Doubletree Guest Suites or The Manhattan Club?
 

We are taking our first trip to New York with our 2 teenage daughters and are trying to decide between Doubltree Guest Suites on Times Square or The Manhattan Club which is closer to Central Park. Both are suite hotels, although The Manhattan Club would give us 2 bathrooms and a kitchenette. Is it better to stay right on Times Square or a little away from it? Does anyone know anything about these two hotels? Thanks!!

We had friends who had two nights left and about to expire at Manhattan Club and that's just what we needed on our way to Europe, so they gave them to us. We had a suite with two full baths and kitchenette -- presumably what you have offered. It was incredibly beautiful and well done. I've seen the one bedroom Doubletree Suites and there was no comparison to the Manhattan Club.

Since there are 4 of you, I think it would be really nice to have the 2 bathrooms and the kitchenette would be great for making coffee or having snacks, so I would choose the Manhattan Club.

You'll hear arguments both for/against staying right in Times Square or staying away from it, but I don't think one is "better" - both offer totally different experiences, both with pros/cons. To some people the busyness of TS can be exciting, while some just don't like it. Some people like to get away from the action a little and choose to stay a little away from TS while others would miss the bright lights and crowds of TS if they stayed somewhere else. It's just whatever your personal preferences are.

I go every summer and stay in the Double Tree suites Times Square with my teenage daughter. This summer we will have a friend and her daughter going along. We would not stay anywhere else. We love the excitement of Times Square. There is a tiny fridge and a microwave and sink and only one bathroom for two rooms but we manage ok. I don't know about the Manhattan Club. We have stayed at DT Suites now for 6 summers, some years they could see MTV from our rooms window. Sephora is almost next door. If you want to see a Broadway show you can easily walk to and from the show. There is always something fun going on. We never have heard any street noise. The building is very secure and the security people are very nice. I just don't have one thing bad to say about Double Tree Suites. But I do live in a very small town in the middle of Washington state and I LOVE New York City so that could make the difference! Have a great time.
Do your girls like to shop? That's why we go. Mom and daughter/back to school clothes trip.

My girls DO like to shop...but my husband is going with us so I don't know how much shopping we'll actually get done. :) I think both hotels are good ones, our concern was more the location and neighborhoods. Which one will let us walk to more places more easily. It probably depends on where we are going....as many places as possible in 5 days!! On the websites The Manhattan Club appears to be a little nicer, it has an extra bathroom, and is a little cheaper, but the location means more to us than anything. We are from the Midwest, so this will probably be our only chance to see NY and we want our girls to have the best experience!! This is a dream of theirs and we finally convinced their Dad to go. LOL

I just spent a week at the Manhatten Club and it is in easy walking distance to the theaters although if Doubletree is right by MTV then you would be 8 blocks apart so it would depend which theater you are going to but most would be closer to DT. We went to five plays in a week and had no problem from MC. We had a transportation pass you can get from the subway for buses and subway for $24 for a week so if we were tired we hopped on the bus and saved a half mile walk. Manhatten Club (which is a across the street from Carnegie Hall) has a subway and bus stop right on the corner there. It is to Central Park and Columbus Circle. If you are only going to do TS then I'd stay at DT as long as it has a kitchnette. If you are planning to do other things too them I'd stay at Manhatten Club. Be aware Manhatten Club doesn't have a pool if you are looking for that but it does have a exercise room and a computer room. Two bathrooms could be a big deal with teen girls and everyone trying to get ready at the same time.

I think a lot is being made of the different locations. I'm one of those who prefer the bright lights of Times Square and Broadway when visiting New York, but these two places are only a few blocks apart. We're not talking about two different areas here. Doubletree is more "right in the middle of the busiest action" but the two hotels are only something like a 5 or 6 minute walk from each other.
Go for whichever hotel you think you'd like better. I think Manhattan Club comes off much more upscale than the Doubletree, and the suite is considerably nicer.

I agree with Neopolitan. The locations are not dramatically different and the Manhattan Club will offer more space and an extra bath. This is a no brainer with 2 teenage GIRLS. I will point out that at Manhattan Club, as I understand it, each suite is owned by different people (or the management) so furnishings and newness of same can vary. If you were able to look at a photo of the specific unit you'd be getting, it might help finalize the decision. If not, I'd still chance it for the extra bathroom. I also think you'd appreciate NOT walking out into the craziness of Times Square.

mclaurie, I think (but not positive) that you're wrong about the decor at Manhattan Club. It is a time share property, and I'm pretty sure that not only did people purchase the rooms fully designed and decorated, but no one is allowed to change anything in them. In fact, if the same is true of all owners, you do not actuallly own a share in any particularly unit, but rather a week or more to use whatever suite they give you. My friends who did buy two weeks there, once found themselves stuck with a very small unit, and that's the one time they took a third guest so it was not a happy week. Normally they were supposed to get one of the larger, one bedroom/2 bath suites as we had.

But I'm pretty sure all units have the same degree of elegant decor. Of course, one might have a little more wear, but supposedly they are kept up to a very high standard. Ours could have been in a Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons and I would not have had a single complaint.

