If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD1,791.07), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Aman translates to ‘peace’ in Sanskrit, and once you step foot in Aman New York – the hotel group’s newest urban outpost, occupying the top 23 floors of the 1920s Crown Building – the serenity starts to flow. Interiors were carefully restored to blend calming Japanese minimalism (latticed rice-paper panels divide otherwise open-plan suites and Hasegawa Tōhaku’s ‘Pine Tree’ murals accent cream-toned walls) with the Empire City’s gilded glamor and Manhattan panoramas. But the ace up Aman’s sleeve isn’t in its sought-after Fifth Avenue spot or its three-story spa (though those don’t struggle to impress), but in its speakeasy Jazz Club, where the city’s storied musicians take things back to the Twenties night after night.
Noon; check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £1645.78 ($2,055), including tax at 14.75 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of $10.50 per room per night on check-out.
More details
Rates include an à la carte breakfast, access to the spa, and drop-offs within a 15-block radius of the hotel.
Also
All the communal spaces at Aman New York are accessible, and there are five suites on the seventh floor that have been adapted for those with limited mobility and hearing impairments.
At the hotel
Wellness and fitness center, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Smart TV and tablet, minibar with free snacks and non-alcoholic drinks, tea-making kit, Nespresso coffee machine, free glass-bottled water, Dyson hair dryer, custom bath products, and butler service.
Our favourite rooms
For those sweeping Manhattan views, we’d suggest the Premier, Grand or Deluxe Suites on 56th Street, which all have windowed walls overlooking the city’s bustling corner. Otherwise, the sprawling Aman and Corner Suites have all the usual trimmings, plus a fully stocked wet bar and library.
Poolside
The 10th-floor swimming pool (open from 6am to 10pm) stretches 20 meters and merges the elements with bordering fire pits and cushy relaxation areas primed for post-spa snoozes.
Spa
You’d expect a Midtown Manhattan stay to scrimp a little on spa space, but the folks at Aman have ensured their commitment to wellness makes it into the city and the 2,300-square-meter spa speaks for its success. Spanning three floors, the space is decked out with seven treatment rooms, a cryotherapy chamber, a sauna and steam room, a hair and nail salon, and two private spa houses (one hammam and one banya, both with their own treatment rooms, cold plunge pools and hot baths) that guests are welcome to book out. Three medical rooms are set for on-call doctors, who can create personalized short- or long-term health programs based on full-body assessments, and masseurs are trained in ancient and modern healing methods. The wellness center is fitted with Technogym equipment, private yoga and pilates studios, as well as an infrared zone with Vacutherm treadmills and steppers.
Packing tips
Read about Old New York with an Edith Wharton classic.
Little Smiths are welcome and can be accommodated in all suites. Staff are more than happy to arrange activities to keep them entertained, including cookie decorating classes and visits to nearby museums.
Sustainability efforts
Arva’s ingredients are sourced from farmers along the East Coast to limit food miles, reusable linen programs are in full effect, and the hotel offers guests Vero Water, an eco-friendly still and sparkling bottling system that is designed to create a nearly-zero carbon footprint.
Secure a seat on the 14th floor terrace for view-blessed bites.
Dress Code
Glamourous gowns and sleek suits will blend best with Aman’s well-heeled crowd.
Hotel restaurant
On the 14th floor, upscale Italian eatery Arva serves seasonal dishes, based on traditional cucina del raccolto cuisine and made with freshly picked ingredients from local farmers, inside or on the wraparound terrace (warmed in the winter with its retractable glass roof) against views of Billionaire’s Row and Midtown. Nama is an ode to Aman’s Asian roots, where head chef Takuma Yonemaru pays homage to authentic Japanese washoku – we'd suggest booking in for one of his two-nightly omakase dinners (that are hosted Tuesday to Saturday, with seatings at 5.30pm and 8.30pm) for hand-picked plates dished up along an open seven-seater Hinoki-wood counter.
Hotel bar
The Lounge Bar, accented by its swinging Peter Gentenaar sculpture, serves light bites and top-notch tipples up on the 14th floor. Down a secret entrance on West 56th Street (or through a set of private doors in the hotel), the Jazz Club is an underground, speakeasy-style ode to the Roaring Twenties, where cocktails are mixed to the beat of live blues and jazz musicians.
Last orders
Breakfast at Arva is between 7am–10am (brunch at the weekends is 11am–3pm), lunch is noon–3pm (2.30pm at Nama), and dinner is from 5.30pm–11pm (10pm at Nama). The Jazz Club opens from 6pm–2am, and the Lounge Bar pours till midnight.
