Congratulations on your Google internship! If you’re looking forward to spending the summer in New York but feeling a little less enthusiastic about finding somewhere to live, you’re probably not alone. Between unfamiliar neighborhoods and listings that almost fit your dates, there’s quite a bit to sort through before you can start thinking about what you’ll do once you’re here.
Chelsea and the West Village are natural places to begin, although there’s no need to limit yourself to the neighborhoods nearest the office. Depending on which building you’ll work in, you could also look at Williamsburg, the neighborhoods around Downtown Brooklyn, or Long Island City, and there are even pockets across the Hudson that deserve a look.
Compare the two Google office maps#
To help you compare, we made two interactive maps with Theretowhere, a tool for finding areas close to the places you care about. Both use the same preference of at most 30 minutes by public transportation, so you can see what happens when the destination changes from Chelsea to St. John’s Terminal. Google has some other offices in NYC, but these two are pretty close to those other ones anyways.
Google in Chelsea: 111 Eighth Avenue#
Google at St. John’s Terminal: 550 Washington Street#
Open the St. John’s Terminal commute map.
Have a look around and hover over a few areas that catch your eye.
Manhattan#
Chelsea: start close to work, then see what you can find#
If you’ll be at the Eighth Avenue office, Chelsea is an understandable place to get attached to. The first map has a broad green area around the building, and finding a room nearby could mean walking to work while you’re still getting used to everything else. Afterward, you could head toward the waterfront or meet friends at Pier 57’s public rooftop park without having to organize much of an evening.
There’s more to the area than the office buildings, too. Chelsea Market gives you a busy indoor collection of food stalls and shops, while the High Line and the galleries farther west make it easy to turn a free afternoon into a walk. Around the market, expect to share the sidewalks with visitors; that feels different from a room on a residential side street farther into Chelsea. If you want to be close to both work and places you can take visiting friends, that mix may appeal.
Of course, liking the neighborhood and finding a room that works for your summer are two different things. If the listings you’re seeing cost more than you’d hoped, the subway connections give you a reason to widen the search: the A, C, E and L meet around 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, so living farther along one of those lines could still leave you well connected to the places you wanted to spend time.
That flexibility is helpful when you’re only staying a few months. You may find that a furnished room elsewhere fits your dates neatly, whereas the Chelsea apartment you liked requires a longer commitment. It’s worth keeping both in the comparison until you know what you’d pay for the whole stay.
The West Village: a neighborhood you might want to come home to#
As you move south from Chelsea, the West Village starts to make sense for either office. Chelsea’s stronger area reaches into the Village, while the second map concentrates more heavily around the western Village and Hudson Square. If you like the idea of wandering home through smaller streets, you may find yourself looking here for the neighborhood as much as for the commute.
Around Bleecker and Hudson streets, the appeal is being able to step out for coffee or dinner among low-rise buildings and storefronts. Christopher Street also puts you near Stonewall, an important part of the neighborhood’s LGBTQ+ history. It’s a good area to explore on foot, although a room above a busy restaurant or bar will offer a different evening from one tucked onto a side street. Farther south, Hudson Square around St. John’s Terminal has more large former industrial and office buildings; being near the same waterfront doesn’t mean it will look or feel quite like the Village.
The difficulty, as you might have guessed, is the price. Apartments.com’s October 2026 West Village figures put average monthly rent at $4,561 for a studio and $5,058 for a one-bedroom. Those are whole-apartment averages rather than furnished summer-room prices, but they give you some context for why having your own place here can get expensive quickly.
If you’re happy to share, though, it’s still worth looking at individual rooms before crossing the area off your list. Alongside the price and dates, think about what coming home would actually feel like: whether you’d get along with the housemates, how much shared space there is, and whether the bedroom faces the evening activity you enjoyed on your way in. A street can be lovely to spend time on and a little less lovely to hear through your window at midnight.
The East Village: look at the savings alongside the journey#
If the West Village appeals but the listings are stretching your budget, heading east gives you another set of options to explore. Apartments.com’s October 2026 East Village averages are $3,266 for a studio and $4,400 for a one-bedroom, so there’s a meaningful difference in the studio benchmark, even though renting alone is still expensive.
There’s also a different feel on this side of the Village. Around St. Marks Place and the avenues, you’ll find restaurants, small shops and bars close together, while Tompkins Square Park gives you somewhere to sit, people-watch or play basketball without buying anything. If you want an evening where you can meet a friend for a casual meal and decide what to do afterward, that concentration of places is useful. It also makes the bedroom’s position worth checking when you tour, particularly above a late-night business.
