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There’s no TV or phone, but this budget haven is popular with young visitors for its hip spirit and funky halls with walls painted by young artists. Private baths are available in 20 of the 54 colorful rooms.

Antiques set the stage for an uptown, luxury lair that has long attracted the famous with its hushed European ambience and spacious quarters in understated good taste. Café Carlyle is the city’s poshest cabaret.

The world’s greatest visiting musicians play in this historic concert hall that opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky making his U.S. debut on the podium. A campaign led by violinist Isaac Stern saved the building from demolition after Lincoln Center (see Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts) was completed in 1969, and it entered its second century with old-world style intact after an extensive, lavish renovation.

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie financed the city’s first great concert hall, built in 1891. Major renovation in 1996 restored the wonderful interior bronze balconies and ornamental plaster, and added a museum. Corridors are lined with memorabilia of the great artists who have performed here (see Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Hall).

New York almost lost its most famous concert hall when the New York Philharmonic moved to the newly built Lincoln Center in the 1950s. However, a coalition, led by violinist Isaac Stern, successfully fought to save the building from demolition. It was bought by the city in 1960 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1964. A major 1986 renovation restored much of the original appearance while updating technical facilities and preserving the hall’s famous acoustics. Musical memorabilia fills the halls and the Rose Museum.

In the heart of the theater district, Caroline’s features big names as well as beginners.

The horse-drawn hansom cabs lined up at the edge of Central Park are romance personified. The driver, appropriately attired in fancy dress and top hat, will help you up as you nestle in for a 20-minute trot past park landmarks (see Central Park).

A Moroccan theme, complete with tiles, arches, and ceiling fans, sets this 48-room Theater District hotel apart. Rooms are small but well furnished. Continental breakfast is served in (what else?) Rick’s Café.

The mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, begun in 1892 and still incomplete, is the largest cathedral in the world. Over 600 feet (180m) long and 146 feet (45m) wide, the church is a mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Its most impressive features include the west entrance, the rose window, bay altars, and the Peace Fountain on the south lawn. The medieval stone carving techniques used on the building are taught in workshops for disadvantaged youths.