The yellow pages of the New York telephone directory carries 57 pages of hotel advertisements, mostly in boastful full color. Hotel Wales – long a member of The Hundred Year Association – appears in two single lines of low-key type even though it has been serving well-to-do travelers for more than a century. (Phone number:  212 876-6000 .)

The Hotel Wales made its debut in 1902 as Hotel Chastaigneray. In the 1940s it switched its name from the Carnegie Hill Hotel to The Wales. Since then it has nestled in the heart of the elite Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side on Madison Avenue between 92nd and 93rd Streets, a single block from Central Park.  Its neighbors have always included fine restaurants, posh boutiques, and the charms of the Museum Mile.

The hotel is also home to a spa. Hotel Wales provides body massage, facial, manicure and other treatments. Guests enjoy the charming second floor Pied Piper room: read, relax, sip coffee, tea and cappuccino. The rooftop terrace is spectacular. Hotel rooms and lobby were completely renovated in the early 2000s.

The hotel also comes through as an attractive New England town. Through the years it has played host to Kevin Klein, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Katie Couric, Mimi Sheraton and husband, Ralph Lauren, Woody Allen, and Chuck Scarborough.