New York hotels

Algonquin

59 West 44th Street, betw. 5th & 6th. Phone: 840 6800. Fax: 944 1419. Price: $235 ($235) without breakfast. All major cards. 165 rooms. (C4).

A class in itself, the literary hotel of Manhattan, between Grand Central and Times Square, suitable for the theater. It is the traditional home away from home for writers and publishers, film and theater people.

The clientele is reflected in comforts such as shoe shining at night and late departure at 15. A lobby of oak, the bar and restaurant are famous meeting and negotiation sites in the literary business and the food is reputed to be the worst in town, suitable for the editors of The New Yorker.

Room no. 500 is rather small, comfortably equipped with agreeably outdated furniture. Most rooms are somewhat larger and more convenient.

Ameritana

1701 Broadway, 54th Street, 10019. Phone: 247 5000. Fax: 247 3316. Price: $115 ($115) without breakfast. All major cards. (B4).

Relatively small and very economical hotel in a central location. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Bedford

118 East 40th Street betw. Park & Lexington. Phone: 697 4800. Fax: 697 1093. Price: $180 ($180) without breakfast. All major cards. 200 rooms. (C5).

A comfortable hotel in Murray Hill, a quiet and respectable residential district just south of Grand Central, between United Nations and Empire State.

About half the rooms are studios with a sleeping area and a sitting area. They all have cooking facilities. The hotel suits families with children and offers special family prices.

Room no. 1202 is really a flat with a dining area in the drawing room, a kitchenette, good ironing facilities. In addition to the practicality, the furnishings are also tasteful.

Dorset

30 West 54th Street, betw. 5th & 6th. Phone: 247 7300. Fax: 581 0153. Price: $235 ($235) without breakfast. All major cards. 490 rooms. (C4).

Old-fashioned and relaxed, peaceful and recently renovated, a luxury hotel on a relatively quiet street behind Museum of Modern Art, European in spirit, mostly filled with regulars.

Service is efficient and friendly. The rooms differ in size.

Room no. 822 is quiet in spite of being on the street side. It is comfortably furnished in an old-fashioned way, with two large beds, a kitchenette corner and a quality bathroom, not to forget enormous cupboards from the times when people traveled with coffers.

Elysée

60 East 54th Street betw. Park & Madison. Phone: 753 1066. Fax: 980 9278. Price: $200 ($200) without breakfast. All major cards. 99 rooms. (C4).

Agreeable small and recently renovated, in the middle of the fashion shops part of Midtown, popular with people who know what they want and want to be left in peace.

Marble and mahogany set the tone in the lobby. The rooms vary in size and each has its own name. The service fits the personal atmosphere of the hotel.

Room no. 505, “The Butterfly” has a quaint, long ante-room with a kitchenette corner, a good bathroom, laid in marble, and spacious cupboards. The room itself is commodious, with two large beds.

Gorham

136 West 55th Street, betw. 6th & 7th. Phone: 245 1800. Price: $115 ($115) without breakfast. All major cards. 116 rooms. (B4).

Very conveniently located in a relatively quiet Midtown street, next street to Museum of Modern Art, with the theater district on one side and the fashion shops on the other. There are short distances to all sites of importance in Midtown. Carnegie Hall and City Center Theater are neighbors and Times Square and Lincoln Center are not either far off.

The lobby is small as the hotel itself. The staff is friendly and efficient.

Room no. 1504 faces the street, spacious, comfortable and cozy, with two large beds and quality furniture. It is well equipped, including a kitchenette corner and a cloak room. The traffic noise does not reach it.

Inter-Continental

111 East 48th Street / Lexington Avenue. Phone: 755 5900. Fax: 664 0079. Price: $285 ($285) without breakfast. All major cards. (C4).

The best hotel of New York, the former Barclay, in the eastern Midtown, convenient for the United Nations building and fashionable shopping.

The lobby is grandiose, with a large aviary in the middle. The hotel is luxuriously furnished in and out. The service is exemplary and knows no problems. The procurement of theater tickets is perfect. This is even better than the Old World.

Room no. 537 is very warm and luxurious, with an unusually well equipped bathroom. It is quiet in spite of windows out to the traffic.

