 at Wall Street, the 4/5 at Bowling Green or Wall Street, and the J/Z and 2/3/4/5/A/C at Fulton Street. All of them put you within a five to eight minute walk. ## Making a weekend of it Oktoberfest is an afternoon-into-evening thing, which leaves the whole morning free, and September and October are the best weeks of the year down here. The Financial District is quiet on weekends, the harbor air is cool, and the waterfront walk from Battery Park up to the Brooklyn Bridge is a genuinely good two hours before you start on beer. The Seaport is a five-minute walk east if you want lunch by the water first, and the 9/11 Memorial is about ten minutes northwest. Our suites all have a full kitchen, which matters more than it sounds for a day like this. Coffee at your own table in the morning, somewhere to leave the leftovers, and a real living room to come back to. The rooftop terrace is a good place to sit for a bit before you walk down. --- ## Open House New York Weekend 2026: How to Do It From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/open-house-new-york-weekend-2026-lower-manhattan > Open House New York Weekend 2026 runs Friday October 16 through Sunday October 18, and it opens more than 300 buildings across the five boroughs for behind-the-scenes tours. The full lineup goes public on September 25 and tickets for the sites that need them are released on October 2, so put both dates in your calendar. Lower Manhattan is one of the densest parts of the map, and staying in the Financial District means you can walk between sites instead of spending the weekend on trains. We're at 17 John Street, a few minutes from Wall Street, the World Trade Center site and the Seaport. OHNY Weekend is the one weekend a year when doors that are normally shut open up: infrastructure facilities, private collections, workshops, new towers, old civic buildings. The 2026 edition is the 24th, it runs October 16 through 18, and Open House New York puts more than 300 destinations on the map across all five boroughs. Roughly 50,000 people take part, and about a thousand volunteers make it happen. The thing nobody tells first-timers: the planning matters more than the walking. Here's the schedule Open House New York has published for 2026. | Date | What happens | | --- | --- | | September 18 | Members get early access to the lineup | | September 25 | Full public reveal, with all locations, activities, dates and times | | October 2 | Tickets released for the sites that require them | | October 15 | Launch party, the festival's fundraiser | | October 16 to 18 | The festival itself, three days | Most sites are open access, meaning you can just show up. The ones with tight space or security requirements need a ticket, and those go fast when they're released on October 2. Set a reminder for that morning. ## Why base yourself in Lower Manhattan for OHNY Because you can walk it. The Financial District and the blocks around it hold a high share of the city's oldest civic buildings and its newest towers within about a mile of each other, so a Lower Manhattan base turns a day of subway hops into a day of walking with coffee in between. Wall Street is two blocks from our door at 17 John Street. The World Trade Center site is about ten minutes on foot. The Seaport is under ten minutes the other way, and Battery Park is about twelve. It also helps that the neighborhood is quiet on weekends. Sidewalks are empty, the lines at lunch are short, and you're not fighting midtown crowds between stops. ## What to look at while you wait for the lineup The 2026 site list isn't public until September 25, so don't book a plan around specific buildings yet. In the meantime, these are Lower Manhattan places you can look at any weekend, ticket or not: - **Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street.** The Greek Revival building with the Washington statue on the steps, two blocks from us. - **Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street.** The churchyard is open to walk through, and the gravestones predate the country. - **The Oculus at the World Trade Center.** Santiago Calatrava's transit hall. Free to walk through, and the light inside at midday is the whole point. - **70 Pine Street.** One of the great Art Deco towers downtown. There's a coffee roaster in the base and a cocktail bar on the 64th floor if you want the view. - **The Brooklyn Bridge.** The walkway entrance is about eight minutes from John Street, and the bridge is a piece of engineering worth an hour on its own. ## Practical notes for the weekend Wear real shoes, since you'll be standing on stone floors and stairs. Bring a phone battery, because the OHNY site list lives on your phone. Plan three or four sites a day rather than eight; tours run long and the good ones are worth staying for. And build in a sit-down lunch. Stone Street is the cobblestone restaurant block down here and it's a five-minute walk from us. If you're coming in for the weekend, our suites have full kitchens, separate bedrooms and laundry in the building, which is useful when you're out all day and want to eat breakfast at your own table before you start walking. October is also the best month down here: the harbor light is good and the crowds have thinned out. --- ## The Feast of San Gennaro 2026: Doing Little Italy From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/feast-of-san-gennaro-2026-from-lower-manhattan > The Feast of San Gennaro 2026 runs Thursday September 17 through Sunday September 27 on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, and it's the 100th one. From the Financial District it's about a 25-minute walk north, or one stop on the 6 from Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall to Canal Street. Go on a weeknight around 5 p.m. if you want to actually move; weekend nights after 7 are shoulder to shoulder. Staying south of Canal, like at 17 John Street, means you can walk up, eat too much, and walk home without waiting for a train. ## The Feast of San Gennaro 2026 runs September 17 through 27 on Mulberry Street Eleven days, Thursday September 17 to Sunday September 27, and this one is the 100th feast. The organizers list events every day of the run, and the street fair itself is the constant: Mulberry Street closed to cars, lights strung overhead, sausage and pepper griddles going from late morning until late at night. Listed hours are 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily and later on Friday and Saturday, but check the official calendar before you plan an evening around a specific parade or ceremony. We get asked about it every September by guests who booked before they knew it was on. Short version: it's worth going, it's free to walk in, and it's much better from a bed south of Canal Street than from a train platform at 11 p.m. ## Getting there from the Financial District: walk it From 17 John Street it's about a 25-minute walk. Head west to Broadway, go north past City Hall Park, stay on Centre Street to Canal, then cut two blocks east to Mulberry. You'll know you're there when the crowd stops moving in a straight line. If you'd rather ride, the 6 from Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall puts you out at Canal Street, which is the top end of the fair. It's a short trip, but on a Saturday night the walk home is honestly faster than the wait to get on a downtown train. ## When to go if you don't like crowds Go on a weeknight, and go early. Between about 4:30 and 6:30 on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can walk the length of Mulberry, look at what's on each griddle, and sit down somewhere without a wait. Friday and Saturday after 7 p.m. is the full experience: packed, loud, slow, fun if that's what you came for. Sunday afternoons are the family shift, with strollers and grandparents and a lot of people eating standing up. Rain thins it out fast, which is either a problem or a gift depending on your tolerance for elbows. ## What to eat, and what to skip The street food is the point. Sausage and peppers, arancini, fried dough with powdered sugar, zeppole by the paper bag, cannoli filled while you wait. Prices are cash-friendly and portions are big, so split things and keep walking rather than committing to one plate. If you want to sit, the restaurants along Mulberry put tables out on the closed street for the run of the feast. They're busy and they know it, so expect a wait and expect to pay festival prices. Some of our guests do it the other way around: graze on the street, then walk back down to the Financial District and have a proper drink somewhere quiet. ## Where to stay for it You want to be south of Canal Street, close enough to walk both directions. Little Italy itself has almost no hotel rooms, and the ones near it fill up and price up for those eleven days. We're at 17 John Street in the Financial District, about 1.2 miles from Mulberry. Our suites are apartment-style, so you've got a kitchen if you want to keep breakfast simple and save your appetite for the feast, and we have 2- and 3-bedroom suites if you're coming with family (we don't have connecting rooms, so the multi-bedroom layouts are the way to keep everyone together). There's a laundry room, which matters more than you'd think after a night of fried food and a warm September crowd. The rooftop terrace has lounge chairs and it's a good spot to sit with a coffee before you head north. September weekends downtown are quiet in a way Midtown never is. You'll be walking home past empty office blocks and it'll feel like the city belongs to you for twenty minutes. ## One thing worth knowing The feast overlaps with a lot of other Lower Manhattan fall programming, so if you're already coming for San Gennaro you can build a whole weekend without leaving the bottom of the island. Chinatown starts a block west of Mulberry, so you can eat your way through both in one evening. --- ## Tribute in Light 2026: Where to Watch the Beams on the 25th Anniversary Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/tribute-in-light-2026-where-to-watch > The Tribute in Light goes up at dusk on September 11, 2026 and burns until dawn on the 12th, and it's free with no ticket and no viewing area. The beams are projected from the roof of the Battery Parking Garage at West and Morris Streets, six blocks south of the World Trade Center, and the city says they can be seen from a 60-mile radius around Lower Manhattan. We're on John Street, a walk of about ten minutes from the memorial, so you can watch from down here; if you want the beams with the whole skyline behind them, the Brooklyn waterfront, Sunset Park and Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City are the vantage points NYC Tourism points people to. ## What the Tribute in Light is, and when it's on It's two columns of light in the shape of the Twin Towers, switched on at dusk on September 11 and left burning until dawn the next morning. There's no ticket, no gate and no official viewing area. You look up. 2026 is the 25th anniversary, so the city around it will be busier than a normal September 11, and there are more ceremonies and concerts on the calendar than usual. The beams themselves work the same way they do every year. ## Where the beams come from The lights sit at West and Morris Streets, on top of the Battery Parking Garage, about six blocks south of the World Trade Center site. That's a short walk south of us. The 9/11 Memorial itself is not the source, which surprises people who go stand at the pools expecting to find the lamps there. NYC Tourism says the beams can be seen from a 60-mile radius around Lower Manhattan, so the honest answer to "where should I stand" is: almost anywhere with sky. What changes from spot to spot is what else is in the frame. ## Where to watch from **From down here, near the source.** Standing a few blocks away you get the beams close and steep, going almost straight up out of the buildings. You lose the skyline, and you'll be craning your neck. We think it's the more affecting version, and it costs you a ten-minute walk rather than an hour of travel. **The Brooklyn waterfront.** This is the classic photograph: beams, harbor, the whole downtown skyline underneath them. NYC Tourism names the Brooklyn waterfront as one of the good vantage points, and from us it's the Brooklyn Bridge on foot, roughly half an hour of walking to reach the far side. Go before dark if you're walking the bridge, because the promenade fills up and the light is better on the way over than the way back. **Gantry Plaza State Park, Long Island City.** A waterfront park in Queens directly across from Midtown, also on NYC Tourism's list. You're further from the beams, which means they read as thin and tall against a very wide skyline. It's a subway ride rather than a walk, and worth it only if the photograph is the point. **Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park.** On September 11 the cemetery hosts Notes of Tribute, where you sit at an elevated perch on the grounds to watch the beams alongside music and remembrances. This is the one to pick if you'd rather be at something than just look at something. It's a real trip from Lower Manhattan, out into Brooklyn, so treat it as your whole evening. ## What else is on around the anniversary **Sounds of Remembrance, September 11, Perelman Performing Arts Center.** The New York Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel with the Soldiers' Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band, playing Beethoven and Tchaikovsky plus the world premiere of a piece by Julia Adolphe with texts by Safiya Sinclair, commissioned for the occasion. It's ticketed, and it's at the World Trade Center site, so you can walk to it from us and be back in your kitchen twenty minutes after the applause stops. **NYC Still Rising, September 10, Madison Square Garden.** A comedy fundraiser for 9/11 charities with Nikki Glaser and Pete Davidson among the headliners. Ticketed, and uptown, so budget travel time on a night when downtown streets are closed in places. **Yankees vs. Mets, September 11 to 13, Yankee Stadium.