San Carlos Hotel: I'll Take Manhattan
Written: Jun 26 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Elegance in a great New York setting.
Cons: Not the Waldorf Astoria, but what is?
The Bottom Line: Small, convenient boutique hotel in New York, complete with everything you want and nothing you don't.
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| CurtisEdmonds's Full Review: San Carlos Hotel |
The first time I was in New York was in, oh, 1997 or so. I took the bus from LaGuardia -- the one that drops you off in Harlem -- and took the subway from there all the way down to Battery Park, where I missed the last ferry to Liberty Island. It was August, and I was carrying all my gear in a backpack, and it was hotter than Hell's waffle iron.
And so -- God help me -- I did the only thing I knew to do. I went into a TGI Friday's. I did that, because I knew that most places in New York would charge you for iced tea refills, and since TGI Friday's got its start in Dallas (home of the free iced tea refill) that they probably wouldn't. (And they didn't, but all they had was Nestea. I hate Nestea.)
So, really, I understand. I understand that people come to New York and are -- let's be charitable here -- overwhelmed by the unfamiliar. And they cope with this by relying on familiar brand names. This is why there's an Applebee's in Times Square. This is why the Olive Garden in Manhattan is the most profitable unit in the chain.
Now, quite simply, this sort of attitude is deeply, deeply wrong. It's understandable, yes. But it is deeply, deeply wrong. You're not coming to New York to be your provincial self. You are coming to New York to experience sophistication, glamor, near-homicidal taxi drivers, and people selling you flimsy pashmina scarves on the street. You really are.
But there's so much to New York, so many decisions, and it's just so easy to get things wrong. Do you get your authentic flimsy New-York style pizza at Famous Original Ray's or Original Famous Ray's? Quick, now, you must choose. And what if you're taken in by a charlatan pizza joint? How will you ever be able to hold your head up when you get back to Knoxville or Boise or Lexington?
And that's just restaurants. That's just what you eat. Where will you stay? Now, there's a question.
So there's three options:
1) Stay in a national chain and pay the premium price.
2) Stay at a New York hotel with an international reputation (the Waldorf Astoria, the Algonquin, the Sherry Netherland, the Plaza, just for examples) and pay through the nose. Through. The. Nose.
3) Roll the dice and stay somewhere else, somewhere without a national chain attached, or the prestige of a famous name.
Choice 1) is unacceptable. You don't come to New York to stay in a Holiday Inn. Choice 2) is acceptable for a once-in-a-lifetime visit, let's say, but if you live in Jersey and you're in and out of New York on theater or shopping trips, well, that way lies bankruptcy. You want Choice 3). You need Choice 3). You have to have Choice 3).
Choice 3) is the San Carlos.
Let's review the bidding:
Location:. Location in New York does not mean what you think it does. It does not mean -- necessarily -- near to the things you want to do. Let's say you want to go to Yankee Stadium. Fine. You do not want to stay that close to Yankee Stadium, really, you don't. You want to stay near to a subway line that goes to Yankee Stadium. Got it? Good.
So the San Carlos is on 50th Street, between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue. That's a pretty good location. The Waldorf Astoria is just around the corner, so you know it's a good location. The United Nations building is in walking distance, so is Rockefeller Center. But -- and this is even more important -- you're just a block from the subway station on 51st Street and Lex. ("Lex", of course, is Lexington Avenue, you're staying with me here, aren't you? Try and keep up.) The 4, 5 and 6 trains will take you all the way north to the Bronx and all the way south to Wall Street. So you're set. And just a little bit north, through a nice bright tunnel, you can get to the E train, which will take you to Times Square and Penn Station, and you can get anywhere you want to from there. So we're good on location. You could do a lot worse.
Other Transportation Issues: It's a five-dollar cab ride to Times Square from the San Carlos. So that's good. If you're driving -- well, I don't recommend it, of course, but some people try it -- there is a parking garage next door. I couldn't tell you how much it is; I'm not the least bit interested. Driving in The City? I'd rather walk.
