I HARKED AT THESE HERALD ANGELS! (Herald Square Hotel (New York City, USA))

Member Name: Wee_Jackie_163

Product:	Herald Square Hotel (New York City, USA)
Date:	05/05/09 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: FAB LOCATION, FAB ROOM, FAB STAFF, FAB FAB FAB!!!!!!

Disadvantages: NOTHING FOR US

I think it is essential to do your homework when visiting somewhere like New York. It is such a huuuuge place, with so much to see and do, that unless you have a rough idea of what is located where, you'll end up spending half your holiday too-ing and fro-ing and subsequently waste a lot of time.

When we were going to New York in January of this year, we had a small list compiled of things we "definitely" wanted to see and a larger list of "possible" things we wanted to see, so that we could prioritise those on the "definite" list and try to group these together, in terms of areas in the city, and therefore hopefully avoid any disappointment by running out of time. I was fortunate to be going with my mum, who had been to New York before, and so had a rough idea of the different districts and what attractions were in them, etc.

With our lists to hand, we set about researching hotels in New York that fell into our price range. We had a definite budget to stick to, and if you have been a traveller to NY before, you will be aware of how expensive hotels can be (ours turned out to be almost as expensive as our flights!!)

It was through a NY Hotels website that we found The Herald Square hotel. It seemed to be a cute building, rather quirky from the outside, but that is no bad thing to us, and a bit of character is a rather welcome trait. Finding that it fell within our price range, we set about booking it for our stay (6 nights, en-suite double room) and that was that.

I should point out at this point that the Herald Square hotel offered different types of room at the time of us booking it. You could opt to pay extra for a "refurbished" room, or pay a lower rate for a non-refurbished room. With the cost of our holiday already rather over-budget, we opted to book a non-refurbished room, as we felt for what we would save on our holiday spends, the pros outweighed the cons, as it were.

The basic rooms looked ok - all were still ensuite, and they still contained what we needed it to; a double bed, storage, en-suite loo and a shower. That said, they were distinctly more 'flowery' in comparison to the refurbished rooms. This didn't particularly bother us, and we were eager to make any saving that we could.

After arriving in NY Newark Airport, we took a train out to the city, Penne station (we had done our homework and knew that this was a few minutes walk from the Herald hotel) and on arriving at the station and finding our bearings on those (oh so) busy NY streets, we started to walk to the Hotel. I think it probably took us less than ten minutes to walk to it from Penne Station (and that was with lots of heavy luggage!).

On arrival at the hotel, the staff were both friendly and helpful. The receptionist informed us that our room was to the front of the building, and so we would look out onto the street. She advised that the hotel lobby had a seating area to the right hand side and that there was internet access available on the ground floor if we wanted to hire it.

As we were very early (around 2 hours before permitted check in time) we asked if we could leave our luggage and the receptionist informed us that she would find out if our room was ready for us to check into... and it was! What a huge bonus, as we were both in the need for a seat and a coffee by this point and were delighted to get into our room early! The receptionist happily gave us our room key and directed us to the lifts, advising that our room was great and we were going to "love it". Well, with what we had witnessed in regard to a rather flowery and dare I say it, 'twee' basic bedroom online, we were rather dubious regarding her enthusiasm, but plodded into the lift cheerfully, regardless of our cynicism.

We found our room easily as the receptionist's instructions were clear and precise. Upon entering, you can imagine our surprise and speechlessness when our eyes settled upon a crisp white duvet cover and large flat-screen TV! There was not a bit of floral bedspread to be found! We stepped into the bedroom for closer examination....

A lovely deep bath with modern-looking 'power shower' located in the generously-sized and spotlessly clean en-suite bathroom provided the first squeals of delight from my mum. Closely followed by the sounds of much oohing and aahing at the thickness and fluffiness of the bathroom towels (of which there were six in total, and only two of us!)

I was too busy admiring the on-street view from our window to pay much notice to her unfortunately. I remember babbling excitedly about the view to her bent-over frame as she poked her head around the very spacious wardrobe.

We both flopped down on the very high (and very comfy) queen-sized bed and took in our ample surroundings with delight. We honestly couldn't believe our luck! We had clearly been upgraded to a refurbished room whilst paying the reduced rate. Super duper!

Please bear in mind that we had had a long flight and I for one was rather sleepy and more than a little peckish. With that in mind, we had a quick freshen up and a quick change of jumper (yep, it was snowing outside - much to my delight) and off we headed to investigate our surroundings a bit more.

Heading back along the narrowish corridor towards the lift, my mum noticed a lot of framed pictures or 'prints' in the hallway. These were all related to "Life" magazine. Mum reminded me at this point that the offices for 'LIFE' magazine were once located in that very building! It would certainly explain why these prints were dotted all over the hotel, in various corners and corridors.

