Where to stay in New York: ten areas, who each suits, and where our hotels sit

This is the New York of a first visit: Times Square, Broadway, Rockefeller Center and St Patrick's Cathedral, with the shops of Fifth and Madison Avenues between them. Its northern edge is Central Park South, where 59th Street meets the park's 843 acres, which take 42 million visits a year.

From Grand Army Plaza, at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, Gapstow Bridge over The Pond is six minutes on foot and the Central Park Zoo seven, MoMA ten, Top of the Rock 13 and Times Square 23; the Met is 27 minutes up Fifth Avenue. The N, R and W at Fifth Avenue/59th Street reach Times Square in six minutes, and the E stops at Fifth Avenue/53rd Street.

The cost is money and crowds. The Plaza faces Grand Army Plaza, three minutes from the N, R and W, and starts around $1,170 a night in late January before tax and a $65 nightly fee, for a room over the courtyard or 58th Street; Fifth Avenue outside is busy from morning until late. It suits a first New York trip, a milestone birthday or a child raised on Eloise. Downtown and Brooklyn are subway rides.

NoMad is named for where it sits, north of Madison Square Park; Flatiron is the district around the Flatiron Building at the park's south-west corner. It is full of Beaux-Arts and cast-iron buildings, with a rich restaurant scene and Eataly. The seven-acre park draws 60,000 visitors a day, has shown public art since 2001 and has had the first Shake Shack since 2004.

From Madison Square Park, the Flatiron Building and Eataly are four minutes on foot, Union Square 11, the Empire State Building 12, the Morgan Library 14 and Grand Central 22. The R and W stop at 28th and 23rd Streets on Broadway and reach Times Square from 28th Street in three minutes; the 6 runs under Park Avenue South, and Herald Square adds the B, D, F, M, N and Q.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel is on the corner of West 28th Street, two minutes from the R and W, in the bank McKim, Mead & White built in 1907 and 1908 for the Second National Bank, inside the Madison Square North Historic District; entry rooms are in the new tower beside it. It starts around $760 a night in late January and suits couples and design lovers. The trade-off is Midtown, a long walk: from the park, Grand Central is 22 minutes and Times Square 24.

The Upper East Side is New York's museum quarter: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Neue Galerie and the Guggenheim along Museum Mile, the Frick Collection at 70th Street, and the boutiques and department stores of Madison Avenue. The Carlyle's block lies inside the Upper East Side Historic District, designated in 1981.

From 77th Street station on Lexington Avenue, Conservatory Water, Central Park's model-boat pond, is 11 minutes on foot, the Met and the Frick 12 each, Bethesda Terrace 15 and the Guggenheim 19. The 6 train reaches Grand Central in seven minutes and Union Square in 13, and the Q stops at 72nd Street on Second Avenue.

Evenings are calm. In 2025 the city's 311 line logged 52 complaints about loud music and other noise from businesses within 400 metres of The Carlyle, against 1,047 around the Bowery at Delancey Street downtown. The Carlyle is the 1930 Art Deco tower on Madison Avenue at 76th Street, five minutes from the 6, with Bemelmans Bar and Café Carlyle downstairs; it starts around $1,300 a night in January, for a courtyard room. It suits museum days, martini nights and special occasions. The trade-off is distance: Midtown, the Village and downtown are subway rides.

Chelsea is Manhattan's art district: galleries showing established and emerging artists, the food stalls of Chelsea Market, and the High Line, the park built on an abandoned elevated railway, which opens from 7am to 10pm from April to November and closes at 8pm in winter. At its northern end it reaches Hudson Yards.

From 23rd Street station on Eighth Avenue, the High Line's 23rd Street entrance is eight minutes on foot, Chelsea Market and the Flatiron Building 12 each, the Vessel at Hudson Yards 17 and the Whitney 18. The C and E stop at that station, the 1 on Seventh Avenue and the F and M on Sixth; the E runs direct from Sutphin Boulevard, where the AirTrain from JFK arrives, in about 35 minutes.

Hotel Chelsea is on West 23rd Street, two minutes from the 1 and three from the C and E: the red-brick building of 1883 to 1885, a city landmark, where writers, painters and musicians lived for decades, restored and reopened in 2022 with El Quijote still downstairs. It starts around $510 a night in January and suits literary pilgrims, art lovers and couples. The cost is the street: 23rd Street carries traffic day and night, and the Lobby Bar and El Quijote keep the ground floor busy late.

Washington Square Park is the heart of Greenwich Village. To the west, the West Village keeps its 19th-century townhouses and cobbled streets outside Manhattan's grid, and much of the Village has been a historic district since 1969. South of Houston Street, SoHo is now one of the city's prime shopping districts, and its historic district, designated in 1973, holds what the city's landmarks commission calls the largest concentration of full and partial cast-iron facades anywhere in the world.

From the Washington Square Arch, the Stonewall National Monument is seven minutes on foot, Union Square and SoHo at Prince Street and Broadway 14 each, Chelsea Market 21 and the Whitney 22. West 4th Street station, by the park, has the A, C, E, B, D, F and M, with Herald Square four minutes away on the B and D; the 1 stops at Christopher Street and the R and W at Prince Street.

None of our ten hotels is here. Stay in Chelsea or on the Lower East Side and spend the days here on foot: citizenM New York Bowery is 20 minutes' walk from Washington Square. Around the park itself the street can be loud: in 2025 the city's 311 line logged 975 complaints about noise in the street within 400 metres of the arch.

