848 Washington Street; 212 645 4646, standardhotels.com; doubles from £120

4 ace

What is it you want your choice of hotel to say about you? If it’s “stylish, knowing, hip, witty and maybe even a bit sexy”, then you want to stay at the Ace. Built in 1904 as the Breslin Hotel, and now thoroughly revamped, it sits in trendy NoMad (north of Madison Square Park), off Sixth Avenue. Inside, the lobby is all battered old sofas, warm wood, hot coffee and cool kids.

The restaurant, the Breslin, is the new one from the British chef April Bloomfield, of NYC’s Spotted Pig, and the breakfast, to use an AmericanismHoliday like President Obama , is to die for. The pastries and muffins, though, are worthy of resurrection. A number of the rooms have Smeg fridges instead of minibars, and there are in-room turntables or guitars, murals on the walls and boxer-style bathrobes in the wardrobes. Even basic bunk-bed rooms, sleeping two (£91), are a decent size.

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20 West 29th Street; 212 679 2222, acehotel.com; doubles from £182

5 Distrikt

Here’s something different: a hotel with a theme. The Distrikt pays homage to New York, with 32 floors styled on city neighbourhoods, from the financial district at the bottom to Harlem at the top. The place was a building site last week, but it’s coming along — the living wall in the lobby will be laid with grass in the shape of Central Park, more than 10,000 shots of the city were taken for the collages on each floor, while the restaurant will team local produce with local beers.

342 West 40th Street; 877 424 6423, distrikthotel.com; doubles from £167

6 The Grace

It’s hard work, New York. All that shopping and walking and looking up. So what would be welcome is a gentle float in a pool, with perhaps the effort of a swim to the bar rewarded by another cocktail. That you can do all this in the Grace’s lobby just cuts down on the legwork. There’s a DJ, a sauna and a steam room there, too. The hotel is right off Times Square, with funky little rooms and a kiosk selling food and miniatures for you to stock your minibar with. Pop your head out of the lift at regular intervals to check out the different colour schemes on the floors — Austin Powers waves on one, zebra stripes on the next.

125 West 45th Street; 212 354 2323, room-matehotels.com; doubles from £121, B&B

7 Ink 48

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