At the spur of the moment, we're talking mere hours from check-in, my schedule cleared and the spouse and I decided to go into New York City to watch Macy's Thanksgiving day parade balloons being inflated.

A midtown bargain

I clicked on to Travelocity, first plugged in the words "Lincoln Center" and then "Times Square" in an effort to find a hotel near midtown. On the eve of the big parade, most hotels that I had seen or heard of in midtown had priced their rooms beginning at $359 or $389. Usually, we stay downtown in the financial district, where the least expensive rooms that day were $179. But this time, because we need to get from the train station (34th St.) to the hotel, and then up to the spot where the balloons were being inflated (78th St.) fast, we wanted Midtown.

In clicking around fast, I saw the Hilton for $199. I thought at first that it was the huge Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue, and passed. The place is too big, too impersonal and too conventiony.

Then I remembered seeing a sliver of a hotel lobby on our last walk down 42nd Street. The place looked interesting, I recalled, and it could have been this Hilton, the one with the relatively reasonable rates, so I booked the room.

Friendly doormen, attractive lobby

We were met by smiling, friendly doormen at the street level lobby of this hotel. It's good they were standing on the sidewalk, because this place is easy to miss. The lobby is oh so narrow, but does announce itself with a big brass clock that extends out onto the 42nd Street sidewalk.

Inside, we went straight to an elevator that took us up over 20 stories to the main hotel lobby, a small, but comfortable sitting space/restaurant with windows looking out onto the city.

The set up

The Times Square Hilton is part of an entertainment complex. It sits atop the brand new 25 screen AMC Empire movie theater complex, which has a number of restaurants and fast food joints woven into it. Madame Tussaud's new NYC wax museum is a couple of doors up. There is a branch of Universal news next door for magazine junkies, a Starbucks coffee house and, most exciting of all for Internet fans, an EasyEverything 800-PC cybercafe is due to open by the end of November.

The hotel itself does not have a lobby newsstand, a pool or many of the extras that usually come with a big, chain hotel. But it doesn't matter, I don't think. Everything a traveler could want is just steps away. And I think the lack of standard hotel amenities is one of the things that yields a price that is very low by midtown NYC standards.

The rooms

So many times, a room in a New York hotel is a disappointment. Sometimes they are old and shabby. Sometimes they look out on an air shaft. Often they are tiny. So this hotel room was a delightful surprise. Large and attractive, in tans and light woods, our room on the 38th floor looked out on the city, with views of the World Trade Center, a big swath of the Hudson River, the Empire State Building, what looked like all of New Jersey (quite lovely at night) and even a sliver of Long Island Sound.

We asked for a good view, and we got it. Our room was on the south side of the hotel, and it is my guess that rooms on the north side do not have as good a view, because tall midtown buildings block the uptown vista.

If you want to work

This hotel is in a tourist district, and on the weekend we stayed was filled with families in town for the parade, but the rooms obviously are set up for business traveleres. A good-sized curved desk is topped with an Ethernet connection. There were at least two phones, and there was even what appeared to be a dataport in a desk lamp. Light for reading was excellent.

Tiny problems

We ended up booking an extra night, and this is a hotel I can't wait to stay in again, but there were a couple of small things that might annoy others. One is that there isn't a dresser. Instead, there is an opening shelving type thing on the floor of the closet. It wouldn't hold much, but it does take up a huge amount of space in the closet. There is also a safe in the closet, and between the two, there is almost no room to hang up clothes. This was not a problem for us, as we left home on the fly with one tiny bag, but for anyone planning, say, a festive New Year's weekend, or even a week of business, it could be a problem.

The other thing is that the hotel has a turndown service, which is lovely. But along with preparing the bed for the night and spreading excellent mints around, the staff turns on the radio. And while that seems like a nice touch, the problem is that radios in adjacent rooms go on, playing and playing, until their occupants return. Again, not a problem. Within minutes, I tuned out the sound from the radio next door, but it could be annoying for anyone who was planning on an evening of work.

Security

Normally, I wouldn't even notice security or think about it. But in this hotel, with its narrow lobbies, it was very obvious that there were a lot of security men on duty all the time, and even more in the evening.

The hotel is in an amazingly revitalized entertainment district in what was recently a pretty seedy street. It is less than half a block from the Port Authority bus station, and there are still a few peep shows on Eighth Avenue, a very short stroll away. I guess all of this adds up to the possible presence of individuals who might possibly be interested in mischief of some sort. If so, my guess is that they would have a difficult time of perpetrating it in this hotel. I have never noticed a more vigilant-looking security staff anywhere.

The neighborhood

Times Square is less than a block away. There is entertainment galore within a few blocks of the hotel; everything from the ESPN Zone to scores of Broadway shows and restaurants serving ethnic fare, burgers and haute cuisine are within a short stroll.

The bottom line

Families touring the city will love the location. Business people will appreciate the high speed Internet connection. And anyone who has stayed in a tiny, no view, $300 a night NYC hotel room will applaud the great looking rooms and fabulous views -- all at a reasonable price.







Recommended: Yes