Located on the northeast corner of the park, this offshoot of Starwood’s design-minded W Hotels brand is housed in a 1911 Beaux Arts building that was once the headquarters for Guardian Life Insurance. Now in its second life as a hotel, the 17-year-old W Union Square has 270 trendy rooms decorated with pops of red and cobalt walls, Bliss amenities, a cocktail lounge and a 24-hour gym. The starting room category, Wonderful Room, is an efficient 274-300 square feet, but we would opt for the suites. Bonus: pets are allowed for a fee. Don’t miss Irvington, the hotel’s ground floor restaurant by Gerber Group, which serves Italian and Mediterranean-ish dishes like hummus and mezze, bucatini carbonara and seared tuna with roasted beets and pomegranates.
New York’s iconic Union Square is created at the junction of two streets, Broadway and Bowery Lane (now Fourth Avenue). The best Union Square hotels and the surrounding streets help make it one of NYC’s top meeting places. On any given day, you’ll find groups of Hare Krishnas, chess players, skateboarders, naked statues of Donald Trump, shoppers, student protesters and commuters heading to one of its eight subway lines. One of the best farmer’s markets in NYC is held there every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and in the winter, about 100 red-and-white tents go up to form an annual holiday market. Flanking the square are everything from mega supermarkets to fashion stores, restaurants, and bars. The neighborhood only covers a few Manhattan blocks and the 3.6-acre park, making it one of the city’s smallest. Within its defined boundaries—stretching roughly west to east from Fifth Avenue to Irving Place and north to south from 18th Street to 14th Street—you’ll only find a few hotels, but they offer something for everyone, from traditionalists to millennials. And if you don’t mind a short walk, you can stay in Gramercy, Flatiron and Greenwich Village, NYC to still be closeby.
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