A Delightful Surprise in Midtown Manhattan
Written: Apr 27 '04 (Updated Apr 28 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Huge comfortable rooms, good convenient location, good value
Cons: occasionally spotty housekeeping service
The Bottom Line: I am glad to recommend the San Carlos as a pleasant alternative to the large chains in Midtown Manhattan which charge a lot and deliver very little.
|
|
|
| HotnCold's Full Review: San Carlos Hotel |
The San Carlos Hotel provides understated elegance, comfort and convenience at a great value in New York City.
LOCATION
Located on 50th between Park and Lexington, The San Carlos Hotel is convenient to much of Midtown's most interesting sights, including Rockefeller Center, the UN, and a lot of shopping. In addition, there are numerous and diverse restaurants within walking distance on Second or Third Avenue. Business Travelers looking for a midtown location will be well-served.
The theatre district is also within walking distance for the more fit, while a crosstown cab is about a $4.00 ride.
In addition, the hotel is located less than one block from a major NYC subway line, the Lex. Ave IRT. Using this, you can go very quickly all the way downtown, including Wall Street, City Hall and Battery Park. Grand Central Station is one stop away. The line is clean, fast, and well-marked. Announcements on the train are automated and easy to understand. One-stop connections for crosstown lines are easy as well.
ACCOMMODATIONS
The public areas are understated, like many European-style hotels. Doorman service opens the entrance and assumes responsibility for your luggage upon arrival. The lobby areas, on either side of the main entrance, are comfortable and adequately roomy, with several upholstered chairs and a few divans. Coffee tables offer copies of today's paper.
We stayed in an "Executive King Suite" which is by no means the highest level of accommodation in the hotel, but it was more of a suite than many of the so-called "suite hotels" offer. Inside the door is the breakfast nook and kitchenette, finished in warm wood tones. A small refrigerator and microwave were built into the cabinetry, which also held a full set of dishes, cups and utensils. Two bar seats were placed astride the peninsular eating surface.
The main room itself was huge by any standard. It included a large, comfortable bed, TWO closets (!) and a full sitting room with couch and two upholstered chairs. A full size armoire was available for anything the two closets didn't take. The room also offered a large flat screen TV with remote, and a pants press. A minibar, while available, went unused.
Decor was understated but warm and very comfortable to come home to after each hectic day in Manhattan. The bathroom had a bath/shower combo and the sink had plenty of counter space.
Service was provided twice a day (turn-down service in the evening) and was never intrusive. One time, during a weekend, the main service did not come. Other than that, there were no glitches in any service. Front desk staff were friendly and polite, and were helpful in making reservations at a few restaurants for us.
Continental breakfast was provided daily in a room off of the main lobby, and was included in our rate.
The bathroom toiletries were AVEDA, which are wonderful! You get their soap, shampoo, conditioner and all-sensitive skin lotion. Also some mouthwash.
There is no restaurant currently. There's a vacant space at the ground level which they say they intend to make a hotel restaurant. In the interim, they've made arrangements with five local restaurants to provide delivery service, with the amounts added to your bill automatically. We ordered a pizza and some salads one night and it was fast and very reasonable. There were also offerings from another Italian restaurant, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and one American place as I recall.
The bedside table has a clock radio with a stereo CD player. Fidelity was good, about average for those things. The TV had the usual hotel-based movie rental options. Prices were roughly $10-12 per movie, except for the "adult" fare, which was more. Of course, we only investigated them for "research purposes" to help you, my loyal Epinions readership! ;)
While rates change depending on date of visit and room type (and where you book), I must say that for what we received and the level of comfort we experienced, we got a great value for our money. Part of that might be that we booked our rooms through Quikbook (www.quikbook.com) which I always try to use and highly recommend.
After years of staying in midtown Manhattan at well-known chain hotels and being overcharged and underwhelmed, I am glad to recommend the San Carlos as an alternative.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
HotnCold
|
|
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
Male. Remarried, 3 beautiful children: 15, 2, less than 1. Marketing/Advertising. Play Violin. Eat. Etc.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.