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If you are really serious about breaking those New Year's resolutions, the place to shatter them in style is midtown Manhattan. You can have Hong Kong, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Madrid. Amsterdam, Naples, Cairo and Singapore all have their charms, but New York City ranks with the best as a liberty port.
Manhattan is an island where it takes a lot of money to even pretend to be rich. In a borough where a "reasonable" hotel room runs $155 a night plus 21.5 percent tax ($225 plus tax for a small room in the Waldorf Astoria), it is little wonder that being frugal, with a touch of class, is in.
If the Soldiers' Sailors' and Airmen's Club is nothing else, it is frugal, but, with a touch of class. It is located on fashionable Murray Hill at 283 Lexington Ave., between 36th and 37th streets, within six blocks of Grand Central Station and the Eastside Airport Bus Terminal. It is also only a few blocks from Penn Station and the United Nations. A short walk lets one give one's regards to Broadway and be remembered to Herald Square, and it is a reasonable taxi fare to museums that surround Central Park.
Now, if your idea of visiting Manhattan includes room and limo service, cable movies near the bed, personal privy, a few drinks in a posh lounge and watching people in a lobby, then by all means, break out the "gold" card plastic and check into the Roosevelt, or the nearby Shelburne.
This is The Big Apple, one of the largest, most cosmopolitan cities in the world, home of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, the Garment District and Wall Street. The list of attractions is longer than the Brooklyn Bridge. A person who runs out of things to do in Manhattan is a person who is no longer breathing. Consequently, what more is a hotel than a place to crash between saying goodnight to Broadway and taking the ferry to visit Ellis Island in the morning?
If you are adventurous, outgoing and on a bit of a budget, the SS&A Club may be the place to stay. It is less expensive than a 1967 R&R...