Hotels & accommodation

The Plaza

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts · Landmark 1907 château-style hotel on Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, overlooking Grand Army Plaza

The Plaza opened on 1 October 1907 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, a French Renaissance château-style tower designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, the architect of the Dakota. It faces Grand Army Plaza, with Central Park directly across Fifth Avenue and the shops of Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman at its doors — the most famous hotel address in New York.

The hotel has 282 bedrooms and suites, many looking over Central Park or the Fifth Avenue skyline. Interiors keep the building's beaux-arts bones — high ceilings, marble bathrooms and crystal chandeliers — and the upper floors mix hotel suites with private residences, so the building functions as much as a grand apartment house as a hotel.

The Palm Court, the hotel's centrepiece, serves breakfast and afternoon tea beneath a stained-glass dome ringed with palm trees. The Champagne Bar overlooks Grand Army Plaza, the Rose Club hosts live jazz, and the lower level holds The Plaza Food Hall. The Warren Tricomi salon and a Caudalie spa sit within the building.

Families know the hotel through Kay Thompson's Eloise, the children's book character who 'lives' at The Plaza; the hotel keeps a dedicated Eloise suite and an Eloise shop. As a scouting base it anchors the Upper East Side — Central Park, Museum Mile and the Midtown business district are all within a short walk, which is why it remains the reference point against which New York's other grand hotels are measured.

• Opened 1 October 1907, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in French Renaissance château style
• 282 bedrooms and suites on Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, a designated National Historic Landmark
• The Palm Court serves afternoon tea under a stained-glass dome
• Home to the Eloise Suite, honouring Kay Thompson's children's book character
• Managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts; amenities include The Plaza Food Hall, a spa and the Warren Tricomi salon

Visit the property — The Plaza theplazany.com

This featured showcase is an editorial selection by our editors. We have not stayed at this property and it is not a paid placement; no rating is implied. Paid placements never influence the United States of America liveability score, safety rating or warnings.