Hotel at a Glance: Copper Queen Hotel

One mile up in the mountains of Bisbee, Arizona, Copper Queen Hotel has been welcoming guests for well over a century. Some things have changed over the years—the hotel now has heating, air conditioning, and private bathrooms, for example—yet the quality of service has not. TripAdvisor awarded Copper Queen Hotel a Certificate of Excellence in 2013 thanks in large part to guests' positive reviews.

• Step back in time: Standard king and double-queen rooms feature touches such as claw-foot tubs and embroidered curtains.
• Copper Queen Cafe: Head to the onsite restaurant for salads, sandwiches, and comfort food, plus an extensive wine list.
• Saloon: Sip a fresh-fruit margarita or sarsaparilla while listening to live honky-tonk and blues music.
• Around town: Check out all the things to do in Bisbee, such as going on ghost hunts and taking mine tours.

Bisbee, Arizona: Preserved Wild West Town with Artistic Flair

It's hard to believe that Bisbee—current population: nearly 6,000—was once the biggest city between Saint Louis and San Francisco. A mining boomtown tucked away in the Mule Mountains, Bisbee swelled in size with the discovery of copper around the turn of the 20th century. To survive after the large-scale mines closed in the 1970s, the town evolved into an artists' colony, attracting free spirits with its warm temperatures, scenic mountain backdrops, and lax enforcement of coloring-within-the-lines statutes. In recent years, it’s become a hybrid of old and new, where 19th-century storefronts and Victorian homes house contemporary art galleries, antique shops, and cafés.

Take a stroll along the narrow, winding streets of Old Bisbee, which resembles a frontier outpost crossed with a European village. Stop in and explore the exhibits at the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, once the headquarters of the Copper Queen mining company and now an affiliate museum of the Smithsonian Institution. And no trip to Bisbee would be complete without a visit to the mine that started it all. Head over to Queen Mine Tours, don a hard hat, and ride a train more than 1,500 feet underground on a tour guided by retired miners.

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