Iroquois

49 West 44th Street / 5th Avenue. Phone: 840 3080. Fax: 398 1754. Price: $115 ($115) without breakfast. All major cards. (C4).

Small and personal, rather worn hotel of good value in an old building almost beside the famous Algonquin.

There is no lobby to speak of and no breakfast room. Reception and service is friendly. Only a few rooms are on each floor and they are spacious.

Room no. 111 is large and clean, but parly with tired furnishings, including cigarette burns. The bed is good, also the shower.

Mansfield

12 West 44th Street / 5th Avenue. Phone: 944 6050. Fax: 740 2508. Price: $145 ($145) with breakfast. All major cards. (C4).

An friendly hotel recently refurbished in trendy modern style, centrally located in Midtown.

The marble lobby has a high ceiling. On the side there is a bar that doubles as a self-service breakfast room, where free coffee is available all day long. Thre is also marble on the stairs. Service is very attentive and friendly.

The ultra-modern room no. 410 is small, with black, functional and stylish furnishings. The night tables and the writing table turn on a vertical axis to save space when not in use. The tiny bathroom functions very well.

Marriott Marquis

1535 Broadway / 45th Street. Phone: 398 1900. Fax: 704 8930. Price: $180 ($180) without breakfast. All major cards. (B4).

A super-modern hotel tower design, right on Times Square. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Michelangelo

Equitable Center, 152 West 51st Street / 7th. Phone: 765 1900. Fax: 541 6604. Price: $255 ($255) without breakfast. All major cards. (B4).

A small hotel loaded with marble and works of art near Rockefeller Center. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Middletowne

148 East 48th Street near Lexington. Phone: 755 3000. Fax: 832 0261. Price: $175 ($175) without breakfast. All major cards. 190 rooms. (C4).

Rather small and very comfortable eastern Midtown hotel, with furnishings more or less chosen by Leona Helmsley, full of thick blankets and flowery curtains and large towels.

The friendly and talkative staff are rather slow and unorganized.

The rooms are very large, with two unusually large beds, a kitchenette corner and large cupboards. Everything is new and sparkling clean.

Pickwick Arms

230 East 51st Street, betw. 2nd & 3rd. Phone: 355 0300. Fax: 755 5029. Price: $100 ($100) without breakfast. All major cards. 400 rooms. (D4).

A budget hotel at a good easterly Midtown location, opposite the nice little Greenacre Park, probably the best buy in town.

The lobby is respectable and there is even a roof garden. The rooms are rather small. They are clean and equipped with air-condition. Take care to book a room with shower or bath.

Room no. 1110 is exactly large enough to fit in two large beds and other necessities. The bathroom is small and functional.

Pierre

5th Avenue & 61st Street. Phone: 838 8000. Fax: 940 8109. Price: $375 ($375) without breakfast. All major cards. 206 rooms. (C3).

With a Central Park location, the royalty hotel of New York, the abode of kings and presidents, full of lackeys turning around each other. It never looks busy, always relaxed. You have to be living off inherited wealth to feel comfortable here.

The public rooms are more formal than comfortable, partly furnished with antiques. Each lift has an operator that tries to land at the right floor and often succeeds. Every now and then gentlemen in smoking and ladies in dresses float over the thick and green carpets to enter extra long, chauffeured limousines. Luggage is never seen in the lobby.

Room no. 829 is not large, but very cozy and stylish. The bathroom is laid with marble and unusually well equipped with robes and towels, even a correct scale, and a variety of perfumes.

Plaza

5th Avenue / 59th Street. Phone: 759 3000. Fax: 759 3167. Price: $255 ($255) without breakfast. All major cards. (C3).

One of the most famous hotels in New York, in a perfect location, with good views to Central Park. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Salisbury

123 West 57th Street, 6th & 7th, 10019. Phone: 246 1300. Fax: 977 7752. Price: $175 ($175) without breakfast. All major cards. (B3).

A small and cozy hotel near Carnegie Hall. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Shoreham

33 West 55th Street, 5th & 6th, 10019. Phone: 247 6700. Fax: 765 9741. Price: $175 ($175) without breakfast. All major cards. (C3).

