NEW YORK CITY
New York's mythical Hotel Chelsea isn't intended for tourists, it's for pilgrims: Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Simone de Beauvoir, Vladimir Nabokov, William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Leonard Cohen, Cartier-Bresson, Sid Vicious, etc. The guest book (dream on, there isn't one) would be the world's most stupefying. Anyway, reception is rough around the edges, the cleanliness is borderline grimy and the carpets worn out. It's best to stay in your fantasy world, conjure up silhouettes from bygone ages to roam the hallways, beached flower power peopled with friendly wrecks, dreamers in ironed jeans and unkempt pseudo-muses… Sometimes it's exciting to just sit in the lobby, but then the effect collapses like bad dope. A mind trip saved by your own mental images… Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd St. (212) 675-5531; rooms starting at $190. www.hotelchelsea.com Map