New York has more luxury hotels than any other city in the world. These are the ones that actually matter.
The New York Hotel Landscape
New York's luxury hotel market is the most competitive in the world — a city where a new five-star property opens every few months, where the finest international brands compete with legendary independent institutions, and where the definition of luxury is constantly being renegotiated. The result is a hotel landscape of extraordinary diversity and quality, where guests can choose between the grand hotel tradition of the Plaza and the St. Regis, the residential luxury of the Rosewood and the Lowell, or the contemporary design of the Aman and the NoMad.
Location matters more in New York than in almost any other city. The Upper East Side — home to the Mark, the Carlyle, and the Lowell — offers the most refined and residential experience, close to Central Park and the Museum Mile. Midtown offers the most convenient access to business and the theatre district, with the Aman, the St. Regis, and the Peninsula among the finest options. Downtown — the NoMad, the 11 Howard, the Bowery Hotel — offers a more contemporary and culturally engaged experience.
The Mark: The Upper East Side Ideal
The Mark Hotel, on East 77th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues, is the finest hotel in New York for guests who want to live as a wealthy New Yorker rather than as a tourist. Its 150 rooms and suites are among the most beautifully designed in the city — the work of Jacques Grange, who has created interiors that feel genuinely residential rather than hotel-like. The Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges is one of the best hotel restaurants in the city, and the hotel's position, steps from the Metropolitan Museum and Central Park, is unmatched.
The hotel's fleet of Mark bikes — available to guests for free — is one of the best ways to explore Central Park and the Upper East Side. The Mark Bar, open until 2am, is one of the neighbourhood's most civilised late-night options. And the hotel's proximity to Madison Avenue's finest boutiques makes it the natural choice for guests who regard shopping as a serious pursuit.
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Aman New York: The Midtown Sanctuary
The Aman New York, which opened in 2022 in the Crown Building on Fifth Avenue, is the most ambitious hotel project in New York in a generation — a 83-room property that occupies the upper floors of a 1921 Beaux-Arts landmark, with a spa that descends six floors below street level and a jazz club in the basement. The rooms are the largest in midtown Manhattan, and the hotel's position on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street — the most prestigious address in American retail — gives it a symbolic weight that few hotels can match.
The Aman Spa is the most extraordinary hotel spa in New York: a 25,000 square foot sanctuary with a 20-metre pool, a hammam, and treatment rooms that draw on Aman's global wellness expertise. The Arva restaurant serves contemporary Italian cuisine with the same quality that characterises Aman's food and beverage programme worldwide. The jazz club, which hosts live performances nightly, is the most atmospheric venue in midtown.
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The Classic Institutions
The St. Regis New York, on East 55th Street, is the hotel that John Jacob Astor IV built in 1904 as the most luxurious hotel in the world — and in many respects it still is. The King Cole Bar, with Maxfield Parrish's mural of Old King Cole, is the most historically significant hotel bar in America — the birthplace of the Bloody Mary. The hotel's butler service, available 24 hours, remains the most comprehensive in New York.
The Plaza, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, is the most famous hotel address in America — the setting for Eloise, the backdrop for countless films, and the venue where F. Scott Fitzgerald celebrated his literary success. The hotel's Palm Court, restored to its original Edwardian splendour, serves the finest afternoon tea in New York. The Champagne Bar, overlooking the Grand Army Plaza, is one of the city's most glamorous hotel spaces.
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