Manhattan walk-up let us feel like native New Yorkers

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - I was at the point of canceling our New York City family vacation.

I had scoured travel Web sites, checked my American Express deals, talked to New York friends about bed & breakfasts _ yet couldn't find a place to stay in the Big Apple that was reasonably priced and could accommodate seven people, or two families traveling together.

Then a friend told me about Vacation Rental By Owner, or VRBO.com.

Thus began my journey into renting a New York apartment for four nights. By scrolling through VRBO.com and Googling "New York City vacation rentals," I discovered a cottage industry of New Yorkers who rent out apartments to travelers _ often for less or comparable rates to a New York hotel room, plus all the comforts of home, including a kitchen and washer-and-dryer.

A caveat, however: Know your neighborhoods. One listing was for a "Beautiful Upper West Side 4-5 Bedroom, 2 baths," with hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and a photo of a lush tree-lined street. The catch: The apartment was on West 171st Street, about 71 blocks north of the neighborhood most people would call the Upper West Side.

As we wanted to be near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park and a few subway stops away from Yankee Stadium, we focused our search on the Upper East Side.

Now, the Upper East Side is one of the city's high-rent districts. If you're willing to be flexible and explore up-and-coming areas, you'll find cheaper deals in other neighborhoods. You can search the Web sites by price, by neighborhood, by the apartment's number of bedrooms/bathrooms or by the number of people a unit will sleep.

We found a four-bedroom, three-bath apartment with a living room/dining area, galley kitchen, and washer/ dryer on the third floor of a restored brownstone on East 82nd Street, between First and Second avenues. The Metropolitan was five blocks west on Fifth Avenue; the subway stop was at 86th and Lex _ four blocks up and three blocks over.

We e-mailed the contact listed on the website and within a day received an e-mail detailing information about the apartment. We learned a couple with three small children bought the building about five years ago and restored it. They live on the first floor and rent out the second- and third-floor apartments. The building is a walk-up _ you quickly get your daily workout walking up and down three flights regularly.

The apartment was $599 per night, or $300 per family, which included all taxes. (In my quest to find a reasonably priced hotel room in New York, the best deal I came up with was a basic room at the Sheraton _ two beds and a bath, nothing more _ for about $280 per night.)

The apartment, about 1,100 square feet, was done in Pottery Barn style _ oversized leather couch, dining table with benches and flat-screen plasma TV in the living area. The galley kitchen had a full-size refrigerator, dishwasher, coffee maker and white cabinets stocked with the essentials.

The bedrooms were a bit trickier. The master was quite nice _ king-size bed, down comforter, TV, dark-wood dresser and fireplace. The second bedroom had a queen bed and similar furnishings.

The third bedroom was accessed through the master and reminiscent of a converted sleeping porch you'd find in South Florida's older, Mediterranean homes. It had a queen bed, but barely room for anything else. (It was fine for my two teenage sons, but teenage girls may view it a bit differently.) The fourth bedroom was a small room off the den with one full-size bed.

The three bathrooms were the typical size found in a New York apartment _ small and compact. While two had bathtubs, the bathroom off the second master was quite tiny, with a toilet and stall shower squeezed in.

"If I were thinner and 20 years younger, I wouldn't have minded it," said my friend, Moppy McGee, who switched to the bathroom off the living area, which was more spacious.

But these were minor details. We quickly settled in as if the Upper East Side had always been our home, stocking up on fruit, bread, breakfast foods, wine, cheese and snacks from the nearby markets. We whipped up hearty breakfasts every morning for a fraction of what it would have cost at Starbucks or a neighborhood coffee shop. When we returned from a day's travels, we always had snacks for our ever-hungry teenage boys.

We ate dinner out every night, and often turned to a list of neighborhood spots the owners posted on the refrigerator door _ their own mini-Zagat guide with comments. It's what led us to Baluchi's, an Indian restaurant at Second Avenue and 81st Street that was inexpensive, part of a locally owned chain, and which served a mean Chicken Tikka (marinated in ginger, garlic and yogurt).

Being part of a neighborhood was one of the best parts of our stay. We quickly felt like native New Yorkers, exploring the shops, restaurants, green markets _ even the doggie day care center where we'd watch the people drop off their dogs each morning (yes, people and their pets resemble each other).

One of the treasures in the neighborhood was Orwasher's Bakery, 308 E. 78th St., a New York institution that was founded by Abraham Orwasher in 1916 and still has its original brick ovens.

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The breads were fabulous _ the Jewish rye, the challah and cinnamon raisin were our favorites _ and watching the man behind the counter rant was pure theater.

When a delivery guy walked in to pick up a large order for a nearby restaurant and mentioned how he needed the bread sliced _ which the restaurant owner failed to note when placing the order _ I thought the baker was going to climb over the counter and throw the bags of bread at him.

"You tell him that he's got to let me know the night before," he snapped. "I can't have this" _ pointing to the line of customers already waiting, muttering to himself as he began to slice the bread.

Only in New York would the owner yell at the customers, I thought. (I found out later he wasn't the owner _ but the father of the owner, Keith Cohen, an artisanal baker who purchased the shop from the Orwasher family in 2007.)

I smiled at the banter. Our families were living the New York way of life.

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Joan Chrissos: jchrissos@MiamiHerald.com

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© 2009, The Miami Herald.