Recently renovated, near Rockefeller Center. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

St. Moritz

50 Central Park South / 6th Avenue. Phone: 755 5800. Fax: 319 9658. Price: $150 ($150) without breakfast. All major cards. 680 rooms. (C3).

And old and worn and sympathetic hotel at a prime location at the southern edge of Central Park, pre-war European in spirit.

The lobby seems always to very busy, not least because of the popularity of the ice-creams at Rumplemeyers, its overdecorated dining room with Austrian atmosphere.

Room no. 2007 is rather small, well equipped and with a perfectly functioning bathroom. It offers a view to Central Park.

Vista

3 World Trade Center / West Street. Phone: 938 9100. Fax: 444 3575. Price: $320 ($320) without breakfast. All major cards. (C10).

A very special location in the Financial District near Wall Street, perfect for visitors to the world of banking and money, also convenient for the artists districts of TriBeCa and SoHo. Renovations were finished at the end of 1995. It has a free limousine service to Midtown.

The reception in the stylish lobby is very efficient and user-friendly. It has an unusually large and well equipped fitness center. The views from the windows are spectacular in any direction.

Room no. 1240 is very bright, super-modern, with luxurious furnishings and a good view to the Midtown skyscrapers, beautifully silhouetted against the rising and falling sun.

Waldorf-Astoria

301 Park Avenue, 49 6 50th Streets, 10022. Phone: 355 3000. Fax: 872 7272. Price: $265 ($265) without breakfast. All major cards. (C4).

Completely renovated and again evoking its former glory. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Warwick

65 West 54th Street / 6th Avenue. Phone: 247 2700. Fax: 489 3926. Price: $250 ($250) without breakfast. All major cards. 4250 rooms. (C4).

In a quiet and perfectly located Midtown street, with good views to nearby skycrapers, offering some of the best rooms in town.

It is relaxed and seems smaller than it really is. Service is good, just as can be expected of a Midtown hotel.

Room no. 2511 is large and cozy, with two large beds, well maintained and with a well equipped bathroom.

Washington Square Hotel

103 Waverly Place / MacDougal Street, 10011. Phone: 777 9515. Fax: 979 8373. Price: $137 ($137) without breakfast. All major cards. (C7).

Right on the edge of the famous central square of Greenwich Village. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Wellington

7th Avenue & 55th Street. Phone: 247 3900. Fax: 581 1719. Price: $115 ($115) without breakfast. All major cards. 700 rooms. (B3).

A very practical and a pleasant hotel, recently renovated, well situated for theater enthusiasts, a few steps from Broadway.

The staff is friendly. The hotel itself is rather old but all the furnishings are new. Mirrors abound in the lobby.

Room no. 1935 is very comfortable, simple and polished. It is moderately spacious, very clean and functions well.

Wentworth

59 West 46th Street, 5th & 6th, 10036. Phone: 719 2300. Fax: 768 3477. Price: $100 ($100) without breakfast. All major cards. (C4).

Practical hotel with large rooms in the fashion district. (Shortlisted for evaluation and inclusion)

Windsor

100 West 58th Street / 6th Avenue. Phone: 265 2100. Fax: 315 0371. Price: $175 ($175) without breakfast. All major cards. (B3).

Quiet in spite of the excellent location, outfitted by Leona Helmsley, full of flowery and thick blankets and curtains, large towels and well equipped bathrooms.

The hotel was recently renovated.

Room no. 704 is large and comfortable, including two large beds, and with the extra bonus of positive scales that showed everybody to be 53 kilos.

Wyndham

42 West 58th Street, betw. 5th & 6th Av. Phone: 753 3500. Fax: 754 5638. Price: $160 ($160) without breakfast. All major cards. 200 rooms. (C3).

Centrally located just south of Central Park.

Dignified lobby and homey atmosphere, but no room service. Many actors and singers like to stay here with John and Suzanne Mados, the owners who live here.

Room no. 205 is American homey and warm, loaded with draperies. It has a kitchenette corner, a cloak room and a large anteroom.

1996

© Jónas Kristjánsson