** The Subway Series lands on the anniversary weekend, and the opener includes a tribute to 9/11 first responders. From here it's the 4 train straight from Fulton Street to 161 St-Yankee Stadium, about half an hour. ## The memorial itself on the day The 9/11 Memorial plaza is closed for visitation except for victims' families for much of September 11, and the museum is closed to the general public that day. If seeing the pools is the reason you came, come on the 10th or the 12th. Check 911memorial.org before you walk over, because the reopening time on the evening of the 11th is theirs to set, not ours to promise. ## Staying down here that week We're at 17 John Street, which puts you inside the walking radius for all of the Lower Manhattan events and out of the worst of the crowd, since the ceremony draws people to the plaza itself rather than to our block. Our suites have full kitchens, which matters more than usual on a week when downtown restaurants near the site run long waits. There's a laundry room and a gym if you're here for a stretch, and the rooftop terrace has lounge chairs if you want to sit outside that night. We can't promise a sightline to the beams from the roof, though. The buildings around us decide that, not us. Space to live in the city, two blocks from where the week is happening. --- ## Taste of the Seaport 2026: What It Is and Where to Stay Nearby Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/taste-of-the-seaport-2026-where-to-stay > Taste of the Seaport returns on Saturday, September 26, 2026, in the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, where local restaurants set up along the historic streets and you eat your way down the block with a tasting card. It's the neighborhood's main fall food event and the annual fundraiser for two local public schools, Peck Slip School (PS 343) and Spruce Street School. If you want to walk to it rather than plan a trip around it, stay in the Financial District: our suites at 17 John Street are about a 10-minute walk from the Seaport, and each one has a full kitchen, which helps on a weekend when downtown restaurants get busy. ## What Taste of the Seaport is It's a one-day street food event in the South Street Seaport where local restaurants hand out tastes from tables set up along the old low-rise blocks, and the money goes to two neighborhood public schools. The 2026 edition returns on Saturday, September 26. You buy a tasting card, then work your way from table to table. There's usually a kids' area, live music, and a lot of families from the surrounding blocks, because this is a school fundraiser first and a food festival second. Proceeds benefit Peck Slip School (PS 343) and Spruce Street School. What makes it worth planning around is the setting. The Seaport is the one part of the Financial District that still looks like the 1800s port it was, all cobblestones and four-story brick, with the masts at Pier 16 and the East River right there. Eating outside on those streets on a late September afternoon is a very different downtown from the one people picture when they hear Wall Street. ## How tickets work Tastes are sold as cards with a set number of tastes on them, in packs, rather than as one flat admission ticket. Prices and pack sizes are posted on the official site at tasteoftheseaport.org, and early-bird cards are cheaper than day-of. Buy ahead if you can. Popular restaurants run out of their most-wanted dishes before the afternoon is over, so the practical advice is simple: get there early, eat the thing you came for first, then wander. ## Getting there from the Financial District From our door at 17 John Street, walk east on John toward the water. In about ten minutes you're at Front Street and the middle of the event. No subway, no car, no planning. If you're coming from elsewhere in the city, the 2/3 at Fulton Street, the 4/5 at Fulton, and the A/C, J/Z, and R/W all converge at the Fulton Street station complex, which is a five-minute walk from the Seaport. ## Where to stay for it A Saturday food event you can walk home from is a better Saturday than one that ends with a train ride. Our suites at 17 John Street are in the Financial District between Broadway and Nassau, roughly ten minutes on foot from the Seaport and five from Stone Street. A few things that matter for a fall weekend down here. Every suite has a full kitchen, so breakfast before the event doesn't mean hunting for a table, and leftovers have somewhere to go. There's a laundry room and a fitness center on site. Check-in is after 4 PM and check-out is by 11 AM, and check-in is self-service through a keypad, with the code and instructions sent the day before you arrive. If you land early on the Saturday, luggage storage in the lobby is free and available around the clock, so you can drop bags and go eat. The other thing to know: the Financial District on a weekend is quiet. The office crowd is gone, the streets around Wall Street empty out, and the neighborhood feels residential in a way that surprises people. That works in your favor on Taste of the Seaport weekend, because the crowd is concentrated in six blocks by the river and the walk back is calm. ## What else to do that weekend September is the best month down here. Make a day of it: the waterfront promenade runs from the Seaport south past Battery Park, the Brooklyn Bridge entrance is a ten-minute walk north of the event, and the Fulton Market building and Pier 17 stay open regardless. If you've got a Sunday, the [Lower Manhattan waterfront walk](/itineraries/lower-manhattan-waterfront-walk-from-17-john) covers the whole harbor edge in a morning. --- ## The Village Halloween Parade 2026: Where to Watch It, and Where to Sleep After Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/village-halloween-parade-2026-from-lower-manhattan > The Village Halloween Parade 2026 runs Saturday October 31 at 7 p.m., straight up Sixth Avenue from around Canal and King Street to West 15th Street, and it wraps up near 11 p.m. Marchers line up at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue starting at 6:30. From the Financial District, the A or C from Fulton Street takes you to Canal Street in about ten minutes and drops you at the start of the route. Watch from the lower blocks if you want space, and stay downtown so you can get home without fighting the uptown trains. ## The parade is Saturday October 31, 2026, and it steps off at 7 p.m. This is the 53rd Village Halloween Parade. It runs straight up Sixth Avenue, starting down around Canal and King Street and finishing at West 15th Street, and it usually keeps going until close to 11 p.m. Marchers form up at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue, with arrival windows listed at 6:30 and again at 9 p.m. Anyone in costume can march. No ticket, no application, you just show up in the lineup area and join. Halloween lands on a Saturday in 2026, which means bigger crowds than usual. Plan the getting-there and the getting-home parts before you plan the costume. ## Where to actually stand The lower blocks, roughly Canal up to Houston, are the least brutal. Crowds thicken the further north you go, and by the time you're near 14th Street people are five deep with phones up. If you want a curb spot below Houston, be there by 6:15. If you show up at 8, stand somewhere in the low 20s of blocks... which is to say, go north and accept you'll be watching over shoulders. A few things we tell guests every year: - Cross streets get closed as the parade moves, so pick your side of Sixth Avenue early and stay on it. - Kids do better at the start, both because it's earlier and because the puppets and the marching bands lead the parade. The later hours get rowdier. - It's an outdoor parade at the end of October in New York. Bring a layer that fits under the costume. ## Getting there from the Financial District Fulton Street station is a few minutes' walk from our door on John Street, and the A and C run from there to Canal Street in about ten minutes. That station exit puts you right at the bottom of the route where the parade forms up. Getting home is the part people underestimate. Sixth Avenue trains are packed from about 9:30 onward, and the closed cross streets make cabs and rideshares slow and expensive. If you're staying downtown, walking back is genuinely the better option: it's about 25 minutes from Canal Street down Broadway to John Street, and it's a nice, quiet walk once you're past Chambers. ## Halloween in Lower Manhattan itself Down here it's calm. The Financial District empties out on weekends, so if you want a drink after the parade the bars around Stone Street will feel like a different city than Sixth Avenue did an hour earlier. Trick-or-treating happens in the residential pockets of Battery Park City and along a few FiDi blocks in the late afternoon, before the parade even starts, so families can do both. ## Where to stay for it Stay south. Anywhere below Canal means you can walk home when the trains are a mess, and Lower Manhattan hotel rates in late October tend to be gentler than anything near the Village. We're at 17 John Street. Our suites are apartment-style with a kitchen, which is useful on a night when you're eating late and want coffee at your own pace the next morning. We have 2- and 3-bedroom suites for groups and families (no connecting rooms, so those layouts are how everyone stays together), a laundry room, a gym, and a rooftop terrace with lounge chairs for the following afternoon when nobody wants to move. If you're coming for the weekend rather than the night, the first of November is one of the better days to be downtown: the marathon is running through the city, the light is good, and the waterfront walk from Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge is right outside. --- ## Tunnel to Towers 5K 2026: Running Into Lower Manhattan, and Where to Stay Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/tunnel-to-towers-5k-2026-from-lower-manhattan > The Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk in New York City is on Sunday, September 27, 2026. It starts at the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel), goes straight through the tunnel, and finishes in Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site, tracing the route firefighter Stephen Siller ran in his gear on September 11, 2001. Because the finish is downtown and the start is a shuttle or subway ride away in Brooklyn, staying in the Financial District is the practical choice: you're a short walk from the finish area, so you can get back to a shower and a real breakfast within minutes of crossing the line instead of riding the train in wet clothes. The Tunnel to Towers 5K is one of the few big New York races that actually belongs to Lower Manhattan. It's on Sunday, September 27, 2026, which is the last Sunday of September, where the foundation holds it every year. The route is the point of the whole thing. It starts at the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, runs through the tunnel itself, and comes up into Lower Manhattan to finish near the World Trade Center. That's the path Stephen Siller took on September 11, 2001, when he couldn't get his truck through and ran the tunnel on foot carrying about sixty pounds of gear. The foundation named for him has run the race along that route ever since. Firefighters walk it in full turnout gear. There are photos of fallen first responders held along the last stretch. It is not a PR race and nobody treats it like one. ## Why staying downtown makes race morning easier The finish is here, the start is not. That's the logistics problem every runner has to solve, and it's the reason a Financial District base works better than a Midtown one. If you're staying downtown, race morning looks like this: you walk or take a short subway ride to the Brooklyn start, run the tunnel, and finish a few blocks from where you're sleeping. No hour-long trip back uptown in a foil blanket. From 17 John Street the finish area near the World Trade Center is roughly a 10 to 12 minute walk, so you can be back in the suite, showered, and eating within half an hour of crossing the line. Check nycrun.t2t.org for this year's start time, corral assignments, gear check and the shuttle or transit instructions to the Brooklyn start. Those details move year to year and the race site is the only place worth trusting on them. ## What the rest of the day looks like Late September is the best stretch of the year down here. The humidity is gone, the harbor air is cool in the morning, and the Financial District is quiet on a Sunday because the offices are empty. That combination makes it a good day to keep walking after the race instead of collapsing. A few things that are right there once you've finished: - The 9/11 Memorial pools are steps from the finish area, and a lot of runners go straight there. It's a heavy morning already, and being able to stand at the pools without a subway ride in between matters. - Coffee and a proper breakfast in the Financial District, which we've written about separately. Sunday morning downtown is the easy version, no line out the door. - The Brooklyn Bridge walk, if your legs will forgive you. The Manhattan entrance is about ten minutes from John Street. - Battery Park and the harbor edge, a flat walk if you want to move without any more hills. ## Bringing family who aren't running This is where a suite beats a hotel room on a race weekend. People who aren't running don't need to be up at dawn. They can stay put, make coffee in the kitchen, and walk down to the finish area later to watch, then everyone regroups without checking out of two separate rooms. The suites have full kitchens, which also means you can handle a pre-race dinner and a 5am breakfast on your own schedule rather than hunting for something open. ## Getting here the day before If you're flying in, we've written up the airport routes to the Financial District from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark. Come in Saturday if you can. Race morning is early, the tunnel start means an extra leg of travel before you even run, and you do not want to be doing that on three hours of sleep after a late flight. --- ## US Open 2026 From Lower Manhattan: Getting to Flushing, and Where to Stay Source: https://www.17john.com/events-near/us-open-2026-from-lower-manhattan > For the US Open 2026 (August 23 through September 13 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows), staying in Lower Manhattan means one transfer to the gates: walk two blocks from us to Fulton Street, take the 4 or 5 up to Grand Central, then the 7 to Mets-Willets Point. The LIRR Port Washington Branch is the faster option at about 19 minutes from Grand Central Madison or Penn Station, with a $5 special fare during the tournament. We're at 17 John Street, and our suites have full kitchens, which matters more than you'd think when you get back at midnight. ## The short version The US Open runs August 23 through September 13, 2026, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, with Fan Week and qualifying at the front end and the main draw from August 30 to the finals on the 13th. From us on John Street, you're looking at one transfer and roughly 50 to 60 minutes door to gate. That's the whole reason people ask whether downtown works for the Open, and the answer is yes, as long as you know which train to take. We're at 17 John Street in the Financial District. Two weeks of tennis is a long trip, and it's the kind of trip where a kitchen and a laundry room earn their keep. Space to live in the city. ## Getting from Lower Manhattan to Flushing Meadows The fastest reliable route is the LIRR. The Port Washington Branch runs straight to Mets-Willets Point from Grand Central Madison or Penn Station in about 19 minutes, and the MTA and the USTA have set a $5 special fare with extra stops for the tournament. From us, take the 4 or the 5 from Fulton Street up to Grand Central, walk down into Grand Central Madison, and ride out. Fulton Street is a two-block walk and the 4 runs at all times, the 5 at all times except late nights. The subway-only route is the 7 train, which serves Mets-Willets Point from Grand Central Terminal and is the way most people go. Same first leg for you: 4 or 5 from Fulton Street to Grand Central, then up to the 7 platform. It's slower than the LIRR and it stops everywhere in Queens, but it runs constantly and you don't need to think about a timetable, which is worth something after a five-hour session. Coming back from a night session, the 7 is the safer bet. Sessions can end well past 11pm and the subway doesn't stop running. | Route | From us | Roughly | | --- | --- | --- | | LIRR via Grand Central Madison | 4/5 from Fulton St, then Port Washington Branch to Mets-Willets Point | ~19 min on the train, ~50 min total | | Subway only | 4/5 from Fulton St to Grand Central, then the 7 to Mets-Willets Point | ~60 min total | ## Why we