Cool Hotels

The Library Hotel

There are hotels for wanna-be princesses and those who are hipper than thou. There are hotels for those with underwater fantasies and hotels for people with a sense of kitsch. But what about the bookworms? What about the people who stay at the library until closing time, wishing that they could live among the dusty but well-organized stacks of non-electronic reading material. Well, finally, someone opened a hotel specifically for bibliophiles.

The Library Hotel, located conveniently in midtown Manhattan, has a collection of 6,000 books, which are shelved throughout the hotel. Each of the twelve guest floors houses a specific category in the Dewey Decimal System. (Floor 8 houses Literature, Floor 12 houses Religion) Each room is decorated with books and artwork that fits the category of its floor.

There are 60 guest rooms, making it rather intimate for a midtown hotel. The rooms are small, but they have all the necessary amenities. Plus books. Lots of books.

Inn at Irving Place

In a city overflowing with modern boutique hotels, New York City’s Inn at Irving Place stands out by reaching to the gilded past rather than an imagined future. Located in two meticulously restored townhouses just steps away from the old-school-upper-crust Gramercy Park, the inn boasts fireplaces and four poster beds that would please Henry James. All this lushness has made the Inn one of the most popular hotels in the entire city for romantic weekends – even among people who live there. Old fashioned though it is, rooms also sport updated amenities like wireless internet and television.

There’s also Lady Mendls, a restaurant and tea room on premises that keeps the turn-of-the century theme going. It even serves a five course tea that would have made Mrs. Vanderbilt, with all her anglophile ways, proud. Interestingly though, there’s a private room named after Evelyn Nesbitt. Since I wrote the long article about her and Stanford White over at crime library, I Ms. Nesbitt was a great and notorious figure of the gilded age but she was hardly respectable. No matter though, she and Edith Wharton have both gone to the grave, which is the great social equalizer.

Hotel Chelsea

Screw the Plaza. No New York City hotel is more notorious, bohemian and steeped in the city's history than the Hotel Chelsea. Built in 1883, the red brick edifice takes up a chunk of the block of 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and has been home to a significant number of artists, writers, musicians and other assorted figures of the counter culture.

Mark Twain stayed here. Dylan Thomas not only stayed here, he died here after a night of drinking at the White Horse Tavern. Arthur C. Clark wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey here. William Burroughs stayed here. Also Alan Ginsberg, Quentin Crisp, Charles Bukowski, Tennessee Williams and Jean-Paul Sartre all stayed here. So did Patti Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, Henri Chopin, Edith Piaf, Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix.

The novelist Charles R. Jackson committed suicide here. And Sid Vicious allegedly stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen here.

Some people claim to have seen the ghosts of Dylan Thomas and Sid Vicious here. No word on any less famous spirits.

And if you need a description of the rooms, you probably don’t want to stay here. Although, they did recently add Wi-Fi service.

Kate's Lazy Meadow

Even rock stars love a good vintage motel, the kind with cabins and mod-graphic signs boasting televisions in the room, the kind that might appear in Douglas Sirk film or that you could imagine your grandfather pulling up to in his Studebaker. Well, rock star Kate Pierson of the vintage-celebrating B-52s even went so far as to buy her favorite roadside motel, renovate it and fill it with her terrific collection of mid-twentieth century modern furniture and accessories. Thus, Kate’s Lazy Meadow in upstate New York, manages to be homey, charming and the perfect place to enjoy a highball while taking in a mountain vista.

Pierson not only uses her own seriously groovy collection of mid-twentieth century stuff, she hired some of the best designers around to transform each individual room or cabin into a miniature themed oasis. Some of the rooms even have fantastic kitchens, including Room #1 with blue vintage appliances and cabinetry that suggests the past as well as a Jetsons-like future. Other rooms offer themes inspired by their heroic namesakes, such as the Annie Oakley and Sakajawia cabins.

At this point I must resist doing what every single travel writer that has ever written about Kate’s Lazy Meadow and referencing either “Love Shack” or “Roam”. Instead, I will have to say the song that goes through my head when thinking of the Lazy Meadow and its retro-chic style is “Song for a Future Generation”.

The Gershwin Hotel

New York City practically overflows with urban boutique hotels, the kind with minimalist lobbies and bars with velvet robes. So urban, in fact, that wearing even hint of pastel color in most of the lobbies might make you feel as though you should be on display at the Museum of Natural History in front of a little plaque that says hillbilly. And isn’t that why we love New York? The problem is, the average struggling artist or fashion up-and-comer doesn’t have enough plasma to pay for two nights at most of these places.

Then, there’s the Gershwin Hotel. Colorful, vibrant and affordable, the downtown boutique hotel can out cool the coolest and out hip the hippest, with over-the-top art exhibits and ultra modern furniture. Best of all, because it offers dorm style rooms quite inexpensively, the crowd is always far spicier and more interesting than at those pricier boutiques,  made up of backpackers, artists, globetrotters and other assorted style makers. Although, if you do have the means, there are regular and suite rooms that provide more comfort and privacy than the dorms.

I do love a hotel that is as much a part of experience of a place as any of the nearby attractions, and the crowd at the Gershwin is as emblematic of New York’s downtown scene as anything you’ll find in a SoHo gallery. As part of its commitment to art-for-art sake, The Gershwin also has several artists, writers and poets in residents every year and hosts all sorts of parties and events celebrating the city’s culture. Best of all, you can wear bright purple or pale pink or a jacket made from your Tennessee grandmother’s sofa, and make it a statement. The crowd will love it.

