Beacon Hotel NYC my best bet

Dakota Apartments NYC

With a city as big and diverse as New York, how do you find a suitable hotel? Ask a friend, use the various internet sites or just take my advice?

The Beacon Hotel on the corner of 75th and Broadway in Manhattan's Upper West Side is a great choice for a brilliantly located property, good facilities, scrumptious beds and pillows, big TVs and a refurbished lounge and bar for either guests or passers-by. I know there's no such thing as too helpful or too friendly but the staff at The Beacon come close and Darryn I think it was, gave me some suggestions for loads of local restaurants from India to Italian. Not that I needed much help as we'd already discovered about six casual places, the type that I like, with a comfortable ambience, between 72nd and 74th streets (which are really short blocks) and the longer block to Amsterdam Avenue. The Beacon's rooms and suites have cable TV, free Wi-Fi and kitchenettes which makes the food store opposite a very handy thing to have across the road.

According to a few Aussies who've stayed at the Beacon, the Fairway Market is one of the best in town - best meats, fish, cheese and the prices are reasonable. In fact they're cheap. I bought a punnet of blueberries for $2, a walnut and fig wedge for $3 (would've been about $8 in Australia) and a couple of cheeses from a huge deli selection. All this food access is very important I'll have you know, as The Beacon makes eating in an 'easy and good' alternative especially if you've been traipsing around looking at everything important nearby. The Museum of Natural History is four blocks, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts less than a kilometer and the Beacon Theatre next door.

NY mates

A ten minute walk gets you to the Dakota Apartments where John Lennon lived and was later shot (1980) and then across the road is Central Park (which stretches from 59th Street to 110th Street and 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue.. Walk a few metres in and you'll find Strawberry Fields and while I was there, a busker was sitting on a park bench near the Imagine mosaic, playing the guitar and singing Hey Jude then Let it Be. It was much more moving than I thought it would be but then again, I grew up with the Beatles. And on the corner of 72nd is the subway, only four stops to Times Square.

So, for all these reasons, The Beacon's my recommendation for a great New York hotel and there are deals available year round.
www.beaconhotel.com