by Jerome Espinosa Baladad

Created on: September 28, 2010

Located in Midtown Manhattan, this boutique hotel is a block away from the iconic Empire State Building on 34th Street between 6th and 5th Avenues. Around the area, in case you’re not exhausted yet from where you commenced your trip, you can have all the opportunities to visit on foot Macy’s Department Store, Bryant Park, Madison Square Garden/Penn Station, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square. Visitors can access the subway system most conveniently from this hotel to their destinations in the other boroughs of NYC.

One long weekend during summer, this writer had a few of his relatives visiting him here in New York City (NYC), and they decided to book a family suite here.  The suite basically had two rooms and a bathroom, with a queen-size bed in one bedroom plus two double-size beds in the other. For this writer’s relatives who looked forward to exploring attractions around the city most of the period of their stay, the suite perfectly met their needs. This writer even had the opportunity to sleep two nights with his relatives after they retired for the day from walking and commuting all over NYC.

Complimentary continental breakfast is provided for guests, where a variety of choices would actually help fill up this writer’s morning appetite (and those of his relatives), that lasted up to the next meal for an early dinner. Coffee refills, as allowed, too, while still in the dining area, also helped a lot in filling this writer’s need for the calming beverage at those hours in the morning.

Amenities found and used during the stay were helpful to keep up with daily routines away from home. They include WiFi access in the suite, Sealy bed mattresses, iHome Clock Radios with iPod Docks, plus a Gym fitted with up-to-the-latest in equipment. A copy of New York Times newspaper is provided, too, each morning. However, the three elevators servicing everyone maybe considered inadequate.

The bar and cocktail lounge at the Hotel Metro Grill are worth mentioning to everyone who are thinking about where to stay in NYC. The Empire State Building’s shadow, being a block away, offers previews (that are, rather, disconcertingly up and close) to the concrete jungle that is Manhattan, especially for guests who find themselves booking here. Not the fanciest rooftop bar others may have in mind actually, but it’s got certain appeal. Guests may opt to patiently wait for the slow switching of hours from sunset, early evening, to later hours when NYC shimmers from its city lights. Everything seems to become a bit magical, from up here, depending on one’s perception.

The Grill’s open from lunch to dinner, with the bar up to midnight. The rooftop bar offers grand vistas of NYC, not available to most local residents here. This writer believes this feature of having a rooftop bar, which can be enjoyed by guests, weather permitting, makes Hotel Metro worth being the choice for a place to stay on a visit to NYC.

Check more about this hotel here.

Learn more about this author, Jerome Espinosa Baladad.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.