At the beginning of the summer our teenage boys went on their first solo trip with their school. It was at the height of the June pandemic outbreaks where people who hadn’t got Covid for two years were all getting it and we were a bit worried that they might get Covid too but we were kind of locked into the trip. And miraculously it didn’t get cancelled. The guys’ trip was for 6 days starting in Washington DC to New York City, so the hubby and I decided to go to NYC around their 3rd day just in case something went wrong on their trip or they needed to quarantine. I don’t know if I would have been as worried sending them for their first time anywhere had it not been a pandemic but we’ll never know any different. This is why I ended up booking the Conrad Midtown Manhattan.
So why book the Conrad Midtown Manhattan?
The Conrad Midtown Manhattan was near where the guys would be staying with their school in Times Square and we wanted to be close but not too close. We were going to meet them at the end of their trip at some unknown location and time on a certain day instead of having them fly back to Seattle with their group (this was a pretty cool option and it made it so we could create a family trip too). Booking with Amex ensured that we would be able to have 4pm late checkout so the guys would likely be able to rest for a bit before we headed on to Connecticut together. And Conrad had a buy 3 days for the price of 2 so it ended up being the perfect amount of time.
What can you do nearby the Conrad Midtown Manhattan Hotel?
And what a great hotel the Conrad Midtown Manhattan is. We didn’t know it when we first arrived because we got there really early from our red-eye and were told to come back around noon. (You can often get your room at noon if you book with Amex Fine Hotels). We had restaurant credit because of our booking package so we ate breakfast at the restaurant and the buffet was delicious. I was really glad to get some bagels and lox first thing on this trip. Then we walked Central Park and stopped at the Metropolitan Museum (this was reciprocal with my Seattle Art Museum Patron Membership so free to enter) and I think the Guggenheim too. (We had a CityPass for this trip and we should have booked more of our activities ahead of time but managed to get one for the Guggenheim the same day) And we learned how to use CitiBikes all around the city this first day too which made the hotel convenient to everywhere in New York. Between walking, the subway and riding bikes, we never got in a car once the whole time we were in NYC.
We traveled so far up Central Park we ended up near Zabar’s, a place that somehow found me through ads on the internet and brought me joy during the epic Quarantine so I really wanted to see it in real life. Waiting in line for yet another NYC bagel at Zabar’s, we saw a photo of Banksy art in the cafe and decided to go see that too and it was just around the corner and then I found this story online and I’m even more glad that we went to see that art.
We also found a market called Dainobu that sold Japanese specialty foods within walkable distance. And there was also a cafe called Bibble and Sip with adorable foods with faces on them like little alpacas and bears. (I made a video if you want to see it here. Aren’t they so adorable?). Someone from the hotel also told us to get 99 cent pizza nearby and it was really inexpensive and delicious too. A food hall called “Urban Space” with about 15 different food vendors was also within a 5 minute walk away.
And our room at the Conrad Midtown Manhattan Hotel?
I don’t know if this would happen again but it felt like we got an epic NYC room for just the two of us. I knew I booked a one bedroom suite and maybe one with a view (and with this type of Amex booking you are supposed to get a room upgrade but I often don’t know what the basic one looks like to tell if we’re getting the upgrade or not.). This one definitely felt like an upgrade. We were way up high and it felt like we could see the whole city from our room and we had a huge sitting room with a table too. The guy who helped us with our luggage even mentioned this room was a good one.
I didn’t want to leave.
When we picked up the guys from their trip, they didn’t want to leave either. One of them immediately found the big comfy bed and closed his eyes and napped.
This is the type of hotel I’ll want to come back to one day but we probably never will because I am also superstitious about wrecking memories by not booking the same place again and again if it’s a perfect trip. So I hope you go here too and have an incredible New York City adventure. And if you do, please message me and tell me about it- I’d love to hear what you think.
PS if you are looking for other Conrad hotels, we’ve stayed at the Conrad New York Downtown and also the Conrad Washington DC.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)