New York Hotel Recommendations

[Purpleseaside]

We're looking to visit New York for 5 days December 18th - 22nd. We want to experience all things Christmas and the main place we want to visit is Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial.

We would love hotel recommendations, they all seem very similar when looking online and it's hard to choose. 4/5 star in a central location for 2x adults late 20s. Is there a particular area that's best for tourists/anywhere to avoid?

Thank you. 😊

Avoid below mid town? Very odd. Financial District was lovely. We felt completely safe. We didn’t like Time Square, particularly at night.

We stayed at Intercontinental Barclay, close to grand central and everything really!

And the cheese and wine there in the evenings was perfect after 10 hours of being out in the city.

I’d be grateful for any advice - booked to stay in a 4 star hotel in West 51st Street but now panicking that we will be in an awful area and too close to Times Square. Can anyone advise? Sorry to hijack thread.

You'll be six blocks north of TS. What are the north and south bound avenues the hotel is located between?

I had a hideous cold when we were there once and the reading room was a godsend, along with chicken soup from the deli a few doors down.

@MissConductUS 152 West 51st Street near 7th Avenue. Any advice appreciated.

You are far enough north of TS to avoid 95% of the craziness, and 7th Ave in the 50's is okay. I think you'll be fine, especially if you'll return to the hotel by a reasonable hour at night. I wouldn't worry about it.

I hope you have a lovely holiday here.

Not inexpensive, but the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca and The Crosby Street Hotel in Soho are both fabulous. I've been to both very recently and if you apply common sense, as you would in any city, have felt perfectly safe.

@MissConductUS thank you, very kind x

Arlo midtown, west 38th street, near 9th avenue.
We had the absolute best time. Amazing view from our 24th floor room. Lovely bar and restaurant. I would stay again in a heartbeat.
Yes there are some seedy places to avoid and some dodgy people around in parts but that’s true of any city. Just be sensible, keep your bags zipped up and close and don’t flash the cash. Again, the way you should behave in any city!

Second recommendation for Club Quarters, lovely big room, gym and rooftop breakfast bar. Our room looked directly on to 9/11 memorial

A couple of people have mentioned the Library hotel and we have stayed at the Hotel Giraffe which is part of the same small group. It's in midtown on Park Avenue. It's a tall thin sliver of a hotel on a corner, so quite a small lobby, but they do free hot drinks throughout the day, lovely wine and canapés in the evening and a very good buffet breakfast is included which is not the norm in many hotels. Definitely a lifesaver if you're travelling with children as we were at the time.

The Peninsula is great.

Manhattan is so easy to get around OP don't worry too much about hotel not being on doorstep of of sites you want to visit. Although agree with pp, Times Square is a dump in the day time! Avoid!

We stayed at The Art House hotel. Its reasonably priced, decent and clean. Close to a subway in what seemed to be a decent safe area.

www.arthousehotelnyc.com/

Another vote for both the Library and Giraffe hotels. They also do a really good, simple breakfast which was (a few years ago!) very reasonable compared to going to diners.

@FiftyNotNifty We’re staying very close to the Beacon next month. Any recommendations for best way to get around, restaurants to eat at, places to pick up breakfast or lunch to take out with us or anything else it would be useful to know is close by?

@AliMonkey

I'm not @FiftyNotNifty but I grew up in NY (Upper East Side) and lived basically across the street from the Beacon for years. What kind of thing are you looking for - price range and are you travelling with kids and, if so, what age? Happy to make recs if helpful.

I think you'll get better advice from the poster above! What a lovely area to live I'm jealous!
But we made good use of the big supermarket across the road, it had everything! We tended to get home early evening (had young kids then) and one of us would go over and get cooked chicken, salad etc. The Beacon itself has a diner attached which my kids loved for pancakes.
We just took the subway downtown to the more touristy bits, but I actually enjoyed the time we spent wandering up nearer the hotel; park, museum etc.

