Jane asked for my favorite neighborhood and I don't know that I have one. I know my LEAST favorite neighborhood is Times Square. Still, the New York visitor who's closest to my heart is the one who wants to see lots of theatre, and, for Broadway fans, staying in Times Square makes a lot of sense, for convenience's sake.
This week I showed Irving Place and Stuyvesant Square to a visiting Los Angelino, and there are times I think Irving Place is my favorite street in the world. The closest hotel to it would be the Grammercy Park Hotel, I think. The trouble is: living in a city you don't get to know its hotels too well. Unless you're having illicit love affairs. Which I have not.
A friend once enjoyed Hotel Wales which is on Carnegie Hill, about 91st and Madison. That's a neighborhood with a real sense of calm. It's hard for me to feel completely comfortable on the Upper East Side, west of Lexington, because it tends to be solid white and hoity-toity.
I'm also very enthusiastic about the west Village - the parts that are truly charming and not overrun by tourists, definitely west of 6th, mostly west of 7th. Our wedding and reception were there, so, of course, certain out-of-town guests wanted to stay right near those, but one of the things that makes the west Village so wonderful is the absence of hotels. I'd avoid the Washington Square Hotel (on the very block where I was conceived) and there's something really tiny called the Abingdon Square Hotel - a better location could not be found.
When you said you wanted interesting stuff to look at when walking around your hotel, my first thought was - well, anyplace will have that. But then DR Jose mentioned the Skyline, and "fun-to-look-at walkable neighborhood" is not among its virtues. You'd only walk east of it, because it's so far west, what's around you is auto shops, light manufacturing, stables where the Central Park South horses go to bed. I guess, if you're into horses...
Much of the cast of Our Wedding - the musical (
www.WeddingMusical.com ) stayed at the Beacon, 75th and Broadway. To be close to Fairway, well, that's produce-lover's heaven, and, for an odd reason, Broadway has very little traffic in the low 70's. Get a room with a view of the Ansonia.
My prediction is that you'll end up in midtown, though. There's a higher quantity of hotels there, and, one assumes, high quantity leads to low prices.