3 Best Hotels in Greenwich Village, New York City

Built in 1900 and once home to Jack Kerouac, this stylish boutique property has a residential feel, including a comfortable lobby—with a coffee bar, tufted couches, and shelves lined with books—that attracts guests and locals looking for a quiet place to work. Rooms are tight on space, without extras like work desks, but are elegant, with decadent throw blankets, intricate crown molding, and big wall-mounted flat-screen TVs. Bathrooms are equally small but attractive. There's room to spread out in the lobby, bar, and Margaux, a bistro with a bright solarium in the back.

Among the ghosts of the literary salons and speakeasies of Greenwich Village is the Walker, a boutique property with an art deco sensibility, where gas lamps and an inconspicuous facade blend the new hotel with the old character of this tree-lined neighborhood. The exposed-brick, sunken lobby has tufted blue couches and a fireplace for relaxing with one of the New York–theme books on the shelves. Rooms are distinctly Greenwich Village with their tight space, but they do have nice touches like a retro rotary phone and C.O. Bigelow bath products. Some rooms have extras like terraces and separate soaking tubs and stall showers.

Since 1902, this low-key hotel has hosted famous people (Ernest Hemingway, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan all stayed here), and today it is popular with visiting New York University parents thanks to its location near Washington Square Park. It's easy to get anywhere in the city from here, since it's just one block from the West 4th Street subway station. Deluxe rooms have a snazzy Hollywood art deco style and much more natural light than the rather plain, pastel-color standard rooms. The intimate Deco Room off the lobby has mosaic floors, elegant mirrors, and a wrought-iron-and-glass brass gate from Paris—guests can sip tea here during the day, and at night, pull a stool up to the bar. The North Square restaurant downstairs has a jazz brunch and surprisingly sophisticated fare.