The Lucerne Hotel

Rooms and decor

Picture a tall red-brick Beaux-Arts building on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue at 79th Street in the heart of the Upper West Side — that is the first thing you notice about The Lucerne Hotel, which has stood here since the building was finished in 1904. The facade carries detailed carved plasterwork and a deep-red curved entrance arch the neighborhood knows on sight. Step through the door and you reach a warm, classic lobby that feels like a step back into early-twentieth-century New York. All 184-odd rooms come in several types, from standard rooms up to roomier suites, some with a small kitchenette, decorated in warm, practical tones that lean toward home comfort over flash. Many rooms open onto the leafy streets of the neighborhood, lined with old apartment buildings and sidewalk trees. Families with young children will like that the hotel keeps cribs and extra beds on request. Anyone who loves a historic building with a story to it should warm to this place from the first step.

Food and amenities

The thing that sets The Lucerne apart is Nice Matin, the French-Mediterranean cafe and restaurant on the ground floor, opening onto the street with the feel of a Paris bistro. Upper West Siders come here regularly for breakfast and brunch, and guests staying upstairs can just walk down for coffee, a croissant or eggs without going anywhere. The streets around the hotel are a joy for eating and strolling, with supermarkets, fresh bakeries, delis and friendly-priced local restaurants where you can grab ingredients to put together a simple meal in a room with a kitchenette, or snacks for the kids. Inside, the hotel has a fitness center for anyone who does not want to break their routine, and it is pet-friendly, so bringing the dog along is no problem. Reviews repeatedly praise the staff as warm and helpful, especially on restaurant tips and getting around the neighborhood, which makes it feel more like having a local friend than a front desk.

Location and getting there

Location is the strongest card here for families. The hotel sits in the heart of the Upper West Side, a real New York residential neighborhood known for being quiet, leafy and safer-feeling than the busy center of town. The best part is the American Museum of Natural History, with its dinosaur skeletons, great blue whale and planetarium, just about 325 meters away or a 5-minute walk — you can take the kids from opening time without touching a cab. A little farther, about 10 minutes on foot, is Central Park, the city's green lung, where kids can run, ride bikes or take a boat on the lake all day. For getting into the city, the 79th Street station on the 1 line is about a 5-minute walk. The 1 stops at every station, good for unhurried sightseeing, and a few blocks over you can transfer to the 2/3 express to reach Times Square and midtown faster.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The first thing that comes up often in reviews is room size: because the building dates to 1904, many standard rooms run fairly small in the style of that era, so families who want more space or are traveling with several kids should pick a suite or a room type listed as larger. Second is the age and design of the rooms, which lean toward practical classic over modern. A few reviews feel the furniture or bathrooms in rooms that have not been renovated look dated or less polished than recently updated hotels, so check the room type and look at the latest photos when you book. Third is the Uptown location: quiet and family-friendly as it is, it sits a fair distance from Times Square, the midtown shopping district and downtown, so you take the subway in. Anyone set on the famous central districts every day may feel they are traveling more than they would from midtown. Better to see this location as a plus for quiet and museum-and-park access, and treat a few subway stops as a normal part of seeing New York.

Our take

From reading through plenty of real guest reviews, The Lucerne Hotel pulls together a clean package: a location you can walk from to the dinosaur museum and Central Park, the charm of an 1904 red-brick Beaux-Arts building, a quiet and safe residential feel, and a price friendlier than midtown luxury hotels. If the trip in your head is bringing the family to a classic building with a story, waking up to a few-minute walk to see the dinosaurs at the natural history museum, then a picnic in Central Park and croissants at the French cafe downstairs, this is a value pick with a lot of charm in a city where everything costs a fortune. But if you expect spacious rooms, fully modern design or a base right on Times Square to walk the famous districts every day, the room sizes and Uptown spot here may not be the best fit. Overall we give it 8.4/10, best for families who value being near the museum and park, the charm of a historic building and Upper West Side value over room size and design luxury.