Hi,

I'm trying to decide between the following (similarly priced) hotels: the Carlton New York (29th & Madison), The Roosevelt (45th & Madison) and The Fitzpatrick Grand Central (44th and Lexington).

Can anyone help me out? I haven't been to any of them.

I'm not sure what your needs are, but I can tell you that each of these three hotels are in business areas which become desolate after about 10 pm. Of the three, the Fitzpatrick is the closest to the subway. Just keep this in mind if you will be out late at night.

Roosevelt and Fitzpatrick are closer to all midtown action - Times Sq., theater district, 5th Avenue, Central Park, most museums. The Carlton is not convenient to any of the above places with the exception of the Empire State Building.
Subways not very convenient to the Carlton.

We're thinking of staying at the Carlton and from my little street map of NYC, the subway is on 28th and Park!!! Just a couple of blocks away - I don't think that is too far. As far as being desolate, most hotels are in business areas and as far as I can tell the Carlton is actually near the residential area of Murray Hill. Anyway, who wants to catch the subway late at night no matter where you are staying. And also, while the Carlton is a little further away from Times Square, Central Park etc it is closer to Soho and Greenwich Village than those hotels further up. So I guess it depends on what you are doing. At the end of the day, I don't find that any place is too far away what with legs for walking and the subways!!!
Where ever you stay just relax and have a wonderful time. New York is an exceptional city.

Anne in Australia

The subway at 28th and Park is east side lines. I think the references to the Carlton's not being handy to the subway were referring to the fact that it's not that near to subway lines that will take you straight to the Times Square/midtown area, or to Greenwich village and lower Manhattan. You can take the east side line and transfer to get to those places. (The east side lines are great for getting up to Museum Mile, though.) I don't think not being super close to the subway is problematic if you like to walk. The area around 29th and Madison is very safe for nighttime walking, and it is near mostly residential areas, a short walk to Murray Hill restaurants and pubs and not far from the Gramercy Park neighborhood where there are a huge number of restaurants and, on Park Ave. South between 14th and 23d Sts. , a lively bar/nightlife scene. If you're planning on spending all or most of your time around Times Square and just want to zip down to lower Manhattan for the ferries, WTC, etc., the midtown loactions have an edge. They are in an area that's much emptier at night with not a lot of restaurants right near the hotels, compared with the Carlton's location.

Actually, the N/R line stop is at 28th and Broadway, about 2 blocks from the Carlton. From there it is a direct route north to Times Square and south to the village, SoHo, and lower Manhattan. So subway wise, the Carlton has good overall subway access.