like downtown for a tennis trip Because you're not sleeping next to the tournament, and that's the point. Flushing hotels put you close to the gates and nowhere near anything else; midtown puts you in the crush. Down here the offices empty out in the evening and the streets go quiet, which is exactly what you want when you've spent nine hours in the sun on Court 17. Your suite has a full kitchen if you want to cook, and there's a laundry room, so a two-week stay doesn't mean two weeks of takeout and a suitcase of damp clothes. The gym and the guest lounge are here too, and the rooftop terrace is a nice spot in the evening if you're back before the last match ends. For a family or a group, we don't have connecting rooms, but we do have two and three bedroom suites, and the three bedrooms come as either two kings and a queen or two queens and a king. ## What to do on a day without tennis The 9/11 Memorial is a seven-minute walk west of us, and the reflecting pools are free to visit; the museum next to it is ticketed and takes a couple of hours if you go in. Go early, before the tour groups land. Stone Street is two blocks south and it's the one block down here that's genuinely busy at night: a cobblestone lane of restaurant patios that fills up with after-work crowds from spring through fall. It's where we send guests who want dinner without a subway ride. The Staten Island Ferry leaves from Whitehall Terminal, about a 15-minute walk south, and it's free. You get the harbor and the Statue of Liberty from the water for the price of nothing, and the round trip takes about an hour. Sit on the right side going out. Battery Park is on the way to the ferry, at the southern tip of the island. It's the closest real green space to us and the best place down here to sit with a coffee and look at water instead of buildings. ## Know before you go Bags: the tennis center has a bag size limit and no re-entry rules that shift year to year, so check the official site the morning of your session rather than trusting a blog. Weather: late August in New York is hot and humid, and the outer courts have no shade. Tickets: a grounds pass gets you every court except Arthur Ashe, and in week one that's the better value. --- ## Walking to Chinatown and Little Italy From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/chinatown-little-italy-walk-from-financial-district > You can walk from the Financial District to Chinatown in about 15 to 20 minutes. From John Street, head up Broadway past St. Paul's Chapel, cut through City Hall Park, follow Park Row to Worth Street, and you're at Columbus Park at Mulberry and Bayard, which is the southern edge of Chinatown. From there it's a five-minute stroll to Doyers Street, ten to Canal, and another five up Mulberry into Little Italy. If you'd rather ride, the 6 from Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall goes one stop to Canal Street. People staying down here are often surprised how close Chinatown is. From our door on John Street it's about 15 minutes on foot to Columbus Park, and the walk itself is one of the better ones in the city: 18th-century churchyards, City Hall Park, then the street grid loosens up and you're in Chinatown before you've really noticed the change. This is a half day, not a full one. Go in the late morning, eat twice, buy something to cook later, and be back by mid-afternoon. We've written it as a route rather than a list, because the walking is half the point. If it's raining or the kids are done, the 6 train from Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall gets you to Canal Street in one stop. A note on hours: small shops down here keep their own schedules and some are cash-preferred. Worth a quick check before you build your day around any one place. --- ## Walking to DUMBO Over the Brooklyn Bridge: A Half Day From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/brooklyn-bridge-dumbo-half-day-from-fidi > Walking to DUMBO from the Financial District takes about an hour door to door: roughly 12 minutes from 17 John Street to the Manhattan pedestrian entrance near City Hall, then 30 to 40 minutes across the Brooklyn Bridge, and you come down the stairs at Washington and Prospect Streets in DUMBO. Go early, before about 9am, if you want the bridge without crowds. Spend the rest of the morning at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jane's Carousel and the Washington Street photo spot, then take the NYC Ferry from Fulton Ferry Landing back to Pier 11 at Wall Street instead of walking twice. This is the walk we recommend most often, and it works best as a morning. From 17 John Street you're about 12 minutes from the Manhattan pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, the crossing itself is roughly a mile, and you land in DUMBO with the whole waterfront in front of you. Plan on four to five hours if you take your time in Brooklyn Bridge Park, or three if you're moving. One piece of advice before you go: walk it early. The bridge gets shoulder-to-shoulder by late morning, especially on weekends in summer, and the photos everyone comes for are much easier at 8am. Bring water in warm weather, because there's no shade out on the span. And take the ferry back rather than walking both directions. The view of Lower Manhattan from the water is better than anything you'll see from the bridge, and your legs will thank you. --- ## A Romantic Weekend in Lower Manhattan: Two Nights, Written by People Who Live Down Here Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/romantic-weekend-lower-manhattan-anniversary > The most romantic things to do in Lower Manhattan are the ones that use the water and the quiet: the free Staten Island Ferry at golden hour, a drink 64 floors up at Overstory on Pine Street, dinner on the cobblestones of Stone Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge walk early on a Sunday before the crowd arrives. This two-night plan strings them together on foot from 17 John Street, with a Broadway night in the middle for anyone marking an anniversary. Nothing here needs a car and most of it needs no ticket. We get a lot of anniversary bookings. Twentieth, twenty-fifth, the occasional first. People usually arrive with a Broadway ticket and a dinner reservation and a gap in the middle they're not sure what to do with, and they're often surprised that the good part of the weekend turns out to be the walking. Lower Manhattan is the oldest, strangest-shaped part of the city. The streets bend, the buildings are close, and then you turn a corner and the harbor is right there. On weekends the office crowd is gone and it gets quiet in a way Midtown never does. That's the whole case for doing a romantic weekend down here instead of up there: you can hold a conversation on the sidewalk. This is a two-night plan, Friday evening through Sunday lunch, built around walking distance from our door on John Street. Take the parts you like. The times are suggestions, not a schedule. --- ## A Self-Guided Wall Street Walking Tour: Two Hours, No Ticket Needed Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/self-guided-wall-street-walking-tour > You can walk the whole of historic Wall Street yourself in about two hours, for free, without a guide. The loop runs Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street, where Washington was sworn in as president in 1789, past the bomb scars still visible on 23 Wall, down to Trinity Church and Alexander Hamilton's grave, then to Charging Bull at Bowling Green, Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street, and back up the cobblestones of Stone Street. Every stop below is within a 15-minute walk of John Street in the Financial District. Paid Wall Street walking tours run about two hours and cost $40 or more a head. The route they take is public sidewalk, the buildings are free to look at, and the two best interiors on it (Federal Hall and Trinity Church) don't charge admission. So here's the version we give guests who ask, written as a loop you can walk yourself. It starts and ends on John Street, because that's our block, and the whole thing covers a bit over a mile. Give it two hours if you read the plaques and go inside things, an hour if you're just walking it. Weekday mornings are best: Federal Hall keeps limited weekday hours, the streets have some life to them, and you'll still beat the tour groups if you're out before nine. Weekends are quieter and prettier for photos, but a few interiors will be shut. One thing worth knowing before you start. Wall Street is narrow, shorter than people expect, and mostly in shadow. The scale surprises everyone. This is a 17th-century Dutch street grid with 20th-century towers dropped into it, which is exactly what makes it interesting on foot and unremarkable from a bus window. --- ## Biking From the Financial District: Three Routes on the Greenways Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/biking-lower-manhattan-hudson-river-greenway > From the Financial District you can be on a car-free bike path in about five minutes. Ride west to the Hudson River Greenway, which runs from the Battery straight up the west side with no cross traffic, or east along the South Street waterfront past the Seaport. The two connect around the tip of Manhattan at the Battery, so the short version is a harbor loop of roughly four miles that takes about two hours with stops. For a longer day, follow the Hudson north to Little Island and Chelsea Piers, or take the protected bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge roadway over to DUMBO. Citi Bike docks sit on most blocks down here, including a few within a couple of minutes' walk of John Street. The best thing about riding a bike down here is how quickly the cars go away. The Financial District street grid is old and narrow and not much fun on two wheels, but it's only a few blocks wide. Head west and you hit the Hudson River Greenway, a protected path that starts at the Battery and runs the length of the west side. Head east and you're on the South Street waterfront past the Seaport. Both are flat, both are separated from traffic, and they meet each other around the southern tip of the island. We get asked about bikes a lot, usually some version of "is it actually safe to ride here?" Down here, on the greenways, yes. In midtown traffic, that's a different question. Below Chambers Street you can plan a whole ride that barely touches a car lane. Three routes below, in order of how much time they take. All of them start within a few minutes of John Street. If you're using Citi Bike, docks are scattered through the neighborhood, including along Water Street, near the Fulton Center, and around the World Trade Center. Check the app for the nearest one with bikes in it before you walk over, because the docks near the office towers empty out fast on weekday mornings. --- ## Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in One Day, Starting in the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/statue-of-liberty-ellis-island-one-day-from-fidi > You can do the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in one day from Manhattan, and the National Park Service says to expect it to take most of one. Both islands are reachable only by the Statue City Cruises ferry, which leaves from Battery Park, so buy that ferry ticket first and take an early departure. From our block on John Street, Battery Park is about a mile south, roughly a 20 minute walk down Broadway, or one stop on the 4/5 from Fulton Street to Bowling Green. Liberty Island takes most people two hours, Ellis Island takes longer if you read the museum properly, and you'll be back on dry land in the Financial District by mid afternoon. Almost every guest who asks us about the Statue of Liberty asks the same two things: can you see both islands in one day, and how early do you really need to leave. Yes, and earlier than you think. The National Park Service is blunt about it: visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island can take most of a day. The Statue is only accessible via ferry, and the ferry is run by Statue City Cruises, the official provider, out of Battery Park. That single fact shapes the whole day. There is no walking on, no separate boat you can grab later, and the middle of the day is when the lines at the Battery are longest. The good news, if you're staying down here with us, is that you're starting from the right end of the island. We're on John Street in the Financial District, about a mile north of Battery Park. That's roughly a 20 minute walk down Broadway, or one stop on the 4/5 from Fulton Street, which is about three minutes from our door, to Bowling Green. No cab, no transfers, no crossing town at 8am. Here's how we'd run the day. --- ## A Day on Foot in the Financial District, Starting at 17 John Street Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/financial-district-walking-day-from-17-john > You can see most of the Financial District on foot in a single day from 17 John Street. Start with the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade about 10 minutes west, loop down to Battery Park and the free Staten Island Ferry, walk back up through the South Street Seaport, and finish with dinner on Stone Street. Almost everything here sits within a 15-minute walk of John Street, so you won't need the subway once. The Financial District is small and dense, which makes it one of the easier parts of Manhattan to see on foot. From 17 John Street you're within a 15-minute walk of most of it, so you can leave the subway alone and just wander. Here's how we'd spend a full day, roughly west to south and back up. Wear comfortable shoes and go clockwise so you end near Stone Street for dinner. A note on timing: the morning sights (the memorial, the observatory) open earlier and get busier as the day goes on, so we've front-loaded them. The waterfront and the Seaport are better in the late afternoon light. --- ## 3 Days in New York, Staying Downtown: A Lower Manhattan Itinerary Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/3-days-in-new-york-staying-downtown > If you're planning a 3 day New York itinerary and staying in Lower Manhattan, do it in this order: day one on foot around the 9/11 Memorial, the Oculus and One World Observatory (open 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM daily), with dinner on Stone Street; day two on the water, with the Statue of Liberty ferry from Battery Park or the free Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall, then the Seaport in the afternoon; day three across the Brooklyn Bridge in the morning and uptown after lunch on the 2/3 or 4/5 from Fulton Street. Downtown works as a base because most of day one and two happen within a 15 minute walk, and the trains out of Fulton Street get you everywhere else. Most first-time three day plans for New York start in Midtown and treat downtown as a day trip. We'd flip it. Staying in the Financial District means the harbor, the 9/11 Memorial, the Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge are all walks rather than train rides, and the one thing downtown isn't (a short hop to Midtown) is solved by the 2/3 or 4/5 out of Fulton Street. We're at 17 John Street, so this is the order we actually suggest to guests who have three days and haven't been here before. Day one is on foot around the World Trade Center site. Day two is on the water. Day three crosses the bridge in the morning and heads uptown after lunch. You'll walk a lot, which is the point, and