Hotel Review: New York Helmsley Hotel

On our last trip to New York I searched for a hotel that would be well located on the East side and not too expensive since hotels tend to be very pricy in Manhattan...by sheer luck I happened upon a website with some good offers for hotels on the dates that we would be up there.

The New York Helmsley Hotel, one of the Helmsley hotel chain, has a great reputation for quality and turned out to be the perfect answer to my search. In the past we stayed at the Park Lane a few times, one of Helmsley's finer properties and much more expensive though, not that much more impressive, well, with the exception of the views that overlooked Central Park West.

Check in:
As we entered the lobby I was quite impressed with huge oval front desk and lovely designed walls behind it...check in was a breeze, though our room wasn't ready yet so we took a walk down the street to acclimate ourselves to the neighborhood and find a bite to eat...when we returned the desk clerk saw us and told us our room was ready and, one of the newly renovated ones at that with a good view which I had asked for...

Our room:
We were escorted up to our room with the bellman to the 35^th floor which had a private corner entranceway...quite nice, only one other room was part of this entrance and was part of a suite with our room if someone wanted the accommodation of a suite they would have complete privacy...

Though the room was not overly large it was big enough for us and very well designed and decorated...

Entering though a small hallway we passed our bathroom on one side and a double closet on the other, which contained a small safe, two robes, with no additional charge, an iron and ironing board...we also found extra pillows and blankets on the shelf. I love having a safe so we don't have to walk around with all our money and credit cards if we choose not to.

First thing I did was look out the large picture window to see what our view was and boy, I was happy.the Chrysler Building was practically across the street with it's beautiful Art deco design and what a high room it was... the traffic and taxi's looked like toys below...

Next we spotted a new Plasma TV on the wall just above the desk, dresser combination....on the opposite side of the room was a king sized bed filled with inviting looking pillows ...on each side of the bed was an end table, each with a good reading lamp...on one was a radio/alarm clock and a telephone ..There was WiFi internet connection available too.

An oversized comfortable chair with an ottoman rounded out the furnishings. The colors of the room were very pleasing...all the wood was an off white tone, topped with marble, the lamps were a shade of gold and the carpet a greenish neutral shade. The heavy drapes, which kept out all noise below, matched the bedspread as did the tall opulent headboard, in somewhat of an Italian kind of print, the chair also matched so it was quite a pleasant room as far as appearances go..

The bed was so very comfortable, with a pillow top mattress, very soft, high count thread sheets and ample pillows, so coming back to the room after a long day walking the New York streets, it certainly was a pleasure to lie down upon.

The bathroom was a nice size with a marble sink and vanity...the fine quality English Oatmeal soap, shampoo and conditioner as well as body lotion with vitamin E was very welcomed by me as was the mineral bath with sea kelp...they even provided a shower cap and sewing kit...the bathtub was large enough to stretch out in to soak in that much appreciated sea kelp.. There was ample room to store all our own toiletries on the shelf provided...oh and the water pressure was good, which can be a bit iffy in some hotels when you are on a high floor

Everything was kept spotless by housekeeping...I guess dear old departed Leona Helmsley taught her staff very well

I loved the view from our room, as I mentioned the Chrysler Building was in one direction but the other direction was just as impressive with the East river in the not to far distance as well as the United Nations building also in view. Looking straight down was also a heart stopper though, but we never did hear the noise with the double glazed windows.

A newspaper was delivered to our room each morning but there was no coffee machine in our room although the hotel offered free coffee each morning down in the lobby near the bar...no problem to go down and grab a cup or two since the elevator system in this hotel was terrific with 6 very fast elevators always on the go.

The concierge service was also very helpful in recommending the names of restaurants and getting us tickets for whatever we needed.

Location:
The location of this hotel is just perfect...on East 42^nd street right in the middle of the block between 2^nd and 3^rd Aves; it was a short walk to Lexington, Madison and 5^th Avenue in one direction leading towards 6^th Ave then Broadway. Going in the other direction uptown was also easy and there was always a taxi nearby...the subway was just 2 blocks away so that was also convenient...and, for great food, Grand Central Station was just a few blocks away with the most incredible food court and market place if you wanted to grab something to go on your way exploring the city...of course there were ample restaurants nearby with every kind of food imaginable.

Security seemed tight due to the fact that this hotel is near the United Nations though was really unobtrusive as far as I could tell, but, there was a guard near the elevators who requested to see our room key whenever we went upstairs.

We really did enjoy our stay at The New York Helmsley hotel in every way and would not hesitate to stay there again when the occasion arises. Leona did a good job with this one!

Our Room cost us $229 a night...for New York, and for the luxery of this hotel that was a great price.