Hudson Hotel, New York City

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	cool bars, good location, stylish
Disadvantages:	can be expensive, rooms are small

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This was my 14th visit to New York and my second stay in the Hudson hotel.
Since I had gone to Australia for 2 weeks last year I didn't have enough holiday left to fit in another trip so I thought it would be wise to slip in a visit this year before I start my new job.

Location

We flew BA to JFK airport, a 7 hour 35 minute trip getting us into JFK in the early evening - the best way, I find, so you can stay up late to try and counter the effects of jet-lag (NY is 5 hours behind so the first day is rather a long one).

The Hotel is on west 58th street which is at the bottom left corner of Central Park, handy for the subway station (red train line number 1 runs north to south & I find this covers most locations for shopping, eating, drinking if you don't mind walking across a few blocks and don't understand/want to get lost on the subway)

There are several ways to get from JFK to Manhattan Island

Cheap - train $5, takes about 90 minutes & 1 change. Cheap - Bus $10, only takes you to Manhattan, not directly to the hotel Recommended - Taxi $55, takes about an hour as traffic is normally bad but at least you get taken to the door ($45 fixed fare to the island + tolls &
tips)
Tacky - arrange a stretch Limo through your travel agent and they will wait for you at the arrivals gate with a name card (the limo driver, not your travel agent, although for a fee………..)

Columbus Circle - 1 block (at the end of the street) Central Park - 1 block (at the end of the street) Times Square - 15 blocks Museum of Natural History - 1 mile Wall Street - 4 miles

Arrival

The outside of the hotel is subtly lit with lime green backlights with the entrance surrounded by huge pot plants (and by porters it seems). Just inside the main door is a series of rooms with cashpoints, telephones and access to the baggage check room where you can leave your bags when you check out. Reception requires a quick ride up a lime green shrouded escalator (see pictures) which takes you to the jungle canopy style check in area (see pictures)

Check in was very quick and easy (after 6pm), They took my credit card details and gave me a card which I could use to charge bar bills to my room.
There is a bank of lifts which in the evenings require you to show your room card (key) to a porter as a security measure to prevent people from the bar getting into the hotel proper.

The Room

I had upgraded from a regular room to a deluxe room for an extra £20 per night because the previous time I had stayed here I was surprised to see how ridiculously small the rooms were. With hindsight the smaller rooms had more character and the slightly larger room only seemed to highlight that they were all small rooms (we got about 14 sq feet more room and a small walk in closet). We were on the 5th floor which is the smoking floor and also means you can easily take the stairs as the lifts do tend to get a bit congested at 10am when everyone is popping in and out for breakfast or going out for the day.

The bed was Queen size, Egyptian cotton sheets & very comfortable, if a little small compared to my super king at home. At the foot of the bed was a desk with built in spotlight lamp for all that essential paperwork (postcard writing) you need to do while you're away. A small notepad was provided and at the back of the folder with room service & hotel details were a couple of envelopes & letterhead notepaper. The walk in closet had a couple of magazines, Time out & Gotham, which were both useful for picking out new bars & restaurants.

The bathroom in the deluxe room wasn't as nice as the bathroom in the room on my previous visit. It was very basic, wet room shower, couple of wonky shelves & a bowl on a pedestal (see picture), The power points were on the opposite wall to the sink, not helpful, a hairdryer was tied up in a bag next to these points. Soap, body scrub, shampoo, conditioner & body lotion were all provided free of charge.

The mini bar was very expensive, bottles of water were £3.50!! There were sewing kits, intimate kits (condoms etc), wine, coke, beer, nuts etc all the usual

Other room features included

CD player, cable TV, clock radio, iron, ironing board, Air con

The air con was very noisy even when I thought I had turned it off, so same as on my last visit I couldn't quite get the temperature right. The weather was better than we were expecting so we left the window open most of the time (I smoke, so this helped ventilate the room)

Food And Drink

There is a restaurant in the hotel, decked out like a dining hall in Harvard apparently. It had double height ceilings and the feel of being in a university canteen so I will have to take their word for it that Harvard is like that. We didn't eat in there so I cannot comment on the quality but it was completely full when we looked so they are probably doing something right.

There are 2 bars in the hotel, one was in a similar vein to the restaurant, it looked like a library in a stately home, walls covered in books, lots of leather arm chairs but strangely with a pool table in the middle. This seemed to be full of older residents and businessmen and I could imagine it being the cigar room before the smoking ban came into effect. The other bar seemed to be the one that non-residents frequented and the one that we spent most time in (see pictures). It had a light glass/Perspex sort of floor lit from beneath and a giant fresco on the ceiling giving it an otherworldly feel, complemented by a mixture of designer furniture. Not really a comfortable bar to lounge in, more somewhere to be seen in since the music after 10 was very loud and most of the chairs seemed to be reserved, the edges of the lit floor were full of people standing drinking and looking to the centre of the room. Testament to how uncomfortable the seating was, we saw someone tip over a seat that was made from a 20ft log and on another occasion one of the clear plastic chairs tipped over as someone sat on it.

We only drank martinis, which were good, but at $16 dollars a time you could find cheaper drinks of the same quality elsewhere. The main reason for drinking here was to be seen, although next to the bar staff, if your'e not a model you may feel nobody is looking at you.

Leisure Facilities

There is a small gym in the basement which was free but with central park so close, why exercise on machines? AND you are on holiday!

Departure

Checkout was at 12 noon and our flight was at 8pm so we decided to check out early and try and fit in a final day of shopping. I expected there to be a large queue at 10.30 but when we got into reception there were only 4 people checking out and 4 staff attending to them. Despite there being no queue, a receptionist standing in front of the desk offered to do a quick check out for us and within about 2 minutes we had signed the bar bill and handed over the card keys. Next we took our bags into the basement for free storage while we shopped, upon our return they carried them to the front of the hotel & hailed our cab. Usually when you take a cab to the airport there is no fixed $45 fee but this time there was - I imagine they have a deal with a group of drivers, so this was a pleasant end to the trip as the ride back is, in my experience, delayed by rush hour & costs $15-$20 more than the trip from the airport.

Summary

I would stay at the Hudson again on my next trip but despite the regular rooms being very small would not bother to upgrade. It would have been nice to have gone out onto the roof terrace but we were a couple of weeks early in the season for it to have been open, maybe next time. Good value, good location & excellent service, 9 /10

NY Tips

I have found a few places that never dissapoint, so if your'e visiting you may want to try -

Thai food - Holy Basil, 2nd ave on 10th street, amazing setting, cheap but high quality, just round the corner from Decibel, a basement bar/restaurant selling crazy japanese food, a large selection of saki & the best Lychee martinis in manhattan

Cocktails - Pravda, another one in a basement (all the best bars are hidden in basements, under canopys or just doorways) 281 lafayette, Houston & prince

Tapas - Divine bar, wide selection of beers & wines, great food (again, bar in basement) E51st on 2nd & 3rd ave)