you'll be back within about 15 minutes of your suite whenever you want a break. One practical note before you start: three days in this city goes faster than you think. Book the two ticketed things (the Statue of Liberty ferry and One World Observatory) before you fly, leave the rest loose, and don't try to add Midtown to day one. --- ## Getting to Governors Island From the Financial District: A Full Day, Door to Door Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/governors-island-from-the-financial-district > To get to Governors Island from the Financial District, walk to the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, next door to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. From John Street that's about a 15-minute walk south, or two stops on the 4 or 5 from Fulton Street to Bowling Green and five minutes on foot. The crossing takes under ten minutes and lands you at Soissons Landing. The island is car-free, so plan on walking or renting a bike: Fort Jay and Castle Williams sit at the top of the hill, the food vendors and lawns are in the middle, and the harbor views of the Statue of Liberty are at the south end. Check govisland.org for the day's ferry schedule and fares before you leave, because both change with the season. Governors Island is the easiest big day out you can have from the Financial District, and most visitors never think of it. It's 172 acres of car-free harbor, ten minutes offshore, with old brick officers' houses, two forts, a set of man-made hills you can climb for a straight-on view of the Statue of Liberty, and lawns where people sit for hours doing very little. The Manhattan ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, the green cast-iron building right next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. From John Street it's about a 15-minute walk south, mostly straight down Water Street or along the East River. If you'd rather ride, take the 4 or 5 from Fulton Street two stops to Bowling Green and walk five minutes east. One thing to sort out before you go: ferry times and fares shift with the season, and busy summer weekends sell out in advance. Check govisland.org the night before and buy tickets there rather than turning up and hoping. Everything below assumes you're on a mid-morning boat and back for dinner. --- ## The Lower Manhattan Waterfront Walk: Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge From 17 John Source: https://www.17john.com/itineraries/lower-manhattan-waterfront-walk-from-17-john > You can walk the entire southern tip of Manhattan along the water in about an hour of actual walking, from Battery Park at the harbor edge, up the East River past South Street Seaport, to the Brooklyn Bridge. Starting from 17 John Street, Battery Park is roughly a 12-minute walk south and the Brooklyn Bridge is about 10 minutes east, so you can loop the whole waterfront and be back at your door for lunch. The best free thing to do down here doesn't cost anything and doesn't need a plan: walk the water. The southern tip of Manhattan is wrapped in a near-continuous waterfront path, and from 17 John Street you're only a few blocks from it in two directions. You can do the whole loop, harbor side, then East River side, in a morning, or break it into pieces over a couple of days. We've laid it out as one continuous route heading south to the harbor first, then up the East River to the Brooklyn Bridge. It's flat the whole way, mostly paved esplanade, and there's shade and benches if you're taking it slow with kids or grandparents. Wear real shoes and bring water in summer, there's not much cover along the harbor stretch. --- ## Can You Tour the New York Stock Exchange? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/can-you-tour-the-new-york-stock-exchange > No. The New York Stock Exchange at 11 Wall Street has not been open to the public since 2001, and there are no public tours of the trading floor. Anyone going inside needs to be invited or escorted for business or an event. What you can do is stand outside on Broad Street, where the columned facade and the flag are, photograph it, and then walk across the street into Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street, which is free and open to the public. Tour companies advertising Wall Street tours take you around the outside of the building, not into it. The exchange stopped admitting the public after September 2001, and it never reopened its visitor gallery. Today everyone who goes inside 11 Wall Street is there on business or for a private event, which means the Wall Street walking tours you see advertised online are exterior tours. They're perfectly good history walks. They just don't get you through the door, and it's worth knowing that before you pay. So here's what the visit actually is. The building's famous side, the one with the six Corinthian columns and the flag hanging across it, faces Broad Street rather than Wall Street. Stand at Broad and Wall and you've got the facade in front of you and the barricades that have closed that block to traffic for years. Fearless Girl stands across from it. Charging Bull is a few minutes south at Bowling Green, and it draws a bigger crowd than the exchange does. Then cross the street. Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street is free, run by the National Park Service, and it's the more interesting building anyway: George Washington took the oath of office on that site, and the rotunda inside is worth the ten minutes. Hours vary by season, so check the NPS listing before you walk over. If you're staying with us on John Street, all of this is a five to eight minute walk south. It's a good early-morning stop, before the tour groups arrive and while the streets down here are still quiet. Give the whole thing half an hour, then keep walking to Stone Street for coffee. --- ## Can You Tour the Federal Reserve Gold Vault in New York? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/federal-reserve-gold-vault-tour-nyc > Not at the moment. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says its Museum and Learning Center is open by reservation to school groups and student programs only, and that it can't take visit requests at all while it updates its reservation system. So there's no public gold vault tour to book right now, whatever the older guidebooks and tour blogs still say. The building is at 33 Liberty Street, about a five-minute walk from us on John Street, and it's worth a look from the pavement even when you can't get inside. ## The current state of it There is no general-public gold vault tour to book today. The New York Fed's own visits page says it's unable to take requests for Museum and Learning Center visits while the reservation system is being updated, and its school-group page says the Museum and Learning Center is open by reservation to school groups and student programs only. Plenty of travel blogs and old reviews still describe a free 45-minute vault tour you book months ahead. That's the version of this that used to exist, and it's the reason people keep asking us at the desk. If you're a teacher or you're bringing a student group, the school-visit route is the one to read. Everyone else: check the Fed's visits page close to your trip rather than trusting a listicle, because this is the kind of thing that turns back on without much fanfare. ## Where it is, and whether it's worth walking past 33 Liberty Street, between Nassau and William. From our door on John Street it's about a five-minute walk. The building is worth two minutes of your attention from the pavement even with the doors shut to you: it's a 1924 limestone and sandstone block built to look like a Florentine palazzo, with ironwork over the windows and lamps at the entrance, and it reads as a fortress in a way modern bank buildings don't bother with. Go on a weekday morning if you want the street to feel like the working Financial District rather than an empty film set. ## What we send people to instead The honest answer is that the money-and-markets version of this neighbourhood is mostly exterior these days. The New York Stock Exchange doesn't take public tours either, and we've written that up separately. The Charging Bull and Fearless Girl are a short walk south and are free, if crowded. If you'd rather have a route than a list, our self-guided Wall Street walk covers the block in about two hours and doesn't need a ticket. Make yourself at home, drop your bags with us, and do it on foot. It's all within about fifteen minutes of the building. --- ## One World Observatory Hours, and the Best Time of Day to Go Up Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/one-world-observatory-hours-best-time-to-visit > One World Observatory is open 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, Monday through Sunday, at One World Trade Center on the corner of West and Vesey Streets in Lower Manhattan. For the best time to visit, go in the first hour after opening if you want it calm and clear, or arrive about 90 minutes before closing if you'd rather see the city light up. Book a timed ticket in advance either way. It's about a 10 minute walk west along Fulton Street from John Street, and the closest trains are the E to World Trade Center, the 2/3 and 4/5 to Fulton Street, and the R/W to Cortlandt Street. ## Hours One World Observatory is open Monday through Sunday, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Last admission is before closing, so don't plan to walk up at 8:55 PM. Tickets are timed, and the deck accepts all major credit and debit cards plus contactless payment, so you don't need cash for anything up there. ## The best time to go Two good windows, and they're good for different reasons. Right at 9:00 AM is the calm one. The lines at the elevators are shortest, the glass is cleanest, and on a clear morning you can see out past the harbor to the Verrazzano. This is the version we suggest to guests who want the view and the photos without a crowd behind them. The other window is the last 90 minutes before closing. You get the sunset, then the lights, then the whole grid switching on underneath you. It's busier and the glass picks up reflections, but nothing else downtown looks like it. The times we'd avoid: late morning through mid-afternoon, roughly 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, which is when tour groups and cruise passengers arrive. And skip a heavily overcast day entirely if you can move your ticket. At that height you're sometimes inside the cloud, which is memorable but not what you paid for. ## Where it is, and how to get there The observatory is at One World Trade Center, on the corner of West and Vesey Streets (117 West Street). From our building at 17 John Street it's about a 10 minute walk: head west on Fulton Street, keep the tower in front of you, and you'll reach the entrance on the Vesey side. By subway, the E stops at World Trade Center, the 2/3 and 4/5 stop at Fulton Street, the R/W stops at Cortlandt Street, the 1 stops at WTC Cortlandt, and the A/C stops at Chambers Street. From New Jersey, PATH runs into the World Trade Center hub from Hoboken, Journal Square, Newport and Newark Penn Station. If you're driving, the nearest garage is the SP+ garage at Brookfield Place, across West Street from the tower, and it can be reserved online. ## How long it takes Plan on an hour and a half door to door: security and the elevator ride up, then time on the deck itself. Add another half hour if you're going to sit down for a drink or a meal up there. Most people spend less time than they expect at the top and more than they expect in the queue, which is the whole argument for a 9:00 AM ticket. If you're pairing it with the 9/11 Memorial, do the memorial pools first thing in the morning and the observatory in the early afternoon, or the memorial in the afternoon and the observatory in the evening. Doing both back to back in the middle of the day is when it feels like a lot. --- ## Where to Ice Skate in Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/ice-skating-lower-manhattan > There are two ice rinks in Lower Manhattan: the outdoor rink at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street, on the Hudson waterfront, and Winterland, the open-air rink on the roof of Pier 17 at the Seaport. Brookfield Place runs the longer season, into the first of March, and last winter charged $15 for a one-hour weekday session, $17 on weekends, with skate rental $5 to $7. Both are a walk from us on John Street: about twelve minutes west to Brookfield Place, about nine minutes east to Pier 17. **The Rink at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street.** Outdoors, on the Hudson side, with the water right there behind the boards. It's the one we send guests to when they want to actually skate rather than queue, and it has the longer season: last winter it ran through the first of March, well past the holiday rush. Prices last season were $15 for a one-hour public session on a weekday and $17 on a weekend, with skate rental $5 on weekdays and $7 on weekends. They also run private lessons. From our door on John Street it's about a twelve-minute walk west, or one stop on the E to World Trade Center and a short walk through the Winter Garden, which is the version to pick if it's raining. Sessions are timed and weekend slots go first, so book a few days out. **Winterland, on the roof of Pier 17.** An open-air rink on top of the Pier 17 building at the Seaport, with the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge behind it. It's the better photograph and the colder skate, because there's nothing between you and the wind coming off the water. Hats and gloves, not just a coat. It comes back for the winter season most years and sells timed sessions, so check the Seaport's page before you walk over rather than turning up. It's about a nine-minute walk east from us, down John Street and across to Fulton. **Which one to pick.** If you're skating with kids or anyone who hasn't been on skates in a decade, Brookfield Place: bigger sheet, calmer crowd, and you're thirty seconds from being indoors and warm when it stops being fun. If you want the skyline shot and you're dressed for it, Pier 17. If it's January or February and you assumed skating season was over, Brookfield Place is the one still open. Both rinks are weather-dependent and both publish their own hours, which move year to year. Ask us at the desk if you want us to check what's running the day you're here. --- ## What Is the Cancellation Policy at 17 John? