Hotel Icon

When you call yourself an Icon, you’d better live up to it. This hotel goes above and beyond its name, with a restaurant even the locals are willing to wait for: Line & Lariat, which is bringing fancified Texas foodstuffs to discriminating urbanites. On the dinner menu? Galveston blue crab with stuffed baby bella mushrooms and herb garlic butter, and even a “Texas Tumbleweed” (housemade onion rings served with chipotle aioli). Rooms are awash in muted tones—soft turquoise, powder pink—and fitted with requisite comforts, including mini fridges, pillow top mattresses and marble-lined bathrooms.

A 135-room haven downtown with outsized bathrooms and gratis shuttle service.

Behind the times. Treatments in the on-site spa include computerized skin analysis, oxygen facials and microdermabrasion.

You’ve been going hard on your fitness regime lately, and the hotel has a 24/hour gym that’s tricked out with Nautilus, Precor, Cybex and plenty of other gear to get your heart racing.

Perched on a striped stool under a glitzy gold chandelier in the bar, you could easily forget you’re in Texas. Then the bartender hands you a cocktail—the Red Rowdy, with Pama, Tito’s (from Austin), lime, and cranberry juice—and a Tomahawk ribeye with Texas Gulf shrimp brushed in garlic herb butter. An hour later, you’re pulling up ranch real estate on your phone. You could live here (live being the key word).

Line & Lariat - A true Texan dining experience. L&L Bar - Both iconic and contemporary craft cocktails.