6 Luxe Hotel Experiences You Can Only Find in New York

Artist Alex Katz, whose colorful figurative paintings are regarded as precursors to Pop Art, has had retrospectives at New York’s Whitney Museum and London’s Saatchi Gallery, but the largest private collection of his original work in New York resides at Langham Place, the palatial Midtown hotel just north of the Empire State Building. Throughout the 234-room property are 11 originals and 250 prints, many of which were selected by Katz himself and placed in corridors, suites, and rooms. Behind the front desk, two oil paintings—one of three women in profile and one of three men, both called Trio—were chosen for their literal reflection of the scene outside the marble-clad lobby’s floor-to-ceiling windows: people from all walks of life passing by in profile. Rooms from $595; langhamhotels.com.

Boutique meditation studios have been popping up all over New York, so it’s no surprise that hotels are getting in on the trend. Last year, MNDFL joined forces with Midtown’s Yabu Pushelberg–designed Park Hyatt to offer private, in-room sessions (from $225) that are entirely dictated by a guest’s desires for the day, unlike the brand’s themed group sessions. Classes can be booked in one of Spa Nalai’s four treatment rooms with private terraces overlooking Central Park. Rooms from $795; newyork.park.hyatt.com.

Though the Pierre’s three-level, 16-room French-château-style penthouse (J. Paul Getty once called it home) was recently taken off the market for a cool $44 million, the Upper East Side hotel’s Tata Suite (from $20,000) is available to book and offers similar opulence. The two-bedroom, three-bathroom suite can be combined with four others to create a completely private rental on the 39th floor of the hotel, for 4,786 square feet of classic luxury. With Murano glass chandeliers set against a palette of gold, silver, and porcelain, the suite is one of a few that offer a complete panorama of Central Park, with views stretching beyond the George Washington Bridge on a clear day. Rooms from $500; thepierreny.com.

Those familiar with the 168-room Flatiron haunt may be surprised to learn about the weekly magic shows it hosts in the second-floor Johnston Room. But it starts to make sense the moment the two-hour spectacle begins. Magician Dan White, who’s worked on Kanye West’s stage productions, performs feats that are less tableside parlor trick and more turn-of-the-century illusion. (The dimly lit, gilded room, which can hold up to 70 guests, reinforces this effect.) Then there are the drinks, made by the hotel’s award-winning bar team, which are playful nods to White’s tricks. Try the Eclipse, a mix of tequila, mezcal, Cherry Heering, lemon, and Aperol that’s inspired by White’s showstopping (spoiler alert) levitation trick, wherein he floats his assistant three feet above the ground. Tickets go on sale about a month in advance and sell out quickly. Rooms from $395; thenomadhotel.com.

The 189 salons and suites at the city’s only Relais & Châteaux property could pass for the interior of any of the elegant townhouses on the quiet Upper East Side street it inhabits. But its rooftop garden feels like a hidden European terrace—one with 17th-floor views of the neighborhood and Central Park. Filled with manicured boxwoods, ivy trailing over wrought-iron chairs and tables, and New York’s largest lavender garden, the space is accessible only to hotel guests and members of the Patrons Club, a by-referral hotel membership. Rooms from $675; thesurrey.com.

The Ty Bar, at the Four Seasons’ recently renovated Midtown property, has long been a destination for the city’s most rarefied tipplers, thanks to its extensive martini list and trove of vintage whiskeys and bourbons. In November, it will begin serving some of the oldest scotch ever released to the public, the Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter 3, a set of five whiskeys aged up to 55 years. Take a seat at the plush, red-lacquered bar to sample a flight of five pours, one of each vintage ($5,000). Rooms from $775; fourseasons.com.