By the way, you can go to manhattanclub.com and view a video (beware it is a sales promotion tool and rather long) and it has some pretty good video of what the two room suites look like. They pictures could have been taken in our suite.

Also, I can tell you that if you haven't stayed there before you will get a welcome call immediately on arrival wanting to show you all the benefits of buying a share. We politely declined and they left us alone for the rest of our stay.

Thanks for all of the info. As one who has never been to New York, on a map the distance from Doubletree to Manhattan Club looked like a ways. My husband had been sold on staying right on Times Square, but I have seen posts of complaints of noise 24/7...and others that have said it is not a problem. I am also going to have to rearrange my itinerary after looking at other threads...we are not used to having to wait in long lines to get in to places so I didn't realize that some of the things we had planned (Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, Empire State Building) could take the better part of a day, or even all day! We did the Museum of Natural History in Chicago in a few hours.

When going north or south, I figure a minute per block. I've been amazed the number of times if I go 10 blocks it's exactly 10 minutes, or 40 blocks and it's exactly 40 minutes. This is regardless of the number of don't walk signs you hit. The north south blocks are very short.

Neopolitan,
Knowing that will be very helpful, thanks. Everyone has been telling me that NYC blocks are very long, and it would take 3 of our blocks to make one NYC block. That would make a block in New York roughly 1/4 mile.

North/south blocks (ie 52 st to 53 st) are 20 to the mile - very short. East and west blocks (ie Fifth Avenue to 6th Ave) are longer - but vary in length. they will always be twice as long and sometimes 3 times as long as north/south blocks.

A good walking time (a walking to get somewhere pace - not dawdling or window shopping pace) is a block per minute north to south.

The hotels are both in west midtown: Manhattan Club is at 56th vs 47 for Doubletree - 9 blocks - so a 10-minute walk. The neighborhoods are somewhat different - I would vote for 56th St anytime - much less garish, loud and filled with innumerable neon lights and tacky tee shirt shops. (But like most New Yorkers I avoid Times Square except for the theater - it's really for tourists - or people who work in the area.)

You should really go to the mta website and download the interactive subway map - it will help plan the trip and give you an idea of how to get from one place to another.

And yes - NYC is full of lines - that's what happens when so many people want to do the same thing. You need to sign up in advance for the Statue of Liberty (I wouldn;t bother just to see inside the base when you can get a great view from the free Staten Island Ferry) and the Empire State Building (I prefer Top of the Rock). You don't need to get tickets in advance for Ellis Island, the Met or Natural History - although if you go on Sunday you might have to wait 5 or 10 minutes to get one - since those are also filled with New Yorkers.

The Manhatten Club has different size units studios of different shapes (the L shaped being bigger) but all the studios only have one bathroom and you already said it had two so its a one bedroom. They are decorated similarly because it is a timeshare. Since DT is on 47th you are actually closer to some of the theaters and TCKTS booth staying at MC. The main action is between 42nd and 54th.The blocks are pretty short. Between avenues though can be far as someone else said. Between 8th ave and 5th ave is a bit of a hike. We found Manhatten pretty compact for the tourist attractions. Even so we spent a pretty fast paced week and still didn't see everything. We'll be back and probably at the MC.

"Since DT is on 47th you are actually closer to some of the theaters and TCKTS booth staying at MC."

What am I missing here? Or did you mean to put a "than" in there between "booth" and "staying"?

No what I am saying is some theaters are around 52nd street if I remember correctly so is the TCKTS booth so they actually may be closer staying at MC than DT depending what play they choose. Both are good walkable locations.

The TCKTS booth is directly across from the Double Tree. Actually it is in the island in the middle of the street in front of the Double Tree.

We have never been out to the Statue of Liberty in all of our 6 vists. We bought tickets once. But after we bought the tickets the line was still a good 2 hours long and it was 10 am and already in the 80's so we jumped on the Staten Island Ferry. Which was free. It was great. We gave our tickets to someone at home who was going to NYC in the winter!

As for the noise at the Double Tree. In all 6 years of staying there we have never been bothered. Last year our room was a corner room on the 31st floor with a view to kill. The Double Tree is getting spendy though. I do like the security in the building. Unlike other places you can not go into the elevators if you can't prove that you are staying at the hotel. Are you going this summer? If so, the morning shows usually have entertainment on there shows outside in the mornings one day a week. They are usually good acts. Your daughters might enjoy that. One year we got tickets to Good Morning America and we were on TV.
GMA is block down from the DT also.

Well, wauhop, as mentioned the TKTS booth is literally at the doorstep of the Doubletree -- not the Manhattan Club. And of the several dozen Broadway theatres, I'd say only about 5 or so could be closer to Manhattan Club than Doubletree.

But again that really isn't an issue. All are relatively close to either.

I must have walked by the DT a lot of times then and didn't notice it. Like others have said they can't go wrong with either but DT is in the heart then and they'll have a 5-10 minute walk if they stay at MC.