When booking our trip to New York, the hotel choice was high on our priority list. When we found this new little gem I knew I wanted to share it with you.
Last time I went to New York it was for my 21st birthday and it was a treat from my mum. I didn’t really pay much notice to the hotel choice back then.
Now I’m more obsessed with travel blogs and travelling in general, hotel choice hugely comes into play for me. While I can’t usually afford the tip top hotels I see on so many beautiful blog posts and videos, I do try to find interesting and unique hotels that I can afford wherever I can. Our hotel in Berlin was probably one of my favourites ever, so anything on this level is fine by me. When searching for our New York I was hoping to find another perfect, quirky little spot.
Enter the Moxy Times Square.
When we were looking for hotels in September, the Moxy had only been open to press judging by Trip Advisor, and many of the photos on the website were artist renderings rather than actual photos. We were a little tentative but in the end we decided to take a risk and book a relatively unknown hotel. I’m now so glad we did because our gamble paid off.
Even if you walk past the Moxy, it tries to draw you in. There are speakers outside playing music that you can hear just as you walk along the street outside the doors, along with a fragrance pumped out of the vents. A little like a Hollister store, but a much cooler, unique scent. It’s something I’d never experienced before with a hotel and I absolutely loved this little touch. The scent is also pumped throughout the hotel so it becomes familiar during your stay, meaning at the end you never want the world to stop smelling so sweet!
The lobby of the hotel has an ultra chilled out vibe with staff not restrained behind long desks and a cool flicker board screen on either side. It instantly makes you feel more chilled out every time you arrive at the hotel because everyone seems so relaxed and happy to help. On the second floor there’s a large lounge and seating area as well as Bar Moxy (which you get free cocktail tokens for on arrival – what more could you need!), a sandwich/snack shop and access to the hotel’s restaurant. But I’ll tell you more about that later on.
Obviously the hotel doesn’t have candy canes and tinsel everywhere all the time so if you’re planning to go there any time other than December when we went just imagine my snaps with a little less Christmas vibes!
Now the bit you may be waiting for, the room! We opted for a Queen room as we wanted a little more space than the Double offered. If you’ve watched my New York vlogs you will know we stayed in a Double too and I’m definitely glad we stayed in a Queen room for the rest of the trip. As two people with two large suitcases, a Double just felt a smidge cramped for a week’s stay.
I absolutely loved the room itself, the decor vibe was just perfect and the quirky little details are so unique. I’m a huge fan of the industrial style so the bathroom was right up my street with the retro tiling and the metal lever taps and the bed was super comfortable. If you’re struggling to sleep you can even press a button on the phone to hear a bedtime story. They’ve honestly thought of every little detail.
Remember I said I’d come back to the restaurant? Well here we are, the Legasea seafood brasserie.
This restaurant, like the hotel, hadn’t been open very long and it definitely had the ‘new opening’ vibe about it. We went on a Friday night and made a booking for 8pm. When we arrived it was absolutely buzzing with people, I’ve honestly never been in a restaurant that busy!
For our meal we shared a mac and cheese to start which was absolutely divine and we both ordered the cod fish and chips for our main. The main was great but the portion size was huge, it completely defeated me and I wasn’t considering a dessert until the waiter came over and said he was giving us a dessert on him as we were guests of the hotel. Enter the chocolate cake of dreams. Anyone who knows me well will know that I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate cake, but this chocolate cake was on a whole other level. It was SO good, 10/10 would recommend.
Even if you’re not staying at the hotel, anyone can eat at the restaurant so definitely give it a look if you’re in New York.
And finally on to Magic Hour, the rooftop bar on the top of the hotel. Before we arrived I found out that Heidi Klum held her annual Halloween party here which made me hugely excited for it. If it’s good enough for Heidi, it’s good enough for me.
On our first night in the hotel while waiting for the lift, Post Malone walked past us on his way into the bar, and then for the following two nights it was closed for private events, one of which featured Flo Rida performing. After this we knew we were definitely staying under a new NYC nightlife hotspot.
I did want to go up and play mini golf and see it in the daytime but sadly due to the snow and the time of year we didn’t have time to do that, so instead we popped up for a quick drink on our last night. The bar can be fully open air or closed in depending on weather, when we went it was closed in so it would be great to go in the summer months and see it in all its glory and have a round of mini golf. To have a nosy at how cool it is, check out their Instagram page because me talking about it and my limited snaps really don’t do it justice.
Overall our stay at the Moxy was way too short, but oh so sweet. If you’re heading to New York I would definitely recommend taking a look at staying here as we loved it so much and it’s 100% at the top of our list for our next trip to the big apple!
