Arlo Soho

New York is always evolving. Not all that many years ago, Hudson Square was a bit of a non-place, a nameless district bordering SoHo, Tribeca, and the West Village. But give people a reason to visit, and a neighborhood is born. Arlo Soho got in early, before the rush of development, and the frugality of its developers enables it to offer modern boutique style at a price that would normally get you — well, we don’t even want to think about what, but certainly not that.

To be perfectly fair, the size of the rooms is also a factor. At 150 square feet, Arlo’s are small, even by local standards — but if you want a suite spacious enough to swing a cat in (this is a figure of speech, please do not swing cats) and you want it in Lower Manhattan, the economics are not in your favor. And here, while the rooms are compact, they’re plenty comfortable, finding space for mini-fridges and work desks, and, if you’re lucky, opening onto an outdoor terrace. Just pack decisively.

Anyway, this being the City that Never Sleeps and all, many of us find that we don’t spend a ton of time in our rooms. Not only does the downtown location place you within walking distance of more excellent restaurants and bars than you could visit in a lifetime, the hotel’s got a few of its own. Harold’s, the restaurant, is a New York adaptation of an unpretentious Southern culinary tradition. There’s also the fairly self-explanatory Arlo Liquor Bar, a 24-hour bodega-style snack bar, and Good Story, a rooftop bar with a view of the Hudson River.