Millionaires view
Just had a short weekend break in New York and stayed at this hotel. We had a junior suite which occupyed a corner location, this gave a fantastic panoramic view of the Hudson along with some of the iconic landmarks in the city. We overlooked ground zero which is a building site but also very poinient and serene at the same time. The 2 water features are now in place in the original footprints of the twin towers and look amazing when light at night. Its hard to visulize the finished product at the moment but no doubt it will be spectacular. You could just lay in bed a survey the skyline if you wished. The room was nicely furnished and had a seprated area to work or relax if you wanted. Coffee facilities are available but for tea you have to ring room service for hot water.
The bar area was often busy so we only had a cuppa on the last day, for me Charles the concierge was the outstanding staff member, nothing was too much trouble for him, always pleased to help, someone even rang down to ask him the temperature outside!!!!! and gave the information with good grace. His knowledge of the city and its transport links were great as this hotel for all its views is at the bottom of Manhatten. We were able to make great use of the subway system which is on the corner and as WTC ( world trade centre) is the last stop you cant go wrong! As we were unsure of how the day would turn out we just purchased single trips form the machine at $2.50 at time. If you were staying longer then a a 5 day pass would be better!
We went for christmas shopping and I have to recommend a trip to 5th Avenue, when dusk starts the lights come on and its truly magical. However as we were there for the start of the holiday season we felt a significant increase in people every where from the saturday which made some of the stores unbearable and Times Square almost unwalkable.
So the hotel is lovely but you are out on a limb so depending on what you want to do, as to the location suiting you. There was not much around on an evening, with a cluster of bars and resturaunts about 10mins walk. Just ask Charles!