The Lobby: Let's go inside, by all means. Very nice lobby, lots of white marble. (There's a wheelchair lift if you need it.) Big Lite-Brite mural of New York behind the front desk. Service is great. We checked in very early -- before actual check-out time at noon -- and our room was ready, and how nice is that? Very nice indeed. Elevators to your left. Cushy couches to the right -- not a lot of floor space, maybe, but a nice comfortable place to sit for a few minutes, with copies of Time Out New York.
The Room: So, here's where you start having questions, on the elevator. (Very, very fast and efficient elevator service; you notice this, when there's two of them for the whole building.) How big is my room going to be? New York is famous for dinky hotel rooms. There just isn't the space. There are New York hotel rooms smaller than your suburban walk-in closet, and you know this. New York is New York, okay, fine, but nobody wants to sleep standing up or with their feet hanging out the window. What's the room like?
Calm down. It's fine. The San Carlos has perfectly good rooms. Big? No, not big, but well-proportioned. Plenty of room to go around, especially in the bathroom, where floor space is crucial. And nothing is left out. There's a good-sized queen bed (of course), a nice cushy chair, a work table, a TV hutch, a good-sized closet, your standard bedside tables, two refrigerators (one for the honor bar, one empty for you to use however you like) and a trouser press. And there's still room to move around, and it never seems cluttered. (The honor bar is very well stocked, but I just took a quick glance -- I am far too cheap for such luxury, and anyway, there's a bodega right on the other side of the parking garage where you can get a bottle of Poland Spring for a buck.)
Wireless Internet Access: Didn't try it. Not saying it's not important, because it is, but didn't try it. The hotel website says free wi-fi in every room, and I don't doubt it, but I can't tell you from personal experience, but I don't want to leave it out, either.
Overall Bed Quality: The only drawback -- and I use the term advisedly -- is that the bed, well, isn't a Sheraton Perfect Sleeper or anything like that. It's a bed. Nothing fancy or anything like that. And I didn't sleep well; I had to get up early the next morning for -- well, never you mind what -- and I was nervous, and I kept waking up because I was worried about the alarm clock. (Perfectly fine alarm clock, mind you, modern and cube-like, but you never know, and I had to be on time.) If you want an incredibly comfortable bed, stay at home.
Restaurant / Room Service: There is a restaurant attached to the San Carlos; it's called "Mint" and has vegetarian Indian fusion cuisine, and that's what you get for room service. I didn't get room service because a) I wanted dim sum and b) Epinions is going to pay me seventeen cents for this review. But it's there.
Continental Breakfast: And now, now we get to the good stuff. The San Marcos has two things going for it. Value is one of them. The rack rate is kind of steep -- $360 if you go by the hotel website -- but you can get it about a hundred dollars cheaper than that, if you try, which is a very good deal for a quality New York hosteltry. And then there's the free continental breakfast, which, let's face, it, you're just not going to get lots of places in New York.
It's not the most awesomely incredible experience that I've ever had at a continental breakfast. I'll tell you that right now. But, hey, there was hot chocolate, and that goes a long way. Danishes, and bagels, and a toaster for the bagels. (Not a pop-up toaster, either, one of those professional toasters that uses a conveyor belt.) Very nice muffins. Orange juice. A fridge full of yogurt and cottage cheese. I had a danish and some cottage cheese and a nice bran muffin and I was able to take on the world. And there was someone there keeping an eye on things -- they didn't just leave out a spread and let you fend for yourself.
So. Location. Price. Free continental breakfast. Explain to me why you want to stay at a Marriott with all these advantages staring you right in the face. Explain this to me. Because I'd like to hear it. No explanation? Fine. Stay at the San Carlos, enjoy yourself, have a nice muffin, sit in the cushy sofa in the lobby, and then go get 'em, tiger. There's a big city out there, just waiting to be explored, and you're not just going to go to a cookie-cutter hotel and then have dinner at Applebee's, are you? Of course not. It would be like -- I don't know -- rating by length instead of content. You're going to do things the right way, the New York way.
At least up until the point when you get run over by a cab while browsing through the pashmina scarves.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
CurtisEdmonds
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Member: Curtis Edmonds
Location: Trenton, New Jersey
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 461 members
About Me:
Check out my blog - http://www.txreviews.com/blog/
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