Macy's Thanksgiving Parade 2026 Hotels: Who Sells Wednesday Night on the Route
By Matt Spaulding · October 29, 2026
Photo: TarHeel4793, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On 29 October, five of the eleven hotels we read near the Macy's parade route sold Wednesday 25 November, the night before the parade, as a single night: Park Lane New York, Virgin Hotels New York, Kimpton Hotel Eventi, JW Marriott Essex House New York and Arthouse Hotel New York City. Mandarin Oriental, New York sold Wednesday only inside a Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 stay. The other five sold no Wednesday night in any search we tried: The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, New York Hilton Midtown, Hotel Beacon, The Lucerne and 1 Hotel Central Park.
The 100th parade is Thursday 26 November, 8:30 a.m. to noon. Every search was two adults in one room on the hotel's own booking screen, checking in Wednesday 25 November and out Thursday 26. Where a hotel refused, we tried Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 and one more stay, Wednesday 25 to Friday 27 at four hotels and Thursday 26 to Friday 27 at the other two, plus an ordinary Wednesday as a control. Mandarin Oriental and the Hilton also refused their control Wednesday, 18 November, so for those two a refusal may have nothing to do with the parade. Rooms open up and sell every day, and these are 29 October readings. Where we don't say how tax applies to a fee or a parking rate, the hotel didn't say either.
Where the parade went last year
Last year's parade stepped off at West 77th Street and Central Park West at 8:30 a.m., went south on Central Park West, left onto Central Park South and right onto Sixth Avenue, and ended at 34th Street in front of Macy's Herald Square, with the last marchers about noon. The city's notice for that year expected more than 3.5 million spectators.
Six of the eleven are on that route: four on Central Park South and Columbus Circle (Essex House, Park Lane, the Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental) and two on Sixth Avenue (1 Hotel and the Hilton). Park Lane and Essex House were the only two of those six that sold Wednesday alone.
For 2026 Macy's gives a 2.5-mile route ending at the Herald Square store, and says public viewing "will be available along designated portions of the route and is managed by the NYPD," without yet saying which portions. Grandstand seats are not sold to the public.
The Upper West Side: three hotels beside the balloon blocks
None of these three is on last year's route. Macy's says the balloons are inflated on the Upper West Side on Wednesday 25 November and that details on public access will come later, so we have no 2026 hours or entrances to give you. The NYPD's advisories for 2019 and 2022 differ from each other on both, so we haven't carried either forward. Each walk time is a walking route on an ordinary day, hotel to Central Park West at 77th Street and hotel to Columbus Avenue at 81st. In 2025 the city closed 77th and 81st between Central Park West and Columbus from 6 a.m. on inflation day. A walk time won't show you a barrier.
"We are closed on November 25, 2026," Hotel Beacon's booking screen answered, for Wednesday alone and again for Tuesday to Thursday. Thursday 26 to Friday 27 sold, and so did Wednesday 18 November. Beacon is at 2130 Broadway and 75th Street, 10 minutes from Central Park West at 77th and 12 from Columbus at 81st, the longest walk to Columbus of the three. It advertises no facility fee. There's no on-site parking or valet, only independent garages nearby, one of them on West 75th Street, with no hotel rate. On 29 October the booking screen also carried a hotel alert about renovation work on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Six minutes from Columbus and 81st, The Lucerne at 201 West 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is the closest of the three to that corner. Central Park West at 77th is 10 minutes. For Wednesday alone its screen read "There are no rooms available at The Lucerne Hotel matching your search criteria," and the two longer stays were refused as well. The control, Wednesday 18 November, sold. The hotel's FAQ says there is no fee, and the booking screen shows tax lines only. For a car it points to paid garages nearby without naming one or giving a rate. The nearest trains are the 1 at 79th and Broadway, about a block away, and the B and C at 81st and Central Park West.
The Arthouse sold Wednesday with one room type, a City View King. It's at 2178 Broadway and 77th Street, 9 minutes from Central Park West at 77th and 10 from Columbus at 81st. Parking is an off-site partner garage, Select Garage at 274 West 81st Street, at $75 per 24 hours plus tax, or $88.78 with the 18.375% Manhattan parking tax. The fee is $40 a night plus tax, and the tax on a one-night booking is $5.90. Its booking engine lists that $40 as a Resort Fee, though the hotel's own name for it is Urban Fee.
Columbus Circle and Central Park South, on last year's route
Mandarin Oriental is at 80 Columbus Circle on 60th Street, where last year's parade turned onto Central Park South. Parking is valet only, at a rate the hotel doesn't publish. No fee showed on its booking breakdown when we checked on 7 October. For Wednesday 25 to Thursday 26 the screen said "Our apologies, your search did not provide any results." Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 returned rooms, and so did Thursday 26 to Friday 27. Wednesday 18 November returned nothing either, though 11 November and 9 December did. The screen gives no reason, so a two-night minimum and a nearly sold-out house look the same.
Essex House, 160 Central Park South, listed one room type for Wednesday, a Junior Suite with one king and a sofa bed, marked "Includes 45 USD Destination Fee." Valet is $105 per 24 hours, with no in and out, and there's no self-parking. The $45 fee shows on Marriott's booking screen and nowhere on the hotel's own pages.
Off-site valet at the Ritz-Carlton, 50 Central Park South, is $135 per 24 hours, the highest valet rate any of these hotels publishes. Cars come from the LAZ garage at 9 West 57th Street, and delivery takes 45 minutes. The Wednesday search bounced back to Marriott's hotel search page, and Tuesday to Thursday and Wednesday to Friday were refused too. The control Wednesday, 18 November, sold, with two room types listed. The hotel publishes no fee.