Upon exiting the lift on the ground floor, we were given a friendly smile from the receptionist, who was on a phone call. We noticed that to the left hand side, at the rear of the foyer area, I suppose you would call it, there was a large display of pamphlets and leaflets, which were displaying a variety of tourist attractions, Broadway shows, and the like. We opted to go over for a closer look in case there was anything of interest to us.

As we rounded the corner, we noticed that there were several round tables with seats placed around them, and a few softer seats to the rear of these. To the left hand side of the round tables was a large table with a drinks machine. Upon getting a closer look, I noted that the drinks available from this machine included coffee, hot chocolate and cappuccino. There was a basket of assorted tea bags situated next to the drinks machine, which also dispensed hot water. Adjacent to the tea bag assortment was a selection of hot drinks paraphernalia; stirrers, sugar portions, milk portions and paper napkins, that sort of thing. I couldn't believe my luck! I am a huge tea and coffee drinker, and had been a bit disappointed when speaking to a whole host of family and friends who have all visited New York in the past year or two, that not one of them had a kettle, or tea-making facilities in their hotel.

My mum had suggested (once I had whinged about this a couple of times) that having tea and coffee making facilities in your hotel room is probably a 'British thing', so I had long given up any expectations of having a little cuppa of a morning, before heading out to the cold New York streets. You can imagine then, I'm sure, the size of grin that was plastered on my face at this particular treasure! :-D My mum had been aware of the hot drink facilities at the time of us booking the hotel, but had chosen not to mention it to me in case it wasn't really up to scratch. It most certainly was, and we both had at least one drink from the machine every morning. Just what was needed before heading out into those heavy snowstorms!

There were several other little perks in the bedroom itself - a safe was located under the dressing table/desk and we used this without any problems. We enjoyed watching around 14 channels (I think it was) on the remote-controlled widescreen television, which proved to be a godsend as it turned out we both suffered with horrendous jet lag for the duration of our stay in New York, and were often awake at 5am, watching cartoons whilst planning our day ahead and eating crisps in bed!!

The icing on the cake for us with this hotel was, however, the location. It turned out we were only about 5 minutes walk from the Empire State building and perhaps 10 minutes walk from the Flatiron building. There was a variety of bars, restaurants and fast-food eateries (it IS America, after all) within the immediate vicinity. This made it very easy to find breakfast each morning (our hotel didn't offer this facility, but then again, neither did most of the ones we looked at) which is obviously preferable when it is as cold and wintry outside as it was when we were there!

It turns out that our hotel was only about 2 streets away from the district known as "Little Korea" which we only found out after we arrived in the big apple. It would certainly explain all the rather quirky little shops that were dotted around the few streets that this area occupies. Everything from "Hello Kitty" merchandise to noodle bars is on offer, so I would recommend taking a look around this little area if you fancy something a bit different. We opted to go for an authentic Korean menu on the second last night of our holiday and it proved to be a very interesting experience! The food was a bit expensive, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another great point to note about the location of this hotel is........ THE SHOPPING! Should you choose to stay here, you are a mere ten minute walk from the world's largest department store, namely "Macy's." In the same vicinity are several other great shops, too many to mention here, but some of our favourites were: "Zahara" (sells cosmetics and toiletries), "Old Navy" (reasonably priced clothes), "Conway's" (bargain clothes - similar to primark) and of course, the ever-popular Duane Reid. DR is a branch of 'drugstores' that you will see dotted all over NY, and there is one branch South of this hotel, and at least one located to the North. Verrry handy indeed, for those little snacks you need for your hotel room (soda, candy, etc). . All of the stores I have mentioned here are no more than 10-15 minutes walk from the Herald Square Hotel.

As I mentioned earlier, we were travelling to Penne Station from the Airport on arrival in NYC. Penne station is not only great for access to Newark Airport, but also for a variety of other places around the city that you will probably want to visit whilst you are visiting NY. It is worth bearing in mind that it is a mere 10 minute walk from the Herald Square Hotel. I can't list every attraction that is near to the hotel, (ooh another one is Madison Square Gardens!!) but I think I have suitably made the point that the location is magnificent. When you have a few problems with your mobility, as I do, location is very important. There isn't much point in me booking a cheaper hotel that is away across town, and leaves me no choice but to hail a (yellow) cab every day, or walk to the nearest subway before I can get to any half-decent shops.

The Herald square hotel had everything we wanted from our New York accommodation, and more. I cannot fault ANYTHING about it and if I could, I would award it eleven out of ten! My mum and I both left glowing comments cards praising just about everything the hotel had to offer, and I hope I am getting the same glow across in this review. It is rare for me to find holiday accommodation that meets all of my needs and more. But you know what, this really did. Top marks from us! :-D

Summary: WE LOVED IT