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/cancellation-policy-17-john-street > 17 John follows a semi-strict cancellation policy tied to how far ahead of check-in you cancel. Cancel 31 days or more before check-in and you get a 100% refund. Cancel closer in and the refund steps down based on how many days are left. Because the exact refund tiers depend on your dates, check the cancellation terms on your booking or our FAQ page, or message us and we'll walk you through what applies to your reservation. ## The short version We follow a semi-strict cancellation policy. The key line: if you cancel 31 days or more before check-in, you get a 100% refund. The closer to your arrival date you cancel, the less of the stay is refundable. ## Why it's tied to timing We hold your apartment for your dates, so how much notice we get matters. A cancellation a month out is easy to rebook. A cancellation a few days before check-in is not. That's why the refund steps down as your arrival gets closer, rather than being all-or-nothing. ## Where to see the exact terms for your stay The precise refund amount depends on your dates, so we'd rather you see the real number than a rough guess. The full tiered breakdown is on our FAQ page and in the cancellation terms shown on your booking. If you're not sure what applies to you, message us with your reservation and we'll tell you exactly where you stand. ## A quick tip If your plans are still firming up, book with as much runway as you can and note the 31-day mark on your calendar. Cancel before then and you're covered for a full refund. --- ## Getting From the Financial District to Times Square Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/financial-district-to-times-square-subway > To get from the Financial District to Times Square, take the uptown 2 or 3 from Fulton St straight to Times Sq-42 St. It's about 15 minutes and there's no transfer, which is why it beats every other option. The R or W from Cortlandt St also goes to Times Sq-42 St but makes every local stop and takes closer to 25 minutes. A cab or car is 25 to 45 minutes depending on traffic and costs more than the subway by a wide margin, and walking is roughly four miles, so nobody does it twice. ## The short version Uptown 2 or 3 from Fulton St. It runs express up the west side and stops at Times Sq-42 St, so you get on downtown and get off in Times Square without changing trains. Budget 15 minutes on the train and a few more for stairs and waiting. Fulton St is the big transfer station at Broadway and Fulton, a couple of minutes' walk from John Street. Follow signs for the 2/3 uptown platform, and check the front of the train: both the 2 and the 3 work. ## The other ways, and when they're worth it **R or W from Cortlandt St.** Also lands at Times Sq-42 St, but it's a local up Broadway and stops everywhere. Closer to 25 minutes. Take it if you're already standing at Cortlandt St or you want a seat, since it's usually emptier. **A or C to 42 St-Port Authority.** Gets you one block west of Times Square, at 42nd and Eighth. If your theater is on the west end of 42nd or you're catching a bus at Port Authority, this is the better exit. The A is express and quick. **Taxi or rideshare.** 25 minutes at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, 45 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. The FDR and the West Side Highway both bog down at rush hour, and there's no scenic version of this trip. We only suggest it late at night with luggage. **Walking.** About four miles up Broadway, roughly an hour and a half. It's a genuinely good walk once, through Tribeca, SoHo and the Flatiron, if you've got the afternoon. It is not a way to get to an 8 p.m. curtain. ## Going the other direction, late Coming back downtown after a show, the 2 and 3 run all night and the ride is quieter than the ride up. The Financial District at 11 p.m. is calm in a way Midtown never is, which is most of the reason people like staying down here and commuting up for the evening rather than the other way round. --- ## Is the Financial District Safe at Night? An Honest Answer From People Who Live Here Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/is-the-financial-district-safe-at-night > Yes, the Financial District is one of the calmer parts of Manhattan after dark. It's an office neighborhood, so it empties out after about seven on weeknights and stays quiet all weekend. That means fewer people on the street, not more trouble: the main corridors like Broadway, Water Street, and Fulton Street stay lit and have steady foot traffic, the subway runs 24 hours, and the waterfront paths are open all night. The thing to plan for isn't safety, it's that some side streets feel empty and a lot of the lunch-trade delis and coffee shops close early or skip Sunday entirely. If you want people around you at 10 PM, aim for Stone Street, the Seaport, or the blocks near the World Trade Center. The honest version: quiet is the thing people notice, and quiet sometimes reads as unsafe when you're new to a city. Walk down a side street off Wall Street at 10 PM on a Tuesday and there may be nobody else on the block. That's the neighborhood doing what it does. The people who work here left hours ago, and the residential population is a fraction of what the daytime population is. The main corridors don't feel like that. Broadway, Fulton Street, Water Street, and the blocks around the World Trade Center keep a steady flow of people until late, partly because so many hotels and residential conversions have opened down here in the last fifteen years. There's a real neighborhood living here now, walking dogs and carrying groceries, which is a different Financial District from the one people picture. A few practical things that matter more than a general safety rating: - **Stick to the wide streets late.** Broadway, Water Street, and Fulton Street are the well-lit spines of the neighborhood and they'll get you almost anywhere down here. - **The subway runs all night**, but trains come less often after midnight. Fulton Center pulls several lines under one roof, which beats waiting alone on a smaller platform. - **Weekends are the quietest of all.** Saturday morning in the Financial District is close to empty. Plenty of people find that the best part of staying here, and it's why we tell guests to do their errands before Friday evening. - **Sunday closures are real.** A lot of places down here serve the office crowd and don't open at all on a Sunday, so check before you walk somewhere specific. If you want life around you after dark, it's a short walk to it. Stone Street has restaurants and pubs on a closed cobblestone block, the Seaport runs late on the waterfront, and Tribeca is fifteen minutes north on foot. None of that requires a cab. --- ## How to Ride the Free Staten Island Ferry From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/staten-island-ferry-from-financial-district > The Staten Island Ferry is free and leaves from Whitehall Terminal at 4 South Street, about a 15-minute walk south from 17 John Street. The crossing to St. George takes roughly 25 minutes each way, boats run 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, every 15 to 20 minutes during weekday rush hours and about every 30 minutes the rest of the time. There's no ticket and no reservation: walk into the terminal, wait for the boat, and stand on the right side heading out for the Statue of Liberty and the harbor. Walk it, don't ride to it. From our door at 17 John Street, head south on Broadway past Wall Street and Bowling Green and keep going until the street ends at the water. That's about 15 minutes on foot and it's a good walk, straight through the oldest part of the city. If you'd rather take the subway, the 1 ends at South Ferry and the R/W stops at Whitehall Street, both next to the terminal, and the 4/5 to Bowling Green leaves you a five-minute walk away. There's no ticket, no turnstile, and nothing to book. You go into the terminal, watch the board for the next departure, and walk on when they open the gates. Heading out toward Staten Island, stand on the right side of the boat (the west side) for the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the harbor. Coming back, the same side gives you the Lower Manhattan skyline, which is the better half of the trip. At St. George everyone gets off the boat. If you're only in it for the ride, follow the signs around to the departure side and board the next Manhattan-bound boat, which usually takes a few minutes. Round trip with the walk each way is about 90 minutes, so it fits neatly into a morning or the end of an afternoon. Two practical notes. It's genuinely free, so it's the cheapest harbor view in New York, but it doesn't stop at Liberty Island. If you want to actually set foot on the island you need the ticketed boat from Battery Park instead, which we've covered separately. And the boat is windy and open on the upper deck, so bring a layer in fall and winter, when the harbor is a good ten degrees colder than John Street. --- ## How Do You Check In at 17 John? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/how-to-check-in-17-john-street > Check-in at 17 John is self-service. You let yourself in with a smart-lock keypad, so there's no front-desk line to wait in. We email your door instructions the day before you arrive. Check-in is anytime after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM. If you get in early or have a late flight out, there's free 24/7 luggage storage in the lobby, and you can ask us to look into early check-in or late check-out, subject to availability. There's no front desk to line up at. You let yourself in with a smart lock and keypad, so you can arrive on your own schedule without coordinating a key handoff. **Before you arrive** We'll email your check-in instructions the day before your arrival, including your entry code and how to find your suite. Keep that message handy on your phone and you're set. **Times** Check-in is anytime after 4:00 PM. Check-out is by 11:00 AM. Early check-in or late check-out may be available on request, subject to availability, so just ask us ahead of time and we'll see what we can do. Late checkout until 1:00 PM is available for a $100 fee when the suite allows it. **Arriving early or leaving late** If you land before your suite is ready or have a late flight home, you don't have to haul your bags around the city. We have secure luggage storage in the lobby, assisted by our concierge, available 24/7 and free of charge on both your check-in and check-out days. **Wi-Fi and settling in** Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi runs throughout the property, and the login details come with your check-in info. Once you're in, make yourself at home. --- ## What to See at the Oculus at the World Trade Center Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/oculus-world-trade-center-what-to-see > The Oculus is the white, ribbed hall above the World Trade Center Transportation Hub at 70 Vesey Street, and the main thing to see is the room itself: stand on the main floor, look up at the skylight, then walk the length of it. It's a working train station, not a ticketed attraction, so you can walk in and out for free any time it's open. Underneath, PATH trains run to Hoboken and Newark, and passages connect to the subway at WTC Cortlandt, Park Place, Fulton Street and Chambers Street. From our door at 17 John Street it's about a ten-minute walk west along Fulton. ## The short version The Oculus is a train station you can visit like a building. It's the head house of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub at 70 Vesey Street, owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and there's no ticket and no line. You walk in, look up, walk the length of the floor, and leave. Fifteen minutes covers it. Half an hour if you sit on the edge of the main floor and watch people move through. ## What's actually worth looking at **The main hall and the skylight.** Stand on the lower level near the middle and look straight up. The roof is a long spine of white ribs with a skylight running down the centre, so the light changes completely depending on the hour and the weather. Early morning and late afternoon are the good ones. On a grey day it's flat. **The floor at rush hour.** This is a working station, not a monument. Between about 8 and 9:30 in the morning it fills with people coming off the PATH from New Jersey, and the scale of the room makes more sense when it's full. **The walk out to the memorial.** The Oculus sits right beside the 9/11 Memorial pools, so most people do both in one go. Come out on the east side and you're a couple of minutes from the reflecting pools. ## Getting there and getting out The PATH station underneath opened in 1971 and was rebuilt in 2016. Two PATH lines run from here, Newark to World Trade Center and Hoboken to World Trade Center, and both stop at Exchange Place in Jersey City. On the subway side, underground passages connect the hub to WTC Cortlandt, Park Place, Fulton Street and Chambers Street, which means you can get to most of the city from inside the building without going back out to the street. From 17 John Street, walk west on Fulton and you're there in about ten minutes, no turns to remember. That's one of the quiet advantages of staying down here: the big Lower Manhattan sights are things you walk to after breakfast, not things you plan a subway trip around. ## When to go Any time it's open. If you want it near-empty for photos, come on a Sunday morning. If you want it alive, come on a weekday at 9am. Either way it pairs well with the memorial next door, and it's the obvious place to duck into when it starts raining. --- ## How Far Is Central Park From the Financial District? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/central-park-from-the-financial-district > Central Park's southern edge sits about five miles north of the Financial District, and the fastest way up is the A train from Fulton Street to 59 St-Columbus Circle, roughly 20 minutes underground. Columbus Circle puts you at the park's southwest corner, so you step off the train and you're basically there. Rockefeller Center is a little closer at about four miles, reachable in a similar 20 minutes by taking the A or C from Fulton Street to W 4 St-Washington Sq and switching to the B, D, F or M up to 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Ctr. A cab or rideshare covers either one in 25 to 40 minutes depending on traffic, which is usually slower than the subway. ## The short version About five miles, and about twenty minutes on the train. From 17 John Street you walk a couple of minutes to Fulton Street station, catch the A uptown, and get off at 59 St-Columbus Circle. That stop sits at the southwest corner of Central Park, so you come up the stairs and the park is right in front of you. Rome2Rio clocks the Fulton Street to Columbus Circle ride at around 19 minutes, and trains run every few minutes most of the day. 59 St-Columbus Circle is served by the A, B, C and D on the Eighth Avenue side plus the 1 on the Broadway line, so if the A isn't there first, the C or D will get you to the same place. ## If you want the east side of the park Take the 4 or 5 from Fulton Street instead. Those run up Lexington Avenue and put you at 59 St, a block and a half from the park's southeast corner near the Plaza and the Grand Army Plaza entrance. It's the better choice if you're headed for the zoo, the Met, or anything along Fifth Avenue. ## Rockefeller Center from the Financial District Rockefeller Center is about four miles north, and roughly the same 20 minutes on the subway. Take the A or C from Fulton Street to W 4 St-Washington Sq, then switch to the B, D, F or M and ride to 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Ctr, which comes up right at Sixth Avenue between 47th and 50th. The transfer at West 4th is across the platform, so it's an easy one even with luggage or kids. ## What about a cab? Figure 25 to 40 minutes to either one, and more at rush hour or when there's an event in Midtown. The subway usually wins on time and always wins on price. If you're going up for a show or dinner and coming back late, the A runs all night. ## Worth knowing Most people staying down here do Central Park as a half-day trip rather than a quick errand. Go up in the morning, walk the park, and come back down for dinner when the Financial District has quieted off. Weekends down here are calm, so the trip back is usually a seat-on-the-train situation rather than a crush. --- ## How to Get to Madison Square Garden From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/madison-square-garden-from-lower-manhattan > Take the subway from Fulton Street to 34 St-Penn Station. Madison Square Garden sits directly on top of that station, so you come up inside the building's block and never cross a street. The A and C run there on the Eighth Avenue line and the 2 and 3 run there on the Seventh Avenue line, trains come every few minutes, and the ride is about 13 minutes for one fare. Fulton Street is a three to four minute walk from our door on John Street, so door to arena is usually under 25 minutes including the walk at both ends. **The short version: one train, no changes.