Where to Watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from a Hotel Room

Where do you want to be when Astronaut Snoopy, Pikachu and Santa wend their way to Herald Square in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? 

A nice warm hotel room with a room service breakfast and big clean windows overlooking the festivities sounds good to us. 

We found ten hotels with superb locations along the parade route, winding from Central Park West to Central Park South and down Sixth Avenue. Click here to read our post, updated for 2019, on parade hotels, complete with a dab of parade history.

How Did New York City Hotel Restaurants Fare in the 2020 Michelin Guide?

For hotel lovers who double as foodies, Fall heralds the annual arrival of a new Michelin Guide for New York City restaurants.

Sure enough, the 2020 version of the red-coated guide has landed, right on schedule. How did the city’s hotels do this time around?

Not so great. Of the 76 restaurants tapped for one, two and three stars, just five restaurants found at hotels made the cut, down from six last year — and an even longer leap from 2010, the year we started keeping score, when seven reaped one or more stars. Read more

Drinks, Flowers, Games and More — How NYC Hotels Are Toasting the 2019 U.S. Open

Even if you don’t set foot in the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park between now and September 9, it’s easy to feel like you’re part of the U.S. Open  if you know where to look.

Hotels are a great place to start. The players have to say somewhere, after all. So do fans. And whether it’s drinks, decor, games or a big screen, tennis is in the air.

Here’s a sampling of what we found nosing around Midtown hotels. Read more

Show of Vintage Louis Vuitton Trunks Brings Time Travel to Sofitel New York Lobby

Call it the ultimate trunk show.

Stroll quickly through the lobby of the Sofitel New York, and you may think you’ve wandered into a Louis Vuitton showroom. But look closely at the array of travel trunks artfully parked atop side tables, tucked below the flower-filled console and stacked under a winding staircase, and it’s clear you won’t see these items circling on a baggage carousel.

The trunks are vintage Vuitton, the kind that sell for multiple thousands of dollars. A relatively common sight if you traveled First Class in the luxury liner/grand hotel days, they now show up mainly in stylish houses as eye-catching coffee tables, foyer consoles and foot-of-the-bed storage. And while these durable hard cases still look at home in a hotel, especially one that sports marble floors, wood paneling and French management, they’re a pop-up exhibition saluting “The Golden Age of Travel.” Read more

The New York Hotel You’ve Never Heard Of That Inspired Georgia O’Keeffe’s Skyscraper Paintings

On a recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I chanced upon Georgia O’Keeffe’s panoramic painting from 1928 of the East River. A muted geometry of belching factory smokestacks and brackish water, it’s the elegant, if downbeat, work of an artist becoming visibly disillusioned with urban life, a good-bye-to-all-that rendering of the city she’d soon abandon.

But what really caught my attention was the title “East River from the Shelton Hotel.” Read more

Dig In! A Record 48 Hotel Restaurants Fork Over Deals On Meals During New York Summer Restaurant Week 2019

As all you star gazers know, we’re deep into the Dog Days of Summer, the 20 days before and 20 days after Sirius, the dog star, aligns with the sun. Welcome to the sweatiest days of the year.

But the heat-soaked Dog Days overlap with a more pleasant New York City ritual — New York Restaurant Week, summer edition.

Now in its 27th year, SRW 2019 unfurls July 22 to August 16. This summer’s tasty line-up includes 381 restaurants serving up two-course lunches for $26 and three-course dinners for $42. Read more

Sofitel New York Salutes the 2019 Tony Awards with Lobby Photos, a Tony Awards Suite, a Cher Show Suite and More

The 2019 Tony Awards unfurl Sunday, April 9, yielding eagerly awaited answers to pressing questions: Hadestown or Tootsie? Oklahoma or Kiss Me Kate? And what about Jeremy Pope, who’s nominated for Best Leading Actor in a Play (Choir Boy) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Ain’t Too Proud)?

Sofitel New York doesn’t have the answers (yet). But their lobby, decked out in full Tony regalia through June 10, is a great place to put yourself in the mood for the Tonys if you don’t have a ticket for the big show at Radio City Music Hall. Read more

W Downtown Dresses Up Their Bar With Art By Their Newest Artists In Residence

The fifth floor Living Room at W Downtown boasts a showpiece ceiling, an attention grabbing sculptural canopy of Calatrava-style ripples. It even changes colors. But since the introduction of the hotel’s Artist in Residence program in December 2018, the ceiling is getting serious competition from the room’s charcoal walls, or to be precise, what’s hanging on them. Read more

Celebrating Winter: These Four NYC Hotels Are Going All Out for “Game of Thrones” in Its Final Season

It may feel like spring, but winter is here. Or for Game of Thrones fans who are keeping score, 67 episodes down, 6 to go.

The fantastical Westeros saga returns to HBO on April 14 for its final chapters. Lannisters! Targaryens! Dragons (dead and alive)! These four New York City hotels are toasting all things Thrones with a mix of viewing parties, themed drinks, trivia contests and deals for guests looking to take in the action from someplace other than the living room couch. Read more

Three NYC Hotels for Watching March Madness 2019 with Beer and a Crowd

With the weekend upon us, March Madness 2019 is in full swing. For college basketball enthusiasts eager to cheer with beer — and a crowd — these New York hotel bars are serving up big screens, generous brews, burgers and a congenial backdrop for cheers and tears.  Read more