Nolita (North of Little Italy), New York City

Check out my review of the Nolitan Hotel on my Examiner.com site HERE.

Apparently, we ate a lot when we were in New York, judging from the photos I just sorted through. There are an exorbitant number of photos of food, places to purchase food, and restaurants. This should not surprise you, if you have been reading this blog for long.

Exhibit A. And yes, it was just as good as it looks.

Of COURSE you want to know where we bought it. Right here.

After a stop in Niagara Falls, we headed to the Big Apple for a couple of days before we began our fabulous cruise of Canada and New England on the Norwegian Jewel. I did a lot of research before our trip and decided to stay at the lovely Nolitan Hotel, which is located in Nolita, New York.

For those of you who don’t know, Nolita refers to the New York neighborhood in Manhattan which is just North of Little Italy. When I say “those of you who don’t know” of course, I also refer to myself since, not only had I never heard of Nolita previous to this,  I spent a great deal of time before we arrived there mispronouncing the words Nolitan and Nolita. It wasn’t until we actually arrived at the hotel and they said the name that I realized I had been saying it wrong. Luckily, I had not mentioned it to them but the cab driver probably laughed all the way to his next fare after I told him where we were going.  This is the sort of thing that happens just when I think I am the ultimate worldly and sophisticated traveler.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect of the Nolitan Hotel. I had seen photos and descriptions but I couldn’t imagine how they had built a brand-new, luxury boutique, very modern hotel right in the middle of this New York neighborhood and how it would blend in. But it does. It blends in perfectly. It’s very modern but is tucked right into the older buildings like it has always been there. In fact, it is tucked in so nicely that we walked right past it a couple of times when we were out and about until we finally figured out exactly where it was on the street.

This photo of The Nolitan Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The lobby is open and airy with huge windows overlooking the very busy neighborhood street. We were greeted in a very friendly manner and I was thrilled to learn that we had been upgraded from one of the lower floors to the 9th floor, where we had a fabulous view from our little balcony. Unusual in New York, most of the rooms have balconies with great views and you can also go up to the roof to get a wonderful view of the city, which we did almost immediately upon arriving. Here’s a photo that shows you exactly what our room was like.

This photo of The Nolitan Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We were escorted up to our room and shown around a bit, which is a good thing because I think we would have had some difficulty finding the toilet which is located in a separate room from the rest of the bathroom, behind a door which I assumed was a closet. The room was not large (like most hotel rooms in New York) but was well-designed and very comfortable. They have 55 rooms and 8 different room types and every amenity you can imagine, including free wifi, free bikes, and free access to a neighborhood fitness center – there was even a yoga mat in the closet to use! As we settled in, we noticed they had very kindly left us a welcoming note and some chocolates.

How nice IS THAT?

We especially loved our little balcony and it was fun to step out there at night to see the city lights or in the morning to watch the residents of the area making their way to work, shopping or walking the dog.

When I first stepped out on the balcony, however, I saw this.

Why, yes. YES, that IS a giant metal chicken on their balcony.

A giant metal chicken on the balcony is funny enough but if you also read the Bloggess, it’s absolutely hysterical. So, after giggling a bit about the giant metal chicken – OK, I giggled, Tom might possibly have looked at me like I was crazy because he simply does not appreciate the humorous aspect of a giant metal chicken – and enjoying our lovely, lovely room, we headed up to the rooftop to take some pictures.

There was basically nothing up on the rooftop when we were there but they have plans to put a bar and restaurant up there, which I think would be fabulous because it’s such a nice location.

View of the Williamsburg bridge from the rooftop of the Nolitan Hotel.

Another view of the city from the rooftop.

You can see how we were in the middle of a neighborhood with trees, shops and apartments in this shot.

We really intended to eat at Ellabess, the wonderful restaurant in the hotel or at least take advantage of the room service but we were running around the city so much, we ended up eating at lots of other places instead. One of the things we enjoyed the most about the Nolitan Hotel, aside from the wonderful service we received (they printed out things twice for me when I realized I had neglected to print tickets, etc. and were wonderful with recommendations about everything) was the location.

The Nolita neighborhood was absolutely a fabulous location. We were close to Little Italy, where we could (and did) partake of Italian food, including cannoli one morning that was to die for.

Yes, they were FABULOUS.

And we were also close to Chinatown where we could have equally wonderful food and see the most interesting things as we strolled around.

Lovely flowers at a small market in the neighborhood.

REALLY fresh fish for dinner?

We enjoyed everything about our stay in New York – the food, the touristy stuff, the show on Broadway (“Jersey Boys” is wonderful, see if it you can) but in all honesty, the best part of our stay was the Nolitan Hotel. Everyone that works there was so friendly and helpful, the room was so wonderful and comfortable, and the hotel itself was just a pleasure to return to every day. If you are headed to New York, I recommend you check out the Nolitan Hotel.

And let me know if you can see that giant metal chicken from your balcony.

Full disclosure: The Nolitan Hotel offered us a media rate for our stay, but, as always, I will share my honest opinion about any travel experiences I have.

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