The Paper Factory Hotel ★★★★

There’s something quite special about staying in a building with such a fascinating history. Perhaps I was just in a daze from the long flight, but when we arrived at the 100-year-old building which was once the largest paper factory in the city, I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement. I had stayed in Manhattan a few times before, but this made a refreshing change, and felt much more local and authentic. It made me feel nostalgic for the past – a time when people regularly wrote meaningful letters to each other instead of sending quick texts or emails like the technology-obsessed world of today.

Everywhere I looked I found more quirky features, like the concrete floor displaying cut-outs of archived newspapers from the 1800s, the Thai rickshaw, the seats from a Cambodian cinema, the metal chairs from an Indian village school, the Moroccan lamps, the Chinese carpets… even the beds were works of art. The whole place felt traditional and industrial, but with modern twists to keep the guests on their toes.

Our Junior Loft was a large 12-foot ceiling suite complete with a comfy couch, a fully-stocked kitchenette, a dining area and huge windows letting in lots of natural light. There was local artwork on the wall, and the facilities included free Wi-Fi, a personal coffee maker, a safe, custom-designed bathrobes, a selection of prestigious bath amenities, complimentary bottles of water and a stowaway TV in an impressive Turkish leather trunk.

Tired and hungry from our travels, we had a quick siesta before freshening up in our suite and heading to the Mundo Restaurant for a delicious meal which sumptuously blended Mediterranean and Latin influences to achieve unique flavours. Surrounded by avant-garde designs including a 30-foot column sheathed in hundreds of vintage books and a one-hundred-year-old printing machine and charmed by the candlelit tables and intimate corners, we fell in love with the mysterious and decadent cuisine and decided there was no point trying anywhere else in town! I was particularly excited to come back the following day to sample the tasty treats on the brunch menu.

The rest of our trip was an exciting mix of cultural sightseeing, leisure activities and simply admiring the art surrounding us. With Manhattan just ten minutes away and Long Island City even closer, we could’ve done with much more than a week to discover everything, but it was always lovely to come back to our trendy hotel. 

A lot of ‘retro’ architectural designs struggle to drum up that authentic-feeling aesthetic from thin air, i.e. attempting to breathe history into something that doesn’t actually have any history. The Paper Factory has no problems here; it’s just one more chapter in an inspiring story that began a century ago. The museums, the cuisine and the culture all came up trumps, but the thing I took away wasn’t a list of ticked boxes or endless photos, it was the realisation of how important it is to not let our world be overrun with technology. The golden age of handwritten letters may be a thing of the past, but sometimes it’s important to step back from reality and realise that there’s more to life than computers, smart phones and social media. My stay in The Paper Factory Hotel was a tonic for the soul and a real eye-opener. It goes without saying that I’ll be back before too long!