Best New York City Hotels for a Sex Weekend
Jun 8, 2011
It’s a positive sign for humanity that this is a Frequently Asked Question over at GDBK H.Q. The kind of Sex Weekend we are talking isn’t to sample the city’s sex clubs or hookers or sleazy hotels (for that, see this post), but the kind when you come to NYC to meet a lover—or you live in NYC, and for whatever reason you’re putting your lover up in a hotel—and while you may be planning on getting out some to enjoy the city, you’re mainly planning on staying in to enjoy the company. (This post Xposted on Gridskipper.)
Hotel on Rivington
Ideally, what you want is a high-floor corner king with a balcony at The Hotel on Rivington. This 21-story, hyper-modern, all-glass hotel on the Lower East Side is right in the middle of a great neighborhood for bars and restaurants, with a lively drunken street scene in the evenings. The rooms are basically glass boxes with a bed in them (and have full-room floor-to-ceiling curtains for privacy). A balcony allows you to smoke without smoking in your hotel room. And the founding branch of NYC’s best sex shop, Toys in Babeland is a few blocks away, if props become necessary.
107 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002; 212-475-2600
The Standard Hotel
The beds are next to the windows at this sixties-retro new-build hotel standing astride the High Line park, and there has been plentiful press about them being a location for porn shoots, those who like to fuck with an audience, and so on. Slick, monochromatic white-and-grey rooms have incredible views of the Hudson River or the city. Room service (crucial, during a sex weekend) comes from the same kitchen as The Standard Grill, a dining destination that encapsulates this fresh, seasonal moment in NYC restaurant culture.
848 Washington Street, New York, NY 10014; (212) 645-4646
Soho House NYC
The private club out of London also operates as a hotel, which gets you access to the still-pretty-cool clubhouse and rooftop pool. We put it on the sex-hotel list because of the bathtubs, which are in the bedrooms (and in the higher category of rooms come with convenient tub-side mirror) and the beds, many of which are on feet (as opposed to platform style) meaning you can potentially tie someone to one. If that’s a consideration.
29 - 35 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10014 USA; (212) 627 9800
W Union Square
The W is the Starwood Hotel chain’s answer to the boutique hotel, and has plentiful annoying corporate-creative tics (pity the concierge who has to answer the telephone “Whatever Whenever! How may we enhance your experience?”). However, the mattresses are dreamy, the corridors are dark and anonymous, and the hotel usually has rooms at decent-ish prices at the last minute—spontaneity in planning a sex weekend can be key. The location at the Union Square Greenmarket, means you can stagger out, load up on really great in-room picnic fare and get back to business.
201 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003; (212) 253-9119
Gansevoort Park Ave
There may be a reason—one we can’t come up with—why you would need to be above 14th Street. In that case, the new Gansevoort Park Ave brings downtown sex appeal uptown and has a rooftop pool.
420 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10016; 877 830 9889
