New York Midtown(?) Hotel Recommendations

[SummaLuvin]

Heading to New York in May and wanted some advice on where to stay as we are finding all the choices quite overwhelming. Any advice would be very welcome or if you can share experiences - good or bad.

• We are first timers to NYC and are thinking that Midtown is probably the right area for us.
• The trip is for 10 days so want somewhere nice and comfortable given the length of stay.
• No children, just DH and me.
• We have a decent budget, and are looking at the likes of Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, The Peninsula.... but we would not be upgrading to a suite, so the standard of the entry level rooms is key.

Honestly: all those will be fine!

DH and I read reviews avidly. Are any included on the Lonely Planet guide? Also the Telegraph has brilliant hotel reviews. I trust theirs! You can also check out room sizes on the web sites.

We stayed in Soho last time. Loved it down there. Highly recommend the Crosby Street Hotel. It’s a Kit Kemp one (Firmdale) and it’s less corporate than your choices.

I stayed here a few years ago when it was a Kimpton hotel and it was a very good location: www.iberostar.com/en/hotels/new-york/iberostar-70-park-avenue/

You could probably afford a suite here though!

Near Union Square is a good location - the greenmarket (aka farmers market) is great, if you like things like that.

Avoid Times Square at all costs.

I would say around 34th street is good area - I'm not sure how mid-town is defined.

The Royalton used to be THE place to go but there are probably better places now.

Sold ideas. Top rated by the Telegraph.

A few more

The Whitby is Kit Kemp too. They are so well designed and a bit quirky. I love her hotels. DD has been to The Edition and can recommend that. I too would avoid Times Square but the best hotels are not there! I think Central Park is too far up but some hotels have great views over it. I would look at the room sizes and decide but NY isn’t known for palatial rooms!

I'm agreeing with TizerorFizz -

Firmdale (Kit Kemp) hotels are lovely and have more character than the bigger chain hotels. I've been to a couple of the London ones.

Also, we stayed in Park Lane Hotel which has had a massive refurb in the last couple of years and looks lovely now. It has amazing views over Central Park (if you get a room at the front of course). It's right next door to the Ritz.

A few years ago we had a family room at The Langham on 5th Ave. Huge room with a dressing area and the biggest hotel bathroom I’ve ever seen. A very tranquil hotel and very well located. We loved it.

Yep, also loved the Langham. Great for families.

Thanks everyone. Seems like I might have been somewhat overthinking - when you look at enough reviews everything starts looking bad!! I will definitely look into Kit Kemp and the Langham, and the others mentioned.

@TizerorFizz what makes you say Central Park is too far up? I zeroed on it, but is Soho a better area? Never been to NYC before.

No Soho isn’t necessarily better. But it’s a lot more “villagy”. It has some old buildings with the external fire escapes and remnants of cobbled streets. It’s a very different feel to
Midtown.

Central Park is great for the Met and 5th avenue. It’s a bit like the opposite of Soho. That’s to the South and Central Park is North. If you look at a map, mark what you want to see the most. The distances are bigger then you think from Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. I would guard against going too far East but West has the High Line which is a “must do”, I think.

Your very best bet is to get the Lonely Planet Guide for New York. They break Manhattan down into areas and list their top things to do. So they recommend: the food scene, markets, and shopping plus the Brooklyn Bridge, The Met Museum of Art, Central Park, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, The High Line, Broadway and Times Square, MoMA, 911 Memorial, and further afield, Williamsburg and the skyline from Governor's Island. I think you could add in Top of the Rock, Greenwich Village, East Village, Soho and Chinatown. There’s also Union Square, the Flatiron building, the Tenement Museum and the Guggenheim plus parks and people watching - the list is endless. I strongly suggest you buy the book and plan. Staying in the middle (Midtown) makes some sense! I’m going to send you a few suggestions. Next message!

See attachments. Also buy a map.

Any of those hotels would be nice OP, but if you'd rather be downtown, which is much more characterful, we had a good stay at the Soho Grand a few years ago. Midtown is a good location for sightseeing and just being kind of in the middle of everything, but with 10 days I'd rather stay in a nicer part of town (i.e. downtown). I would definitely NOT stay at or near Times Square, as it's horrible!

