Christopher Columbus stares out towards the Hudson Hotel from his concrete perch a few minutes away — and if he had known that this is what the New World would look like, he would surely have smiled, let his ships float out to sea, and taken the Native Americans for a cocktail.
This sleek hotel is located in the absolute heart of Manhattan. You step from the crazed buzz of the city — right next to the theater district and Central Park — into a cool, chilled lobby filled with cool, chilled people. Everything is glossy and simple and clean, and filled with people who look like they just stepped out of a photo shoot, ambling from the gorgeous library to the gorgeous pool room to the gorgeous bar, looking — yes — gorgeous.
The hotel's website brags it is "literally... a dream-world", which is a slightly bizarre vision — no, it doesn't send you into hallucinatory unconsciousness. But it is the perfect combination of calm in the Manhattan-tornado. The staff are ultra-efficient, the rooms are quirkily interesting: relatively small, in the Manhattan style, without ever feeling cramped. They are minimalist and crisp.
The hotel feels young and trendy without being snooty, which is a rare combination. But the best reason to stay here is the new Sky Terrace. You step out for a cocktail and have a view from what feels like the clouds over the Manhattan skyline. Guests lounge about - some in robes and slippers - feeling like they are in the sky. This is one Hudson it's worth diving into.
