How to Park in Times Square, New York City

Posted by rlashea on July 13, 2010

In the center of Manhattan, just blocks from the shopping of Fifth Avenue, Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square serves as the tourist hub of New York City. Aside from being the site where the ball drops each New Year and home to Broadway’s theaters, Times Square offers a host of restaurants, specialty stores and souvenir shops. Despite Times Square being the busiest place in New York City with an estimated 15,000 people passing through each hour, according to the Times Square Alliance, parking can be found right in the middle of it all if you know where to look for it.

Find out if your hotel offers parking. Many of the hotels in Times Square provide either an on-site parking garage or parking at a nearby garage. Whether Times Square hotels offer on-site or off-site parking, they usually also offer valet parking, though you may not have in-and-out privileges when you park through a valet, so you should make sure that you won’t want your car again until you leave.

Compare prices at the parking garages in Times Square if your hotel doesn’t provide parking. The Best Parking website offers a map of the Times Square area that lists all of the area’s garages and contact information (see Resources.) The site also provides a tool for calculating the rate for each garage.

Look for street parking. While street parking can be difficult to find in the heart of Times Square, many side streets around Times Square do offer street parking. Street parking can either be metered or free, depending on the street, but always goes quickly and the spaces left are usually a tight fit.

Drive down the street before you park your car, or walk down the street once you have parked, and look for signs regarding the parking laws on the street. Many streets allow parking only some days of the week, or only during posted hours. If you leave your car on the street outside of the permitted parking times, your car may be towed.

Be prepared for the cost of parking your car in Times Square. Times Square parking can range greatly in cost, but are often higher-priced than parking garages in other cities and throughout the rest of Manhattan. The cost to park your car can exceed $100 for a 24-hour period at many garages.

*Note - Most parking garages in New York City do not allow you to park your own car. Generally, New York City parking garages have less space than parking garages in other large cities, and many use special lift mechanisms to park cars above each other. When you take your car into a Times Square parking garage, be prepared to leave your car and keys with attendant.