We’ve been to the Soho Grand! Real character but cheaper than the OPs budget. Crosby Street hotel is better.

From that list, the mandarin oriental would be my first pick. It is a very residential area just north with some good restaurants locally.

Just as an FYI, I work in NYC. Right now the Times Square area isn’t safe and I don’t recommend anyone be in that area past 6pm. NYPD are outside our office and they escort me to my Uber when I work past 7pm. I used to walk to port authority and take the bus home past midnight. It will return to that when everyone returns to the office, but NYC isn’t there yet. I use Uber or lyft to get everywhere. My husband doesn’t want me cycling in Manhattan because people can’t drive otherwise I use citibikes to get around.

Yes. Recommend Uber. Subway isn’t great either.

Absolutely correct. Do not take the subway either. I’m sorry to say it’s really not safe right now.

I live in NY and if you're set on Midtown, I recommend the MO or the Park Hyatt. I spent my wedding night in the Peninsula and it was lovely though. I just find 5th ave a bit hectic and overwhelming and there's a dearth of non-crap or expensive food options. The MO is right by Columbus circle, so close to Lincoln Square and Hell's Kitchen where there are tons of interested places to eat, drink, shop and people watch :)

Agree wholeheartedly with avoiding Times Square. It is absolutely horrible at the moment. I have been taking the subway, but only in the daytime to commute - I'm not getting it at night atm as it really doesn't feel very safe, and I'm someone who routinely took the subway alone at 2am by herself pre-Covid.

Also agree with people who say that staying outside of Midtown is better though . I'm a fan of the NoMad, Bowery Hotel and High Line Hotel as well as the aforementioned places in SoHo.

I am not very good on areas but we have stayed in Hotel Giraffe before (near the flatiron building) and it’s lovely.

We stayed in Murray Hill, in a small hotel, can't remember the name but will get back with it if I remember! Great location, villagey feel, old fashioned diners for breakfast, handy shops and a stroll to all the Avenues, the UN, Empire State, Grand Central etc. Walked all the way to see Intrepid, but got subway to Wall Street and Staten Island Ferry.

With due respect to wanting comfort, I fail to understand why someone would pay a small fortune to stay in a top hotel since you will be out all day and night, and just need a comfortable bed and decent bathroom, then crash! Money saved by going a little below budget can be well spent on other things.

But each to their own.

Well some people can afford everything and not borrow from one budget to top up another. Also if you can afford a top notch hotel that’s a haven, has strong design, is in the right place and makes you relaxed and happy when you are in it, why not?

Not as luxurious as St. Regis, Peninsula but I stayed at Hilton New York Midtown which was nice!

I can highly recommend Kimberley Suites hotel on East 50th between 3rd and Lexington Avenue. Perfectly positioned for plenty of subway lines and bus routes and very close to Grand Central. You have a kitchenette which is very handy and the room was large with a high up balcony. They also offered complimentary drinks (soft, coffee, tea etc) and cakes on their top floor with great views. Their chocolate chip cookies were something else. At night it becomes a very cool bar. We stayed there with our teens and would definitely return. www.kimberlyhotel.com/?mcid=gptag52k1

It’s a vision in dated brown decor. There’s so many beautiful hotels that make design a top priority. This is mega dull.

@Aintnosupermum what has changed in New York to make things unsafe? I wasn’t aware of this. I was there in 2005 and maybe naively felt there were few no go areas in Manhattan and the subway was safe.

All the offices shut during covid and droves of households moved out of Manhattan because why pay crazy rent when you are working remotely? They also closed down one of the shelters by Times Square coupled with nyc outreach teams being dismantled ‘due to covid’ has been the perfect storm for massive issues.

There have always been lots of homeless people in NYC but they were heavily outnumbered by the workers and residents so everyone rubbed along. The homeless guys who I walked past on my way to work have all died by overdose apparently. The new ones are much more mentally unstable because residents and workers aren’t there to report issues. If I saw Joe getting bug eyed, I knew he needed to see the mental health team and could report it to the outreach team, who took care of it. We are all 100% remote, the outreach team is gone and the likes of Joe have no one watching over them. Joe sadly passed away.