New York Hotel Recommendations (First time there)

[joshleb]

Going to New York in Feb for my first time and currently looking at hotels with my partner.

Location wise, been looking at Greenwich Village, Chelsea & Soho, how would these be for a first time visit? Any other location recommendations?

And then any recommended hotels? Budget would be up to £150-200 a night if it's worth it.

Any help appreciated!

[fourstardan]

joshleb said:

Going to New York in Feb for my first time and currently looking at hotels with my partner.

Location wise, been looking at Greenwich Village, Chelsea & Soho, how would these be for a first time visit? Any other location recommendations?

And then any recommended hotels? Budget would be up to £150-200 a night if it's worth it.

Any help appreciated!

I stayed years ago in Washington Square Hotel. Rooms were tiny but for your spend you won't get much.

[abzmike]

I’m sure you’ll get lots of ideas. Last time we stayed at the Freehand near Gramercy Park. Great location in a neighbourhood with all you need, nice bars in the hotel, and the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in.

[Ionnrob]

i would stick to chains IHG runs holiday inn ,, then you have Best Western,, you just know what your going to get !!

Enjoy

[fourstardan]

Hilton garden Inns have decent rates usually.

In New York you will only use the room to sleep....

[ch37]

fourstardan said:

In New York you will only use the room to sleep....

This, and location is only as important as the nearest useful subway lines or whether it fits in with your walking plans. Staying in a 'nice' area such as Chelsea or The Village doesn't actually achieve much, in our opinion.

We never spend any time in Times Square, but hotels just off of Times Square are some of the most useful in terms of getting around.

a) very central for walks in any direction

b) subway lines for pretty much everywhere within very easy reach

We're budget travellers but managed to get an amazing deal on the Waldorf Astoria one year, the following year we were back to our usual 'lesser' hotels and in reality there was no big difference apart from a nicer lobby and probably more expensive taps and door handles.

Hotel Edison is a favourite of ours.

[Truckosaurus]

ch37 said:

....but hotels just off of Times Square are some of the most useful in terms of getting around....

Indeed. I've stayed at a place called The Distrikt (sic) which now seems to be a Hilton - https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/nycdsup-distrikt-...

It's alongside the Port Authority bus depot, in a row of chain hotels, with easy access to the subway system and walking distance to the gentrified Hell's Kitchen area.

[oldskoolgent]

whatever you do .... take VERY warm clothes.#
We did NY in Feb just before Covid kicked in and I returned with frost burn !

[rufmeister]

Stayed at Hotel Indigo in the Lower East Side, lovely hotel, had a room with a view of the Empire State Building and the area was packed full of bars and eateries. Bit of a walk or subway to everywhere but not a problem really.

[MarkJS]

We’ve stayed at the Wyndham New Yorker a couple of times and it’s in an ideal location. As already mentioned, you will only sleep in your hotel, so location is key.

Times Square is totally overrated but the rest of the city is brilliant.

[ch37]

We've done 10 trips in February now (not that we're stuck in our ways!) including with our then 3 year old. In 40+ days there we've had a single day of rain and the best part of 30 completely clear, sunny days, amazing time of the year to go.

I've never known anywhere like it in terms of temperature variation day to day.

This was taken on February 15th on our last trip, I think it was about 14c, sunset in t-shirts! The next day it was -4!

NYC by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

[Boringvolvodriver]

Stayed in a hotel near Bryant Park and had views of the Empire State Building and also looked down onto Macy’s.

Had to look back and now called Kixby hotel (was Metro when we went)

It was recommended by Virgin and was good value IIRC.

Centrally placed and when in New York, you won’t be spending much time in the hotel - well we didn’t anyway.

[x5tuu]

Truckosaurus said:

Indeed. I've stayed at a place called The Distrikt (sic) which now seems to be a Hilton - https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/nycdsup-distrikt-...

It's alongside the Port Authority bus depot, in a row of chain hotels, with easy access to the subway system and walking distance to the gentrified Hell's Kitchen area.