Sorry its a Fairways not a Wholefoods! Great place

Thanks @throwawayaway1 for any recommendations you can give. We will have two teenagers with us but they aren't very adventurous with their food (or indeed anything else - one says he would rather stay at home than come with us!) so somewhere with some safe options but where we don't end up eating burgers or pizza every night! They do eat Chinese food. I've been told that NY is incredibly expensive foodwise from friends who were there last year so suspect we're looking at the cheaper end but would pay more if it really good food. For breakfast, we'll probably do a mix of buying in some fruit/pastries and going out for eg pancakes so recommendations for the latter would be good; for lunch we will probably try to buy something to take with us on some days to reduce costs versus eating lunch out so sounds like @FiftyNotNifty's Fairway will help; for dinner we'll probably aim to eat near the hotel as we'll probably go back for a rest after a day of sightseeing before heading out to dinner.

Fairway is fantastic - an legendary grocery store, you'll be able to get loads of stuff there. Citarella, next to it, is a bit higher end but also has good prepared food.

A few suggestions and I'll try to come back with more after I've had a think/have more time

The 1,2,3 subway line runs up and down the west side and is very convenient - below Central Park, it's pretty easy to walk across town from most stops. Manhattan gets narrower as you go downtown, so the walks get shorter, although the cross town blocks are longer than the ones that go up and down. It's basically a big grid system, so very easy to navigate.

For old fashioned southern food at a reasonable price, Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too is fun - It's nice to go up and have a wander around Morningside Heights, where Columbia University is, and have a meal there. Also worth a visit - The Cathedral of St John the Divine and The Hungarian Pastry Shop - a true old school cafe hangout for Columbia students and faculty. The Met Cloisters, a bit farther up, is a lovely museum.

I love Daily Provisions (a small chain) at Amsterdam & 78th for breakfast sandwiches.

Even if you don't want pizza every day, make an excursion down to Johns of Bleeker Street for one. I'm also a huge fan of the square pepperoni slice at Prince Street Pizza (no seating, so it's lunch on the go).

Zabars is worth a walk-in. Their bagels and bagel sandwiches are good, although the bagels at Absolute Bagels at 108th are better.

For Chinese food, I haven't been to this place in years, and I think it was closed but recently reopened - for delicious and very cheap food, we used to swear by Great NY Noodletown at the corner of Bayard & Bowery. It used to be kind of an institution - total no-frills but a real hangout for some of the most famous chefs in NY. Their shrimp wonton soup was amazing! And around the corner, Chinatown Ice Cream factory for fun, unusual flavours.

Pancakes - truthfully the best restaurant ones are at Chez Ma Tante in Brooklyn. The neighbourhood (Greenpoint) is a cool one to walk around if you're wandering over to the really trendy Williamsburg, but probably not worth going just for pancakes! Closer to where you're staying, Good Enough to Eat at Columbus & 85th does reasonably good ones.

If you have hot dog loving kids, try Gray's Papaya at Broadway & 72nd. Another NY institution, it doesn't get cheaper than that (although full confession, I haven't personally had one since I was about 18).

@throwawayaway1 thank you so much for all those recommendations - have put almost all of them on my list - not the hot dogs - one DC loves, rest of family dislikes!

We stay at Kimberley Suites in midtown. Nice large suites with balconies and a rooftop bar which serves free snacks and non alcoholic beverages throughout the day. Located next to subway. Really convenient location.

Some well-regarded options in those areas include The Plaza, The Langham, The Standard, The Beekman, and The Edition, to name a few. It's always a good idea to check out reviews and compare amenities to find the best fit for you and your travel companion.
As for areas to avoid, New York City is generally safe for tourists, but it's wise to exercise normal caution, especially in crowded tourist areas. Just like in any big city, being aware of your surroundings and keeping an eye on your belongings is advisable.
Similarly, if you ever find yourself in need of function rooms western Sydney, there are plenty of options available for events or gatherings. These rooms can provide suitable spaces for various occasions and are often equipped with amenities to meet your needs.