The Collected Traveler

 

For my birthday, in September, I spent a night at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport.  That might sound a little crazy - I mean, I live about 39 miles from the airport and I wasn't flying anywhere - but trust me, the hotel is incredible!  The entire experience is meant to evoke 1962, the year the TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen, opened.  The website is very thorough (and is really hard to leave) so I won't fill this post with many of the same details.  Before you even enter the hotel, you have an inkling of what's in store: outdoor speakers are playing '60s tunes and a vintage turquoise camper van is permanently parked on the sidewalk.  Parking attendants are nearby so if you arrive by car (like my husband and I did), you will need to pay $60 for the night, which is a little less than the regular airport parking.  Once you enter the hotel, the check-in area is to the left and the Food Hall is to the right.  The '60s soundtrack is on continuous loop and is great (though I suspect the hotel staff must tire of it). The Sunken Lounge is directly ahead up a flight of stairs and there is a fake flight board displaying arrivals and departures - not digitally (how dull) but with flaps that make a clickety-clack sound when they adjust, the way airports and train stations once displayed this information.  Also on the Sunken Lounge level is the TWA Shop (don't miss it), the Photo Booth (also don't miss), TWA Fitness, the wall of pay phones (remember them?), and the Twister Room.  Yes, a giant Twister Room!  This is also the level where you access the hotel rooms (Saarinen Wing on one side, Howard Hughes Wing on the other).  If you haven't figured out by now, you have to make a plan in order to see everything...   

...because there's a lot: Connie Cocktail Lounge (in an actual plane), Camp TWA (with giant Jenga, corn hole, bumper cars, and a runway rink), the rooftop pool (open year round), the Ambassadors Club (with a number of secret alcoves!), and the exhibits (Historic TWA Ground Crew Uniforms, The World in 1962, Howard Hughes's Office, 1962 Living Room, Eero Saarinen's Drafting Table and Office) which are all terrific and were curated in conjunction with the New York Historical Society.  

    

                                    1962 Living Room

As the hotel connects with the Jet Blue Terminal 5 and the Airtrain, people are coming and going all the time; some have layovers (like a former TWA flight attendant we met), some are just walking around, and some are there to attend a wedding (like the one we saw in the Sunken Lounge).  As a result, many people also have luggage, and our friends Pat and Linda, who had stayed at the hotel previously before an early morning flight to Jamaica (and who are the inspiration for my visit), had the brilliant idea of bringing a small bag on wheels and filling it with ice cubes, gin, wine, tonic, slices of lime, and snacks.  We made no secret of making our own drinks out in the open and no one seemed to care. It's especially fun to hang out in one of the secret alcoves with a portable bar!  Without one, there are food and drink options aplenty, including at the Paris Café by Jean-Georges and the Lisbon Lounge.

The wedding party left the Sunken Lounge for the Constellation Ballroom, an entire wing of the hotel that I didn't see due to this party.  Apparently there is a section called the Fab Four because of course The Beatles flew on TWA when they came to New York in 1965. 

For anyone who lives in the New York metropolitan area, going to the TWA Hotel is a great day out (you don't really need to spend the night, but the guestrooms are worth mentioning because while basic, the beds are comfy; the bathrooms have great showers; and the bar has real glasses and glass ice buckets).  There is no fee to walk around the whole hotel, including the exhibits, but there is a fee for the rooftop pool (worth it).  And if you have friends or family who are flying into New York via Jet Blue, meeting them at the hotel will be a long lasting memory.  [Note that there is one more night of Pickleball for the season, on the tarmac near Connie, this Friday the 11th.]  It's all a reminder that airplane travel used to be an event itself - passengers used to dress up for a flight, and getting to a destination was part of the excitement of a trip.  Flying may no longer be as novel and thrilling as it once was, but spending time at the TWA Hotel reminds us that decades ago, it truly was remarkable.      

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