Room service
Dishes can be delivered to your door round-the-clock.
Aman New York is on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, one block south of Central Park.
Planes
JFK Airport has the most international connections and is a 45-minute drive from the hotel (on a light traffic day). LaGuardia is a smaller airport, but a shorter 20-minute drive away, and Newark is between 45 minutes and an hour away. If you’re arriving on a private plane, Teterbro and Westchester are also around an hour away. Private transfers can be arranged from all five airports, with prices starting at $245 ($270 from JFK). If you’d rather cut the traffic, staff can also organize helicopter transfers from all airports.
Trains
Grand Central and Penn Station are both around 10 minutes from the hotel in the car, and have direct and connecting trains along the East Coast to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington DC. The closest subway stations are for the E and F lines, which take you around the city.
Automobiles
We’d suggest leaving the driving to the professionals, and Aman New York offers free town car drop-offs for anywhere within a 15-block radius of the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
Staying on one of the world’s most coveted corners – where Fifth Avenue meets 57th Street – means you’re primely placed for some of the city’s finest spots. Shopping fiends will be right at home here, as famed Fifth Avenue is filled with designer brands and high-end department stores (Bergdorf Goodman is just across the street and Saks is an easy 10-minute walk away); or, you’d rather somewhere with more independent boutiques – and humbler price tags – head to Spring Street in Soho or Brooklyn’s Williamsburg.
Swap a trip to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and Empire State Building and make it immersive by heading up to the 91st floor of One Vanderbilt, where glass skyboxes and futuristic elevators provide sweeping scenes of Downtown Manhattan and Madison Avenue. For those who’d rather stay with two feet firmly on the ground, there are plenty of storied New York institutions on your doorstep, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Art and Design and Carnegie Hall. Thespians will thrive down on Broadway, where plenty of sashay-ing shows are on the cards, or Harlem’s Apollo Theatre is a little less tourist-tainted, with smaller performances programmed. For scenic saunters, Central Park is one block away and impresses year round, and the High Line – formerly one of Manhattan’s railroads – is filled with botanics and outdoor art installations that complement the West Side’s creative locale. For an insider's guide to the local food markets, head to Union Square Greenmarket with the hotel’s head chef, to pick up fresh produce that he’ll use to cook up a private dinner.
Local restaurants
Down East 28th Street, Atoboy’s otherwise unassuming interiors are blown away by Michelin-star-winning Junghyun Park’s refined Korean cuisine. Based around Banchan (small flavor-packed side dishes, typically served with rice), menus are short but sweet, filled with plates such as pork belly and mung beans, white kimchi and crab, and yangnyeom fried chicken. Le Rock is the newest venture of Tribeca’s Frenchette alumni, Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr – it serves bistro comfort food in its grand brasserie-style setting on the ground floor of the Rockefeller Centre. For grab-and-go dishes that don’t skimp on flavor, Los Tacos No 1 has some of the city’s best.
Local cafés
It’s only right to pick up one of the city’s boasted-about bagels, and New York establishment Russ & Daughters bakes some of the best. The original East Village shop often has lengthy queues, but a newer outpost recently opened on 34th Street, closer to the hotel, which also tends to have much shorter waiting times.
Local bars
Classic cocktails are poured with style at Midtown’s Monkey Bar, where dark red booths and caricature murals tell stories of its exclusive past. Setting up shop in an old bar where Johnny Carson and Jack Kerouac once regularly stopped for sips, Fifties-inspired Pebble Bar is spread across four stories and brings Soho’s storied spirit to Midtown.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this Midtown hotel in New York City and unpacked their designer threads, a full account of their blissful break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Aman New York in Manhattan…
Lately, the ever-stylish Aman hotel group has been busy setting up one of its latest projects, on New York City’s most coveted corner: Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. And we may be in the city that never sleeps, but Aman New York is here to prove it can be calming after all. Set in the Crown Building – a love letter to the city’s Roaring Twenties – Belgian-based designer Jean-Michel Gathy has reformed the Beaux-Arts building into a minimalist haven with feng shui-ed interiors, Hasegawa T?haku murals and windowed walls (multi-glazed to keep Manhattan’s crowds silenced) that gaze over Midtown’s skyscrapered silhouette. But suites aren’t the only place where serenity ensues; for spanning across three floors, there’s a 2,300-square-meter spa that’s decked out with all the trappings of a wellness retreat – except this one’s also just a speedy elevator ride from New York’s social spine. Throw in award-winning Italian and Japanese restaurants, a wraparound rooftop, and a speakeasy-style jazz bar and you’ll quickly realize Aman have worked its magic all over again.
