150 E. 34th St., New York, NY 10016, 212-481-7600,
Rates: vary and go up at the holidays, but start at around $194 for a one-bed “studio suite” and climb to $254 for a suite with living area and bedroom.
Stay here if you: fear claustrophobia from closet-sized Manhattan hotel rooms, prefer boutique hotels but can do without boutique-hotel attitude, want a roomy, well-equipped gym in the building, or want to sleep in a quiet(ish) midtown neighborhood yet still be close to activities.
It’s close to: the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and the giant, “Miracle on 34th Street” Macy’s. Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Grand Central Terminal are walkable, and if you’ve got stamina and sensible shoes, so is Times Square. If not, the Museum of Sex is tantalizingly close.
The rooms are: king-sized compared with some New York hotels. Even the bathroom was spacious in a one-bedroom suite that included a fully loaded kitchen and a desk big enough to actually work at. Guests also get to choose from a menu of “Dream Pillows” which include buckwheat-filled, magnetic or MP3 pillows that pipe soothing lullabies (or blare AC/DC’s greatest hits, if that’s what you’re into) as you drift off to dreamland. Rooms on upper floors can cost more, but a 32nd-floor suite provided fantastic city panoramas and put the spectacular night-lighted Chrysler Building at eye level — and traffic noise 31 floors away.
They put all of the money into: probably the Manhattan real estate. But not much was spared at the Oasis Day Spa, which offers massages, wraps, manicures and pedicures without leaving the building. They put a lot of thought, and probably money too, into the Experience Kits. Guests choose from the Walking Tour (it includes an MP3 player loaded with walking-tour info, a map and pedometer), the Stay Fit, (yoga mat, boot camp DVDs, weights), or the BYOB kit, (wine guide, discount wine coupon and picnic blanket).
The bottom line: You could pay a lot more for a hotel in Manhattan, but it’s hard to imagine why you’d want to. The Affinia Dumont (there are four sister hotels in Manhattan) strikes the right balance: It’s sophisticated but not stuffy and pampers without bankrupting you. Karen Auge
