One Night at the Bentley

Greetings from New York City!!! I’m blogging from Penn Station as I wait for my train back to Boston. It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It keeps life interesting!

I can’t reveal what I’ve been up to in NYC until early July, but I can tell you about the hotel where I stayed last night and, of course, my meals and snacks for the day.

Last night, I stayed at the Bentley Hotel in the upper East side of Manhattan. The Bentley is a hip, modern hotel, but after yesterday’s tour of the wonderful Colonnade, it just couldn’t compete!

The decor inside the Bentley is funky, boutique-y, and visually appealing.

My room was neat, too. Somehow, I scored an upgrade and ended up with a mini suite. Cool!

It had two different sitting areas and a separate bedroom– very spacious for a New York City hotel!

Even though the hotel seemed wonderful and looked luxurious, there were a number of aspects that didn’t thrill me:

• The shower didn’t drain in my hotel room. So gross!
• The TV had cable and a bunch of channels, but none of them came in clearly.
• Two of the lamps in my room were burned out (hence my dark photos).
• The AC/heater was old and noisy. I actually ended up turning it off before I went to bed because it was so loud.
• There wasn’t any info about the hotel in my room. So, for instance, I didn’t realize that the continental breakfast was so expensive! If I had known, I would have grabbed food from somewhere else.
• I didn’t exercise this morning, but I poked my head into the hotel gym. It was small and the most of the equipment looked old.

Once I got ready for the day, I headed upstairs to the rooftop restaurant for the continental breakfast. (By night, the rooftop restaurant is a swanky cocktail lounge.)

The selection for the continental breakfast was pretty pathetic. There just wasn’t a lot of options. Usually, I am easy to please when it comes to food– I’ll pretty much eat anything– but I struggled to come up with a healthy and appetizing breakfast.

I ended up grabbing some fresh fruit, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

And toast with strawberry jam and cream cheese. (I would have killed for peanut butter this morning!)

All together with water, coffee, and the New York Times.

The jam + cream cheese actually turned out to be a pretty good combo.

The continental breakfast cost $14.95, so I made sure to get my money’s worth. I grabbed a banana for later.

The continental breakfast was a total rip-off, but the views of the river and city skyline were spectacular.

On the way back to my room, the elevator refused to go to my floor. The button wouldn’t light up for the 5th floor, but floors 4 and 6 worked fine. Weird, right? I ended up getting off on the 6th floor and walking down a flight. Not a big deal, but wtf?

Ok, so there were quite a few things that I didn’t like about this hotel, but it really wasn’t that bad. The bed was comfy, I slept well and felt safe, and its location was close to lots of shops and restaurants. Maybe I’m still annoyed about breakfast!?

Before leaving the hotel, I enjoyed an iced coffee with milk from Starbucks.

Mid-morning, I snacked on half of an Apple Bran Muffin and my “stolen” banana.

We ended up wrapping up the project a few hours before schedule, so I headed to Penn Station to see if I could catch an earlier train home. Switching my ticket wasn’t a problem at all, so I had time to grab a quick lunch before boarding. I got the “Chocolate Chimp” from Planet Smoothie, which was made with cocoa, bananas, honey , and a “protein blast” powder.

The smoothie was delicious, but I’m hungry again. I’m already thinking about dinner!

See ya in Beantown!

Tagged as: Bentley Hotel, New York City, New York City Hotels