Clean and comfortable rooms in an often-overlooked nook of Midtown's residential Murray Hill, this friendly five-floor walk-up grants budget travellers an excellent base (and private bathroom in all but two rooms) for cheap.

A superb deal, this homely guesthouse - filled with antiques picked up at the Chelsea Flea Market, or created by hand - gives downtown access with guesthouse comfort. And it's all at a third of the Midtown rate.

Space is tight, but ah the love (of art! of knights! of Brooklyn!) swells at this wonderfully artful B&B. Awesome! Yeah! All this on the edge of one of Brooklyn's most appealing neighbourhoods - and cheap!

It's got the lore (Dorothy Parker staged a 'round table' lunch with literary types here for 10 years beginning in 1919) and the martinis (the 10,000.00 one comes with a diamond ring for question-poppers or bored billionaires) - the classy Algonquin is the quintessential old...

Clean as in clinical, central as in a few blocks from Times Sq, cheap as in two-digit rates (often), the Americana is not the quaint home-away-from-home you may dream of, but it gets you the heart of Manhattan for very little.

Aiming for the Old World - the lobby is a rather shiny cacophony of marble, pillars, rugs, old New York prints - the 100-room, 12-floor Avalon is a pleasant boutique option in Midtown that reveals the influence of the Spanish owners.

High-class luxury is one thing at the Ritz-Carlton, but private 700mm (27.5inch) telescopes pointed at a stranded woman? Well, actually, all waterside rooms (about three-quarters of the 298 rooms) come with telescopes pointed at the Statue of Liberty - the best harbour views...

Open since 1928, the Belvedere's roots (and facade) are pure Art Deco originals, even if the present make over is a clear modern version of the era's glory days. A buffet breakfast is served in the lobby cafe.

If you like your morning oatmeal at just-so temperature, but need some Midtown luxury, the 26-floor Benjamin has kitchenettes in all of its 209 rooms (mostly suites) - a bonus to its already alluring boudoirs seeping in warm, earthy tones.

An unlikely creation from a 20-floor all-glass office building, the Bentley is about as east as you can get in Manhattan. The location isn't exactly ideal for pounding the pavement - it's just off the Queensboro Bridge ramps and a pretty busy York Ave, but East River views...

Predictable chain-made chintz in the rooms can be forgotten if you have a terrace room, with decks overlooking the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge - it's certainly clean and comfortable, if a bit staid, but charges about half the rate of most Financial District hotels.

It's not big on character, but it's clean and safe - and smack dab in the heart of Midtown. The seven-floor Big Apple can bunk 170 travellers. Rooms throughout are bare white deals, and doors seem out of a primary school, but there's a back patio to smoke and drink in, and...

Looking up from Bryant Park - one of New York's highlights - the eye naturally gravitates towards this gem, a black-brick tower trimmed in golden-coloured stone. Originally the American Standard Building (1924), this now 130-room hotel is worthy of even more attention inside,...

Like a stray adrift from the East Village, the four-floor Carlton Arms is a combat-boots, rock'n'roll hotel that feels almost like you're walking into a rehearsal space. Artfully decorated rooms, stairways and hallways run the gamut from rhinos to moonscapes.

Jazzy and classy, this new 316-room boutique completely transformed an old hotel space in 2005 - with an all-new lobby that's like entering the sepia tones of an Art Deco age - and as a result immediately provided a new ritzy drinking and eating spot for Manhattanites.

JFK used to hang out here, and Woody Allen plays with his jazz band on Monday nights - if you stay at the 17-floor Carlyle, you're in seriously elite company.

Half a block from the heart of Times Sq, the cosy six-storey Casablanca fills its 48 rooms with a lightly North African style (and plenty of visiting American families eyeing nearby Broadway theatres).

For a spot of class - and art - between Fifth Ave shopping and (more crass) T-shirt vendors in Times Sq, the 77-room Chambers mixes-up playful chic design in its comfortable rooms. Rooms aren't giant, but give the illusion of extra space with small hallways into rooms coated...

New York's number one rock 'n' roll, bohemian sleeping quarters, the Chelsea Hotel, has been immortalised in songs by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Sid's Nancy died there in 1979 and other famed residents have ranged from Dylan Thomas to Ethan Hawke.

If you don't mind tinkling down the hall, this inn, housed in a landmark brownstone in Chelsea's historic district, is a super deal. Ultra-American knick-knacks line the walls, like 'Class of 1918' photos, Indian busts, hunting duck decoys and colour prints of train scenes.

Gold stars are Chelsea stars! This three-storey European-style hotel - with blue halls and gold stars lining the halls - has a very fun, hostel vibe - and three dorm rooms. Nineteen thematic private rooms painted to reflect themes such as Star Trek, Absolutely Fabulous, Coney...

Hey money-savers, the 122-room Cosmopolitan stands its ground for you. The seven-storey hotel sure is nothing fancy, and doesn't try to be - just clean rooms on a noisy corner in Tribeca for those who prefer keeping their money tabbed for classy outfits or nightclub drinks.

Certainly surreal, the Dream - opened in late 2004 - is a modern make over of a one-time plain chain hotel. Its two bars - including a penthouse job overlooking Broadway - gets the cocktail crowd giddy from late afternoon onwards.

Once home to the Chemists Club (and still boasting the swirling marble staircase and beaux-arts facade of the 1903 building), the Dylan is now a house of style with 108 rooms done up in lavenders, greens and sky blues.

Primarily a business hotel transformed from a former condominium complex, the 288-room Flatotel has luxurious, if slightly unexciting, rooms and suites catered for comfort. Full apartments are also available.

Rising like a pyramid - up 52 floors (and way above the tops of its neighbours) - the stellar 368-room Four Seasons is filled with wide-open views of Central Park and the Midtown skyline. The hotel offers a free car service within a two-mile radius.

If you need an Upper East Side bed for under 400.00, the compact, nine-floor Franklin is a cosy choice, with 49 wee - seriously little - rooms and French accordion music piped into the lobby.

Screw the Chelsea, the 13-floor Gershwin - with its tear-shaped drip-drop bulbs along its red facade out front, framed Pop Art in lobby and rooms, and Museum of Sex next door - is a primo art'n'rock'n'roll hotel for a lot less. The kept-clean 159 rooms - including a handful of...

For a different slant on New York, this gorgeous four-bedroom guesthouse on a pleasant, active, one-time boarded-up Harlem backstreet conjures up the jazz era with its antiques, polished-wood floors and radios throughout tuned to jazz radio stations.

Right off Stuyvesant Sq, on a leafy residential block, this simple but evocative eight-floor hotel combines old-New York charm with cheap prices. A great deal if you don't mind sharing the loo.