Trump International Hotel

Room 508, Trump International Hotel, New York City; 212-299-1000; www.trumpintl.com. There are 167 rooms; doubles range from $495 to $1,725. Room 508 is $1,150.

For most of the year, the sight line is clear between your room and Central Park, but on one morning every November, the view is colorfully interrupted. On that day, the procession of giant balloons, floats, and some 5,000 people that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade travels a two-and-a-half-mile route, making its way down Central Park West and arcing around Columbus Circle (next to this hotel) before continuing south on Broadway to Herald Square. Clifford the Big Red Dog, whose happy profile presently fills your window, is the current old-timer of the balloon bunch, having made his first appearance in 1990, and will likely take his final flight on November 25. A bird's-eye view of the parade, now in its seventy-eighth year, is one of the more curious perks of staying at the Trump International, which ranks as the top U.S. hotel in the 2004 Readers' Choice Awards.