Park Lane, at 36 Central Park South, listed twelve room types for Wednesday, against one at Essex House on the same street. Its calendar showed no "No availability" or "Minimum stay required" mark on 25 November. The $49 a night fee is mandatory. The FAQ calls it a destination fee and the booking screen a resort fee. Valet is $65 for a regular car, taken at the 58th Street entrance, and you can't take the car out and bring it back. If you'd rather park it yourself, the hotel points to the LAZ garage at 36 West 58th Street, $75 for a regular car.
Sixth Avenue, also on last year's route
At 1 Hotel Central Park, on Sixth Avenue at 58th Street, all 27 room cards came up for Wednesday with no price and a note to adjust the search or call. The two-night searches looked the same. Wednesday 11 November sold, and the screen showed 93 prices. Valet is $110 a night including tax. Every rate on the hotel's screen carries the $49 a night amenity fee per room, with tax on top, and the fee is charged at check-in.
The Hilton, at 1335 Avenue of the Americas between 53rd and 54th, parks cars by valet alone, at $95 a night. The price on Hilton's booking screen includes a $40 a night Daily Mandatory Destination Charge and leaves out taxes. For November its flexible-dates calendar marked Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 "Sold out," and Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 as well, while Tuesday 24 and other weeks showed prices. The rooms page answered Wednesday alone with "Sorry, we don't have any rooms available for those dates," and refused the two longer stays as well.
Below Herald Square
Virgin Hotels is at 1227 Broadway and 29th Street, 6 minutes on foot from Sixth Avenue and 34th Street. There's no self-parking. Valet is $75 a night plus tax, and once the car is in it stays in. The Amenity Fee is $35 a night, with $5 tax on it, as read on 7 October. Four room types were listed for Wednesday (Chambers, Sky Chambers, Sky Chamber Empire View and Sky Grand Chamber Suites), each marked "Includes Amenity Fee," and the calendar showed every November date as available.
Our first search at Kimpton Eventi, 851 Sixth Avenue and 30th Street, returned "An error has occurred" and no hotels. A control search for 11 to 12 November worked, and the retry for Wednesday listed the hotel. Valet is $65 a day plus tax, with no in and out privileges. The guest amenities fee is $49 a night with tax included ($42.70 plus $6.30 tax), shown beside the rate on IHG's booking screen. It's four blocks down Sixth from 34th Street, also a 6-minute walk.
Last year's street closures
The closures below come from the city's 2025 notice, the latest published, because the 2026 one wasn't out on 29 October. This year those days are Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 November. The NYPD sets the 2026 closures and can change them on the day.
Central Park West from 72nd to 86th closed at 2 a.m. Wednesday. The southern stretch, 72nd down to 59th, closed at 9 p.m. Wednesday, and so did 34th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues. All three stayed shut until 3 p.m. Thursday. Most cross streets between 72nd and 85th, from Central Park West to Columbus Avenue, closed between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday and reopened at 3 p.m. Thursday.
On parade day, 59th Street from Fifth Avenue to Columbus Circle, which is Central Park South, closed at 1 a.m. and reopened at 5 p.m. Sixth Avenue closed at 2 a.m. from 23rd to 42nd and at 5 a.m. from 42nd to 58th, both until 3 p.m. Kimpton Eventi and the Hilton sit inside those two stretches, and 1 Hotel Central Park at the 58th Street end. 57th Street from Fifth to Eighth closed from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the Ritz-Carlton's valet garage is on that stretch, at 9 West 57th. Broadway from 34th to 42nd closed from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m., five blocks north of Virgin at 29th.
Arriving Wednesday evening
At the city briefing on Wednesday evening last year, the NYPD commissioner said a restricted zone began at 9 p.m., with closures from 77th Street down to 59th and no crosstown traffic through the parade.
We found nothing official on how a hotel guest gets in and out of that zone: the city notice and the NYPD releases don't mention checkpoints, ID, key cards or booking confirmations, and that briefing didn't either. Ask the hotel before Wednesday evening how you arrive with luggage, and how you leave. Four of these eleven (Essex House, Park Lane, Virgin and Kimpton Eventi) say their valet has no in and out privileges, and Mandarin Oriental says in and out may be limited, so ask what happens to a car you need to move.
Check-out on parade day
Check-out is noon at eight of the eleven. Essex House and Park Lane want the room back by 11 a.m., and the Arthouse before 11, while the parade is still going. The Hilton charges a graduated late fee to 4 p.m. and a full night after that, and Virgin says to call about other times. Last year most of these streets stayed closed until 3 p.m., and Central Park South until 5 p.m., so ask about holding your bags. Park Lane's fee covers luggage storage. Kimpton Eventi charges up to a full extra night for a car left past 1 p.m. on departure day, and last year Sixth Avenue outside it didn't reopen until 3 p.m.
The subway
MTA's 2025 page ran a Sunday timetable with extra early-morning service. It said some station entrances and exits along the route would be closed, and that many Manhattan buses might be delayed and would be affected by reroutes, detours or frozen zones. The NYPD commissioner named two bypasses, from 4 to 11 a.m. on parade day: the F skipped 57th Street and the C skipped 81st Street, the Museum of Natural History stop. MTA had not posted a 2026 version on 29 October.
Before you go
Read the 2026 city notice when it appears, and check MTA's parade-day page for closed station entrances before you plan a Thursday walk to a stop.
Eight of the eleven are on our Central Park hotels page. The Rockefeller Center tree lighting is the next Wednesday, 2 December, and our tree guide ran the same single-night test.
