The Best Places in New York

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Turkish hammam and a mosaic-lined pool tucked beneath a Beaux Arts tower on 32nd Street is about as New York a contradiction as you'll find. The Marmara Park Avenue is a 128-room luxury hotel where designer Joe Ginsberg's taste runs the show: brass-inlaid concrete floors, Mylar wall coverings, velvet everywhere, and custom wallpaper drawn from his own photographs of a Bronx bridge. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Pastels and soft watercolors replace the old primary-color scheme after a Rockwell Group renovation, which is genuinely good news when you're sleeping a few floors above Midtown's noise machine. The Time New York is a boutique-ish hotel a short walk from Times Square, with rooms that are compact but quietly pulled together, Frette linens, Margiela bathrobes, and suites for when compact just won't do.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Burger Joint, a self-consciously divey counter slinging smash patties, is tucked behind a curtain in an otherwise polished lobby, which tells you something about this hotel's sense of humor. Thompson Central Park is a high-end boutique hotel in upper Midtown, rebuilt from a legacy property with mid-century Modernist bones courtesy of architect Thomas Juul-Hansen. Upper floors look out over Central Park.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Esquire Cigarette Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC

The lobby is as big as a city block and designed, without apology, for people who will open a laptop in it. Ace Hotel Brooklyn is a Michelin Key hotel sitting on the edge of Boerum Hill, where the industrial bones and deliberately low-key atmosphere draw the kind of guests who prefer brownstone streets over Midtown. The Brooklyn Heights Promenade is a short walk, and the ground floor bar handles the rest of your evening.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Bitters are both the obsession and the inventory at this tiny East Village cocktail bar, which also sells an overwhelming wall of the stuff to take home. A dozen seats, a menu split between house originals and riffs on classics, and a bespoke option built around a Negroni, Manhattan, or Old-Fashioned if you'd rather just tell them what you're feeling. House-made vermouth pours on tap. A James Beard semifinalist, and the kind of place that makes you feel smarter for having gone.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Ravi DeRossi - Overthrow Hospitality

A glass-enclosed rooftop bar with unobstructed Manhattan skyline views is a reasonable argument for crossing the bridge. This Wythe Avenue hotel occupies a striking eight-story building in brick, glass, and weathered steel, with double-height guest rooms fitted out in custom furniture that leans toward retro modernism with a bit of prewar New York texture. An Eastern Mediterranean restaurant sits off the lobby for when you'd rather not wander far.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America
2. Time Out #28 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now

The name "Theta" does hint at a quieter frequency than the surrounding blocks would suggest. This Kimpton hotel on 8th Avenue puts you a short walk from the Theater District, Hell's Kitchen, and the Rockefeller Center chaos, which makes it a practical midtown base without requiring you to sleep directly under a billboard. The 364 rooms lean calm and polished in the way the Kimpton brand tends to, a reliable counterpoint to the neighborhood's volume.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

A Romanesque Revival building that spent its postwar years full of artists' lofts is now a boutique hotel that essentially defined what a SoHo loft hotel looks like. Christian Liaigre's renovation gave the rooms their spare, low-slung calm, and that aesthetic has aged better than most of its imitators. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Style-world regulars still treat it as a default, which is either a recommendation or a warning, depending on your feelings about that crowd.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Wood smoke hangs in the air the moment you walk into this Fort Greene seafood restaurant, which should tell you something about how the kitchen operates. Chef Tomer Blechman anchors the menu around dry-aged fish and open-fire cooking, pulling from a Mediterranean pantry that keeps things interesting without announcing itself. The bar draws a crowd that clearly has opinions about natural wine, and the pita alone justifies showing up early.

1. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
2. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A glass-encased walkway with water cascading around you is the first thing that happens, which sets the tone for a hotel that seems determined to pretend Times Square isn't happening outside. The seventh-floor lobby is all-white and calm, a minor act of defiance against the chaos below. It's still a W in the middle of the tourist vortex, but the interior makes a reasonable case for ignoring that entirely.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

The wall murals were painted by Ludwig Bemelmans, the man behind Madeline, and he never paid rent, trading the art for a year's lodging instead. This Carlyle hotel cocktail bar has been a stronghold of old-money Manhattan for decades, all leather banquettes and low piano notes, the martinis notoriously strong. The crowd runs toward people who have a lot to lose and dress accordingly.

1. Esquire Eartha · The Best Martinis in America
2. Time Out #5 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC
3. Eater The Best Restaurants in Soho

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

A rooftop pool in the Meatpacking District has a way of announcing itself, and this boutique hotel has been making that announcement since the neighborhood was still figuring out what it wanted to be. The surroundings have since settled into high-end retail and the Whitney, and the hotel has kept pace with a refreshed interior and a contemporary art collection that gives the common areas something worth slowing down for.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A subterranean New England seafood joint in the East Village where the menu runs heavily toward the ocean and the wine list follows suit, mostly whites chosen to keep pace with it. The New York Times named it among the city's best new restaurants, and the sommelier took a Next Wave Award. The celery root float has become something of a minor cult object, which tells you something about the kitchen's sense of humor.

