This Is the No. 1 New York City Hotel for 2025—and It's Perfect for Travelers and Locals Alike

By Adam Erace
Updated on July 9, 2025

Whether you’re in Broadway or Brighton Beach, hanging out at Queens Night Market or Governors Island, running out of things to do in New York, well, just isn’t a thing. This is the city that never sleeps—nor do the hotels that choose to do business here, planting their flags in one of the country’s most competitive markets. A great NYC hotel can be a jumping off point to explore world-class museums and creative restaurants, but it can also be a haven to hole up in, cosseted in expensive sheets and room service menus. This year’s list proves that our readers still crave a well-loved brand, where exceptional service is a must.

How Voting WorksEvery year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe—to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 180,000 T+L readers completed the 2025 survey. A total of more than 657,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, inn, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Rooms/facilities
Location
Service
Food
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

What Readers Loved

In 2025, Travel + Leisure readers realigned their list of favorite New York City hotels: None of last year’s top 10 returned for this year’s list, a true testament to the city’s high-quality, constantly evolving scene. Voters appreciated the Mandarin Oriental, New York (No. 9) for its “stunning views of Central Park,” and the “warm team [that] always makes you feel welcome” at Hotel Barrière Fouquet’s New York (No. 3). Overall, classics performed best this year, like Four Seasons Hotel New York (No. 4), which one reader described as “exactly what I envision a luxury hotel to be.” But first place went to a relative newcomer, The Fifth Avenue Hotel, the Martin Brudnizki-designed maximalist property in NoMad. Read on for the reasons why.

The Winner

The Fifth Avenue Hotel

“Everything was on point from the moment I walked in the door until I left a week later,” said one voter of NoMad’s gem-toned hotel that opened in late 2023. Since its doors opened, it made a dramatic splash—and so did its small martinis at the cozy, amber Portrait Bar. One called it “beautiful decorated with an intoxicating fragrance,” and another noted, “they actually think of everything.” (We assume “everything” includes the Dyson hair-dryers and complimentary “maxi”-bars found within each room.) The Fifth Avenue Hotel also has the not-so-common distinction of delivering a great experience for out-of-towners, or those looking for a staycation, one reader noted. And even if they’re not spending the night, New Yorkers and savvy travelers tend to cross paths at the ebullient Café Carmellini over chef Andrew Carmellini’s duck tortellini and squab en croute