Tag Archive for: Marriott Marquis

A Look at John Portman’s Signature NYC Creation, the Marriott Marquis

With the recent death of John Portman, the game-changing architect you can thank — or blame — for hotels with sky-scraping atriums, dizzying glass elevators and revolving rooftop restaurants, I decided to pay a visit to his most famous New York City creation, the Marriott Marquis.

Though it no longer looks like an alien creature plopped in the middle of Times Square, the 33-year-old hotel is impossible to miss. A brutish fortress of glass and concrete, it looms 48 stories over Broadway, stretches the length of a city block and showcases an eight-story digital billboard ablaze with some of the priciest ads in town. Read more

Special Globe, A New Website That Focuses On Traveling With Special Needs Children

Family vacations can be a richly, rewarding for all concerned, but no one ever said traveling with kids was easy.

The challenges increase when a child has special needs. But that hasn’t stopped Meg Harris, an inveterate traveler and mother of a six-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter with Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes cognitive and developmental problems. Read more

Why You Really Want To Come To New York City In The Dead Of Winter (Think Hotel Prices)

It’s cold, snowy and dark. Why would anyone want to come to New York in January and February?

Because it’s cheap. And oddly friendly. The city’s dearest restaurants are thrilled to give you a table (sometimes). You can score tickets to any Broadway show you want. Read more

What AreThe Best New York Hotel Bars for Watching Super Bowl XLVII?

The ads! The Harbaugh family! Beyonce! (We love her non-lipsynched rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the Superbowl press conference.) There’s even a football game. (We’re from Northern California, so Go Forty-Niners!)

Where do you want to be when the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco Forty-Niners clash on Sunday? Read more

An Old Hotel Gets A New Name: Meet the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel

Anyone who has seen the movie Taxi Driver knows that Times Square wasn’t always a desirable location for a hotel. But that was a long time ago. Now even hotels that aren’t all that close to Times Square are adding the spot-where-the-New-Year’s-Eve-ball-drops to their name. Read more

The Best Hotels for Watching Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2012

Companion — inflated and airborne

Companion, the giant balloon depicting grafitti artist KAWS’ iconic bashful character, isn’t all that’s new at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22.

After years of marching down Seventh Avenue, the parade has a new route for 2012 — and probably beyond. And as we reported last year, for guests hoping to watch from a hotel room the choices have changed — and shrunk. Read more

Hotel Bars Where You Can Cheer the Super Bowl (and the Giants)

The ads! The half-time show! Madonna! We love football (Go Giants), but it’s not the only reason to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday.

Where do you want to be when the Giants and the Patriots go helmet to helmet? We suggest a hotel bar that’s geared up for the big showdown. We found six  — three in midtown and three downtown — where you can settle in with a pitcher of beer and a bucket of wings and drink in the early February festivities, be it the game, the sideshow or both, on a big screen (or two, or 17). Read more

The Best Hotels for Viewing Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, 2011 Edition

Hello Kitty above the fray

It’s early November, a great time to scope out a hotel room with a view of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – for next year.

Nearly a dozen midtown hotels are blessed with rooms that overlook New York’s 2011 parade of parades replete with floats, marching bands, balloons and Santa. But prime real estate – a room that plants you eye-to-eye with Snoopy, Spiderman and Kermit the Frog – gets snapped up months before the bands strike up. You can still get a room if you’re not too picky. But it will cost you. Read more

Checking Out Times Square from the R Lounge at the Renaissance

Times Square as seen from R Lounge.

This is what Times Square looks like from a window table at R Lounge, the Renaissance New York’s second-floor restaurant and bar with the flashy address – Two Times Square. Talk about the thick of things. Read more

The Algonquin Gets Set to Close for Refurbishment in Early 2012

Historic hotels have their charms – the evocative architecture, the whiff of time travel, the (often) dazzling out-of-the-past guests lists. But there’s nothing charming about historic plumbing, which could be one reason the Algonquin, New York’s oldest operating hotel, is closing for four months of renovations beginning on January 1, 2012. Read more