Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village Rating: 3.0 Pearls

SoHo, Manhattan, New York City

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While Charlton and parallel King Street are lined with office buildings and parking garages, don't be fooled by Four Points' immediate barren surroundings. Perpendicular streets, Varick and Hudson, offer Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, a chocolate shop, and a deli, and nearby Prince and Spring Streets are dotted with quaint cafes and boutiques.

Once industrial and warehousing districts, then gritty, underutilized areas where starving artists flocked to set up cheap loft and studio spaces, SoHo and TriBeCa have since been transformed into two of New York's premier neighborhoods -- characterized as much by destination shopping (SoHo), luxury loft apartments (TriBeCa), and fine dining (both) as by the well-preserved cast-iron architecture and cobblestoned streets that evoke their industrial past. Though these abutting neighborhoods have lost much of their edge since the days when only the artists appreciated their gritty beauty, both still draw the young, hip, beautiful, and moneyed in droves -- and together they embody New York's haute bohemian downtown shopping and nightlife scene.

• Two blocks from the C, E and 1 subway lines; six blocks from the A line -- easy access to Manhattan's westside but no express trains nearby and at least nine blocks to access subways to midtown and the eastside
• 30-minute subway ride to Central Park
• 20-minute subway ride to Times Square
• 15-minute subway ride to the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center
• 15-minute walk to the ferry terminal to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• 25-minute subway ride to the American Museum of Natural History
• 35-minute subway ride to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the "Met") and a 25 minute subway ride to the Museum of Modern Art (the "MoMa")

The King Standard room

• Standard rooms start at 200 square feet -- small, but about average for a New York hotel room in this price range.
• Deluxe rooms and suites offer the same basic amenities, but at 400 square feet, you get significantly more space.
• 32-inch flat-screen TV
• Free Wi-Fi

New York has three nearby airports: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark (in New Jersey). Getting to town from JFK or LaGuardia is usually more convenient than getting there from Newark, but travel times are heavily dependent on the time of day and traffic conditions. From JFK, a taxi to anywhere in Manhattan costs a flat rate of $45 and takes around an hour in average conditions. From LaGuardia, a metered cab ride to midtown Manhattan costs about $40 and can take 30 minutes if traffic is light, three times that if it's bad. Rides from Newark cost at least $40 (plus tolls) and can take more than 90 minutes. It's customary to tip your driver 15 to 25 percent.

Those looking to save some cash can use the privately run shuttle buses that are available at all three airports for about $14 per person. For more information on the shuttles, go to Super Shuttle or New York Airport Service. Public transit is also available for as little as $7 per person, but travel can take up to two hours and involve a lot of lugging bags up and down stairways.

For mass-transit directions right to the hotel, check out HopStop.com.