1. VinePair Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Nikita Malhotra
2. The New York Times 2025 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The Infatuation #7 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants

A bright blue facade on a block of red brick Tribeca warehouses is one way to introduce yourself. This Firmdale hotel, part of designer Kit Kemp's signature London-meets-New York family of properties, leans into the collision of country-house comfort and city energy, lots of bold color, and a cozy-glamorous atmosphere that somehow holds together without tipping into theme park. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

A converted 1901 factory building in Williamsburg with 13-foot ceilings, original wood beams, and floor-to-ceiling windows framing the Manhattan skyline. The Wythe holds a Michelin Key, and the in-house credentials are real: Le Crocodile, the French brasserie downstairs, draws its own crowd, and Bar Blondeau on the sixth floor has views that make the room feel optional. Industrial-chic without the irony quotes, and about as Williamsburg as a hotel gets.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

1. Punch The Who’s Who of Beer Cool

Paul Carmichael grew up in Barbados, and Kabawa is his argument that Caribbean cooking belongs in any room it wants. A prix-fixe fine dining restaurant on Extra Place, it seats you at a horseshoe counter in a dark green room with mosaic tilework and a playlist sourced partly from Carmichael's cousin back home. The New York Times named it the top restaurant in New York City, and the cocktail bar next door is his too, for nights when the goat patty feels like the right move.

1. The 50 #14 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
2. Esquire Chef of the Year · Paul Carmichael
3. The New York Times 2025 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. Punch The Who’s Who of Beer Cool

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East

Floor-to-ceiling windows face the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson, which is about as pointed a statement as a hotel can make without saying a word. The W Hoboken is a full-service hotel with the brand's signature bold graphics, loud color, and buzzy public spaces, plus a spa and fitness center for the morning after. Halifax handles the seafood side, and the Living Room bar runs craft cocktails with live music.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Esquire Za'atar Martini · The Best Martinis in America

Low ceilings with thick wood beams, amber light, and banquettes that make every table feel like a booth in the back of someone's private club. Bartolo is a Spanish restaurant in the West Village, the kind where you order oxtail braised in red wine and suckling pig and let the table fill up. The martini list has its own following, and the servers are sharp enough to keep a long night moving without making it feel rushed.

1. Esquire Martini de Bartolo · The Best Martinis in America
2. The New York Times 2025 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Calvin Eng's Cantonese restaurant and bar sits on a nondescript east Williamsburg corner, close enough to the BQE that you'll feel the trucks. Inside, it reads like a retro Hong Kong diner, but the kitchen runs modern interpretations of regional Cantonese food, and the MSG Martini earned a spot on Esquire's national list. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and the James Beard Foundation named Eng an Emerging Chef nominee.

1. Esquire MSG Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Calvin Eng
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Esquire Dante Mini Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A converted farmhouse in North Salem with sweeping views of actual countryside, which somehow makes the tasting menu feel earned rather than theatrical. This is a Michelin-starred modern French fine dining room with very few tables, run by a husband-and-wife team whose roots are in the south of France. The cooking is precise and quietly confident, and dessert gets its own moment to shine. Esquire named the Vesper martini among the finest in America, which is a strange fact about a farmhouse, and a good one.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Esquire Le Martini Vesper · The Best Martinis in America

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A Flatiron bar tricked out like a 1970s Bangkok shophouse, with vintage televisions and family photos on the walls and Thai cocktails on the menu. The jasmine martini landed on Esquire's list of the best martinis in America, which gives you a sense of how seriously the drinks program is taken. The kitchen keeps pace with late-night Thai food that pairs naturally with the cocktails. Open late, which the neighborhood needed.

1. Esquire Jasmine Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

South-facing rooms in this 20-story Midtown hotel stare straight at the Empire State Building, which is the kind of view that makes unpacking feel ceremonial. The rooms themselves are quietly comfortable rather than flashy, and the rooftop lounge with live entertainment gives the place more personality than the address on West 37th might suggest. A street-level cafe handles coffees and cocktails for anyone not ready to brave the Garment District yet.

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

You get in by picking up the phone inside a wooden booth at a hot dog joint on St. Marks. If whoever's watching the camera approves, the door buzzes open. PDT is a cocktail bar that takes the speakeasy conceit completely seriously, which is either charming or exhausting depending on your mood, and the line outside suggests most people land on charming. The drinks are the kind of careful, considered pours that made the whole city start doing this.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The clock tower that once held the city's tallest point now holds Ian Schrager's boutique hotel in the Flatiron District, a collaboration with Marriott that somehow kept its cool. Rooms sit above Madison Square Park, which means the 360-degree views range from good to unreasonable depending on the floor. Chelsea, NoMad, and Greenwich Village are all within easy reach, though the hotel itself gives you decent reasons to stay put.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

A 21-story boutique hotel on Cooper Square where no two rooms share the same layout, so a skyline view is a conversation you have at booking, not a guarantee. The interiors lean into East Village energy, all Bluetooth speakers, stocked minibars, and oversized towels, but the social spaces and rotating cultural programming are the real draw for guests who treat the lobby as part of the itinerary.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Garret Richard
2. Time Out #2 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Time Out The 35 best hotels in New York City

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Simon Kim - Gracious Hospitality
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Esquire Chihuahuan Martini · The Best Martinis in America

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Esquire Dirty Eliá · The Best Martinis in America

1. AAA Three Diamonds