City Hotel
Hong Kong, China
9.5
Rosewood Hong Kong
A vertical estate on the Kowloon waterfront whose art-filled interiors, harbour-view rooms and formidable dining set Hong Kong's current standard.
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City Hotel · ££££
The Plaza
New York, United States — North America
8.8Editorial score
Editorial research. Profiled through in-depth editorial research; Browntravels has not yet stayed at this property. How we review
The 1907 French Renaissance landmark at Central Park's corner, forever entwined with Eloise, Gatsby glamour and gilded New York occasion.
The Plaza is New York's most mythologised hotel, a French Renaissance chateau presiding over Grand Army Plaza since 1907 and written into the city's fiction from Fitzgerald to Eloise and Home Alone. Its landmark interiors—the stained-glass dome of the Palm Court, the oak-panelled bar rooms, the gilded ballroom—remain public treasures as much as hotel amenities.
Rooms trade in white-glove classicism: Louis XV-style furnishings, gold-accented mouldings and mosaic-floored bathrooms with 24-carat-plated fittings. Park-view categories facing the carriages and treeline are the ones that justify the legend. Service is formal in the old New York manner, and the butler-attended suite floors retain real occasion; elsewhere, the scale of the operation occasionally shows.
The Palm Court's afternoon tea endures as the city's most theatrical, the Champagne Bar watches the Pulitzer Fountain, and a food hall bustles below. The Fifth Avenue shopping corridor and Central Park are literally at the doorstep. Choose The Plaza for pageantry and place-in-history rather than cutting-edge amenity—it delivers the former like nowhere else in America.
Why stay here
- Landmark 1907 architecture on Central Park's corner
- The Palm Court's famous stained-glass afternoon tea
- Gilded park-view suites steeped in film and fiction
- Doorstep access to Fifth Avenue and the park
Things to consider
- Interior rooms can feel dated beside the park-view showpieces
- Heavy visitor traffic flows through the public spaces daily
Rooms & Suites
282 rooms and suites in Louis XV-inspired dress with mosaic bathrooms; Central Park-view rooms and butler-serviced suites carry the magic.
Dining
Afternoon tea beneath the Palm Court dome, the Champagne Bar on the plaza, and a lively food hall in the concourse below.
Spa & Wellness
A boutique spa and fitness centre; Central Park across the street serves as the grandest gym annex in the city.
The Browntravels Verdict
America's most storied hotel address: come for gilded occasion, the Palm Court and the park at your feet—not for minimalist modernity.
Last updated 28 July 2026
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