Please recommend a budget hotel with easy access to subway. I will have to walk or if the hotel provides a shuttle to the nearest subway station on a daily basis though.

I will be staying for a week and mainly doing sight seeing and taking photos. I'll be on a 7-day subway card for the entire trip, no car rental.

I assume the rates will be better if I stay away from the upper scale spots like times square, etc. An extra 15 minutes travel on the subway or an extra 1-2 transfers is not a problem to save some money.

My main priority is price and ease of getting around. Most of the time I like to just be walking around and sight seeing, so besides sleeping, the less time I spend at the hotel, the better.

HI-E tends to be the chain I prefer: breakfast is hot and decent enough to get me started and most important rates are low to mid-priced. I don't need the frills of designer beds, in-hotel big name chef restaurants, or multi-comfort pillows.