** Walk to Fulton Street station, which is three to four minutes from us on John Street, and get an uptown A or C on the Eighth Avenue line, or an uptown 2 or 3 on the Seventh Avenue line. All four stop at 34 St-Penn Station, and Madison Square Garden is built on top of it. Trains run roughly every five minutes and the ride is about 13 minutes. Pay with OMNY by tapping your phone or contactless card at the turnstile. **Which line to take.** It doesn't matter much, take whichever comes first. The 2 and 3 put you out on the Seventh Avenue side, which is the side most arena entrances face. The A and C put you on the Eighth Avenue side, a slightly longer walk through the station complex but usually a less crowded platform. Both are inside the same connected Penn Station complex, so either way you can walk to the arena underground. **Leaving after a game or a show.** Everyone floods the station at the same time, and downtown trains from Penn are the same ones you came on. If you'd rather not stand in the crush, walk a couple of avenues east and pick up a different line, or just wait fifteen minutes: the queue at the turnstiles clears fast. Coming back to the Financial District after 11pm the trains are less frequent but they run all night, which is one of the reasons we tell guests not to bother with a car down here. **Going by bike or on foot.** It's roughly three and a half miles from John Street up to 34th Street, so walking is an hour or more and not a great walk. Citi Bike works if the weather's good, mostly on the Hudson River Greenway then east across 34th, but the greenway route adds distance. The subway is the sensible option nearly every time. We're on John Street in the Financial District, so if you've got tickets uptown and want a quiet block to come back to, you've got room to stretch out down here. --- ## Check-In and Check-Out Times at 17 John (Plus Early and Late Options) Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/check-in-check-out-times-17-john-street > Check-in at 17 John is after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM. Check-in is self-service through a smart lock, and we send the keypad code and full instructions the day before you arrive. Early check-in and late checkout can be arranged when the schedule allows. Late checkout until 1:00 PM is $100, subject to availability. If you land early or leave late, you can leave your bags with us free of charge. ## The short version Check-in at 17 John is after 4:00 PM. Check-out is by 11:00 AM. Those are the standard times, and most stays run on them without any fuss. ## Early check-in and late checkout Both can be arranged, and both depend on what's happening with the apartment that day. If nobody's staying the night before, an early check-in is usually easy. If the place turns over tight, it may not be possible, so the honest answer is to ask us ahead of time and we'll tell you where things stand. Late checkout until 1:00 PM is available for $100, subject to availability. If you need it, let the front desk know and we'll confirm whether we can hold the apartment for you. ## How check-in actually works Check-in is self-service through a smart lock and keypad, so there's no line and no waiting on a set arrival window. We send detailed instructions, including your code, the day before you arrive. Follow those and you're in. ## If you arrive early or leave late You don't have to plan your whole day around the clock. We store luggage for free at the property, in the lobby with our concierge, and it's available 24/7. Drop your bags, go see the city, and come back when your apartment is ready. --- ## How to Get to the Statue of Liberty Ferry From 17 John Street Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/statue-of-liberty-ferry-from-17-john > The official Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry leaves from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, about a 12-minute walk south from 17 John Street. Walk down Broadway or along the water and you'll reach the departure area near Castle Clinton. Only one company, Statue City Cruises, runs the official ferry, and everyone needs a timed ticket, so book online before you go and arrive early for security. Morning boats are the quietest. The ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island departs from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, near Castle Clinton. From 17 John Street it's about a 12-minute walk south. The simplest route is to head down Broadway until it ends at the park, or walk along the water on the west side. No subway needed. One thing worth knowing: only one company, Statue City Cruises, runs the official ferry from Battery Park. If you see people selling "tickets" on the street or boats that only pass by the statue without stopping, those aren't the real thing. Book the official ferry online in advance. Everyone goes through airport-style security before boarding, so allow extra time, especially in summer and on weekends. A few tips from booking this for guests. The earliest morning boats are the quietest and give you the most time on the islands before the crowds build. If you want to go up into the statue's pedestal or crown, those are limited and sell out well ahead, so book early. Ellis Island is included on the same ferry ticket, and the immigration museum there is worth the extra stop if you have the time. Plan on at least half a day for the round trip if you're doing both islands. When you get back to the park, you're a short walk from the rest of the Financial District, so it's easy to fold a Statue of Liberty morning into a full day on foot and be back at the suite by the afternoon. --- ## How to Get to Yankee Stadium From Lower Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/yankee-stadium-from-lower-manhattan > Take the 4 train from Fulton Street to 161 St-Yankee Stadium. It's a direct ride of about 30 minutes with no transfer, and Fulton Street is the station right by us on John Street. The B and D trains also stop at 161 St-Yankee Stadium if you're coming from Sixth Avenue, but from Lower Manhattan the 4 is the one you want. Leave about an hour before first pitch and you'll be in your seat with time to spare. The 4 runs up the east side of Manhattan and stops at 161st Street and River Avenue, right at the ballpark. No transfer, no bus, no car. Fulton Street is the subway hub next to us on John Street, so from our door you're on the platform in a couple of minutes and at the stadium about half an hour later. The B and D trains also serve 161 St-Yankee Stadium, but they come down Sixth Avenue and miss Lower Manhattan entirely, so they're only useful to you on the way back if you're meeting someone in Midtown afterwards. A few things we tell guests. Leave about an hour before first pitch on a weeknight, because the 4 fills up with commuters and fans at the same time and you may let a train go by. Coming home after the last out is the slower half of the trip: the platform at 161st backs up, and waiting ten minutes at a bar near the stadium is faster than standing in that crush. Buy your MetroCard or tap a card before you go up, and remember the 4 is the same train that gets you back to Fulton Street, so the return is as simple as the way out. If you're here for a Subway Series weekend or any big date, check the schedule for planned track work before you leave. Weekend service on the 4 changes more often than the weekday service does. --- ## Where to Park in the Financial District (And Whether You Need To) Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/parking-financial-district-nyc > If you're driving into the Financial District, plan on a public garage: we don't have valet or a garage of our own, but there are garages around us, and the simplest way to see rates and reserve a spot is the SpotHero app, which lists the nearby ones and lets you book directly. Most people who drive in park the car once for the whole stay and get around on foot and by subway instead. Fulton Street station is about a three-minute walk from our door, which is usually faster than moving a car anywhere south of Canal Street. ## The short version There's no valet with us and no garage of our own. What we tell guests who are driving in is to book a nearby garage ahead of time. Open SpotHero, put in our address at 17 John Street and your dates, and you'll see the garages around us with their rates, and you can reserve directly in the app. Doing it in advance beats circling the block looking for a sign, and it means you know the number before you commit to driving in. ## Park once, then leave it The thing worth saying plainly: you probably won't want the car after the first day. Almost everything people come downtown for is walkable from here, and Fulton Street station is about a three-minute walk from our door with several lines running through it. Guests who drive in from out of state usually put the car in a garage for the whole stay and don't touch it again until checkout. That's cheaper than in-and-out fees and much less annoying than moving a car around Lower Manhattan on a weekday morning. ## If you're renting a car for a day trip Same approach in reverse. Pick it up the morning you need it and return it that evening rather than keeping it parked at a downtown rate for four nights. Weekends down here are quiet compared to the weekday crush, so a Saturday morning departure out of the neighborhood is an easier drive than a Tuesday one. If you want us to look at anything specific before you arrive, let us know and we'll help you sort it out. --- ## Where Can I Park Near 17 John Street? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/parking-near-17-john-street > We don't have on-site parking at 17 John. The nearest garage is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about a 3-minute walk from the building. If you want to compare rates and reserve a spot ahead of time, the SpotHero app is the easiest way to check garages nearby. We don't have dedicated parking spaces at the property, so if you're driving into the city you'll want to plan on a nearby garage. The closest one is iPark at 29 Platt Street, about a 3-minute walk from our front door. It's the simplest option if you just need somewhere to leave the car for your stay. If you'd rather shop around, the SpotHero app lists the garages around the Financial District with their rates, and you can reserve a spot before you arrive. That's worth doing on weekdays, when demand from the office crowd is higher. A quick tip: the Financial District is dense and one-way streets are common, so parking the car once and getting around on foot, subway, or the ferry usually beats moving it. Most of what you'll want to see down here (Wall Street, Stone Street, the Seaport, Battery Park) is walkable from the building. --- ## What's the Closest Subway Station to 17 John Street? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/closest-subway-to-17-john-street > The closest subway station to 17 John Street is Fulton Street, about a block north, and it's one of the best stations in the city to live next to: the A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 all connect inside one complex through the Fulton Center at Broadway and Fulton. The R and W stop at Cortlandt Street about four minutes west, and the E plus the PATH train to New Jersey run from the World Trade Center station, five to six minutes on foot. Midtown is roughly 15 to 20 minutes on the 4 or 5 express. Fulton Street is the one you'll use. From 17 John Street, walk a block north to Fulton Street and you're at the Fulton Center, the glass building at Broadway and Fulton with the big oculus skylight. Eight lines connect underground there without you ever going back up to the street: the A and C, the J and Z, the 2 and 3, and the 4 and 5. There are entrances on Fulton at Broadway, Nassau and William, so whichever direction you come from, one of them is close. A few other options within a short walk: | Station | Lines | Walk from 17 John | |---|---|---| | Fulton Street / Fulton Center | A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4, 5 | about 1 block, 2 minutes | | Cortlandt Street | R, W | about 4 minutes west | | World Trade Center | E, and PATH to New Jersey | about 5 to 6 minutes west | | Wall Street | 4, 5 (and 2, 3 at the Wall/William entrance) | about 5 minutes south | | Broad Street | J, Z | about 6 minutes south | What that means in practice: the 4 or 5 express gets you to Midtown in roughly 15 to 20 minutes. The A runs up the west side toward Penn Station and beyond, the 2 and 3 head to the Upper West Side, and the A and C are one stop from High Street if you want DUMBO without walking the bridge. For flights, the A to Howard Beach or the E to Jamaica both connect to the JFK AirTrain from here. If you'd rather stay above ground, Pier 11 at Wall Street is about a five-minute walk and the NYC Ferry runs from there to Brooklyn, Queens and the East River stops. It's slower than the train and much better looking. One small warning: Fulton Center is a maze the first time. If you come in at Broadway and want the 4 or 5, follow the signs down and east rather than guessing. After a day or two you'll know it. --- ## Can You Store Luggage at 17 John Before Check-In or After Check-Out? