The best hotels in Manhattan, New York City's bourgeois borough

There’s no place like Manhattan. Deemed the cultural and financial capital of the world, the island pulses with energy around the clock as yellow cabs stream up and down the avenues and city lights glimmer into the wee hours. The thought of staying in the borough brings a flurry of excitement on its own. Properties feature jaw-dropping city views, museum-quality art collections, flawless service, and inventive cuisine by award-winning chefs. From luxury hotels on the Upper East Side to boutique boltholes in SoHo, here's our pick of the best hotels in Manhattan.

Ideally stationed on a cobblestone street in SoHo, every nook and cranny of Tim and Kit Kemp’s 86-room hotel overflows with style, great design, and sophistication, awash with unusual finds and classic details. Inside, luxury knows no bounds, yet the five-star service is remarkably approachable and the look is all understated elegance. If you’re staying in, amenities include rooms that feel more like posh private apartments, a gym and a 99-seat cinema. If you’re popping out, Bloomingdale’s is around the corner, and legendary Balthazar is down the street. Skip to Tribeca, the Lower East Side, Nolita, and Chinatown in less than 15 minutes, or hop on the subway at the Prince Street Station.

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This luxury hotel enjoys the finest location on the Upper East Side, perfectly situated on Madison and 76th – otherwise known as the corner of Wealth and Sophistication. It is housed in a handsome 1930s Beaux-Arts building, with a wonderful merging of old-world elegance and contemporary style inside. Rooms come with all the mod-cons, and some have views of The Park. You can dine on French haute cuisine and seafood classics at the elegant in-house restaurant, while Bemelmans Bar, just off the lobby, remains one of the finest cocktail bars in the world. Opposite the entrance to Bemelmans is Café Carlyle, where you can dine, drink and listen to great jazz.

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For easy access to the big-ticket sights in the city, The Whitby's location is difficult to beat, just two blocks north of the Museum of Modern Art, and also six blocks from The Rockefeller Centre, with the theatres of Broadway just beyond. Iconic shops and department stores including Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales and Barney’s are two blocks away. Back at base, interior designer Kit Kemp and her husband Tim have transformed this Firmdale Group hotel into a riot of rich, tactile fabrics, elaborately-printed wallpapers, crockery hung like portraits, giant murals and sculptures. Rooms are spacious, especially for New York standards, and individually designed. The Whitby Bar is a buzzy venue that attracts a mixture of hotel guests and locals.

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French designer Jacques Garcia has given a bohemian-chic makeover to a turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts building smack in the middle of Broadway. It’s in a hectic section of the Flatiron District, but if you don't mind the hustle and bustle then this area of Manhattan is ideal as you can just walk to the Empire State Building, Madison Square Park, Eataly, Macy's and Herald Square, as well as Chelsea, the Village, and Eleven Madison Park. Friendly and polished service are hallmarks here, and there’s an impressive, around-the-clock fitness centre and 24-hour room service. The look is moody and mysterious: faded Persian rugs and a 200-year-old fireplace set the tone, while retro-style mahogany desks and clawfoot tubs inject personality into the rooms.

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Located in the 1909 Met Life 41-storey clocktower (once the world’s tallest building) The New York Edition impresses from the get-go. It overlooks bucolic Madison Square Park, a haven in busy NoMad, but its interiors by Ian Schrager really steal the spotlight: think Venetian ceilings; an oatmeal-and-silver colour scheme; a sexy spiral staircase; and Christian Liaigre, Erik Kolling, Alvar Alto and Jean-Michel Frank-inspired furnishings. Expect a lobby bar filled with style-conscious travellers tapping away on laptops and sipping from pretty stemware, a second-floor restaurant and bar helmed by a Michelin-starred chef, a 24-hour fitness centre and a spa on the 39th floor. There’s also a purple-themed billiards room, ideal for quaffing and gaming after a meal.

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On West 57th across from Carnegie Hall, Park Hyatt occupies floors 3 through 30 of One57, a luxurious glass condo building soaring more than 1,000 feet above Manhattan's cityscape. Anticipate minimalist but inviting spaces designed by the team at Toronto and NYC-based Yabu Pushelberg with lots and lots of natural stone and Avant-Garde floral designs. Rooms are among the largest in town and just as flawlessly decorated. On the 25th floor, The Spa Nalai feels otherworldly and not like Manhattan at all, comprising a heated pool with speakers crooning Carnegie Hall music underwater. Opt for a massage and you'll leave rejuvenated and ready to take on whatever the city throws your way.

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Expect five-star service, an upscale modern American restaurant, and a chic rooftop bar at this landmark Manhattan hotel. Its colourful past started in 1905 when it opened as the short-lived Gotham Hotel before it closed due to bankruptcy in 1908. After several unsuccessful endeavors over the years, including a brief stint in 1987 as Hotel Maxim’s de Paris, the architectural grand dame became The Peninsula New York in 1988. Enter the traditional Beaux-Arts building to revel in neo-classical elegance the moment you arrive (grand two-storey foyer, ornate all-plaster ceilings, handsome crystal chandeliers) and indulge in the World-class wellness centre (glass-enclosed pool, Peloton workouts, sun terrace) as well as the restaurants, lounge areas, and chic rooftop bar.

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This exclusive five-star sits between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue. Inside, the setting is palatial, but the yellow glow from lantern-style wall fittings and constant hum of conversation rising from the Ty bar and Garden restaurant, help retain a degree of intimacy. The IM Pei-designed lobby, with French Chassagne stone floors and colossal pillars soaring towards the ceiling, is fabulous, while rooms have breathtaking views, the higher looking out on the park and the city, all the way across to the Hudson. Expect two sublime in-house dining spots, with Ty Bar offering Asian-inspired dishes, and The Garden Restaurant, serving New American cuisine under towering acacia trees.

Contributions by Belinda Maude, Jane Mulkerrins & Douglas Rogers