Saturday 29 November 2014

New York! New York! Where to Sleep...

Bamboozled by the hotel choices in New York? We normally stay in apartments when we're on working trips as they have a lot of space and are quite relaxed. This trip however we decided to try out NYC's hotels and there's a lot on offer! Confusion reigned until I came across the Ace Hotel in Midtown, Manhattan. It looked super cool online so we simply had to try it out. It didn't disappoint! 
There's scaffolding everywhere in New York so don't let that put you off! The location of the hotel was perfect, it's just on the corner of Fifth Avenue on 29th Street and is practically in the shadow of the Empire State Building. You couldn't veer far away from the hotel without tripping over a few major tourist attractions. The Flat Iron, Union Square, Bryant Park, New York Library and the shopping on fifth are all super close. Make no mistake though, despite being in the centre of these touristy attractions this is not a tourist hotel. We occasionally saw people checking in but without this you'd nearly forget that you weren't an actual New Yorker sharing a space with the uber hip folk of NYC. We visit the Big Apple so often we like to pretend we live there so this was just how we like it!!! 

The hotel lobby was gorgeous, totally up our street with a mix of industrial and vintage interiors. The staff at The Ace were really welcoming, charming and fun to boot, it was hard to imagine leaving!

The main area in the hotel was jam packed full of busy little New Yorker bee's working away on their Mac laptops, having meetings and drinking buckets of the delicious Stumptown Coffee available on site. 
There's a bar at the back and DJ's play every night so this place never gets quiet. 
We were so hectic over the few days that we never got to take full advantage of the space as it provided some awesome people watching!

A rare empty seat!!!



There were lots of quirky and beautiful pieces of artwork throughout the hotel. 

Our room was a double (in America that's two beds) on the forth floor and for New York hotels it was HUGE!!! Plenty big for 3 ladies, many, many suitcases and a whole lot of clothes! The beds were really comfy and great for the jet lag. All rooms have a record player and radio/player for some extra tuneage. The whole hotel was crammed full of slick interiors and quirky spaces that made it a dream for taking pictures in...it became selfie central!!! 
The sound proofing in the hotel was a wonder. Every time the doors opened from the lift into the lobby, we were amazed by the party happening below us which we couldn't hear at all in our bedroom. 


Yes that it a Smeg fridge which was fully stocked with tasty but expensive drinks and treats. (This is New York after all!) We just used it to keep our own snacks chilled. A nice touch though.

The Breslin restaurant in the hotel had a really cool fit out, tasty cocktails and food. But with our manic schedule we found the service a little slow. Not a problem if you have more time on a holiday but as this was a buying trip our days were planned with military precision!



So the Ace Hotel was as fabulous as it looks on their website, but does it have a photobooth I hear you ask...
Why yes it does! Who could resist jumping in here for a few snaps...


One more selfie for the road!

One of the art installations within the hotel: This is a gamelteron apparently! It omitted some automated soothing beats and hip New Yorkers could be seen congregating nearby drinking their coffee. 

Would we stay again? In a heartbeat!!! New York and the Ace Hotel we miss you desperately... Next visit I'd like more time to be one of those people; working intensively on their laptop in the lobby and drinking too much coffee!  

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