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/luggage-storage-17-john-street > Yes, you can store your bags at 17 John before check-in and after check-out. We keep secure luggage storage in the lobby, it's assisted by our concierge, it's available 24/7, and it's free on both your arrival and departure days. Just drop your bags with us and go enjoy the city. You can leave your bags with us on the day you arrive and again after you check out, at no charge. The storage is in the lobby and our concierge handles it, so there's always someone to hand your bags to and get them back from. It's open 24/7, which helps if you land on a red-eye or have a late flight out. A few practical notes. Check-in is after 4:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM, so early arrivals and late departures are exactly when this comes in handy. Drop your bags in the morning, spend the day around the Financial District or the Seaport, and pick them up when you're ready. If you'd rather stay in the room past 11:00 AM, late check-out until 1:00 PM is sometimes available for $100, subject to availability. Otherwise, the free storage covers the gap. If you're arriving before your room is ready, you don't need to book anything ahead. Come by, hand your bags to the concierge, and you're set. Make yourself at home and let us know if you need anything else for your stay. --- ## Catching the NYC Ferry at Pier 11, Wall Street Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/nyc-ferry-pier-11-wall-street > Pier 11 sits on the East River at the foot of Wall Street, where South Street meets the water, and it's the Financial District's main NYC Ferry dock, with routes across the East River to Brooklyn and up to Queens. From 17 John Street it's about a ten-minute walk: head east on John Street to South Street, then south along the water. It is not the Staten Island Ferry, which leaves from the Whitehall Terminal at the bottom of the island, about fifteen minutes further south. Pier 11 sits where South Street meets the water at the bottom of Wall Street, tucked under the FDR Drive. From our door at 17 John Street, walk east on John to South Street, then turn right and follow the water for a few blocks. Give it about ten minutes at a normal pace. It's flat the whole way and the last stretch runs along the East River Esplanade, so it's a pleasant walk rather than a chore. The pier has several slips and more than one operator uses it, so read the sign at the slip rather than following the crowd. NYC Ferry runs most of what stops here, with routes across the East River to Brooklyn and up to Queens. Buy tickets in the NYC Ferry app or at the machines on the pier, and check ferry.nyc for the current routes, schedule and fares before you head down, since timetables shift by season and between weekdays and weekends. Two things worth knowing. First, Pier 11 is not the Staten Island Ferry. That one leaves from the Whitehall Terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan, it's free, and it's a different walk, roughly fifteen minutes further south from us. Second, the ferry is often the nicer way to get to Brooklyn even when the subway is faster on paper. You're outside, there's a view of the bridges and the harbor, and on a clear afternoon it beats the train by a wide margin. If you're staying with us and want the route mapped out before you go, just ask. We do this walk all the time. --- ## How to Walk to the Brooklyn Bridge From the Financial District Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/walk-to-brooklyn-bridge-from-fidi > From 17 John Street, the Manhattan-side pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge is about a 12-minute walk. Head northeast along Frankfort Street toward City Hall Park, where the walkway ramp begins near Centre Street. The full crossing to the Brooklyn side runs roughly 25 to 40 minutes on foot depending on crowds. Go early morning or near sunset to beat the midday crush and get the clearest skyline views. ## The short answer From our door at 17 John Street, you're about a 12-minute walk from where you can actually get onto the Brooklyn Bridge on foot. The pedestrian walkway starts on the Manhattan side near City Hall Park, on the east side of Centre Street. Once you're on it, plan on 25 to 40 minutes to reach the Brooklyn end, depending on how packed the walkway is. ## The walk to the entrance Head north and a little east from John Street. The simplest route is up toward Frankfort Street and City Hall Park, then to the ramp that carries walkers up onto the bridge deck. It's flat, well-signed, and easy to do with a coffee in hand. If you'd rather ride, the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop (4/5/6) drops you right by the entrance. One thing worth knowing: the bridge has a dedicated pedestrian path and a separated bike lane now, so you're not dodging cyclists the way you used to. Stay on the walking side and you'll be fine. ## When to go Early morning is the move. Before about 9am the walkway is quiet, the light is good on the skyline behind you, and you can actually stop for photos without holding anyone up. Sunset is the other sweet spot, though you'll share it with more people. Midday in summer is the crowd peak, so skip that if you can. It's an easy round trip from the hotel. Walk over to the Brooklyn side, poke around DUMBO or Brooklyn Bridge Park for an hour, then walk back or grab the subway home. The whole loop fits in a morning. ## What to bring Not much. Comfortable shoes, water in summer, and a layer if it's breezy, since it's always windier up on the deck than at street level. There's no shade on the bridge, so a hat helps on a hot, clear day. --- ## Is There a Gym at 17 John? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/gym-fitness-center-17-john-street > Yes, there's a gym at 17 John. Our fitness center is on the lower level of the building, free for guests to use during your stay, with cardio machines like treadmills and bikes plus free weights and mirrors. It's a few steps from the guest lounge, so you can work out without leaving the building. Yes, there's a gym at 17 John. You'll find our fitness center on the lower level of the building, and it's free to use for anyone staying with us. Inside you've got the basics covered: treadmills and exercise bikes for cardio, free weights, and a wall of mirrors so you can check your form. It's a real room with wood floors, not a closet with one bike shoved in the corner, so there's space to move around. The gym is on the same lower level as the guest lounge, so you can get a workout in without stepping outside. That comes in handy in the Financial District, where the streets are quiet early in the morning and on weekends anyway. If your suite has a full kitchen, a lot of guests pair the gym with cooking their own meals, which makes it easy to keep a routine going on a longer stay. Make yourself at home. If you can't find the fitness center or need anything for your stay, just message us and we'll point you the right way. --- ## How to Get to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal From Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/brooklyn-cruise-terminal-from-manhattan > No subway line reaches the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, so from Manhattan most people take a taxi or car service straight to 72 Bowne Street in Red Hook. If you'd rather use transit, take the 2, 3, 4, 5, N or R to Borough Hall, change to the B61 bus on Atlantic Avenue at Court Street, and walk four blocks south to the pier. With luggage and a boarding window to hit, a car is the calmer choice, and from our block on John Street you're starting on the right side of the harbor. ## The short answer Take a car. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal sits at 72 Bowne Street in Red Hook, a corner of Brooklyn the subway never reached, and every transit route to it involves a transfer you'd rather not make while dragging a suitcase. ## By taxi or car service Give the driver 72 Bowne Street, Brooklyn 11231, not just "the cruise terminal", because Brooklyn has more than one pier and Red Hook streets confuse GPS. Cars drop you at the terminal building itself, which is where the porters and the bag drop are. For a sense of scale on fares, the terminal's own directions page puts a taxi from JFK at roughly $45 to $60, and you're starting a lot closer than JFK. ## By subway and bus If you're travelling light, take the 2, 3, 4, 5, N or R to Borough Hall, then pick up the B61 bus on Atlantic Avenue at Court Street. Get off near the terminal and walk four blocks south to the pier. It works, and it's cheap, but it's two vehicles and a walk, and cruise boarding windows don't move for you. ## Starting from our block We're at 17 John Street, and the practical bit is that you're already on the Brooklyn side of Lower Manhattan. Cars pick up on John Street, and the harbor crossing is short. If you want the transit route instead, the Fulton Street station is a block from our door and puts you on the 2, 3, 4 or 5 without a transfer before Borough Hall. ## When to leave Check your cruise line's boarding window and leave earlier than feels necessary. Red Hook has one main road in, and on an embarkation morning several thousand people are using it at once. --- ## Service Dogs at 17 John: Yes, and With No Pet Fee Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/service-dogs-allowed-nyc-hotel-17-john > Service dogs are welcome at 17 John Street in the Financial District, and we don't charge a pet fee for them. We can't take pets, so a service dog is the exception rather than a case-by-case call. The normal guest damage policy still applies, the same as it does for any stay. Message us before you arrive so the team knows to expect you, and note that our suites have full kitchens and washer-dryers in some layouts, which makes a longer stay with a working dog a lot easier to manage. We get this question from people who've been told "no dogs" by three places in a row, so let's be plain about it. **Service dogs: yes, no pet fee.** A service dog stays with you at no extra charge. Our normal guest damage policy still applies, which is the same policy that applies to every stay whether there's a dog in the room or not, so nothing changes there. **Pets: no.** We don't accept pets at the property. That's a flat policy, and it's part of why we can keep the suites clean for guests with allergies. So if you're comparing us to a pet-friendly hotel, we're not one. Service animals are a separate thing. **Tell us before you arrive.** Send us a message ahead of your stay so the team knows to expect you. Check-in is self-service through a smart lock with instructions sent the day before, and our front desk is staffed 24/7, so there's always someone in the building if you need something sorted at an odd hour. **Why the suite layout helps.** Our apartments have full kitchens, and some layouts include a washer and dryer. If you're in town for a week or more with a working dog, being able to feed on your own schedule and wash a bed cover without leaving the building takes a lot of friction out of the trip. There's also room on the floor for a dog to actually lie down, which isn't a given in a standard hotel room. **Getting out for relief breaks.** The Financial District is short on lawn but not on air. Battery Park sits at the bottom of the island with real green space, and the harbor edge along the water is an easy walk from us. On weekends the streets down here are quiet, which makes early mornings and late evenings straightforward. If you're planning a stay and want to talk through the specifics before you book, message us. We'd rather answer the awkward questions in advance than have you arrive uncertain. --- ## What Does FiDi Stand For? (And Where It Starts and Stops) Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/what-does-fidi-stand-for-nyc > FiDi stands for the Financial District, the neighborhood at the southern end of Manhattan built around Wall Street and the old harbor. It's a nickname New Yorkers use in speech and on listings, the same way SoHo and Tribeca are shortenings. Roughly, FiDi runs from the harbor at Battery Park north to about Chambers Street, with the Hudson on one side and the East River on the other. Inside it you'll find the New York Stock Exchange, the Charging Bull, One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial, South Street Seaport, Stone Street and the ferry terminals for Staten Island, Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty. FiDi is short for Financial District. It's a nickname, not an official designation, and it follows the same pattern as SoHo (south of Houston) and Tribeca (triangle below Canal). You'll see it in rental listings, on restaurant pages and in the way people down here actually talk. Nobody says "I live in the Financial District" twice in one conversation. **Where it is.** The southern end of Manhattan. Battery Park and the harbor are the bottom edge, the Hudson and the East River are the sides, and the top edge is fuzzy but generally lands somewhere around Chambers Street, where Tribeca and City Hall take over. If you're standing on Wall Street, you're in FiDi. If you're standing at the Brooklyn Bridge entrance, you're at its northeast corner. **Is it the same as Lower Manhattan?** Not quite. Lower Manhattan is the broader term and includes Tribeca, Battery Park City, the Seaport and sometimes Chinatown. FiDi is the piece in the middle, the old streets around Wall Street and Broadway. **What's in it.** More than the name suggests. The New York Stock Exchange and the Charging Bull, One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial, Trinity Church, Federal Hall, South Street Seaport on the East River side, and Stone Street, a cobbled block lined with restaurants. The ferry terminals at the bottom of the island run to Staten Island, Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty. The street grid up in Midtown is a grid; down here it's the original crooked colonial layout, which is why walking directions feel strange for the first day. **What it's like now.** It's residential, which surprises people. Plenty of the old office towers were converted to apartments, so alongside the suits you get families, dogs and grocery runs. Weekdays it's busy with the office crowd. Weekends it's quiet in a way almost nowhere else in Manhattan is, and that's the best time to walk it. We're at 17 John Street, in the middle of all of it. Wall Street is two blocks away and the ferry terminal is about a five-minute walk. --- ## Taking the PATH Train From the World Trade Center to Hoboken and Newark Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/path-train-world-trade-center-hoboken-newark > Two PATH lines run out of the World Trade Center station in Lower Manhattan: Newark to World Trade Center, and Hoboken to World Trade Center. Both cross under the Hudson and stop at Exchange Place in Jersey City first, so if you're headed to Jersey City either train works. The station sits under the Oculus at 70 Vesey Street and is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with underground connections to the subway at WTC Cortlandt, Park Place, Fulton Street and Chambers Street. From 17 John Street it's about a ten-minute walk west along Fulton. ## Two lines, one station The World Trade Center PATH station is the Manhattan end of two lines. One runs to Hoboken, one runs to Newark, and both leave from the same platforms under the Oculus at 70 Vesey Street. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs the system, and the station has been here since 1971, rebuilt in its current form in 2016. The first stop on the New Jersey side for both lines is Exchange Place in Jersey City. That's the part people miss: if you're going to Jersey City, you don't need to pick the right train, you just need the next one. ## Which train you want | You're going to | Take | First stop across the river | | --- | --- | --- | | Jersey City waterfront | Either line | Exchange Place | | Hoboken | Hoboken to World Trade Center | Exchange Place | | Newark | Newark to World Trade Center | Exchange Place | Check current schedules and fares on the Port Authority's PATH site before you go, especially late at night and on weekends, when service patterns change. ## Finding the station from the Financial District From our block on John Street, walk west on Fulton and you'll hit the World Trade Center campus in about ten minutes. The station entrances are in and around the Oculus, and once you're underground you can also reach the subway at WTC Cortlandt, Park Place, Fulton Street and Chambers Street without coming back up to the street. In February that matters more than you'd think. ## Why people ask us this A fair number of our guests are here for work that's split across the river: meetings in Lower Manhattan one day, an office in Jersey City or Newark the next. Staying in the Financial District means the PATH is a walk, not a transfer, and you come home to a suite with a kitchen instead of a hotel room. If you're doing a stretch of weekdays like that, it's a genuinely easy base. --- ## Is There a Front Desk at 17 John? