BOOK LOVERS REJOICE, THIS IS THE HOTEL OF YOUR DREAMS

THE LUXURY HOTEL SERIES

THE LIBRARY HOTEL

Welcome to the first edition of the Luxury Hotel Series. The Travel Women and I have partnered together to showcase unique hotels around the world. Since we’re both New Yorkers, what better way to kick off the series than in our home: Manhattan, NY. 

In a busy city, it’s a pleasure to retreat to a quiet, relaxing place like The Library Hotel. We wanted to include this hotel in our Luxury Series because of its unique theme. The Library Hotel is all about books, as its name might infer. As an avid reader, I was intrigued to spend a night here.

Upon arrival, I was informed that guests could take a copy of the unreleased books from Simon & Schuster to read during their stay. Excitedly, I picked through an assortment of biographies, romance novels, fantasy titles and more, finally settling on a murder mystery. Although I use a Kindle for my travels because it saves space, I’ve always loved to read an actual book and flip through its pages. As I walked to my hotel room, I was excited to relax and read my newly found treasure.

Each room is themed to a section of a library. We were given the dinosaur themed room. This was a pleasant surprise, as I did not expect that there would be a pre-historic theme offered. As I walked to the room, I found myself wondering how they had transformed the space to be both dinosaur and library themed. 

The classy interior was lined with colorful spines of books and framed photos of fossils on the walls. I inspected the books closer to learn that each one was about dinosaurs in a different way. There must have been 100 books in the room and every single one was true to the theme. It was impressive. Many of the books were donated by the famous bookstore, The Strand, and some even donated by staff, one of the oldest books dates back to the 19th century.

One of our favorite parts about The Library Hotel, and all of the nine hotels in its collection, is that they have a complimentary wine and cheese hour for guests everyday from 5:00pm – 8:00pm. There are four types of wine to choose from and a variety of cheese, crackers and fruit.

We were poured a glass of Prosecco and selected an assortment of cheese then relaxed in the “reading room” to enjoy them. The room was comfy and lined with books on all of the walls. Our favorite book was a massive collection of maps that sat on the grand piano. It was fun to flip through the pages and dream about all of the places we want to go in this world. 

The Library Hotel is home to Bookmarks Lounge; a rooftop garden parlor and terrace with craft cocktails and savory snacks. We visited in winter and were pleased to learn that they have accommodations for the cold season as well. Bookmark’s has a cozy fireplace nestled between two Victorian style couches.

As we enjoyed the warm fire, we sipped on refreshing cocktails from the bar and munched on our appetizers. The cocktails were beautifully presented and had complex flavors that intrigued our taste buds. I always appreciate the craftsmanship involved in making a proper cocktail.

Exhausted from a long day, we headed back to our dinosaur themed room and rested our minds, dreaming of travels that would happen in the near future.

For breakfast, we enjoyed their standard complimentary breakfast and said “Adieu” to this unique hotel as we packed our bags for our next hotel; the history filled Hotel Elysee.