Radisson Martinique on Broadway, New York

After spending a lot of time researching various types of hotels for our New York trip last September, I finally settled upon the Radisson Martinique on Broadway. Whilst it did have mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, there was an offer on the hotel when I was booking it through Expedia and I could have stayed in a hotel that was fewer stars for the same price.

Arriving & Checking In

The Radisson Martinique on Broadway is situated on 32nd Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. We arrived at our hotel early afternoon, with myself feeling slightly ill after a horrible yellow cab journey from JFK. Getting out of the cab we were immediately greeted by the bellman who took our suitcases from the boot and into the hotel. The reception area was a nice relief as despite being the end of September the city was hot and stuffy, so it was pleasant walking into a spacious lobby with air con! We were early by an hour or so, however we still went to reception to check in but our room wasn't ready yet and we were advised to go back at check in time. Our suitcases could have been left safely with the bellmen but we'd had such a long journey I wanted to wait and get into our room first. I had already read reviews online which pointed out this hotel was used by many airlines for cabin crew, and this was immediately noticeable. We were sitting in the reception area and there were lots of airlines either gathering ready to check out or check in, and a short whilst after the crew of the Virgin Atlantic flight we flew over with also arrived! When our check in time finally arrived I went back to the desk, after a few minutes of the man tapping away on the keyboard to find our room, he then disappeared for a while to find out if our room had been checked. During this time I also noticed a basket of freshly baked cookies on the counter which you could have, a nice gesture. After waiting a short while longer we were finally given our key cards and directions to the lift were pointed out, near the entrance of the hotel. There are 2 lifts near the front of the hotel and 2 near the back, unfortunately there was often quite a small wait for these lifts as people always seem to be coming and going in this busy hotel.

Our standard double room

Our room was on the 9th floor, and we had booked a standard double room. It was surprisingly spacious, I was expecting something quite small, but there was plenty of room for the both of us with our suitcases. Just inside the doorway there was an area with hangers and a shelf, and the safe, iron and ironing board were also here. On the shelf there was 2 glasses, an ice bucket and a bottle of water waiting for us. The bed was made with nice white clean sheets, and on one side was the desk and chair, on the other a bed side table with an alarm clock with also had an iPod dock on it. Opposite the bed was a large chest of drawers with a large LCD TV on top. The bathroom was small, but had a shower over bath, and the coffee machine was also in here next to the sink! It was a 'pod' coffee machine, but unfortunately there was no tea for us British folk. There was a huge air conditioning unit next to one of the windows blasting out cold air quite noisily, I was really thankful for it though as it was just so humid outside. There were two large windows in the room and each had big curtains, with a lighter curtain underneath. We didn't have a view, instead we had a view of the rooms directly opposite, but I must admit I do enjoy snooping into other rooms!

There are a lot of rooms on each floor of the hotel, and there is also vending and ice machines. I also noticed that the hotel misses out floor 13 altogether, it goes from 12 straight to 14, a suspicious hotel then! I often used our loose change in the vending machine trying out all the american snacks from pop tarts to chips, however they didn't seem to have a drinks vending machine which would have proved handy. In the hotel lobby there is a gift shop which also sells sweets and drinks but it was quite expensive.

Location

After dumping our bags and having a quick refresh, we were off out on the start of my jam packed itinerary. The hotel is situated in a busy neighbourhood, and directly outside the hotel entrance is one of the entrances to the 34 St subway station, incredibly handy as we used the subway to go everywhere. Directly across the road from the hotel was a Speedy's Deli where we had breakfast every day and I highly recommend it, hot food is priced according to the weight of your plate and they do a wide range of food, we also popped into here for snacks and cookies! It's only a short walk from the hotel to the Empire State Building, Times Square and Bryant Park, but as we had subway passes we did just wander down into the subway station. Macy's is only round the corner, and we did go in a couple of times on an evening when we had spare time to wander around the huge store.

The hotel has a bar and restaurant area, we did go into the bar one night for a couple of drinks and it was nice enough and reasonably priced. The hotel has free Wi-Fi, and faster Wi-Fi at a price. I used the free Wi-Fi on my iPhone and it was fast enough for me, though this was usually at 6am when I was wide awake due to the time difference! There is also a computer room with printers, sometimes the room was busy but the couple of times I popped in (to check in online for our flights home!) I got a computer straight away. You can book a transfer back to the airport from the hotel gift shop, I didn't fancy going in another yellow cab so we settled for a mini bus booking which you can make through the shop the day before. After we checked out on our final morning we left our suitcases with the bellman (they are labelled and taken away to a secure room) so we could roam for the city for a final few hours.

I would stay here again!

I highly recommend this hotel in New York, the room was clean, comfortable and spacious and the staff were friendly and helpful especially the bellmen. The location was great, the subway station being right outside of the hotel door was extremely handy and there were plenty of places to eat nearby. I would stay at this hotel again if they had any more special offers on, paying full price would be pointless as other hotels of a similar standard will always have offers. You don't go to New York to spend time in your hotel, and we were mostly in our room purely to sleep, but this hotel is comfortable and makes a great base.