For a Chelsea assignment, the part of the neighborhood near 14th Street is particularly worth investigating because the L train runs across Manhattan to Eighth Avenue, with stops at First and Third avenues along the way. As you move farther from those stations, however, more walking or a bus connection can become part of the trip. That’s why two rooms advertised as “East Village” might leave you with rather different mornings.
The same reasoning doesn’t carry over quite as neatly to St. John’s Terminal, which sits farther south. If that’s your office, spend a little time with the second map before messaging listings; you may still like a room farther east, but you’ll want to know whether its journey is a tradeoff you’re happy making.
Brooklyn#
Williamsburg: evenings around Bedford Avenue and the waterfront#
Williamsburg is where the difference between these maps becomes especially easy to see. Chelsea’s map reaches into a broad area of northern Brooklyn, whereas the St. John’s map leaves much smaller, disconnected patches. Around Bedford Avenue, that Chelsea connection has a straightforward explanation: the L train runs directly to Eighth Avenue, provided you can comfortably reach the station from home.
The neighborhood gives you a lot to do close to your apartment, with restaurants, bars and shops around Bedford Avenue and the adjoining streets. Farther toward the river, Domino Park has a waterfront walkway and space to hang out with Manhattan across the water. You could spend quite a bit of your free time here without heading back into Manhattan, which is part of the appeal if you’re hoping to make plans near home.
For your housing search, though, separate the station area from the waterfront. A room by Domino Park and one near the Bedford Avenue entrance can have different walks to the train, even if the listings use the same neighborhood name. And because Williamsburg has plenty of appeal of its own, don’t assume a Brooklyn address will automatically make it a cheaper summer.
Downtown Brooklyn: handy for errands, food and several subway options#
For Google interns looking beyond Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and its neighboring areas give you several more housing options to compare. The Chelsea map connects neighborhoods with quite different settings, from busy shopping streets to quieter brownstone blocks, while the St. John’s map retains a smaller cluster around Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.
Downtown Brooklyn itself has a busy commercial feel: larger buildings, shopping streets and plenty of people passing through. Around City Point and Albee Square, you have Trader Joe’s, Target, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and DeKalb Market Hall close together. For a summer when you’re arriving with a suitcase and learning a new job, being able to handle groceries, errands, dinner and a movie nearby could be a real convenience.
For Chelsea, start by looking at rooms within a comfortable walk of Jay St–MetroTech or Hoyt–Schermerhorn. The A and C connect those stations with 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, so you have a clear route to investigate. If you’re assigned to St. John’s Terminal, use its map and check the walk at the Manhattan end as well. The office is farther from that subway corridor, and the smaller Brooklyn footprint is a reason to be more selective about the address.
Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO: two different ways to live near the water#
Just west of Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights gives you a change of pace. Brownstone and row-house streets lead toward the Promenade, while Montague Street has shops, cafes and everyday services. If you’d like to come home to a more residential setting and take a walk overlooking the harbor after dinner, this is a useful place to compare with the busier downtown blocks.
High Street’s A/C station is a helpful reference point for the Chelsea commute, although a listing farther south or closer to the waterfront needs its own check. Both maps reach parts of Brooklyn Heights, but the St. John’s coverage is more limited. The attractiveness of the neighborhood doesn’t make every room equally convenient, and a good shared-room listing may be more realistic than searching for your own apartment here.
DUMBO, immediately to the north, has a different character again: larger former warehouse buildings, streets beneath the bridges and a waterfront that draws plenty of visitors. Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Main Street area gives you lawns and Pebble Beach nearby, so there’s somewhere to spend an evening outside even when you haven’t made plans.
Before choosing a room, walk its route to York Street or High Street and notice how close the building is to the Manhattan Bridge. A great-looking bridge view deserves a listen from inside the bedroom, too. DUMBO appears in both maps, but whether it works for you will depend on the particular station, office and apartment rather than the waterfront photos alone.
Fort Greene: park time and performances near home#
If you’d prefer a neighborhood where a park and cultural venues are part of your routine, Fort Greene is worth exploring on the Chelsea map. Fort Greene Park has rolling lawns and paths, with a Saturday Greenmarket alongside it, while BAM’s venues give you film and performance options toward the southern end of the neighborhood. Around the park and the adjoining brownstone streets, you can have a different experience from living beside Downtown Brooklyn’s shopping corridors.
