Amorous Manhattan: Escape to the city that never sleeps

NEW YORK -- TV's libidinous Sex and the City raised Manhattan's profile as a couples' playground.

Indeed, a rendezvous spot beckons around most every corner, even for those lacking Carrie's $600 Manolo stilettos or Mr. Big's bucks. Low- or no-cost experiences are plentiful — from riding the Staten Island Ferry (free, no longer a nickel), to watching hand-holding skaters on rinks at Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park and The Standard hotel, to nibbling on a $2.95 Belgian chocolate bar at the three-level Dylan's Candy Bar store on Third Avenue.

While waiting for my beau to arrive in town, I climb the stairs to the High Line, converted rail tracks and one of the city's newer lovers' lanes. On the elevated walking trail in the now-trendy West Side Meatpacking District, I encounter New Yorkers Alison Dambach, 27, and David Gordon, 26. They're marking their third anniversary of togetherness with a stroll on the walkway before heading to a celebratory dinner at Greenwich Village's The Meatball Shop, where orbs of chicken, pork or beef slip down easily in $3 sliders.

Barry and I will be bound for a more traditional evening: a Broadway show and after-theater supper.

We avoid waiting in line in the cold at one of the city's three half-price TKTS booths by ordering tickets online instead ( broadwaybox.com or other discount sites offer them). Center-rear mezzanine seats at popular, long-running Chicago cost $62 each, plus about $9 each in service charges — vs. the usual $99-and-fee tickets.

Après-theater, the dimly lit, brick-walled Joe Allen Restaurant on West 46th Street serves a satisfying $13.50 burger with fries, hearty $18 meat loaf and possible star sightings. None on this night, though.

Looking for a room to love

Sadly, our hotel room is a dud in the romance department.

The new Hotel LOLA on East 29th Street looked great at first blush: marketed as a hip boutique lodging with elevator walls bearing black-and-white images of a vintage vamp puffing a cigarette and a lobby bar serving "aphrodisiac" cocktails. I had scored a room at the great-for-Manhattan rate of $140 a night ($136 less than the 2011 city average), including full American breakfast and free Wi-Fi.

But we find the check-in process disorganized and the modern minimalist room, with gray carpeting and no pictures on the wall, stark and sterile. And our tiny bathroom is unheated. Though others say nice things on TripAdvisor, for us, it's no love nest. We vow to check out next morning — especially after an unasked-for 7:52 a.m. wake-up call: "Are you the guys who asked for an iron?" We hadn't.

I dial Ink48, a Kimpton boutique hotel in a renovated printing plant on 11th Avenue I'd toured before its opening and whose website is touting specials. Our standard room comes with a partial view of the Hudson River and inviting furnishings that include a settee in front of large windows. Bathrobes in animal prints help set a playful mood. The rate is higher, but so is Ink's rank on our romance scale. And the $231 "Cheers" package includes two cocktails of our choice in the inviting lobby bar.