The Point at Saranac Lake

The Point, tucked mysteriously on the edge of Lake Saranac in Adirondacks, is something of a legend among the editors of travel magazines. It'€™s always listed at the top or close to the top of those "€œbest hotel" or "most romantic spots"€ lists.  Everything from the hefty price tag (the never-discounted rooms start at $1250 per night) to its beautiful, isolated location, to a ridiculously blue-blooded history has sustained the place's reputation as the pinnacle of high living

When I  heard one of the world's most luxurious and expensive hotels was not located in London or Dubai but rather rustic upstate New York, my curiosity was piqued.  I was unaware that certain early-twentieth century robber barons preferred the lush wilderness of the Adirondacks over bourgeois destinations like the Hamptons. These overstuffed, bored rich folks built spectacular "€œcamps"€ nestled in the forests and lakes of upstate New York and hoped that no one would notice.

The heyday of the robber baron is now gone, replaced by the heyday of the sports star, the movie star or the internet mogul, but the greatest of the Adirondack camps, once owned by the Rockefellers, is, now The Point -  a resort of unparalleled luxury that promises you too can live like the gilded age millionaires old.

So, the question I wanted to know is, just what the hell makes a hotel room (with one bed) worth $1250 per night? Do vestal virgins feed you grapes? Do they carry you to the restroom? What?

Luckily for me, I was able to spend a night at The Point and discover how people like P Diddy and Warren Buffet can afford to live. Allow me to share.

1) Staff members greet guests with good Champagne as their cars and luggage are whisked away by valets. Everything is unloaded into your room for you as you are toured the relatively small but meticulously kept grounds. (I refused, nay, kept a death-grip on my purse - the valets no doubt recognized me as a peasant right then and there.)

2) Once inside, everything is included and tipping is forbidden. There are three fully stocked bars open 24 hours. If an attendant is not available to make your drink, you are free to make your own. And generous as you wish. (This explained why do many guests slept so soundly on the chaise lounges scattered throughout the property.)

3) The kitchen is also open twenty-four hours, and although the hoity-toity chef plans a dinner menu – you can have whatever you what made any time day or night. If they don'€™t have it, they will have it FedExed for the next day. (Oh the agony of choice. With each meal, I begged for suggestions from the chef.)

4) There are several boats available to the guests. These include canoes, kayaks, three small, but gorgeous wooden motorboats, a cruiser, perfect for a summertime cocktails, speedboat boat for waterskiing. And there’s the replica of Mr. Rockefeller'€™s boat, the 33-foot mahogany Hackercraft. I took out one of the small outboards and thoroughly enjoyed put-putting about the lake. Before I left, one of the staff members gave me a map so I wouldn'€™t get lost. (He also handed me a cocktail for the road. So, I assume they weren't too worried about me wrecking the boat.)

5) After boating, I went to the pub for a quick game of pool in the cozy pub. The pub also has darts, cards and one of the fully stocked bars. There is also a nearby croquet field and badminton equipment. A VCR and TV is there, but it is not hooked up to cable because you are supposed to be getting away from it all here. There's a selection of old movies in VHS. (That'€™s gloriously old school rich.)The pub, like every other building, also has big, green umbrellas available just in case it rains – which was one of my favorite touches even though it did not rain.

6) There are no phones in the rooms, but there are wooden phone cubicles where long distance is unlimited and free. (Hi, Mom! They placed a cookie with my name on it on the pillow! No kidding!)

7) All the rooms have working fireplaces and fires are ready-made for guests. All that's necessary is to light them. The sumptuous beds offer fluffy mattresses, down featherbeds and plenty of space. The room is also stocked with complementary bottled water and snacks including fresh fruit and the bathrooms are chocked full of Kiehl'€™s products. (Soon, my bag was stuffed with them, too.)

8) The hotel holds a cocktail hour in the early evening, which is a perfect time to meet the other guests. Since it was a beautiful night, we had cocktails and Horsdoeuvres on the cruising boat. The staff helpfully reminded me that I should wear flats on the boat, but I could change into my heels at dinner. This prompted an amusing visual image of a stiletto-ed trophy wife plunging headfirst into the lake. (By the way, it'€™s Crudités not carrot sticks.)

9) Dinner is served at eight, either in your room or in the community dinning room. jackets & ties are required and black tie is suggested on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Big round tables, a fireplace and giant dead animal heads lend a rustic vibe to the fancy food. Appropriate wines are served with each course. As the wine flowed, I began to field delicately-worded but still vulgar questions from my dinner companions about just how it is that was that I could afford to be there. My suggestion on how to handle these Caddyshack moments? Answer like old money, with a smooth evasion.  (Let'€™s face, real billionaires wouldn't have to come to this joint, would they? They already own joints like this.)

10)  After dinner, guests are invited to a bonfire, including s'mores, on the point itself, which overlooks the lake. Not only were there s'€™mores, but a small bar had been set up there as well. Brilliant.

11) In the morning, you may choose breakfast in bed or breakfast on the deck overlooking the lake. I'€™m an early riser, so I was able to enjoy the sunrise on the deck with my morning coffee. Again are no menus -€“ you just order what you like and they make it. You want eggs benedict? You got it. You want an atkins-approved omelet? You got it. You want fresh blueberries, granola and yogurt (like I did) - you got it - €“ all served with a smile.

12) I needed to leave early, so the hotel manager offered to send me away with a box lunch for the road. My car was brought around (filled with gas), my luggage and the box lunch packed inside and chilled bottled water in the cup holders.