Don't Back Down

When we visited New York City recently we stayed at this hotel, just across the street from United Nations Headquarters. This was both good and bad. Good because there weren't too many tourist-types in the area, and bad because it was a small walk to get to the subway (Grand Central was about five blocks away).

The hotel itself was nice, the room was well furnished and the view was excellent, looking over the East River. The only complaint is that our room was so high (we were on the 34th floor) that I was unable to get a decent cellular or Internet signal. However, if I went to the lobby both worked fine. The hotel did offer a wired Internet connection for - I believe - $10 per day, but I didn't use it, so I can't speak to the quality.

Sitting in the lobby offered a number of selections to connect to for free so I had no reason to do so, but if you want to work from your room that is one option. On one occasion I was able to connect to a wireless connection from the room but the quality wasn't good and I wasn't able to make the connection at a later date, though I could see a number of networks.

This being New York City, there are a number of dining choices all around, but most are of the deli variety and if you want to eat something nicer you may need to travel a bit. There is a dining room in the lobby called the Ambassador Grill that looked pretty nice, but we didn't try it, so I can't speak to the quality. If the prices are any indication, it's quite good, but we weren't prepared for a nicer dining experience, so we stuck to the other places, readily available just down the block (and they were much cheaper too).

The only complaint we had is that one of the four elevators didn't work the whole time we were there (they were apparently upgrading it) and another of them was out of service for about half the time (same excuse). A near-40 story building needs a bit more than two elevators. When three were working it was okay. With four, I suspect it would be fine. So once they have finished their repairs, I imagine it would be fine.