Return To Travel’s Jet Age
The Twa Hotel, which incorporates the iconic former Trans World Airlines Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, opened in May after a $265 million renovation and construction project inspired by the jet age and midcentury modern design. The hotel is 12 miles from midtown Manhattan and has quickly become a destination for aviation aficionados. Nods to the 1960s show up in red rotary phones, a sleek ’60s-inspired bar and a rooftop infinity pool that overlooks runways (and looks like one).
There’s also a jet age-themed minimuseum located primarily in the hotel’s lobby and created in partnership with the New-York Historical Society. Among other things, the museum showcases uniforms worn by TWA pilots and stewardesses. A vintage suitcase is packed with retro travel amenities, and at the end of the Howard Hughes hallway you can take a seat behind the desk of the onetime TWA owner.
Dining options include the Paris Café (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and Lisbon Lounge. The Sunken Lounge—where crowds gathered in 1965 to watch the Beatles arrive—is the place for 1960s-inspired cocktails with swizzle sticks. Each of the hotel’s 512 retro guest rooms and suites features floor-to-ceiling windows designed to block out noise, midcentury modern Knoll furnishings, a stocked walnut and brushed-brass bar (charges apply) and a terrazzo-tiled bathroom. Rates begin at $209 per night.
The TWA Hotel, 6 Central Terminal Area, Jamaica, New York; 212-806-9000; twahotel.com.
Serenity in the Sky
The new Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center occupies the upper floors of the 10th tallest building in the U.S. Opened in August, the 180 elegant guest rooms and 39 suites are located on floors 48 to 56. All have sweeping views of the city through floor-to-ceiling windows; a flatscreen TV with access to more than 50,000 free movies and shows (searchable by voice remote); plus a well-stocked in-room bar (charges apply).
Michelin starred French- American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten leads the 59th floor Jean-Georges Philadelphia restaurant and the 60th floor JG SkyHigh cocktail bar—the two are joined by a staircase with waterfalls on either side, and share a soaring atrium with a mirrored ceiling.
Greg Vernick, a James Beard award-winning chef and former student of Vongerichten’s, opened his latest restaurant, Vernick Fish, a modern American oyster bar, on the tower’s ground floor. One floor above, Vernick Coffee Bar offers drinks and unique treats. Try the butterfly pea flower matcha latte and carrot cake pie.
If you visit from Dec. 1 to 22, travel a few miles from the hotel to Fairmount Park for “A Very Philly Christmas.” Meander through six of the park’s historic 18th- and 19th-century houses, decked out for the holidays and offering music, holiday treats and crafts. Visit holidaysinthepark.com for special event dates, hours and details.
Rates at the Four Seasons begin at $625 per night.
Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center, 1 N. 19th St., Philadelphia; 215-419-5099; fourseasons.com/philadelphia.