The Lower East Side is a nightlife district, its streets lined with places to drink, dance and hear live music, and its synagogues, museums and restaurants reminders of its immigrant history. The Bowery is its western edge, where it meets Little Italy and Chinatown.

From Grand Street station, on Chrystie Street, the Tenement Museum is six minutes on foot, the New Museum seven, Doyers Street in Chinatown ten, Katz's Delicatessen 13 and the Brooklyn Bridge walkway 19. The B and D at Grand Street reach Herald Square in eight minutes; the F, M, J and Z stop at Delancey Street, the J and Z at Bowery and the F at East Broadway.

The cost is noise. In 2025 the city's 311 line logged 1,047 complaints about noise from businesses within 400 metres of the Bowery at Delancey Street and 694 around Canal and Orchard, against 52 around The Carlyle. Nine Orchard fills the 1912 Jarmulowsky Bank on that corner, three minutes from the F, from around $625 a night in January, for couples and architecture lovers; its windows keep most of the street out. citizenM, a minute from the J and Z, starts around $180 with no nightly fee for a 14 square metre room behind windows sold as soundproof, for solo travellers and couples travelling light.

Lower Manhattan is where the city started in the 1600s, now towers, historic parks and museums. Beside City Hall Park starts the walkway over the Brooklyn Bridge, finished in 1883 and open at all hours; in 2024 an average of 28,845 people a day walked over it.

From Fulton Center, the 9/11 Memorial is seven minutes on foot, the New York Stock Exchange eight, the Brooklyn Bridge walkway nine, Castle Clinton in Battery Park 15 and the Staten Island Ferry 16. Fulton Street station has the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J and Z: the 2 and 3 reach Times Square in 12 minutes, the 4 and 5 Grand Central in ten.

The Beekman fills the Temple Court Building of 1883, a city landmark on Nassau Street two minutes from Fulton Street, around a nine-storey atrium of cast-iron galleries under a pyramid skylight. It starts around $505 a night in January plus a $45.89 destination fee, and suits design and architecture lovers who want downtown on foot. The cost is the weekend: its bar stays open until 1am and the club in the cellar until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, so the lower floors hear the end of the week.

DUMBO, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is one of Brooklyn's most visited neighbourhoods, for its cobbled streets and its views across the river. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls it one of the city's most significant surviving industrial waterfronts, about 91 buildings from its sugar, coffee, paper-box and soap years. Above it, the row houses of Brooklyn Heights became the city's first historic district in 1965. Along the water runs Brooklyn Bridge Park, 85 acres, its playgrounds open from sunrise to sunset.

From Fulton Ferry Landing, Jane's Carousel is five minutes on foot, Time Out Market six, the north end of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade seven and the Brooklyn Bridge stairs on Washington Street eight; City Hall Park in Manhattan is 35 over the bridge. The A and C at High Street reach Fulton Street in three minutes, the 2 and 3 at Clark Street reach Times Square in 16, and the NYC Ferry calls at the landing on its East River route.

1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge stands at the park's Pier 1 entrance, four minutes from the ferry and nine from High Street. It starts around $470 a night in January plus a $45 nightly fee, and suits couples and second trips; Harriet's Lounge upstairs runs until 2am at weekends, and Midtown is always a subway ride.

Williamsburg is one of the city's liveliest nightlife neighbourhoods, with indie music, galleries, distilleries and, on summer Saturdays, Smorgasburg's food stalls along the riverfront. On the waterfront are Marsha P. Johnson State Park to the north and Domino Park, six acres on the site of the old Domino sugar refinery, open from 6am to 11pm.

From Bedford Avenue station, Brooklyn Brewery is eight minutes on foot, Marsha P. Johnson State Park nine, the NYC Ferry's North Williamsburg landing 11 and Domino Park 17. The L at Bedford Avenue is one stop from Manhattan, reaching 1st Avenue in four minutes and Union Square in six; the G at Nassau Avenue runs to Queens without entering Manhattan, and the ferry runs down to Wall Street and up to East 34th Street.

The cost is noise and distance. In 2025 the city's 311 line logged 5,585 complaints about noise from businesses in the community district that takes in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, more than in any other. The William Vale stands on North 12th Street, ten minutes from Bedford Avenue; every room has a balcony, and those at the west end face Manhattan. It starts around $260 a night in January plus a $45 nightly fee, for couples, skyline views and summer trips; its rooftop bar runs until 2am on Saturdays.

JFK is a long way out. The AirTrain runs around the clock, free between terminals and $8.75 to Jamaica, and with the E the trip to Penn Station takes about 50 minutes for $11.75, or about 30 with the Long Island Rail Road. A yellow cab is a flat $70 to Manhattan before surcharges, tolls and tip. After a late landing, or before an early departure, a night at the airport saves that crossing in the dark.

TWA Hotel is the only hotel inside the airport: Eero Saarinen's TWA Flight Center of 1962, a city landmark, with 512 rooms in two new wings behind it. From Terminal 5 the old flight tubes lead to the check-in desk without going outside; from any other terminal, the AirTrain's Terminal 5 stop is four minutes' walk away. The Sunken Lounge under its split-flap board, a 1958 Lockheed Constellation turned cocktail bar and a rooftop pool facing the runway fill the evening, and rooms start around $225 a night in January plus a facility fee.

Use it for one night at either end of the trip, or for a long layover. As a base for the city it does not work: every day in town would start with the AirTrain and the best part of an hour on the train, and back.