My lovely husband booked a short stay in New York for my “surprise” 30th birthday. This was in 2002 and we went there at the beginning of October of that year. Just as a side note before I start the review of the hotel, the weather was fantastic and for much of the time we went out regularly in T-shirts.

**ABOUT THE HOTEL**

It has 197 rooms in total, which range in quality depending on which sort you book. We had a regular room but found this to be very satisfactory. There was plenty of room from the end of the queen size bed to the edge of the dressing table and either side too. The bathroom was pretty small, but all you really need in terms of that is somewhere to go to the loo and somewhere to wash. This fulfilled our needs on both accounts. The bathroom was kept very clean and was always stocked with essentials like loo roll and toiletries. The shower was powerful and hot water was good and produced a nice shower.

Under the window there was a rather large unit, which was a heater and air conditioner in one. We did actually use this for both things whilst there, as it was really warm in the day and when you get back from 7 hours shopping it’s rather hot so you need to be cooled down. In the evening though it was a bit nippy so the heating was needed. This unit worked well for both although it was a little noisy.

There is a roof top restaurant with huge windows all around which allows for a panoramic view of the city while you eat. We were a bit let down with the restaurant though as it seemed old and a bit shabby. The tables were not laid out nicely and seemed to be a bit higgledy-piggledy. We only ate breakfast here and this was a help yourself affair with no staff on hand to fill up empties etc. The food was quite nice though. There was a door that led out onto the balcony round the roof of the hotel though and this was fantastic. We went out there to smoke after breakfast and the views were amazing. We were right near the Queensboro Bridge and you could watch the cable cars going up and down. You could see Roosevelt Island and the East River quite clearly and also a lot of rooftops of other buildings etc. We went up here on a few occasions, day and night and were never let down.

The Bentley provides quite a few services for it’s guests, which I will tell you about, but we never used any of these so I cannot comment on their usefulness or how good they were.
Laundry/Valet service
Room Service
Safety Deposit boxes
Hotel parking at a charge of $20 for 24 hours.

You will be required to provide a photo ID when you check in so make sure you have your passport handy. The reception/lobby is beautiful. There are large relaxing chairs you can use while waiting to check in and the whole décor is quite regal. Very inviting. The staff where friendly, as all New Yorkers seemed to be, and helpful and the whole check in procedure was quick and easy. The staff are bilingual – although this was not needed in our case – but handy to know if you do not speak English.

Well, The Bentley Hotel is situated on the Upper East Side of New York, on East 62nd Street.

Everywhere we went to (and that was a lot of places in 3 days!) seemed easily accessible by cab. This was an experience in itself, the driving, the honking and so on, but the hotel itself is situated very close to Roosevelt Island and the East River. Many of the views from the hotel look out over the East River and this is a fairly unique view for a New York hotel.

From our room we had a view of The Queensboro Bridge. It is quite amazing at night when all the lights are on. Incidentally this is the bridge they used in Spiderman, where he saves the people in the cable car. We watched Spiderman after we’d been to New York and it was instantly recognisable.

I will be back there like a shot when I’ve paid my debts from the last spending spree.!