Westin at Times Square Offers Comfort, Convenience for New York Visitors
Written: Jun 24 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent location, friendly staff, subway access, lots of shopping.
Cons: A little noisy, slightly tight squeeze in room.
The Bottom Line: The Westin at Times Square is likely the best location you can get for walking to restaurants, stores, transportation, landmarks and pleasant service.
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| MsHooterville's Full Review: The Westin New York at Times Square |
Not everything in Manhattan is as big in person as it looks on television or the Internet, and the Westin at Times Square is no exception.
But the 30 plus-story hotel is certainly as tall as you might expect, and even on brilliantly lighted 42nd Street you'll find it without any trouble because of the colorful facade rising above the neon distractions. No grand entrance with awnings and uniformed staff on this crowded corner, but once inside it's cool, quiet and dark.
Booked on Hotwire for $239 a Night in December
Since I'm a Hotwire.com fan, I checked rates for June 19 through the 22nd in late December when I had to use my husband's United frequent flyer miles before the end of the year to go somewhere before the miles expired. A four-star hotel in the theater district for $239 a night (compared to about $445 per night on the Westin website) was fine with me, and I was pleased when it turned out to be this one.
There are numerous room options, and ours was a basic room with two double beds described on the website:
Each sleek 310 sq. ft. room is designed with warm earth tones in a modern style. Our signature Heavenly Bed®--king size or two doubles--offers seven blissful layers of deluxe bedding, while our indulgent Heavenly Bath® offers dual shower heads and a customized curved shower rod for extra space. The well-connected traveler will also enjoy an iHome clock radio for their iPod, High Speed Internet access (charge), dual-line cordless speaker phone, a 32 inch LCD HDTV and an executive working desk.
We were given a room on the 21st floor with a river view, which gave us more light than we would have had facing Times Square. The windows also open a crack to allow some natural air flow, but it is noisy. I still liked the option of fresh air -- rare in newer hotels these days.
Amenities for Comfort and Business
The Heavenly Bed truly was heavenly. My daughter investigated to see if it was a special foam mattress, but said it was just an extra pad (probably specially made for Westin).
We didn't use the phone or the iHome unit, but the LG Television was crisp and clear and the remote worked -- another rarity for many places I've stayed.
A spacious desk with a comfortable office chair and internet access outlet should give most travelers enough work space. The only drawback was that the chair's five-wheel base was too close to the edge of the bed. I scraped my foot on it -- twice -- during our stay and it was a little painful. The arms on the chair were too high to push the chair further beneath the desk. I'd suggest to Westin that they use armless chairs to save floor space when nobody is using the chair.
Room safes and a well-stocked mini-bar with snacks are available, and so was an iron and ironing board, coffee maker, hair dryer, clean white terry robe, and a morning copy of USA Today one day and the Wall Street Journal the next.
The elevators are fast and quiet and have small screen televisions on each side tuned to the news. This was a handy feature, because when you're traveling you don't get too many chances to read papers or watch television.
Shula's Steak House and Chevy's
The Westin has two restaurants you can enter from inside the hotel, but we only tried Chevy's. We had one fancy steak house meal at Rockefeller Center our first night, and didn't need another one, but Shula's looked attractive and they also offer breakfast.
We walked a couple of blocks to Junior's Fabulous Restaurant (of cheesecake fame) just to try it out. There also is Ben and Jerry's and a Cold Stone Creamery just steps from the hotel's two entrances, and both are packed at night with the heavy Times Square traffic.
Concierge and Tour Desk in Lobby
You can stop at the tour desk to arrange almost any kind of city tour, and there was always a line there and at the concierge. We found we could ask the security staff in the lobby at street level most of "Where is..." questions we needed to know.
Christos, a dark-haired handsome and pleasant guy, checked us in and was one of the only hotel staff we interacted with during our whole stay. He was helpful in every way possible and offered us a choice of king or two double beds. I told him wherever we could get the best view would be great, and he put us on the highest traditional room level he could with the great view.
Higher floors require a separate elevator, and that's where the more expensive rooms with spa tubs, treadmills and suites must be. That's not the kind of thing I care about when I'm in the city that never sleeps, and the traditional rooms had more amenities than I typically hope for.
Quiet Retreat When You're Tired of the Crowd
Each night when my daughter and I arrived back at the Westin after a day of walking and standing and walking some more, it was a great treat to get off the packed streets with our Cold Stone ice cream, sneak in the smaller hotel entrance by the Regal Movie Theater and plop down on the Heavenly Bed with our ice cream.
Not only did we save money on the room with Hotwire, but no doubt most travelers will save money on cab fare or other transportation because the Westin is within easy walking distance of landmarks like Rockefeller Center, The Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue and the best shopping in the world.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
MsHooterville
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Ms Hooterville
Location: Hooterville Green Acres USA
Reviews written: 596
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News and feature writer, graphic designer and artist, wife and mother, small business owner.
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