New Jersey and NYC — Lodging

We chose to stay just outside Manhattan. The Holland Motor Lodge seems to offer what we want — reasonable rates (~$91 before AAA discount), clean rooms, easy access to public transportation, quiet, and most important, consistent, glowing praise. They also have nice bonus amenities like free wifi and breakfast. ^_^

Searching for lodging within Manhattan represented a learning experience for me. TripAdvisor provided helpful insights, letting me know which hotels' rooms were not much bigger than the bed (literally), which ones had reliable hot showers, which ones had cockroaches, and which ones doubled as college overflow housing. It seems to me a general rule is that less than $100 in Manhattan means one will encounter some form of discomfort. A few exceptions do seem to exist. None had rooms available for all the nights we wanted due to the crush of people arriving for the marathon.