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/is-there-a-front-desk-17-john-street > 17 John doesn't have a traditional staffed front desk. Check-in is self-service through a smart lock and keypad, and we send you the door instructions the day before you arrive. You can still store luggage at the property around the clock, and you can reach us anytime through the concierge if you need anything during your stay. No, there's no traditional front desk staffed around the clock at 17 John. We run it more like your own apartment in the city, so you let yourself in with a keypad instead of stopping at a reception counter. Here's how it actually works: - **Check-in is self-service.** You'll use a smart lock and keypad to get in. We send detailed instructions the day before you arrive, so you'll have your entry code and directions in hand before you land. - **Luggage storage is covered.** You can store bags at the property, and it's available 24/7 at no charge on both your check-in and check-out days. So if you get in before your room is ready or need to drop bags after checkout, you're fine. - **You can still reach a person.** Not having a reception counter doesn't mean you're on your own. If you need extra towels, help with the building, or a local tip, message us through the concierge and we'll sort it out. A couple of practical notes. If you booked through a third-party site and want to confirm your reservation is real, reach out to us directly and we'll verify it. And if you need early check-in or late checkout, ask ahead. Late checkout until 1:00 PM is available for a $100 fee, subject to availability. --- ## Where to See the Statue of Liberty for Free From Manhattan Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/see-statue-of-liberty-free-manhattan > The two free ways to see the Statue of Liberty from Manhattan are the harbor esplanade at Battery Park, where you get a distant view across the water at no cost, and the Staten Island Ferry from the Whitehall terminal next door, which is free in both directions and passes far closer than any viewpoint on land. The only way to actually set foot on Liberty Island is a Statue Cruises ferry, which is ticketed and leaves from Castle Clinton inside Battery Park. From our door on John Street, Whitehall is a walk of about twenty minutes south, or a few stops on the subway from Fulton Street. ## The ferry is the better free view The Staten Island Ferry costs nothing in either direction and runs from the Whitehall terminal at the bottom of Manhattan, next to Battery Park. It crosses the harbor with the statue off the starboard side on the way out, so stand on the right-hand deck heading to Staten Island and swap sides for the trip back. You don't have to do anything on the other end. Plenty of people walk off, walk round, and get straight back on. ## The railing at Battery Park costs nothing either If you don't want to board a boat, the harbor esplanade on the south side of Battery Park gives you the statue across the water. It's a long view rather than a close one. Late afternoon is better, with the light behind you instead of in your eyes, and it pairs well with the rest of the park if you're already down there. ## What isn't free Setting foot on Liberty Island or Ellis Island means a Statue Cruises ticket, and those boats leave from Castle Clinton inside Battery Park, where the ticket booth is. They run every day of the year except December 25, with hours that change by season. That's the only authorised way onto the islands, so if a seller on the street offers you something cheaper, it isn't that. ## Getting down there from us It's about a twenty-minute walk south from our door on John Street, straight down Broadway. Fulton Street station is roughly three minutes from us if you'd rather ride. Either way it's an easy morning, and you can be back for lunch. --- ## Where to Eat Near 17 John Street: The Financial District's Dining Streets Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/where-to-eat-near-17-john-street-fidi > The easiest dinner near 17 John Street is Stone Street, a two-block walk south, where a pedestrian-only cobblestone lane is lined with restaurants and outdoor tables. From there the rest of the Financial District's dining fans out within a 10-minute walk toward the waterfront and South Street Seaport. If you'd rather stay in, every suite has a full kitchen, so cooking a night is always an option. ### Start with Stone Street Stone Street is the first place we point guests toward, and it's about a two-block walk south from our door. It's one of the oldest streets in the city, now closed to cars, paved in cobblestones, and lined end to end with restaurants and bars. In warm months the whole lane fills with outdoor tables, so it's an easy call when you want dinner without planning much. It runs busy on weekday evenings when the offices let out and stays lively into the night. ### The rest of the Financial District Beyond Stone Street, food is spread out rather than clustered, and most of it is a 5-to-10-minute walk from us. Head toward the water and you'll pass everything from quick lunch counters to sit-down spots as you get closer to the waterfront. The area around the South Street Seaport, about a 10-minute walk east, has more restaurants with river views, and it's a nice direction to wander on a warm evening. One thing worth knowing: the Financial District is quieter on weekends than midweek. Plenty of places stay open, but a few of the office-lunch spots keep shorter Saturday and Sunday hours, so it's worth a quick check before you head out. ### Or cook in your suite If you'd rather not go out, every suite at 17 John has a full kitchen. Guests staying a few nights or longer tend to cook at least once, and there are grocery options within a short walk for stocking up. It's part of the point of staying somewhere with room to live rather than just a room. ### Getting a little farther afield Tribeca, just north of us, has a heavier concentration of well-known restaurants and is a short walk or one subway stop away. If you're up for a short trip, it's the direction to go for a bigger night out. --- ## Where Is the Charging Bull Statue? (And Where Fearless Girl Actually Stands) Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/where-is-the-charging-bull-statue-nyc > The Charging Bull statue stands at the north end of Bowling Green park, on Broadway where it meets Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan. It is not on Wall Street, which is where most people go looking for it. Fearless Girl is no longer facing the bull either: she was moved in December 2018 and now stands on Broad Street, across from the New York Stock Exchange, about a five-minute walk from the bull. From 17 John Street both statues are roughly a 10 to 12 minute walk south, and the only way to photograph the bull without a crowd is to get there before about 8am. ## The exact spot The bull is on the traffic island at the top of Bowling Green, where Broadway narrows into Whitehall Street, a block north of the old Custom House. If you're standing in the little park looking north up Broadway, it's right in front of you. The nearest subway is Bowling Green on the 4/5, which comes out about thirty seconds away, and Wall Street on the 4/5 or Rector Street on the 1 are both a few minutes' walk. People get this wrong constantly, so it's worth saying plainly: the bull is not on Wall Street. Arturo Di Modica dropped it outside the New York Stock Exchange without permission in December 1989, and the city moved it to Bowling Green shortly after. It has been there ever since. ## Fearless Girl moved Fearless Girl spent 2017 and 2018 facing the bull at Bowling Green, and that's still the image most people have in their heads. She was taken from that spot in November 2018 and reinstalled in December on Broad Street, directly across from the New York Stock Exchange. The two statues are now about a five-minute walk apart, so if you want both, do the bull first and then walk up Broadway and cut east on Exchange Place or Wall Street to Broad. ## When to go Early. The bull is one of the most photographed objects in the city and by mid-morning there's a queue for the front of it and a separate queue for the back. Before 8am on a weekday you'll often have it to yourself, and the light coming up Broadway is better then anyway. Weekends are quieter than weekday lunchtimes down here, which is not true of most of Manhattan. ## Doing it from 17 John Street From our door, walk west on John Street to Broadway, turn left, and keep going south for about ten minutes. You'll pass Trinity Church on the right at Wall Street, which is worth two minutes in the churchyard. Bowling Green is at the end. It's a flat, straightforward walk, and it links up neatly with the waterfront: from the bull, Battery Park is another five minutes south and the Staten Island Ferry terminal is right there. Most guests fold the bull into a morning that ends at the harbor. It takes about five minutes to look at, so treat it as a stop rather than a destination. --- ## Do You Pay Per Person or Per Suite? How Extra Guests Work at 17 John Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/per-person-or-per-suite-extra-guest-fee-17-john > You pay for the suite, not per person. We don't charge a per-guest fee at 17 John Street, so a family of five pays the same suite rate a couple would, as long as everyone fits that suite's occupancy. If your headcount changes after booking, an extra adult and a couple of children can usually be added to the existing reservation, provided the group knows the room layout and it still fits. Pack n plays are free on request and set up before you arrive. We sell the room. That's the short version, and it's the thing that surprises people who've been quoted per-person rates elsewhere in New York. The rate you see on a suite is the rate for the suite, whether it's two of you or a family filling it, so long as everyone fits the occupancy for that particular layout. The one number that matters, then, isn't headcount pricing. It's occupancy. Suites here are laid out differently from one another, so before you book, tell us the dates and exactly who's coming, including the ages of any kids. We'll confirm which suite fits your group. That's a faster conversation than guessing from a floor plan. If your plans change after you've booked, message us instead of starting a second reservation. An extra adult and a couple of children can usually be added to an existing booking, as long as the group knows the room layout and the suite's occupancy still works. Travelling with a baby? Pack n plays are free. Ask for one and we'll have it set up in the suite before you get here. A couple of things this doesn't cover, so you're not guessing: taxes and fees are set at booking and shown at checkout, and housekeeping mid-stay is a separate add-on ($100 for a mid-stay clean) if you want the suite reset partway through a longer stay. --- ## 9/11 Memorial Museum Tickets and How Long to Budget Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/9-11-memorial-museum-tickets-how-long-to-visit > The 9/11 Memorial plaza with the two reflecting pools is free and open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., so you can walk through it any time without a ticket. The museum below it is separate, requires a timed-entry ticket bought in advance at 911memorial.org, and is open Wednesday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with select Tuesday and holiday hours. Budget about two hours inside, three if you read every panel, and go at opening if you want the quieter version. The entrance is at 180 Greenwich Street, a 10-minute walk from John Street. ## Two different things, one site The **memorial** is the outdoor plaza: the two square reflecting pools set in the footprints of the towers, the names cut into the bronze parapets, the Survivor Tree, the oak grove. Free, no ticket, open every day 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can walk in off Greenwich or Liberty Street and stay as long as you want. The **museum** is underground, below the plaza, and it's a separate ticketed visit. Entrance at 180 Greenwich Street. Open Wednesday through Monday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., plus select Tuesday and holiday hours. Buy timed-entry tickets at 911memorial.org before you go, because walk-up slots run out on weekends and through the summer. The site also lists discounts and a New York First Sundays program, so it's worth checking the tickets page rather than assuming. ## How long it actually takes About two hours is the honest number for most people. Three if you're a reader and you stop at everything. The historical exhibition, which runs through the timeline of the day itself, is the part that takes the longest and the part that hits hardest. If you're short on time, do that one and skip nothing else at your peril. Go at 9 a.m. It's calmer, and you'll be out by 11 with the rest of the day intact. Late afternoon on a weekend is the crowded end. ## Bringing kids The plaza is fine for any age. The museum is not, really, for younger kids: the museum's own guidance is that some of the material is intense, and there's an alcove of graphic content you can walk past. We usually suggest families do the plaza together, and split up for the museum if there's an adult happy to sit outside with a coffee. ## Getting there from John Street Ten minutes on foot. Head west on Fulton and keep going until you hit the Oculus, then out the west side to the plaza. It's a flat, easy walk, and it's the same route you'd take for One World Observatory, which sits at the north end of the site if you want to combine them in a morning. --- ## What's Within Walking Distance of 17 John Street? Source: https://www.17john.com/answers/whats-walking-distance-17-john-street > Most of Lower Manhattan's landmarks are within a 15-minute walk of 17 John Street. Wall Street is about two blocks south, Stone Street's restaurants are 5 minutes away, the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade are about 10 minutes west, the South Street Seaport and Brooklyn Bridge are around 10 minutes east, and Battery Park with the free Staten Island Ferry is roughly 15 minutes south. 17 John Street sits in the middle of the Financial District, which is one of the more compact parts of Manhattan, so you can reach most of the sights on foot in well under 20 minutes. Here's roughly how far each one is: - **Wall Street** — about two blocks south, a 3 to 4 minute walk. - **Stone Street** — the pedestrian-only restaurant block, about 5 minutes south. - **9/11 Memorial & One World Trade Center** — about 10 minutes west, up Fulton Street. - **South Street Seaport** — about 8 to 10 minutes east toward the water. - **Brooklyn Bridge** (Manhattan pedestrian entrance) — about 10 minutes north. - **Battery Park** — about 15 minutes south at the tip of the island. - **Staten Island Ferry terminal** — about 15 minutes south; the ride is free both ways and passes the Statue of Liberty. Because everything clusters this tightly, you can string several of these together in an afternoon without ever taking the subway. If you'd rather have a full plan for the day, we've mapped out a walking route that connects them in order. ---