I’ve stayed at the Distrikt getting on for a dozen times now and while it’s not as good as it was originally when it was new and privately owned (and used to be rated #1 in the whole city) it’s still decent and with all the accoutrements of being a HHONORS property. Lifts can be a nuisance though as there are only 2 and they are small so you can have waits at times. Rooms are small even by NYC standards.

The main downside though is that the PABT is a Mecca for homeless and down/outs plus the probation service have an office on the street (just next to the sex shop and bodega) so there are often queues of “interesting” characters around.

[fiatpower]

I've been to New York a few times and always stayed here. It used to be a Club Quarters but it's now a Radisson hotel.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/club-quaters-rock...

Right next to the Rockefeller center and also close to times square but not so close that it's busy/nosiy. There are also quite a lot of subway stations within a short walk. Only a 10 min walk or so to central park which is key for me as I like to go for a run there each morning when I visit.

Edit. Although there seem to be an awful lot of bad reviews in the last year. We last went in 2019 and it was fine. May have to keep an eye on the reviews ahead of our visit later this year!

Edited by fiatpower on Sunday 23 January 18:58

[ch37]

I find reviews to often be well out of sync with reality in the US, particularly when American folk are the ones writing the reviews. Many times we've booked somewhere, then stupidly done a deep dive on Trip Advisor of a quiet afternoon and feared the absolute worst...always completely unfounded as it turns out.

Maybe the past two years, where the majority of stays will have been domestic, has dragged quite a few down by a star or two on the review sites. Many US folk have unbelievably high service level expectations even for a one night stay.

When we were young we used to stay in Hotel Pennsylvania every year (6 years running I think), you'd cross the street to keep away from the entrance if you spent more than 5 minutes on TripAdvisor!

[fourstardan]

Pricing in Feb isn't too bad in NY, its a great place when snow happens, we went for the first time and on the second day woke up to snow.

I have always been to NY in winter, I can imagine it's not as nice in summer myself. We did Washington for a weekend in the late summer before a trip to Florida but the hotel was nice and AC'd.

San Fran in summer appeals though, it's weird what image you get of place.

[bennno]

joshleb said:

Going to New York in Feb for my first time and currently looking at hotels with my partner.

Location wise, been looking at Greenwich Village, Chelsea & Soho, how would these be for a first time visit? Any other location recommendations?

And then any recommended hotels? Budget would be up to £150-200 a night if it's worth it.

Any help appreciated!

We stayed in Hell’s Kitchen, loads of decent / inexpensive places to eat and could walk to many places like Central Park, Times Square etc.

[anonymous-user]

I've stated here a coupe of times, can't really fault it for location or service or anything.
Easy walking distance to most places and between the metros for the airports.
Decent views of the crysler building as well from the rooftop bar terrace.
https://www.rogersmith.com/?utm_source=local-listi...

[ch37]

fourstardan said:

Pricing in Feb isn't too bad in NY, its a great place when snow happens, we went for the first time and on the second day woke up to snow.

I have always been to NY in winter, I can imagine it's not as nice in summer myself. We did Washington for a weekend in the late summer before a trip to Florida but the hotel was nice and AC'd.

San Fran in summer appeals though, it's weird what image you get of place.

NYC is definitely a winter place for us, even Easter was uncomfortably warm (and busy) for us. I can't even begin to imagine what 30c feels like there. We loved late autumn though, great seeing the Halloween parades etc.

Weirdly San Francisco is more 'summery' outside of the peak summer months. Early November is quite possibly optimum in terms of nice conditions and relatively few tourists.

[Dr Jekyll]

ch37 said:

NYC is definitely a winter place for us, even Easter was uncomfortably warm (and busy) for us. I can't even begin to imagine what 30c feels like there. We loved late autumn though, great seeing the Halloween parades etc.

Weirdly San Francisco is more 'summery' outside of the peak summer months. Early November is quite possibly optimum in terms of nice conditions and relatively few tourists.

I went over Easter once, it was snowing.