Review of The Peninsula New York, by Jenny Pidgeon

This luxurious, stylish hotel on 5th Avenue fulfils all that you would expect from the Peninsula group. The imposing 23-storey building is surrounded by the best shopping in Manhattan and provides an elegant refuge for chic shoppers and businessmen alike. Entering through a revolving door on the ground floor, you come into an airy lobby featuring a huge chandelier and beaux arts coffered ceiling. The courteous and professional reception staff greet you at the top of a grand staircase and whisk you up to your room. The service is first-rate and the hotel boasts a concierge who will “do anything the guests ask, as long as it’s legal”.

With such strong competition in the area, not least from the neighbouring St. Regis, The Peninsula prides itself on constantly improving and changing small details to ensure that they are always offering something different from their rivals. Notwithstanding their excellent restaurant and bar at Fives, sophisticated Gotham Lounge and fabulous bedrooms, the hotel counts its three main strengths as the rooftop bar, tri-level health spa and renowned bathrooms.

The Pen-Top Bar & Terrace is certainly something to shout from the rooftops about. All the way up on the 23rd floor, the view out over 5th Avenue provides a stunning backdrop to the martinis and champagne quaffed by well-to-do New Yorkers of an evening. The luxury spa and private fitness club share these panoramic views, best enjoyed from the sundeck or glass-wrapped swimming pool and jacuzzi. The more active among you can also indulge in a cardiovascular workout or exercise class before enjoying the sauna, steamrooms and beauty treatments. For anyone too lazy to make it up to the 23rd floor, in-room massages can be arranged.

The spacious guestrooms were renovated five years ago and are still looking fabulous. The décor is warm and inviting in gold and black, with Asian silk bedcovers and engraved armoires hiding huge TV screens (soon to be flat screen plasma in all but the superior rooms). Carved Art Noveau headboards compliment the contemporary art and slick black-and-white photographs which are individual to each room.

High flying executives are well-catered for with high speed data ports, dual-line phones and light-sensitive fax machines (so you don’t get woken up when a fax arrives from Hong Kong in the middle of the night). Bedside and bathside panels allow you to control lighting, music, temperature, television, phone and even the ‘do not disturb’ sign from your bed or oversize bath.

The huge marble baths have TVs above the tubs, mood lighting, plush towels everywhere and Molton Brown products as standard. As well as the fully stocked minibar, you will also find a complimentary ‘water bar’; one is invited to dither between bottles from New York, Maine, Norway, Sweden and Belgium. This is luxury and service to the highest degree.