is there a preferred list of hotels for my first york visit?

Check out THIS THREAD for York hotel recommendations.  At this late date, your best bet is to use a booking site (like Hotels.com, Priceline, TripAdvisor, etc.) or your favorite hotel chain's web sites to see what hotels may still have rooms available.  Pay attention to ratings and reviews (and those from sites like Google and Yelp).  Some places are rather old and run down (low prices will be an indicator here).

As for meals, there are many restaurants in the York area, so you can indulge in pretty much any kind of food you want.  On Thursday night, Forum members pretty much take over the back half or even 2/3 of the Quaker Steak & Lube at 1411 Kenneth Road, York, PA 17408 (all are welcome).  For breakfast (and sometimes dinner), many of us like Round the Clock Diner at 222 Arsenal Road, York, PA 17402.  For lunch, the fairgrounds has food booths inside some of the buildings and food trucks/trailers outside of Orange Hall (some of them are quite good).

I often recommend those that are driving to bring a cooler with their favorite (non-alcoholic) beverages to save a little $$$ and replenish the cooler at a grocery store in the evenings if needed.

Andy

Should be a how, where, when, why York pamphlet.
perform an OGR search and you should find it.  It’s very informative, developed long ago and kept up to date for the York first timer 😊

or the ones returning after a few years…

Wyndham Garden, Holiday Inn Express, Tru by Hilton, LaQuinta, 4 points Sheraton, Best Western, The Wyndham garden is the closest to the fair grounds, They have a big indoor and outdoor show there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Hope that you are both TCA members.

Go to the TCA website. Read Clem's York Primer. Lots of good Info.

We used VRBO to rent an entire house for 3 nights in York PA. Was 15min from the show itself and was alot cheaper than a hotel surprisingly!

@gftiv posted:

Go to the TCA website. Read Clem's York Primer. Lots of good Info.

Here's the link, as it can be hard to find - I think you have to access it via your TCA member login:  https://www.tcatrains.org/wp-c...g-2023-updated-2.pdf

@bucca posted:

My adult son and I are drivng in from nj to our first york . is there a prefered list of hotels for thursday and friday nite? and preferred places for meals. perhaps veterans from prior york show can point us in the right direction. We dont see any posts here on this forum

Not sure where you've been looking, as there are always LOTS of posts and threads on this forum regarding places to stay and eat at York.

My basic tips:  Visit the Red Lion club on Thursday night (also open Wednesday, but sounds like you won't be in town then), any hotel under $120 per night should be avoided (especially the Super 8), and @Andy Hummell summed it up perfectly in his post above.

And rule #1: If you see something you want at a price you're willing to pay, buy it now. If you wait and try to come back, you'll either not remember where it was or it will have been sold. 

You should be able to access Clem's York Primer without logging in. I can do it.

BUCCA, It would be nice if you came back on here, and thanked everyone for the helpful information we gave you.