For the Chelsea office, Lafayette Avenue’s C train is one connection to investigate, alongside the stations nearer Downtown Brooklyn. That makes the location of a room within Fort Greene important: being near the park’s northern edge and being near Lafayette Avenue can produce different walks. This is mainly a Chelsea-map option in our comparison; the St. John’s map doesn’t retain the same broad coverage here.
Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill: smaller streets near the downtown connections#
South of Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill is worth a look if you’d rather live among smaller residential buildings while keeping restaurants and shops nearby. Its tree-lined streets and brick townhouses give it a different setting from the taller buildings just north of Schermerhorn Street, while Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street give you places to go without planning a trip across the city.
The Chelsea map extends into this area, so begin with listings that give you a reasonable walk to Hoyt–Schermerhorn or Jay St–MetroTech. As you move south, Bergen Street’s F becomes another station to compare, though it follows a different Manhattan route. In the St. John’s map, coverage around the southern edge of Downtown Brooklyn is much more fragmented, so don’t carry a Chelsea recommendation over without checking the actual room.
Cobble Hill, west of Boerum Hill, continues the low-rise residential setting, with Court Street’s shops and restaurants and the small Cobble Hill Park near Verandah Place. It may appeal if your ideal evening involves picking up dinner and walking home along side streets. The Chelsea map reaches into parts of it, although moving farther west can add walking to the subway; the St. John’s map is much more restrictive here. Neither neighborhood should be treated as a budget alternative just because it’s in Brooklyn, so let the available rooms and their full-stay costs guide the comparison.
Queens#
Long Island City: waterfront walks or a room closer to the station#
Over in Queens, Long Island City has substantial coverage in the Chelsea map and very little in the St. John’s map. If you’re assigned to Chelsea, that gives you another option beyond Manhattan and Brooklyn, especially if you like the idea of spending time by the water.
Gantry Plaza State Park has piers, gardens and views of Midtown Manhattan, while the Hunters Point waterfront has a different setting from the busier station areas inland. Around Court Square, being close to the subway may be the bigger draw. For example, the E connects Court Square–23 Street with 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, which is useful when comparing the morning trip with an apartment closer to the park.
A waterfront listing may involve more walking to that particular train, so decide which tradeoff you’d actually enjoy over the summer. For St. John’s Terminal, investigate a promising room’s full journey before putting it on the shortlist, since the map gives you much less reason to begin the search here.
New Jersey#
Hoboken and Jersey City: worth a look across the Hudson#
If you’ve been keeping your search entirely within New York, the pockets on the other side of the river might give you a few more places to consider. Both maps show coverage around southern Hoboken and parts of Jersey City, including Newport, so a furnished room that fits your dates could be worth investigating even if New Jersey wasn’t on your original list.
Hoboken gives you a compact city with Washington Street’s restaurants and shops and a waterfront where you can walk or run with Manhattan in view. Around Pier A Park and the southern waterfront, those evening options sit relatively close to the terminal, which makes southern Hoboken a useful starting point on the maps.
Jersey City needs a little more distinction within the city itself. Around Grove Street, the draw includes local shops and places to eat, whereas Newport has a more planned waterfront setting, larger residential buildings and a shopping mall. They aren’t interchangeable just because both listings say Jersey City, so compare the surroundings you’d use on foot as well as the trip to work.
The relevant connection here is PATH, which serves Hoboken and Jersey City and has Manhattan stops including Christopher Street and 14th Street. As with the subway options, being near a useful station matters more than simply having the right city in the listing. And because your summer will hopefully include more than going to work, have a look at the evening and weekend service too, especially if you’ll often be heading back after seeing friends in New York.
Finding a place for the summer#
Once you’ve found a few areas you like, you can compare furnished rooms and sublets with options such as NYU’s summer housing program, which serves students and interns. As of October 2026, NYU’s site is inviting interest in summer 2027, so check the halls and reservation dates for your summer as those details become available.
You may need some persistence before the right dates, price and location come together. While you’re waiting for replies, keep looking at other suitable rooms, and ask about flexibility when a listing almost fits rather than assuming you’ll have to raise your budget. A tech career can put you in a strong position to build long-term financial security, which makes this a good time to practice some financial restraint while still leaving yourself room to enjoy the city.
When a few rooms look promising, Theretowhere’s Distance Matrix can help you compare their travel times to your office and the other places you’ll visit regularly. You can also make your own heatmap with your assigned building, then add a friend’s apartment or an activity you’d like to keep doing over the summer. After all, once you’ve settled the trip to work, it’s worth thinking about where you’d like the rest of your week to happen too.
