TRAVEL + LEISURE – THE 18 BEST BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN NEW YORK CITY
May 2, 2025
New York may be a city of neighborhoods, but even more so, it’s a city of big personalities—with a hotel scene built to match.
Sure, there are plenty of chain properties, ranging from budget to five-star-plus, but to truly get on the city’s quirky, characterful wavelength, it helps to stay in one of its many boutique hotels. These independent, often smaller-scale options are uniquely designed, with bold points of view, one-of-a-kind art collections, fun-loving amenities, and bars and restaurants that are just as popular with locals as they are with guests. There are boutique hotels for lovers of Scandinavian minimalism, animal-print-filled maximalism, architecture, rock ‘n’ roll, sunsets, wellness, and even oysters.
For this list, we combined editor favorites with winners from our recent World’s Best Awards and It List. As a native New Yorker who returned to the city after college and has lived in Brooklyn for 17 years and counting, these are the hotels I’d recommend to visiting out-of-towners, but they’re also the kinds of spots I’d choose to hang out with my laptop during the day or stop into for an after-work martini and fries.
These are the 18 best boutique hotels in New York City.
The Wall Street Hotel
Located on the corner of Wall Street and Pearl Street, this 180-room FiDi hotel is owned, coincidentally, by an Australian pearling family, and they partner with the Billion Oyster Project, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring the oyster reefs in the harbor. (You can buy the half-shell bottle opener in your room to help the cause.) The hotel isn’t far from the South Street Seaport, and there’s an appropriately nautical palette of navies and greys in guest rooms. Stop into the Lounge on Pearl for martini frites and dressed oysters, or book a dinner at the French chophouse La Marchande, known for signature dishes like salted cod and scallop fritters. At night, there’s no better way to shake off the stresses of New York than with a bespoke bath turndown service.
